El Cordobés went viral on social media of doctor Manuel de la Peña, by demonstrating in several reels his great mental and physical agility, appearing to have a biological age of 60 years
The legendary Manuel Benítez 'El Cordobés', distinguished as the V Caliph, was born on May 4, 1936, in Palma del Río. At 90 years old, he has become a model of resistance to aging, according to doctor Manuel de la Peña, director of the chair of heart and longevity, who met and lunched with El Cordobés last week for more than five hours, and through a clinical interview, the famous bullfighter revealed many secrets of his longevity to the renowned doctor.
Among his healthy habits, he highlights that he maintains continuous physical activity throughout the day, stretching at any time of day, walking back and forth six meters (as if he were in front of the bull), doing bicycle-type exercises in bed, giving himself a self-massage to improve circulation as far as his hands can reach, getting up and doing stationary cycling, and at 10 in the morning, he gets into his cold water pool (which he prefers) and then into the very hot water one. He lifts weights every day, plays tennis on his tennis court. He did karate for three years. When water skiing, he would hold the triangle that pulled him with his teeth.
He is thin, with a flat stomach and pure fiber. He consumes a Mediterranean diet with fresh seasonal products, where olive oil is always present. He sleeps for nine hours straight with a minimum dose of melatonin. At 87, he learned to play the guitar and loves to sing and dance, to such an extent that he sang to the doctor, cum laude in medicine, the song dedicated to the Virgin that he composed himself.
He is cheerful, positive, and very intellectually restless. Like all bullfighters, he lives invaded by faith and is a great enthusiast of Pope Leo XIV and was very pleased that His Holiness presented the Gold Medal of the Pontificate to Doctor de la Peña. His mind is constantly active, as he loves to learn new things and his new purpose is to study animal behavior; he likes monkeys because they are in constant motion and he loves storks for the serenity they transmit, and he loves to imitate them. "I only do what nourishes me," he continued telling Doctor Manuel de la Peña, who states that El Cordobés's biological age is 60 years, as reflected in the virality of all his reels on social media.
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Furthermore, he is a nature lover, and when he turned 80, he planted more than 100,000 olive trees on his 90-hectare estate in the heart of Sierra Morena, because he likes to "breathe the oxygen filtered by the trees," to which Doctor De la Peña responded that he has defined this life philosophy as "thinking green" in his bestseller Guide to Living Healthy for 120 Years, which El Cordobés read several times.
El Cordobés spends his life learning; he learned English in a few months, became a pilot, and came to own seven airplanes to travel to bullrings without wasting time. He dazzled with his bravery and courage, and went around the world several times as a true bullfighting legend. He was exhibited for two years in the wax museum in London alongside his friend, the boxer Cassius Clay. He was received at the White House by the President of the USA, Gerald Ford, became close friends with Robert Kennedy and Dalí, and was inseparable from the actor Cantinflas. The Beatles wanted to be his partners and even traveled to Córdoba to propose deals. He was also a film actor, and his film Learning to Die was a great success. Like all bullfighters, he recalls with a charismatic smile that he had eight serious goring incidents, one of them below the jaw, others in the groin and legs, among many other tosses and somersaults he received. In fact, he states that "fear is overcome with courage and ovations from the public; he greatly enjoyed when he was carried out on shoulders after cutting off two ears and a tail, and all of this allowed him to make very sensible investments that allow him to live very well," as he told Doctor Manuel de la Peña.
As is customary in his clinical interviews, Dr. Manuel de la Peña, a prestigious cardiologist, observed that his LDL cholesterol was perfect, below 70, his blood pressure normal at 130/70, his heart rate normal at 67. At 86 years old, he suffered some syncope, for which reason a pacemaker was implanted in 2025, whose battery he has to replace at 96 years old. He was very reassured when the doctor told him that the pacemaker is life insurance and that, in fact, Servando Palacín, who was 109 years old, also had one implanted in his day. In 2022, he suffered a severe blockage of a coronary artery and had a stent implanted, and currently maintains iron discipline with his medication. With great generosity, he agrees to authorize Dr. De la Peña to reveal his clinical data if it helps the scientific community demonstrate that age is not an obstacle to being cured, let alone operated on. He never smoked or drank alcohol, but he occasionally loves to have a glass of champagne, accompanied by some Huelva prawns, as he did to celebrate his meeting with the doctor.
Dr. De la Peña gave him a rosary blessed in the Vatican by Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, who is 100 years old, and assured him that, if he set his mind to it, he could join the supercentenarian club, as he has the same behavioral pattern and common denominator as all of them, thanks to his willpower, discipline, and healthy habits, and therefore constitutes a model of resistance to aging. Just like the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who at 122 years old broke the world record for human longevity.
Llevarán luto por mí (They will mourn for me) is the work about his admirable life written by Dominique Lapierre at the height of his popularity, using the history of Spain of that era as a backdrop.
The master said goodbye, telling him: "Doctor, you speak with your eyes," "we are family, we are brothers," to which De la Peña replied, "I love you madly and nothing will separate us."
The European Institute of Health and Social Welfare, led by its president Dr. De la Peña, has become a global benchmark in the study of longevity, with more than 350 centenarians and supercentenarians studied. With initiatives that bring together Nobel laureates, ministers, and international experts, this institution promotes research projects that integrate science, technology, and humanism.