Preparing For The Future
Four things you can do to mitigate the negative effects of aging.
How many times have you had an in-depth conversation regarding the importance of sleep, exercise and/or nutrition with your primary care doctor? Have they ever mentioned the need to maintain and increase your lean muscle to help reduce the impact of aging, or are they just concerned with your weight and blood work? I would be willing to bet that these conversations don’t happen often, if at all.
Let me be clear, just because these topics have not come up in your doctor’s office, it does not mean you have a bad doctor. In many cases, they’re simply not equipped to have these conversations, due to time constraints or the lack of education on certain topics in medical school. If they don’t take a personal interest in their own fitness and/or nutrition, they never learn more than what they might see in a TikTok.
While medicine seems to make improvements with each passing decade, it can be frustrating that these critical topics remain overlooked for one reason or another. There is hope, however, as many experts in various fields are taking to podcasts and social media to give the system a push in the right direction.
For example, Dr. Peter Attia, a medical doctor who runs a “longevity” clinic and a popular podcast called “the Drive” recently published a book called Outlive, the Science and Art of Longevity, in which he challenges the current medical model and makes predictions and suggestions on the future of healthcare. In contrast to the current “sick-care” model, which is reactive and concerned simply with improving mortality, Dr. Attia envisions a model focused on illness prevention and improved healthspan or quality of life.
This is NOT novel in any way. In fact, the past 40+ years of exercise, nutrition and sleep research has been searching for the keys to longevity and healthspan. The reason we’re so invigorated about this book is that in this moment modern technology is finally producing champions with a virtual megaphone to spread the word.
Moreover, we’re kind of partial to Dr. Attia’s main message, that Exercise is currently the #1 factor that can determine how long and how well we age. The main culprits of reduced quality of life and function are loss of lean muscle, slowed neurological recruitment of muscles, predictable declines in cardio-respiratory endurance, and stiffening of the fascial systems that results from lack of movement. We have already found the fountain of youth in exercise, which limits age-related changes in each of these areas. Now we must get the population at large to embrace it.
Here are a few lessons we took from Outlive that can help you get started.
1: Develop a healthy sleep pattern or “sleep discipline.”
It’s no secret that the body is at its best when you’re well rested. However, not everyone sets themselves up for a successful night’s rest. You’ve probably seen these tips before, but it can’t hurt to try these three things.
Turn down artificial lights an hour before you plan to go to bed, that includes phones and TVs, and no the blue light glasses you’ve seen do not work.
Avoid alcohol before bed. Even if you think it helps you sleep, science has shown that it always disrupts normal sleep cycles that can help you feel well rested.
Keep a consistent sleep schedule, even on the weekends. This is really where the word discipline comes into play.
2: Improve Your Cardio-Respiratory Fitness Now, for the Future
Think about what you want to do or accomplish later in life. Whether it’s kayaking, hiking, traveling, chasing grandkids, etc. you’ll need a certain cardiovascular fitness level to do the activities you love. We measure cardiovascular fitness with a fancy term called VO2 Max, which predictably decreases with age. Also predictable is the minimum VO2Max required to participate in virtually all activities.
Let’s say, you’re in your 50s and will retire in 10 years, at which point you’d love to hike a particular trail or mountain. On average, hiking a mountain requires a minimum VO2Max of 30. If your current VO2 max is 30, if you don’t start making an attempt to raise it now, you will not be capable of participating in that activity, safely. This is one reason we started 2023 off by strongly encouraging everyone to hit a weekly cardio goal of 150 minutes. We do offer the opportunity of one free weekly cardiovascular conditioning session so you can train more intensely with supervision. Arranging to meet a friend for a walk is a great way to create additional accountability.
3: Strength Train at least 2x/week to build and Maintain Lean Muscle.
In a similar way that VO2 max decreases with age, lean muscle will drop too. However, if you ensure that your muscle mass is as high as possible now, you will be setting yourself up for success. Building and/or maintaining lean muscle requires two things: 1. Strength Training of a sufficient intensity, and 2. Adequate protein intake that your body can use to re-build.
I know that you are aware that we have a research grade body composition analyzer at Marino’s Fitness. In the past we’ve been focused almost exclusively on Body Fat % and Weight. The concern for maintaining and increasing muscle was always there, but for obvious reasons it is often second fiddle. We suggest a change in mindset and will be starting to encourage all clients to begin regularly using the InBody with the intent of tracking lean muscle.
If you haven’t recently done one, email James@MarinosFitness.com to schedule.
We can use the information to help guide you and ensure you’re getting the most out of your training and recovery. If the issue is training, we can make adjustments. If we suspect it's food-related we’ll be happy to refer you to our friends at Downingtown Nutrition for professional assistance.
4: Bloodwork and Balancing Hormones
The last factor that is discussed by Dr. Attia in Outlive deals with both knowing the right blood chemistry values to determine the best treatment for issues like managing blood sugar, keeping cholesterol in check and balancing hormones. He is rather passionate when discussing these issues b/c he feels that our current medical model is doing a massive disservice to patients in general. From poorly interpreted research, that resulted in effective treatments being demonized, to inadequate or incomplete blood panels being used to guide treatment, Dr. Attia provides some valuable information that is outside our scope.
Lucky for our community, Dr. Beninati is a longevity expert in practice in Downingtown. He is Board Certified in Clinical Nutrition and Bioidentical Hormone Replacement.
Lastly, we are happy to discuss with you what we learned from reading Outlive. However, we strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of the book for yourself. Aging is unavoidable and we can all start to prepare ourselves to age gracefully. It’s never too soon or too late to start your journey.
Happy reading,
James