By Michael Krueger
Aging is an illusion; it really is. It’s a very powerful illusion but an illusion just the same. What we think of as aging is really decaying. Physiologically, once you stop growing, you start decaying.
Years don’t mean anything in this context, since you can be “old” at 30 or still “young” at 80, depending on how you live your life. Knowledge and wisdom are gained over time, and experience is a wonderful teacher, provided you listen.
So, how are you living your life?
How It Works
Our bodies destroy and rebuild themselves repeatedly during our lifetime. Everything from blood to bones gets renewed in a constant loop of preventive maintenance. On this level, your body doesn’t wait for a problem; it takes a proactive role and clears out the old and replaces it with the new. Exercise triggers muscle and bone growth, and that growth can outpace the decay. When you exercise, you maintain a positive balance in this metabolic chemical process, and the replacements are likely to be improvements; if you don’t, you start to decay. This process happens all through life but is more apparent as more years pass.
Your body is programmed to begin breaking down after about 40 years, give or take a few. This is how it has been for a very long time. In ancient times, people were mostly worn out by then. Years of hunting and gathering, running away from predators, and suffering from the cumulative effects of injuries and illness had taken their toll. So, for humankind to continue, it was time for the worn out and broken-down people to die and make way for the for the next generation to reproduce.
Nowadays, we live for twice that amount of time–well, at least our life expectancy is that long. Our quality of life on the far end isn’t so good. In fact, the average American lives the final 20-plus years of their life in a state euphemistically called “diminished capacity.” In other words, we live out our days sick, weak, and dependent on the kindness of strangers (not to mention the doctors, pharmacists, nursing homes, Medicare, Medicaid, family members, etc.).
On the bright side, even though we are programmed to decay, it’s possible to delay and mitigate the effects. Our ancestors spent most of their time looking for food and avoiding becoming food. This required a lot of activity and therefore a lot of energy. Energy, of course, comes from food, and if there is one thing we have in abundance in this country, it’s food (or at least a lot of calories that masquerade as food).
If we have enough good food and if we couple that abundance with exercise and activity, we can convince our bodies that all is good and the seemingly relentless decay slows down. If you don’t exercise and only take in food or, more accurately, excessive-calorie and dense, nutritionally poor food, it doesn’t work. Your health will suffer, and you’ll simply store the excess as fat; and that’s bad.
Obesity is rampant in America, and we have exported this plague around the world. In fact, there seem to be two conditions in the world, famine and gluttony, and now gluttony kills more people every year than famine.
The number of illnesses caused by obesity is staggering. The cost to the individual as well as society is equally appalling. From heart disease to cancer and to all the metabolic diseases, obesity is the major cause. What’s with a culture that has a TV show called “My 600-lb. Life”? We have such a skewed vision of reality that (while we say it’s tragic) we see this as normal.
Food is the simplest part of this antidecay equation. Don’t eat crap and don’t eat too much. I know it’s not easy, but the return on investment is so immense that it’s certainly worth the effort. Nearly every person I know could afford to lose weight or, more specifically, fat. Even many people who appear to be “just fine” (remember that as a society we are looking through a distorted lens) are over fat. Not enough muscle mass is probably a more accurate description, but I’m talking here about food so I’ll stick with the over fat description.
I’m very aware that controlling your diet in our culture is so very difficult. Too many opportunities to eat low-nutrition, calorie-dense processed carbs, sugars, and fats are not conducive to maintaining your weight or your health. On the other hand, we also have many wonderful food options such as lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, and quality whole grains. But because they aren’t promoted in the same way as the junk choices, many of us miss them.
In fact, it’s just as easy to eat well as it is to eat poorly once you make the commitment to do it. Many people just give up once the negative messages come flying at them from their TV, their friends, and advertisers. It’s tough at first to go your own way but, over time, new and better habits will be formed and the positive reinforcement you’ll get from feeling good and looking better will eventually overcome the outside influences. It’s important to remember that it will be tough; just don’t allow your own bad choices to make it tougher.
The exercise part will come more naturally once you get going. Our primal being wants to move. Long ago, movement meant life. Our ancestors were constantly looking for food and shelter. Being sedentary meant death; and it still does.
Cardiovascular and strength training are not only the best medicine, they are a virtual fountain of youth. Eighty-year-old men who are long-term and consistent exercisers compare favorably on every physical and health metric to nonexercising 29-year-old men.
By ramping up your heart rate you send many positive messages to your body. At the lower, lighter end of activity you will use a lot of stored fat as fuel. This level of activity transports oxygen-rich blood to all your organs (including your brain) and aids repair, replacement, and healing.
Push harder, and you shift into “hunting mode”; now you start burning more glucose. This is your high-octane fuel. This is where you are breathing hard and getting your heart rate up to that 80% of maximum range. It’s hard work, but a trained and health body will thrive on it; it’s what it’s literally built to do.
Take it up another level, and now you’re in the anaerobic range. Your heart and lungs can’t keep up with the demand for too long, but you can still perform at this top end for awhile. This is where our ancestors were either going in for the kill or trying to avoid being killed. It’s where a lot of damage is done to your muscles, but that’s OK, because that activity, coupled with nutritious food and rest, will trigger repair and replacement like nothing else can. In the end, you’ll be bigger and stronger.
This final anaerobic stage of training is the most effective thing you can do. This is where high-intensity interval training is done and failure sets of weight lifting reside. It’s not for the faint of heart (literally, it’s not), but for the well-trained person it’s where the magic happens.
The Price of Knowledge
As you can see, exercise and diet are the key to a long and healthy life … but you already knew that, didn’t you?
You have the knowledge, tools, and skills necessary to achieve your health and fitness goals; but you need to use them. Don’t stand in your own way. Don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be. Make a commitment to eat and train in a way that honors the potential encoded in your DNA…
do this and you may never know what “diminished capacity” feels like.
Michael Krueger is an NSCA-certified personal trainer. He got his start in fitness training while serving in the United States Coast Guard. He works with firefighters and others in and around Madison, Wisconsin. He is available to fire departments, civic organizations, and athletic teams for training, consulting, and speaking engagements. He has published numerous articles on fitness, health, and the mind-body connection and was a featured speaker at the IAFC’s FRI 2009 Health Day in Dallas, Texas. E-mail him at MKPTLLC@gmail.
