SUBJ: Exercise, Outlive, by Peter Attia

SUBtitle: exercise better for health than pharmaceuticals

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SHORT NOTES: Chapter 11, Exercise, Outlive, by Peter Attia, has a great chart showing how athletic ability diminishes with age.  Three lines show high, middle, and low levels of fitness.  He claims that if you can achieve a high level of fitness for someone 20 years younger than you are, you are in the top 2% of fitness for your age group.

VO2 Max is a measure of how well your body is able to use the oxygen you inhale.  The better your lungs and muscles, the higher is your VO2 Max.

In clinical trials, exercise-based interventions for heart disease, diabetes, or stroke  performed as well or better than pharmaceuticals like statins.

In accidental deaths per 100,000 people, until age 74, it is less than 50. After 85, it rises to 375, mostly from falling.  Older people need to exercise to maintain good balance

The Centenarian Decathalon is a framework to set goals for later decades in one’s life.  1. Hike 1.5 miles on a hilly trail.  2. Get up off the floor using no more than one arm. 3.Pick up a young child…

Stability makes us bullet proof.  Work on your balance.

Four 45-minute sessions a week exercising enough that it is hard to carry on a conversation, is necessary to derive a benefit and make improvements

Boosting your VO2 Max by 25% was equivalent to subtracting 12 years from their age.

After 10 days of bed rest at age 67, the average person lost 3.3 pounds of lean muscle.

A study of 62 frail seniors age 78 found that even after 6 months of strength training, half the subjects did not gain any muscle mass.  USE IT OR LOSE IT!!!!

Things to concentrate on:

  1. Grip strength
  2. Concentric and eccentric loading for all movements – lift it up and put it down slowly
  3. Pulling motions from all angles
  4. Hip-hinging movements like dead lift and squats

Under age 40 men should dead hang 2 minutes, women 90 seconds

LONG NOTES:

Chapter 11, Exercise, Outlive, by Peter Attia, has a great chart showing how athletic ability diminishes with age.  Three lines show high, middle, and low levels of fitness.  He claims that if you can achieve a high level of fitness for someone 20 years younger than you are, you are in the top 2% of fitness for your age group.  For me, at 75, the challenge was to carry 75 pounds up a flight of stairs.  My 85 pound grandson volunteered, and I carried him up a steep flight of stairs in my 100 year old house.  What a great feeling!  He says best is 45 minutes of exercise four days a week is required to stay fit.  Go for it!

 

Here are more notes:

Pg 221 VO2 Max is a measure of how well your body is able to use the oxygen you inhale.  The better your lungs and muscles, the higher is your VO2 Max.  Figure 11 below (or attached) will help you figure what your VO2 Max is.  A person who smokes has a 40% greater risk of all-cause mortality.  Someone who  has a below-average VO2 Max (50-25%) for their age has double the risk for all-cause mortality, and someone with less than 25% is 4 times more likely to die than someone in the top 25%.

 

In clinical trials, exercise-based interventions for heart disease, diabetes, or stroke  performed as well or better than pharmaceuticals like statins.

 

“I think exercise is better at preserving healthspan than extending lifespan.”

 

In deaths per 100,000 people, until age 74, it is less than 50. From 75-84, it rises to 100. After 85, it rises to 375, mostly from falling.  Older people need to exercise to maintain good balance and fall properly.

The Centenarian Decathalon is a framework to set goals for later decades in one’s life.

  1. Hike 1.5 miles on a hilly trail.
  2. Get up off the floor using no more than one arm.
  3. Pick up a young child.
  4. Carry two five-pound bags of groceris five blocks
  5. Life a 20-lb. suitcase into the overhead compartment of a plane.
  6. Balance on one leg for 30 seconds.
  7. Have sex
  8. Climb four flights of stairs in 3 minutes.
  9. Open a jar.
  10. Do 30 consecutive jump-rope skips.

Here’s some more ambitious goals:

  1. Swim half a mile in 20 minutes
  2. Walk with 30 lbs in each hand for one minute
  3. Do 5 pullups
  4. Climb 90 steps in 2 minutes
  5. Dead hang for 1 minute
  6. Draw back and fire a 50 pound bow
  7. Hike with a 20 pound backpack for an hour
  8. Walk up a steep hills
  9. Carry your own luggage
  10. Drive a race car really fast.

 

Stability makes us bullet proof.  Work on your balance.

 

It seems that about four 45-minute sessions a week in zone 2, where you are exercising enough that it is hard to carry on a conversation, is necessary for most people to derive a benefit and make improvements, once you get over the initial hump of trying it for the first time.

 

A small study of 9 well-trained octagenarians had a VO2 Max of 38, vs 21 for the control group.  Boosting your VO2 Max by 25% was equivalent to subtracting 12 years from their age.  VO2 Max training requires 3 to 8 minutes, for instance running fast.  His suggestion is to run 4 minutes at your maximum pace, not an all-out sprint but still a hard effect, then jog 4 more at an easy pace as your heart rate drops below 100 bpm.  Repeat this 4 to 6 times, then cool down.

 

After 10 days of bed rest at age 67, the average person lost 3.3 pounds of lean muscle mass.  Saropenia, the loss of lean muscle mass with age, is a prime marker for frailty. Three of these 5 criteria makes frailty: unintended weight loss, low energy, low physical activity, slowness in walking, weak grip strength. A study of 62 frail seniors age 78 found that even after 6 months of strength training, half the subjects did not gain any muscle mass.  USE IT OR LOSE IT!!!!

 

Carrying stuff is our super power as a species.  No other animal is capable of carrying large objects from one place to another with any efficiency, unless trained to do so like horses.

 

Things to concentrate on:

  1. Grip strength
  2. Concentric and eccentric loading for all movements – lift it up and put it down slowly
  3. Pulling motions from all angles
  4. Hip-hinging movements like dead lift and squats

 

Men should hang 2 minutes, women 90 seconds, but the goal goes down every decade past 40.  At 60, 5-15 seconds, at 70, 5-10 seconds.

FIGURE 11-click below

ageexer