Physical philosophy

Today I wanted to talk a bit about fitness and health, and how I'm managing to stay fit. I'm 45, no longer a spring chicken, but in most ways I'm in the best health of my life. I lift weights and go to the climbing gym regularly, and ride a bike or run on most other days. I can do more, lift more, and run faster and farther than I did in high school. That might not be saying much, for sure, but I think I'm doing a pretty good job keeping up with the younger bucks, and have some things to share for those who don't think they have time or resources to stay fit.

There's a lot of advice out there and tons of influencers that you can follow for your specific interests, but for today I'm going to stick with the basics. Let's dig in.

First off, the guy I recommend right off is Dr. Peter Attia. He's got a podcast, The Drive, and a book, Outlive, which is part of my personal library. Attia is a trained physician who, disillusioned with the too-late interventionism of our current healthcare system, decided to focus on longevity and take a more proactive, preventative approach to wellness. Attia's philosophy is built around healthspan, which focuses on maintaining strength and mobility through one's golden years, and aims to avoid the curse of the terminal decade, when one spends the last of one's years confined to a bed or couch, or worse, with their mind lost to the ravages of dementia.

Attia's Horsemen: Cancer, Metabolic Disease, Cardiovascular Failures, Frailty, and Cognitive Decline, and he has tactics for addressing each one. For me, that means a prescription of screening (yay colonoscopy!), healthy eating, statins, exercise, and sleep. And yes, alcohol is bad.

Since the number one, most effective treatment is exercise, let's drill down there.

I was at the gym yesterday, there were two young men there, one was showing the other how to do a deadlift, and I started chatting with them. The new guy never worked out, said he was a noob, so of course I had plenty to say.

The first point I made is that it's easier to decide to work out every day than it is to negotiate with yourself on a day by day basis. It's the decide once principal. Whether it's weights, running, or biking, the point is that you've got to do something to move the body. Use it, or lose it.

The way Attia explains it, what usually happens in the American heath care system is that people plod along throughout life, consuming the Standard American Diet (SAD), until they have some medical emergency, say a heart attack, or cross some threshold that distinguishes not-sick from sick. Then it's intervention and pills.

The two most important markers for longevity are actually grip strength and VO2 Max, which is a measure for how much oxygen the body can use during periods of high exertion. Grip strength is a proxy for overall strength, but the general idea is that it can save you from falling down the stairs and breaking a hip. Injuries like that, falls in general, can lay a person out in bed for weeks, and can lead to a quick decline in health for the elderly. VO2 generally shows whether you can walk or jog, climb stairs, or perform other activities.

Attia has recommendations for both of these things. My current goal is to load the muscles two or three times a week and get a good three hours of zone 2 aerobic training per week. You'll see all sorts of discussion about what zone 2 looks like, but know its not very intense, much like a brisk walk. Riding my electric bike is probably my favorite way to maintain this zone, but I honestly don't track it and and would rather prefer an intense 5k jog instead. The idea behind zone two training is that low-impact aerobic activity over the long run can cause changes in the number of mitochondria present in cells. Mitochondria are the cell's powerhouses, and are what converts oxygen and fuel into energy. It's the ATP-ADP cycle they teach in high school biology. If you think about the type of metabolism hunter-gatherers might need to walk twenty miles in a day hunting, it'll make sense.

Working backward through age-related decline

In order to help motivate people to think about their future selves, Attia uses the concept of the Centenarian Olympics, and advises you to think of activities that you want to do during the last ten years of your life, and to work backward from there.

Age-related muscle mass decline, also known as sarcopenia, is a natural part of aging. The rate and extent of this decline can vary significantly among individuals due to factors such as lifestyle, diet, physical activity, and genetics. On average, people start to lose muscle mass after the age of 30, and this process accelerates after the age of 50.

The percentage of muscle mass decline associated with aging can range from about 3-8% per decade after the age of 30, and the rate of decline might increase to more than 15% per decade after the age of 70. It's important to note that these are average estimates and individual experiences can vary widely.

So, if one might have 'play with my grandkids' on the decathlon, one needs to work backward to determine where one's physical ability needs to be today. For example, let's assume that you want to be able to successfully lift or toss around a 50-lb child when you're 90. For this example we'll double this as we'll make sure not to injure ourselves.

To ensure that at 90 you can handle 100 pounds, taking into account the effects of sarcopenia, we need to establish a starting point for strength in your 30s that accounts for the gradual decline in muscle mass and strength over time.

Given the average muscle mass decline rates of 3-8% per decade after the age of 30, with an increased rate after 70, it's prudent to aim for a higher initial capability to buffer against this decline. If you can manage significantly more than 100 pounds in your 30s, you'll be better positioned to maintain the strength needed to handle 100 pounds in your 90s.

Assuming an average decline of about 5% per decade from 30 to 70, and a more accelerated decline of 15% per decade from 70 onwards, we can model the strength capacity needed at 30. Let's calculate.CalculationInitial Strength Requirement at 30: Let's assume you need to be able to handle ( X ) pounds at 30.Decades of Decline from 30 to 70: There are 4 decades, with an average decline rate of 5% per decade.Decades of Decline from 70 to 90: There are 2 decades, with an increased decline rate of 15% per decade.

Let's calculate ( X ) such that after these declines, you're left with the capacity to handle 100 pounds.

The formula for the decline from 30 to 70 is:
[ X \times (1 - 0.05)^4 ]

And from 70 to 90, applying the 15% decline on the result:
[ X \times (1 - 0.05)^4 \times (1 - 0.15)^2 ]

This needs to equal 100 pounds. Let's solve for ( X ).

To maintain the capability to handle 100 pounds at the age of 90, taking into account the effects of sarcopenia, you should aim to have an initial strength capacity to handle approximately 170 pounds in your 30s. This accounts for an average muscle mass decline of 5% per decade up to the age of 70, and an accelerated decline of 15% per decade thereafter.

This suggests that aiming for a strength capacity of about 1.7 times the target weight in your 30s could provide a good buffer against the age-related decline in muscle mass and strength, allowing for the desired physical capability in your 90s.

So my approach right now, which I consider a Minimum Effective Dose, is my Big Five workout, which consists of:

• Neutral grip pull ups
• Military(overhead barbell) press
• Back squat
• Dead lift
• Dumbbell bench press

These are all compound movement exercises that target all the muscle groups. I perform three sets of each, aiming for 12 reps each set. The point here is to focus on form and endurance before increasing the weight, as injury avoidance is the name of the game here. If I can't do at least five reps on my last set, I'm using too much weight. As time has gone on, I've started adding drop sets to some of the exercises when I'm ready to move up, but that's something to worry about once you've got a couple weeks under your belt and have established a routine.

Whoop it up

And since I mentioned routine, let me tell you that the best thing you can do is make it a routine. You can only do that by prioritizing your health. As the saying goes, we spend our youth trading our time for dollars, and our old age trading our dollars for time. I treat staying fit as a job, and the only way you can do that is if you make it core to your identity. You also need friends and family that support you in that, so pick your friends wisely.

I find that one of the best tools for me over the last couple years has been my Whoop. Yes, it's expensive, $250 a year plus bands and accessories, but the constant monitoring and sleep tracking, recovery score, activity logging, and strength training features have really helped me. I bought one for my wife as well, and will probably get ones for my daughters when they gets older. Sure, a Fitbit might work also, but I plan on keeping my Whoop for now. You might hear reports about how accurate blood-flow and gyroscopic monitoring algorithms are at gauging sleep phases, or how heart monitors get confused with certain exercise movements, but I've found it to be consistent enough that I trust it.

Every night, while I sleep, the Whoop monitors my resting heart rate and variability, and builds a baseline over thirty days. From then on, each morning, it gives me a recovery score against my baseline, and also a recommended strain target, which is achieved by exercising and causing cardiovascular strain. This way I know when I've pushed myself enough, or too hard, and I can use it to make sure that my fitness trajectory is in the right direction on a day by day basis.

And let me tell you this, having immediate feedback on the impact of alcohol consumption to these baselines and targets has been the most effective intervention for me. I can see the effect of drinking and staying up late on my metrics, even if I'm not feeling it. It's easily a 30% hit after just two drinks. It's easy to see.

The Whoop has also finally broken me of my night owl tendencies, and I'm getting eight hours of sleep now for the first time in well, ever. Attia also points out that sleep is the most effective prevention for Alzheimer's and dementia, and it's also important for testosterone production as well. More on that in another post.

Maybe I'm giving the Whoop too much credit, or not enough, but I wear it 24/7, save for the shower. If you'd like to get one, you (and I) can get a free month if you sign up using my referral link.

Ending well

I mentioned Jack LaLanne's name in the subtitle for this article. If you don't know who he was, let me tell you. Jack LaLanne is arguably the man who introduced personal fitness as a thing -- he was dubbed the "King of Fitness" -- during the 50's. He was famous for performing feats of strength on his birthday, and would go on Carson or Letterman, late night TV and all that. His feats included performing a thousand pull ups and push ups in under two hours, as well as numerous swimming feats including swimming from Alcatraz island while towing rowboats. Straight up insane shit. Jack died when he was 96, days after contracting pneumonia. The day before, he had performed his usual two-hour workout, the same workout he'd done almost his entire life. By all accounts, Jack was a vigorous, healthy person until the end, and went out quick and with relatively little fuss.

I can't think of a better way to end it than that.