Exercise or Decay?

Either we exercise or we decay and die may sound drastic, but I was reminded of this very fact recently while reading the book “Younger Next Year” - Chris Crowley & Henry Lodge. (Just the usual disclaimer that this is not medical advice, and you’d likely want to check your doctor before starting up a training program)

Despite reading a multitude of articles proclaiming the benefits of exercise, this book really spoke to me and maybe it was language that was used, maybe because one of the authors is writing from the “front-line” as he is in his seventies, and the co-author is a medical doctor, providing the scientific explanations behind the concepts.

So what were the key takeaways from the book? I’d like to call out three of the key points that really hit home. 

Send your body signals to grow through exercise

“Your muscles control the chemistry of growth throughout your whole body. If enough growth signals are sent at once, they overwhelm the signals to atrophy.”

The cells in your body are ancient and they receive messages from chemical signals, not through thought or dreams of being in shape. Therefore in order for you to send signals to stay young, get stronger and faster, you actually have to exercise to release these messages encoded in chemicals, otherwise, when we are sedentary our bodies prepare us to slowly fade away.

Basically the fountain of youth (physically and mentally) is anchored around our commitment to exercise so that we keep sending signals to the cells in our body to keep growing and that we’re not quite ready to fade away yet.

Treat exercise like a job

Treating exercise like a job helped to prioritize the commitment that exercise deserves and requires. No one questions our commitment to work, most of us, for most of our lives, just get up and go to work every day - no excuses, we don’t let things get in the way and our friends and family understand this. The same is argued that we should treat exercise, we should take it seriously like it’s our job. Nothing should stop us, we just need to get up and exercise, ideally 7 days a week (though the book recommends 6 as not to scare off the faint hearted). 

It’s recommended that we start with long, slow exercise and target 60-65% of our max heart rate. The goal is just to get out there, get the body moving, expose yourself to some sun, get a sweat on and the rest will take care of itself. Even an hour of walking can do wonders - but also good to challenge your body to a more rigorous workout once we establish a habit and a base level of physical activity.

Don’t forget to lift weights

The resounding advice has been to focus on aerobic exercise and if we only had time for one thing then it would be this. However, if we’re able to add 2 days of weights, this would be most ideal. 

“Aerobic exercise does more to stop actual death, but strength training can make your life more worthwhile” 

Not only does weight training help stop bone loss, muscle loss, weakening of tendons but it also helps improve your joint pain and reduces falls as we age. 

Conclusion

The key to all this is just to get out there, commit to it like it’s a job - it’s your choice to either send signals to your body to stay young and healthy or just decay and fade away. It doesn’t matter what you do, find the type of exercise that works best for you, whether it’s a brisk walk, a run, or a ride on your bike they key is to do something everyday.