Longevity
While the world ‘sits’ and worries about its financial future, squirrelling away money for a time when the time comes more plentiful and retirement looms, too many people forget a major piece of the jigsaw when it comes to their investments and fruitful retirement…
Their health!
You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t invest heavily now in your future health, fitness, and physicality you are not going to have the capabilities to enjoy the benefits whilst passively reducing the time you will have to spend it.
The older you get (much like your financial investments) the more critical it gets that you invest as heavily as you possibly can – especially after the age of 40 when the two greatest predictors of your health and longevity, V02 Max (which is an expression of your cardiovascular fitness) and muscle mass (the amount of skeletal muscle you have) begin to decline.
V02 Max declines at a rate of 10% per decade after your thirties, and muscle mass at a rate of 5-6% per decade until your sixties where it will decline at a rate of up to 10% per decade, perhaps you have felt the impact already.
Somewhere between the ages of 35 – 45 life just changed – things that felt so simple when you were 25 – 30 get difficult from nowhere… Things as innocuous as putting on your socks, getting out of bed in the morning, walking down the stairs first thing, running around after your kids, your energy levels, your enthusiasm for so many things and that is before we mention the worsening impact of hangovers as we age.
You just get tired, even exhausted, and unless you do something about it now, it is only going to get worse.
Luckily all is not lost, you can think of your health as a pension pot, the more you put in, the longer you put in for, the longer it will last… And if you haven’t started already, best start today. Tomorrow is always too late.
The better your starting point, and the longer you continue to invest in your body, the longer you are going to be able to enjoy it. The good news, unlike financial pensions where it can be difficult to know where to put your money, knowing that your greatest return on investment always carries the most risk, the greatest return in your physical and fitness pensions is guaranteed and virtually risk-free.
Simply focus on the two areas where you will get the greatest bang for your buck…
V02 Max
Your body’s ability to utilise oxygen is the greatest predictor of your longevity. Increases of just 1 ml per kg per minute equate to an extra 45 days on the planet.
That is crazy!
In real terms, if you were someone who at the start of the year (today) at their best could cover 1200m in 12 minutes (fast walking pace – 4 mph) and were able to increase this to 2000m in the space of one year you would add over two years to your life. Even if you were already able to jog (5mph) for 12 minutes and cover 1600m currently and increased that to a running pace (6mph) you would still add a whole year to your life.
Increasing your cardiovascular fitness doesn’t even have to be that hard, especially when just starting, it can be achieved with as little as two to three gentle 30-minute exercise sessions per week. This could be as easy as walking, biking, hiking, or an exercise class that pushes you to breathe heavier than normal, and induces a sweat, but enables you to just about hold a conversation throughout.
So, for two to three 30-minute gentle exercise sessions per week, you could gain up to 2 years in your life expectancy. That sounds like a pretty safe investment, not to mention all the additional benefits that would come along with it.
Muscle Mass
Whilst V02 Max is like your mortgage and ensures you can live, muscle mass is like a big insurance policy, allowing you to continue doing what you love while taking some physical risks, knowing your body has got you covered. Ultimately your muscle mass is what keeps you moving and keeps you doing the things you love for longer (and likely take for granted right now), but if you do not do something now to maintain it, or actively promote it, your abilities will decline quicker than you hoped. It will sneak up on you.
Whilst the stats for muscle mass aren’t as linear or as impressive as those of V02 max, it is muscle mass that underpins everything you do in life, including keeping us moving so we can maintain our V02 as we age. It is your strength levels that will keep you moving, and without movement, you begin to wither – so use it, or lose it folks.
Increased muscle mass also comes with a whole host of other benefits that benefit our ageing bodies including, but not limited to, our metabolic health and blood sugar levels, bone density and joint health, cognitive and mental health, and hormonal health, helping balance things like insulin, growth hormone, and testosterone. Our ability to withstand actual falls is also positively impacted. All of these are essential if we hope to remain healthy as we grow older.
On top of these two great predictors of longevity, some other notable mentions will give a solid indication of how your health is ageing and act as a little cheat sheet for you to focus on if you are not willing to make investments in your cardiovascular and muscular fitness.
Your ability to get up and down from the floor has been linked in some research to increase your longevity and is a function of both your strength and flexibility levels.
Grip Strength is a reliable indicator of overall strength and has likewise been linked to our longevity. It is the strength in our hands and wrists that allows us to hold on to things keeping us steady and protecting us as we fall, lightening the impact on our body.
We have all noticed how much slower people walk as they age. Well, walking speed has also been linked to a longer life. The faster you walk, the longer you live.
Whilst giving an actual program to help you improve these areas is beyond the scope of this article, there are so many great coaches out there who can help you make some dramatic improvements without pushing too hard. In as little as 30 minutes per day 4 – 6 days per week, you could look and feel more youthful in no time, safeguarding your future health so you can enjoy your future wealth for longer.
If that doesn’t seem a worthwhile investment, simply practice getting up and down off the floor daily, improve your grip strength, and walk faster – you will live longer.