Training for a Long Healthspan

By Jake Foster, PA

I trimmed my toenails today.

Seems like a pretty mundane task that we all never really give too much thought to, right? But imagine not being able to do that for yourself. I am willing to bet that this is a task that at least a few folks reading this are unable to do.

Something like “trimming toenails” can be termed an “activity of daily living” (ADL). It can be put into the same boat as taking a shower, standing in front of the sink to do dishes, walking across a parking lot, lifting up a child or grandkid, climbing a flight of stairs, or carrying your groceries into the house from your car. These are tasks we don’t really think too much about, but if we find ourselves in a position where these activities of daily living are either extremely difficult, or even impossible, life just becomes a lot more of a challenge to live. And when those simple ADL’s become difficult or impossible to do, imagine what activities then are impossible to do — hiking a trail, cleaning the eaves of your roof, carrying out a quarter of venison from a hunt, putting up a cord of wood…

The reality of the human condition is that we reach a peak of natural fitness and wellbeing without doing much, and then we face a slow decline in our strength and functioning over the decades, to the point where we can’t even trim our own toenails. This is a hard fact for most people, but I promise you it doesn’t have to be this way. Understanding that we all face an inevitable decline in our aerobic capacity and muscular mass and strength as the decades roll by is the first step in guarding against loss of function. Here is a hard fact: each decade in life, we will face somewhere between an 8 and 17% of decline in our aerobic capacity and muscular strength, and this only accelerates with the passage of time. This translates into a slow chipping away at the ability you have to perform basic ADL’s over the years, and suddenly you find yourself not able to do a lot of the old hobbies you found you used to love to do.

We can guard against this though. There is a way to maintain function to the very late years of our life. There is a way to extend our healthspan like we have been able to extend our lifespan. It is a simple solution. It is not a pill or a surgical intervention. It may be simple, but it is not easy. It is kinda hard, but it will be worth it. The answer is to start TRAINING. Right now.

I say “training” because talking about “exercise” or being “physically active” just isn’t enough. We need to understand that the only fountain of youth we have access to is doing whatever it takes to maintain our aerobic capacity and muscle mass and strength for as long as possible. And this isn’t done by just “staying active” or by “exercising.” It is only done with actual training. An elite athlete doesn’t prepare for a triathlon by just “exercising.” These people train. I think it would do us well to consider focused training to preserve our functioning we enjoy now for as long into life as possible.

Think of it this way. Let’s say you are 70 years old and want to be able to lift up your 20 pound granddaughter up from the ground and give her a kiss on the cheek. To be prepared for this day, you will need to have a baseline of strength and muscle mass that allows you to do this. If you have lost 10 percent of your strength every decade, then to be able to do this at 70 years old, you will need to be able to lift up about a 50-pound object from the ground when you are in your fifties, or perhaps a 60-pound object when you are in your 30’s. If you struggle to lift an object as heavy as 60 pounds off of the ground right now and you are in your 30’s, odds are you won’t be able to lift your granddaughter up when you are 70, just simply due to the gradual loss of strength you will face over the decades.

This decline can be slowed or even reversed, though. But it takes training. Simply “being active” at your job right now, or even spending a few hours a week on an elliptical or treadmill just simply won’t be enough to curb that decline. Designating time every day to work on keeping and building your aerobic captivity as well as building muscle mass and strength is the only way to extend our functionality as late into life as possible.

Time seems to be our enemy when it comes to the onward march towards physical decline we all seem to face. It is hard to find time to train during our busy days. And we haven’t even talked about what kind of training to do and how much. But please don’t be discouraged. All it takes right now is to do just a little bit more than what we are already doing when it comes to physical activity. In my experience, as my priorities have changed and physical activity has become more important to me, I have found that I can actually find time in my day to prioritize my health. Even if it is 20 minutes here or an hour or two there.

The point is to just start somewhere. There are great resources in town who can help with this; we have phenomenal physical therapists and great providers in the clinic who can help direct your program if you wish. And the great thing is that you don’t need a prescription to get a membership at a gym.

Let’s all start now to be prepared to be able to trim our own toenails or wash our own dishes for as long as we are physically able.