Exercise Makes Our Muscles Work Better with Age
well.blogs.nytimes.com
well.blogs.nytimes.com
I really appreciate this kind of honesty. It's rare that a popular article explicitly points out possible confounders.
But hey, I know it will come back with time, and - more to the point - I know how important it is to stay active. After the whole heart-attack thing back in 2014, I'm pretty committed to staying active from here on out. Keeping my heart healthy is priority #1, anything else is just gravy at this point.
Given all that, it's something I've been pretty paranoid about since his death (motorcycle accident). My cardiovascular health, however, seems to be a bullet dodged: my BP is pretty consistently about 110/70, my resting heart rate is in the low 50s, and my 1-minute heart-rate recovery is always at least 40.
I mean, they never really know exactly what causes any particular heart attack. But there are definitely specific risk factors I can single out, and beyond that, I can speculate.
For starters, I was a bit overweight, and I am diabetic. Those are both risk factors. But on the flip side, my diabetes is well controlled, and while overweight, I wasn't exactly the stereotypical 400 lb slob that you look at and go "how is that guy still alive?" But while I was pretty active at times during my life (on an "on again, off again" basis), I was one of those people who eats a shitty diet and imagines that he can make up for it by working out more. So even though I wasn't huge outwardly, I'm pretty sure the crap diet, over a period of many years, played a role.
But beyond that, I was working crazy hard on this startup, and doing really nutty shit like working 100+ hours a week (between the day job and the startup), not getting enough sleep, and consuming simply ridiculous amounts of caffeine. I'd go to Barnes & Noble or Starbucks to work on the startup after getting off work at my other job, and sit there and drink a triple-shot latte, chase that with a Red Bull, and eat a box or two of chocolate covered espresso beans... 4 or 5 times a week.
I've also had some minor, but annoying, knee issues since I was a teenager and I've used a lot of ibuprofen over the years, including taking more than the recommended amount and definitely taking it longer than you're supposed to. Well, guess what? In the last couple of years they've found that sustained use of ibuprofen increases your risk of heart attack.
All in all, my personal hunch is that the main things that contributed to it where: 1. my diet, 2. stress, 3. weight, 4. excessive ibuprofen
The good news is, it's almost never too late to improve your cardiac situation. I don't know how old you are, but arterial function can be improved after even a lifetime of bad habits and what-not. Just do all the things we've all been taught to do: eat a healthy diet (the Mediterranean diet is generally considered pretty good), lose weight, stop smoking (if you smoke), watch your cholesterol, stay active, etc.
Last year I got diagnosed with a serious spinal condition and resolved to fix as much as I could.
I now weigh 182lbs, lost 12 inches of my waist, don't drink any energy drinks and my coffee addiction is down to <4 a day.
I work out for 30-45 minutes everyday without fail mostly bodyweight and callisthenic exercises with swimming a couple of times a week.
Blood pressure is normal, resting heart rate dropped by 10 back to 70.
The pain from the spine condition has halfed as have the meds I take to stay functional.
It's been a hard journey 1500 cal a day for 6 months was brutal but I'm now at maintenance weight and the time would have passed anyway.
My advice: if it bothers you, fix it!
Interesting bit about individual response to exercise. Michael Mosley, MD, has an episode, "The Truth About Exercise" BBC2 [0],[1],[2] that is worth watching. During the show his genetic profile indicates he gets an approximate 3-5% improvement in V02 Max, no matter how much exercise he does.
Get out on the bike and enjoy living.
[0] https://vimeo.com/51836895
[1] http://www.sciencefocus.com/feature/genetics/high-street-gen...
To be honest, even in that situation I procrastinated, I should be walking every day morning and evening. But the weakness was so stressful I was worried about doing anything. Fun part: blood sample, ECG and echography revealed nothing so doctors pat me on the back as if I was seeking attention and feared of nothing. So anyway the tests having came back I walk more and every time that bliss comes back. I can understand why overweight people sitting all day can harm their body, killing me softly style, if they never walk more than 45min.
As you age, mutations naturally produce slightly broken mitochondria who do a slightly worse job at making energy. However, if you are exercising vigorously, those poorly functioning mitochondria will die off (apoptosis) and you will maintain a (relatively) "fitter" population of mitochondria inside your muscles, as those are the ones that are left to reproduce.
If you don't ever exercise, you'll probably feel fine (all else being equal) but secretly, you're cultivating a weak population of mitochondria within your own muscle cells. At some point the weakness of that population will become apparent.
I really wish they hadn't used world class athletes, who almost always have major genetic advantages.
I think there's value in this study; the study of extremes often yields useful hints for future research. But the way it's reported here is pretty bad. This kind of crap will continue until the prevailing attitude shifts away from the concept of "successful aging". Where would we be if Jonas Salk had focused on "successful polio"?
I mean if they had 10000 exceptionally fit people for their age, that might start to mean something.
It's a good motivation for working out. I often think: "I'm squatting 180lbs now, so that I can sit down onto and stand up from a toilet when I'm 80."
Wow. Thank you for this, this seems very useful for me. I will def check it out.
I think once my shoulder finishes healing (rotator cuff surgery), I'm going to start lifting seriously again.
Coincidentally, I just got back from the doctor. I had my right ankle x-rayed because it's been sore for couple of weeks. I kind of limp in the morning until it warms up and then I can walk normally but step the wrong way and it can be painful.
Nothing wrong. They said it's probably a strained ligament issue.
I am doing 200 lbs squats and same on Romanian deadlift. My guess is that my squat biomechanics is off and I am doing a number on my right ankle. I just started reading "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe and will get some coaching to see about fixing problems.
Slow consistent progress wins out in the long run, I'm a huge fan of sub-maximal training and going for rep PRS and not maxing out often. I only compete at most twice per year, and don't bother going for max attempts when I'm not at a meet.
All of my training these days is based around the principles in Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 and I've slowly added my own tweaks and customizations over time to it and it hasn't let me down.
Don't neglect mobility work. It's boring, but it'll save you in the long run.
Dude, yeah. Been lifting on and off for about five years and made a little progress. Just started working with a trainer and realized that I've never done a proper dead lift because I lack flexibility in my hamstrings. I always kind of blew off mobility as not being related to strength. A real eye opener.
Is there a book or online resource that could help one understand this and how to approach it correctly?
Alan Thrall also has some videos on Youtube on the bench press that are fantastic too.
https://www.facebook.com/tommy.mason.9237/videos/10207393442...
"World champion master athletes in their 9th decade of life had a greater number of surviving motor units, reduced collateral reinnervation, better neuromuscular transmission stability and a greater amount of excitable muscle mass as compared with age-matched controls."
and
"The Masters Athletes (MA) consisted of track and field athletes ranked in the top 4 of their respective events at the world masters championships..."
I'm not sure how surprised I'm supposed to be about people who were world-class athletes some time within the past ~40 years ago having above average strength.
Though, I understand that you can't easily pull off a randomized controlled trial (long-term) for exercise.
"Masters athletics is a class of the sport of athletics for veteran athletes in the events of track and field, road running and cross country running. The competitions feature five-year age groups beginning at age 35. Men as old as 105 and women in their 100s have competed in running, jumping and throwing events."
Winners of these events need not have been world class athletes when they were young, and often weren't, but they typically have been exercising regularly more than other people.
But yes, it is not that surprising that people who are world-class athletes in their age group score differently in some metrics than people who are not. Question is: in what metrics? This study researched that. It's not just that they have more muscles, the muscles they have work better, too.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20091026172350/http://www.geocit...
Definitely. Take it from me, the alternative(s) are no fun. I got lazy about biking and running and everything, let my weight creep up, and was over-stressing myself way to hard, and ultimately had a heart-attack. Luckily I lived and the doctors say I should be fine, but they all hammered me on the importance of staying active and fit from here on out.
Luckily I never smoked, so I have that going for me at least. But yeah, quitting smoking is definitely a Good Call if you care about your health.
I just kind of hope to offset all of that sedentary time in front of the monitor, and indeed do hope that all this activity benefits me down the line, be it muscle elasticity, heart health, lung function, whatever.