We're Aging Faster Because We're Getting Slower

We are getting older faster and it's our fault. Now bear with me for a second because this is going to sound crazy. 90% of American households have access to a car. Computers were once the size of large warehouse rooms and now fit in the palms of our hands. Today we'd rather text or FaceTime from the comfort of our homes, over conversing during a walk in nature. As for our humble abodes, they're more comfortable than ever with reclining couches that hold remotes for every household function, kitchens filled with substitutes for every major food group in shake form, as well, air fryers cooking in 30 minutes or less. Most of us now work from home and attend meetings through zoom calls, but we wonder why at age 35, we look like life has steamrolled over us? In many ways, it has, but how much of this comfort is to our demise? My point is, the automated lifestyles we currently live are killing us faster as things get more comfortable. The convenience seems great at first, but does it support a long, youthful life?

We're currently jogging instead of sprinting, simply activating muscles instead of strengthening them, and subtracting from our diets instead of utilizing food to support our energy needs. All of these scenarios contribute to increased aging and the degradation of fast-twitch muscle fibers. "Oh, but I go to Bootcamp." That's a step in the right direction. Only these environments many times miss out on the most critical training variable, applying progressive overload. When was the last time your Bootcamp instructor updated you on your past strength achievements or your progress? Also, do these environments provide the most direct route to achieving your goals? Similarly, university team settings have strength and conditioning staff; to individually monitor its athletes' progress.

So how do we fix this? First, let's think back to one of the most recognizable activities and marks of childhood, running. When was the last time you ran fast (sprinted)? Sprinting recruits fast-twitch muscle fibers in ways that no other activity can. When learning about exercise's effects on the body and its ability to use energy through its energy systems, there's no more relatable activity to the parameters of time and intensity that I can think of outside of highly intense, max effort running. I would even hypothesize that when we no longer view maintaining our running ability as necessary, we’ve become old.

Second, we need to lift heavy objects and lift them efficiently. The lifting of weights maximally and with an explosive, high rate of velocity intent recruits fast-twitch, giant muscle fibers that make us strong and powerful. The theory of progressive overload should be followed, ensuring we are consistently keeping track of what we have accomplished and the increased stimulus. The appropriate stimulation promotes the recovery cycle, which triggers adaptation, leading to progression. To lift these loads effectively goes a long way to enforce optimal movement patterns in everyday life. For example, squats' relatability to every day standing from a seated position to more advanced, the Turkish get-up and its transfer to efficiently using your core stabilizer muscles to transfer force and stabilize dynamic movement.

Simply activating muscle is not enough to ensure a muscle or muscle group is getting stronger. Actual heavy load forces the muscle to get stronger and more prominent. So no, banded lateral walks are not making your glutes stronger or even increased in size, for that matter. As Flavor Flav use to say," Don't believe the hype." However, taking a muscle group through a full range of motion and, over time, increasing the amount of weight that can be handled efficiently through that range does produce those results.

These suggestions of how to approach activity will provide considerable benefits to how our bodies utilize energy. Food is our energy source, and each food group provides its unique service to how our bodies use them. If we continue to subtract useful resources from our daily intakes or, in some cases, substitute for lower quality options. We are not being responsible stewards over the maintenance of the only body we will ever have. Not taking into consideration what options provide the best benefit, we are doing more harm than good. Although supplementation can be an option, supplementation is not a replacement or should be used as one. Instead of going down the rabbit hole of nutrition, the point I'm trying to make is that the better the quality of exercise, the better the quality of food is needed and justified.

Our automated lifestyles are putting our vitality in danger, and the only way to combat that is to fight to maintain that which is the source. That is our ability to produce force at high levels and faster velocities. Although other forms of exercise do provide increases in daily activity, they don't do an excellent job in recruiting those high thresholds, robust, highly metabolic motor units, our fast-twitch muscle fibers. There's no way around it. The surest way of fighting this battle, which increases aggressiveness at the age of 30, is to lift heavy, move fast, progress over time, and do our best to restore the muscle's metabolic properties. Our lives depend on it.