Fitness vs Age? 5 tips to feel younger.

When it comes to ageing some of the expected decline may be due more to lifestyle habits and less to do with getting older. Here are 5 ways to feel younger for a longer time.

Sleep.

7-9 hours a night is critical for keeping our brain functioning properly. If your brain isn’t functioning, nothing is going to work. Sleep cleans our brain. It helps us process information. Sleep enhances what we learned during the day and it removes what isn’t necessary. Sleep is like a very efficient filing system. It takes all the info we collect all day, storing what we need and purging the junk.

All body systems rely on sleep. It is non-negotiable, we can’t store it or pay off sleep debt. Sleep deprivation increases insulin resistance. It reduces our immune system function. Less than 7 hours of sleep changes hormones related to hunger and fullness.

Sleep stabilizes our emotional health which is even more important in times of stress.

Exercise.

Exercise has immediate and long-lasting effects on our brains. One workout allows for an improved focus and attention for up to two hours. One workout improves our reaction time. These are things we often think of as age-related changes as opposed to fitness related.

Aerobic exercise improves our cognitive abilities. It helps us think better. It improves our attention in our prefrontal cortex, the CEO of our brain. Something as simple as going for a walk increases cell production in our hippocampus the area responsible for memory and learning.

Strength training matters too. It improves our memory and working memory. Working memory allows us to plan and carry out actions, think of baking a cake. Your working memory keeps you from adding the same ingredient twice.

Studies done on cross-country runners showed that the areas of the brain associated with age-related declines had better connectivity. This was thought to be due to better focus and concentration as trail runners have to watch for objects on the trail, run on uneven surfaces, maintain their pace and coordinate their route on the go.

A combination of resistance training and aerobic exercise can significantly boost your brainpower. Regardless of your current level of health, fitness or your age.

Nutrition

Food is fuel for our bodies and brain. Eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables and plant-based protein have been proven to improve your chances of being healthy and fit for a long time.

One meal high in saturated fat reduces your ability to focus. Saturated fat increases inflammation which may be one way that it causes changes in our brain. Changes that were once blamed on ageing.

A plant-based diet has been shown to improve cardiovascular health and new studies on plant-based endurance athletes improved performance for a number of reasons. This study concludes that,

Plant-based diets play a key role in cardiovascular health, which is critical for endurance athletes. Specifically, these diets improve plasma lipid concentrations, blood pressure, body weight, and blood glucose control, and, as part of a healthful lifestyle, have been shown to reverse atherosclerosis. The possibility that such diets may also contribute to improved performance and accelerated recovery in endurance sports is raised by their effects on blood flow, body composition, antioxidant capacity, systemic inflammation, and glycogen storage. These attributes provide a scientific foundation for the increased use of plant-based diets by endurance athletes.

Plant-Based Diet for Cardiovascular Safety and Performance in Endurance Sports

Get after it

Changes that are normally associated with ageing include loss of speed and reaction time. While there is a loss of speed with ageing it is gradual and for most of us not very significant. About 0.8 – 1% per year until we reach 75-80 years old when it changes faster. This for most of us isn’t that noticeable year to year. Your best times may be behind you, but you probably aren’t competing for a personal best as you get older. The motivation may be more for health, fitness and the fun.

Training and maintaining high levels of speed are possible. The world’s fastest 70-year-old man has run 400 m in 59 seconds while the best 80-year-old has run it in 70 seconds. Compare these times with 20% of men aged 65-74 and 40% of those ages 75–84 reporting that they can’t even walk 500 m without difficulty.

Fast-twitch muscles may change over time. This can be due to sedentary living or a switch to endurance-type muscle fibers depending on the individual. Interval training or speed work is less appealing when you don’t belong to a club or have a coach to push you, but training will make a difference.

Reaction time is also related to muscle loss, but it is also related to education levels. People with higher education have quicker reaction times compared to people their own age. People who are fit have faster reaction times than those who are unfit.

Weight

Gaining weight is not due to age. It is due to intake. Where body fat is stored changes with age, usually more abdominal fat, and you probably need fewer calories. Being sedentary results in muscle loss which reduces your metabolism, meaning you need even fewer calories.

Loss of muscle mass is a serious problem and going on a diet increases the amount of muscle loss.

We often measure health by our weight, but muscle loss has a cost. It is estimated that in the year 2000 sarcopenia, or muscle loss, cost the US Healthcare system 18.5 billion dollars in hospitalizations. This is without taking into account co-morbidities like obesity, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes.

Weight is one measure of health risk, but only one.

5 easy steps to feel younger.

It doesn’t take much, but you can maintain health and fitness with good habits.

Regularly get 7-9 hours of sleep.

Perform resistance training and aerobic exercise regularly.

Eat well. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Push yourself. Once a week do some interval workouts.

Maintain your weight and even more importantly maintain your muscle.

Maybe most importantly don’t wait to start. The sooner you start the easier it is, but don’t worry it is never too late to make a difference.

Change your mind, change your health

Shayla