4 Tips for Improving Strength and Longevity

Andrea delves into the often-overlooked topic of longevity.  She emphasizes the importance of preparing for a healthier, more fulfilling life by focusing on key factors that contribute to increased lifespan. Andrea shares insights and tips on improving grip strength, eccentric strength, VO2 max, and mobility to enhance overall well-being and promote longevity. Are you seeking a healthier, more active, and fulfilling life? Join us today to learn the important factors that can improve your longevity. 

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Resources
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593236599?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_A32YG9NSEG0BB741M7E1&language=en-US

In this episode, you'll be able to

• Understand the concept of longevity and highlights the significance of preparation for a healthier life in the future.
• Learn why grip strength is important for mobility and longevity 
• Discover the connection between VO2 max and cardiovascular health
• Grasp the concept about the importance of mobility and its crucial roles in overall health and longevity. 

Key Moments in the episode are
00:00:00 Introduction to Longevity
00:05:00 Importance of Grip Strength
00:07:00Tips for Improving Grip Strength
00:11:00 Significance of Eccentric Strength
00:13:00 Exercises for Eccentric Strength
00:18:00 VO2 Max and Cardiovascular Health
00:19:00 Improving VO2 Max
00:23:00 Stability and Mobility
00:27:00 Tips for Enhancing Mobility 

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Produced by Light On Creative Productions

Transcript

[00:00:00] What is up? Welcome back. Today we're going to be talking about something that I think is really, really important, but often gets overlooked or not even thought of until we're already there. And thinking, shoot, we should have done A, B, and C to make this part of our lives better. Often we talk in the present about losing fat or gaining muscle, core health, nutrition, mental health, physical health, all different aspects, hormones, all of these different things.

But all of this actually combines together to make us healthier. And effects are longevity. We're going to be talking about longevity today. 

And like most things, the more we prepare, the better off we are. When someone is pregnant and they work on their deep core ahead of time, the better off they are in recovering. So now, as we might not be very old, maybe you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, even 60s, whatever your age, the more we prepare for our life [00:01:00] later on, and prepare for our longevity to stay healthier longer, and expand our lifespan, and expand our lifespan.

The more happy we're going to be, the more functional we're going to be, and the more our longevity is going to increase. So there's a couple things that I personally am working on and have been talking a ton with my husband about in the last couple weeks to improve longevity.

As we think about it, my husband's in his 40s. I just turned 39 last week. We definitely aren't old, but things we can do now so that when we are 70, 75, 80, whatever the age that we feel good in our bodies and we have a little bit better longevity. And yes, it starts now. 

So let's talk about a handful of things that you can do now and focus on now that is going to make your life in 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years better. And they're simple things you can think about now.

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 [00:03:00] 

So, first, let me say that this topic was actually born out of a book that I am reading with Paul, my husband. We have been reading Peter Atiyah's Outlive book, and it's a really fantastic book. I will link it in the show notes. It is a really great book that looks at health in a very holistic way, and I think oftentimes we think about, oh, yes, we need to, like, Stay healthy and we need to be aware of toxins to prevent cancers possibly, or we need to make sure that we're maintaining some exercise and fitness to prevent some cardiovascular issues.

But there are some simple other things that we can do as well that actually really affect our ability to live longer and to live a more fuller, happier, filling life because our longevity will be better. So that's what we're getting into today. And again, remember his book, Peter Attia, he is amazing. [00:04:00] He also has a podcast called, the Peter Atiyah Drive Podcast, which is an amazing podcast on health.

He covers a lot of different things, so check that out as well. But, for longevity, let's talk about some simple things that we can do now. The first thing you can be aware of is grip strength. I know, it seems so simple, and even the very first time I read this, and I've read a couple different articles on it now and research papers on it, and it talks about it in the book, is Grip strength is actually very strongly associated with how long we live.

And the reason why is because it actually is a reflection of over body strength. Think about it. Everything in your upper body is connected to your hands. So if your hands are weak, then everything above it... to strengthen those muscles are also going to be weak. Your arms, your shoulders, all of those things will be a little bit weaker.

The hands really do reflect our overall strength.

Not only that, but our hands [00:05:00] also help prevent us from injuries and accidents. As you know, I'm sure you've had so many people in your family or friends where they say grandma fell or Aunt Mary fell or someone fell and often when that happens, the person who is falling does not have the grip strength to catch themselves, to grab the banister, to grab the edge of the stairs, to put their hand on the car, or even grab the edge of their walker.

They just fall. And that is part of that grip strength. So there is so much that we can do now That can help improve the grip strength.

And so, you know, how important grip strength is, because even when I heard this, I was like, grip strength, like, yeah, it seems like a big deal, but it is legit. There was a study done. And of course, you know, if I say anything about study show or study done, I will link all of the studies in the show notes.

So you can actually look at it yourself as well. If you like to geek out on studies as well, I will have them all linked. So a recent study was done of men and women. There were [00:06:00] 1, 275 of them, and they Monitored their grip and the people who had a more feeble hand grip, they were weaker, showed more signs of accelerated aging in their DNA, like literally their genes appeared to be growing older, faster than the people with better grip strength that to me alone.

Like I read when I read the study, I read that line like three times. So in general, when someone had a weaker grip strength, they had a higher. epigenetic age. That is basically not your real age, but the age of your cells and such. So literally their DNA appeared less useful than those who had a stronger grip strength. Not only that, but because their grip strength was weaker.

They were more vulnerable and more susceptible to illnesses, deaths, and falls. So that alone, like the fact that the DNA was literally aging faster based on weak hands. My eyeballs almost fell out of my head when I read that. I was like, Oh my gosh, [00:07:00] your grip strength really does make a difference. It's going to keep your whole body strong.

So a couple of really simple, simple, simple things we can do now, because this is actually something I get asked all the time. When I'm showing an exercise and I'm holding heavy weights, I will often get a DM or a message from a client that says, I can't hold any more weights. My grip isn't good enough.

And that's a great opportunity for us to be like, Ooh. That's not great. Then my grip isn't good. I need to improve my grip. Forget the weights. Forget the muscle. Forget the fat. Let's talk about just the grip because the grip is going to help everything else. And it's really going to help your longevity.

So some easy ways to work on your grip strength is number one, you're just going to do weighted farmers carries. That is where you hold the heaviest weights. You can like a dumbbell, weights. Two dumbbells total. So one dumbbell in each hand, and you're going to try to hold the heaviest weight you can for one minute walking.

Now you can walk up and down your hallway. You can walk in your backyard, whatever it is, but it needs to be a [00:08:00] heavy weight. You should barely be able to finish by one minute. If you can get to one minute and you're feeling fine, increase your weights and slowly increase and increase and increase, and that's going to make a huge difference on your grip strength.

Now, let's say you don't have heavy enough dumbbells to really master and get good and increase that weight for those farmer carries. You can take a dumbbell and turn it on its head. So instead of holding the handle, you're going to hold the top part of the dumbbell, like the fat part of the dumbbells that's on the end.

And that is going to spread out your hand and you're going to clutch your hand around that end and try to hold it in both hands, one in both hands for 45 seconds. That is really going to work on your grip strength because your hands are separated, they're clenching that dumbbell, and you are just going to have to work through that.

If you can't get to 45 seconds, then lighten the weight a little bit, but once you get to 45 seconds, try to increase that weight, increase that weight, and slowly really challenge your ability to hold that top part [00:09:00] of the dumbbell. The next thing you can do is dead hangs. This is something my husband and I have been working on since we read Outlive by Peter Attia because we were curious how long we could hold a dead hang.

A dead hang is simply hanging from a bar. So if you are someone who has access to a gym where they have a pull up bar, you can practice it there. You can get a pull up bar for your house and put it in a doorframe. You can go to your local park and hang on a monkey bar. That works just fine too. Anything that you can hang on and obviously not break, but so a monkey bar is great and practice this.

You're going to want to slowly increase the amount of time that you can Lift your feet off the ground and hang with your arms straight using your grip to hold your body weight. My husband and I have been teasing each other because we're trying to out beat each other and get a better time. But it's something that we've been working on because it's made us curious about our own grip strength.

But for you, you're going to [00:10:00] want to try to work up your amount of time you can hang. So let's say you start with whatever body weight you are. You're hanging from a doorway. Pull up bar or a monkey bar. Let's say you can do 15 seconds. Great. My goal for you is to change and get to 30 seconds. If you can get to 30 seconds, fantastic.

Now you're gonna get to 45 seconds. You want to try to get above a minute for sure and I've even seen some studies that say they do want you to get to a minute and a half. So in general, The more you practice, the longer that time can get. So don't get stuck on the end idea. If you're maybe only starting where you can only hold your body weight for five seconds, that's okay.

That's okay. This is a journey. We're here forever for longevity. Remember? So just slowly try to increase it by five second intervals. That's it. And just add on, add on, add on over time. And do it, you know, 2 to 3 times a week.

I would suggest 3 times a week. Spreading it out and just working on that dead hang. And you will be [00:11:00] amazed at how your grip improves. Even since we've started working on it ourselves, the amount that I can dead hang has almost doubled. In a very small period of time. So it's pretty amazing. And it really does show that our grip strength truly is linked to longevity.

and I don't know about you, but I want to keep my cells young and youthful and moving fast. So I'm going to work on my grit strength because that study to me was phenomenal. And there are many other studies like that as well. 

The next thing to be aware of is your eccentric strength. So when we lift weights, there are a couple of different motions in the weights. Let's talk about a bicep curl. For a bicep curl, when the weight is down, so to your sides, you're holding the two dumbbells. When I curl the weight up, so the dumbbell is coming up towards my shoulders, That is a concentric contraction. That means that the muscle is shortening. My bicep is overcoming the amount of weight to curl it [00:12:00] up. I'm, you can say in parentheses, beating the weight. I'm overcoming it. When I lower, That weight, that is the eccentric motion. That is the lengthening of the muscle. I think often we get so focused on the actual shortening of the muscle, the contracting that the eccentric portion does not get enough TLC.

I know I recently talked about it in improving your strength and talking about messing with the tempo of your concentric and your eccentric movements. And really thinking about slowly lowering the weight, just the same. Same as you lift it up and messing with those tempos because that can make a difference.

But the reason why this eccentric strength matters so much, and it does sometimes get overlooked because we're trying to hurry through the motion and just pump it up for that concentric, is the eccentric motion is actually what helps us when we are trying to resist gravity or stop our body. So, [00:13:00] imagine what is working when you are walking downhill or when you are stepping off a curb.

Imagine also a quad extension, like a leg extension on one of those machines where you're extending your legs to flex the quad. When the leg comes up, that's the concentric. When the leg comes down from the leg extension, that's the eccentric. When you are coming down stairs or walking down a hill, remember your leg is coming down.

It is an eccentric motion and that is the same and it is often overlooked. And what happens when you trip on a hill or when you trip on the stairs? Yep. Your eccentric strength needs to kick in. It needs to power on and literally stop your body. Your eccentric strength basically slows down the movement and reduces the force moving forward.

So if you're standing on the stairs and you trip, your whole body is going to tense. That's [00:14:00] your eccentric strength to stop you. And that is going to help prevent injuries because we are going to catch ourselves when we stumble, when we fall. And then remember, as we're stumbling and we use that strength, then we grab out with our grip strength.

That's the other one we've already talked about. And we try to stop ourselves. That's the second line of defense. But first, we've got to be able to slow that momentum, that force moving forward towards gravity.

And that is why the eccentric strength matters so much. Your muscles act as a shock absorber, basically breaking your body before you totally tumble forward or kind of helping you jolt back as you stutter your foot. forward. So imagine as we age, and maybe we haven't trained the eccentric movement of all of our muscles, our quads, our hamstrings, our glutes, you know, our shoulders, everything.

And then we're doing things where we need it, and it's weak. We're going to have more falls. More imbalances, more [00:15:00] accidental issues, and it's going to cause us more problems because the truth is there are so many studies that show once someone falls and especially once they're elderly, their health deteriorates, they have a really hard time recovering.

So the better our grip strength and the better our eccentricity. Strength in general is the less likely we will be to fall. And if we do, we will be better at catching ourselves. And this isn't even having to do just with people who are 70. I'm 39 and I still fall and I would like to catch myself. I don't want to hit my head on the concrete, which can happen. 

And so the better I am able to stop my body now with my eccentric strength and grip, something is going to be better. I was a couple of months ago in the spring, we went, um, down to another part of Arizona where there was a really awesome dude ranch. My husband grew up riding horses and I would ride horses in the summer at my grandpa's so we thought it would be a great experience for our kids.

Anyway, we went to this ranch and it was amazing and you had to [00:16:00] kind of I don't want to say try out, but you had to get a loping card to be able to run on the horses to show you how to experience. And I was talking to one of the wranglers, and I was surprised that they were a little bit of sticklers on the loping card.

And we were chatting about it, and we were on our loping ride, and she said, Well, the reason why is because... When the horses suddenly jolt and move, people fall off all the time. And she said, even just this morning, a horse got spooked by something and the woman literally fell off the front of the horse.

And he didn't, she even said, the horse wasn't even moving that fast. He actually just barely stepped back. But. She just kind of fell forward and I thought about that, it came to mind as I was thinking about this eccentric strength because I thought, Oh my gosh, her body didn't have the ability to tense and to tighten and to prevent that forward motion and gravity to stop her from doing that.

Now there's some situations where we can't, but there are some where we can help prevent things not be as intense. And that would have been [00:17:00] one where I was thinking about it. So I'm sitting on the horse and I'm... Purposely jerking forward to see like, could I stop myself? Could I make it so my body had the ability based on my strength to not just topple over the front of the horse?

I mean, obviously if we were running, that's a different story, but the Wrangler said it wasn't, the horse wasn't really moving, but she, she wasn't able to do that. So that's just a small example. of a current situation now where that woman was injured and maybe if there was a little bit more grip where she could have grabbed the front of the horn or she could have, you know, used that eccentric strength, maybe she wouldn't have fallen over.

I'm not saying that it's a hundred percent but possibly. So it's just things to think about not only like when we're 70 but we need to work on it now so that when we're 50, 60, 70 that we can do it a little bit better. 

The next really important indicator for how you will live and your longevity is your VO2 max and your cardiovascular [00:18:00] health. VO2max simply refers to the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can absorb and use during exercise. So it measures your aerobic fitness levels. the higher your VO2max, the more oxygen your body consumes, which makes it more effective to maximize your ATP energy.

Your basically energy that your body uses. More oxygen, more energy, more effective. And your VO2 max has been linked in numerous studies with longevity, with our ability to age and not only age, but age well and live longer.

One study done in 2018 followed 1, 200... people and found that people with a higher VO2 max was associated with a lower mortality rate. The same study showed that someone of a below average VO2 max for their age and sex was double the risk of all causes of mortality [00:19:00] compared to someone who had a higher percentile of VO2 max. That alone is crazy from all mortality. It's not just, you know, cardiovascular. It was everything. It was linked through everything.

That the better our body was able to use that oxygen, the better our health is over time. The study also said that typically VO2 max declined by about 10 percent per decade. And it starts in your 20s. So whatever your VO2 max is in your 20s, by your 30s, 40s, 50s, it's kind of going down about 10%. A decade, and it can be even up to 15 percent a decade once you hit age 50.

Now, the best news about this is you can increase your VO2 max by an average of 17 percent every year. So you are not doomed. Obviously it can go down, but we can counter balance that now. It's already been going down since our twenties. So we need to be moving our bodies. The higher the VO2 max, the more likely [00:20:00] you will be able to move and do things when you're older.

That means you'll be able to run better, hike better, play better, play with your grandkids better, play with your kids better, do all of the things that you want to do better and more efficiently, which is going to make you healthier and is going to not only make you live longer, but make you live happier because you're going to be active And all of this combined with the hikes, the activities, the kids, the stimulus, all of that is going to release those endorphins, which is going to help us feel good. So yes, we get the longevity and yes, we get the endorphins. Win, win. So a couple of quick things you can do to improve your VO2 max is number one, you don't want to skip cardio all the time. I know there's kind of a fad right now where everyone's like, you don't need cardio, you don't need cardio, just lift weights. Lifting weights is fantastic for your muscles, but there is purpose in cardio and there's purpose in weights and I hate when Someone demonizes one or the other because as this study shows Your cardio output [00:21:00] matters your ability to use that oxygen matters and that really is mastered in many cardiovascular activities So you're gonna want to make sure you're including cardio two to three times a week typically if you stay in zone two that is about 75 to 85 percent of your max heart rate.

That's going to be a good spot for you. Some simple things you can do is rowing, cycling, running, rucking, which is basically hiking with a weight in your backpack, because that gets your heart rate up, kickboxing, really any activity.

Something else you can think of that is going to improve your VO2 max is switching up the style of aerobic activity that you're doing. Often we do one style and that's it. And we do the same run for the same amount of time and we never even change up the intensity. A couple of years ago, I remember I used to swim a lot.

I used to lifeguard when I was a teenager. And between, you know, being on the chairs, I would swim. I would swim like a mile or two. And a year or two ago, I hadn't swam in a while and I was like, Oh, [00:22:00] I'm just going to get in and swim a mile, you know, at that time I was doing kickboxing. I was teaching. Um, so it had to have been more than two years ago.

It was probably four or five years ago. I was teaching kickboxing and I was doing all kinds of cardio activity. I swam one length in the pool and I got out on the other side and thought I was going to die. I was like, Oh my gosh, that was the hardest thing I've just ever done because I wasn't used to that style of cardio.

I had to work my way up, which is crazy because I can go. All out in kickboxing. I can jump in the air. I can do all the things and I'm fine, but one length in the pool and I thought I was dying. It's the same thing if you are a runner and then you try kickboxing or maybe you're a swimmer and you try running.

Switch it up. Switch it up. It's going to help you. It's really going to improve your VO2 and plus it's going to work your body in a different way. So that's not a bad idea. So don't get stuck in a rut of always doing the same thing for always the same amount of time at the same intensity. Change [00:23:00] it up and try new activities.

You can even try some very short hit style. Now I'm not saying do hit all the time. I'm not promoting that, but I'm just saying those short bursts are another way to change it up and really work on that VO2 max because to actually take a VO2 max, it's brutal. They make you work at your max for a very short period of time and then see what number you get.

So adding in even some variations where you're doing Plyos or Metcons or things for very short windows, even just 30 seconds of. Jump squats, you know, see how you can do in those, you know, two or three rounds and change it up. That's going to be really important and all of those are going to help you. 

The last thing that I want to talk about for our longevity is stability and mobility. These obviously go hand in hand, but they are slightly different. So I'm just going to cover them both in one because they really do affect each other. At the same time, stability is honestly more than just our core and our abs.

I know I talk a lot about bracing the core and using your [00:24:00] core unit. And keeping that nice and tight because obviously bracing the core is stabilizing, as I've mentioned before, the spine and the pelvis, which helps keep our bodies stable and strong, but there's so much more to stability than just our core as well.

It is a piece of it, so don't get me wrong, you do need to learn to brace your core properly. You know, I'm a big fan of that, but also stability is our ability. To decelerate and stop with force to literally not move forward. So that kind of feeds a little bit back into that eccentric strength as well, but that feeds into our stability.

The goal for stability is to be fluid, to be flexible, to be agile, to be strong, and to be able to. Give with movements and even stop those movements. That's really going to help our stability

Typically everyone has stability but like anything when you don't use it you lose it So as [00:25:00] we sit around or as we aren't using it as much it's going to decrease This is why it's really important to get moving and put yourself in different situations hiking cycling anything to just get your body moving, but not only that, but to change up and try different variations where we are actually focusing on stability and mobility.

So let's talk about mobility.

Mobility is truly about being able to move through a greater range of motion with our joints and our ligaments and be able to improve that range of motion. I had Amir from Beard the Best You Can Be on episode 127. He talked about mastering your aches and pains using mobility. I'm going to highly suggest you go back to that episode because he explains that mobility is not just sitting there and reaching for your toe and stretching your hamstring.

It is literally moving through a range of motion and being very articulate and aware and not just going through the motions [00:26:00] and using isometric movements and using that full range and kind of pushing that joint in all directions. And it's a really good episode that is truly feeding into this longevity episode because he talks about aches and pains reducing as he worked on his mobility, which obviously affected also stability.

And I myself have been working. Insanely on this and I have found that it has improved my strength in my muscles because I can be more mobile and I can get into a better range of motion and I have less aches and pains as I've really worked heavily on my own hip mobility from my own injury of having some hip issues a year or two ago and really pushing those.

There are studies that show that women who are older, who are less mobile, are more likely to be living in a home. The study was done on females, which is really interesting. And it was done on 1800 females and they tested, they started them basically at 70 and then [00:27:00] watch them all the way up to 90 to see how their longevity was, how they.

We're able to live life and be healthy and of that 1800 900 didn't make it to 90 years old. They started 70 and 900 so half didn't make it to 90 and then of the almost 900 that made it 464 of the women. Survived to 90 with pretty good intact mobility and cognitive function. And then 420 made it to 90, but they didn't have good mobility.

And when they looked at all of their medical markers and their health, the women who had more mobility were healthier. All of their medical markers were better and they linked it clearly, obviously to that mobility and their cognitive function was even better. people who have less mobility are also more likely to struggle with any physical issues, mental and social difficulties as we age, which all obviously are going to [00:28:00] affect our longevity. So, mobility, it matters. Listen to that episode with Amir. You want to try to add in practices like yoga, Pilates.

Dynamic stretching, dynamic stretching is moving through a range of motion. It's not just sitting and grabbing. You really want to think about pushing those joints through limitations and even investing just 10 minutes a day towards your mobility and stability can make a massive difference because they really do go hand in hand and honestly, the compound effect is so real.

As I mentioned, I've worked on my own hip mobility. I do it three times a week, probably four. No more than 15 minutes, probably 10 minutes. And about a year ago, I couldn't even sit into a deep squat. I couldn't even get in the position. My calves were too tight. My hips were a wreck. And I am to the point now where I can get into it.

In fact, I got to film myself. I wish I'd filmed myself before when I had my injury because I really couldn't do it. And the other day I was doing it and I [00:29:00] honestly almost wanted to cry because I was like, Oh my gosh, my mobility is coming back. So what matters if you have an injury, if you have a limited range of motion, get into a PT, go check out Beard, the best you can be.

He's all about that range of motion. He even has a subscription for mobility and he's one of the app experts in the app. He is doing videos on mobility for hips and spine and a couple other things. So he's one of the experts in my upcoming app. The app is going to be called Make It Simple and he is covering that in there as well.

So that really makes a difference. Okay, we're going to sum it all up. I know longevity seems far away. I know we might feel like, Oh, I'm, you know, not going to age truly till I'm getting above, you know, 60, 70, whatever the age. And we are all different ages listening. But the more you prep, the more you prepare, the more you learn now, the better off you will be.

I want to challenge you to work on your grip strength using the ideas I said. I want to challenge you to slow down your strength training and [00:30:00] think about the eccentric movements as well. We've got to train the muscle in both directions when it's contracting and when it's lengthening. It's the same thing for the pelvic floor.

When I say lift the pelvic floor, it's contracting. When I say lengthen, it's relaxing. They both matter. So really think about that in your motions. Watch yourself when you're lifting. And look, am I going slow down and slow up, or am I jerking the weight up and then just letting it fall down, like letting gravity make the weight drop.

We want to slowly control it back to start. So I want you to work on that eccentric strength.

I want you to get moving and think about your VO2 max. Change up your styles of cardio and make sure you're getting some in. I know cardio is not everyone's friend, but it can be useful. Obviously, it shows it connects to longevity and it is connected to really decreasing a lot of mental health issues with depression and anxiety and so many other things.

So just get moving and try to really just use your cardiovascular system and make it [00:31:00] stronger. And then lastly, I want you to work on your stability. flexibility and mobility all together, all of those together. We're going to work on the mobility, which is going to help our stability and it's going to make us more flexible and all of those things are going to help us in the long run when we get to a point where we stumble and we're able to catch ourselves before we fall or maybe we're in a situation where we can help someone else.

And not only that, but as the study showed, it's not just about falling. It's also linked to Like the VO2 max was linked to all causes of mortality. So it really is laced throughout everything. Together let's decide we're going to keep our DNA young, thriving, and moving, okay? We got this. Longevity, it's our friend.

Let's start these tips. Let's make it happen. That's it for today. As always, you are doing so much better than you think you are. We'll chat next week.