Lift Weight For Longevity
National Public Radio started a special series this year called, How to Thrive as You Age: the Science and Secrets of Longevity. The first episode aired January 29th and focused on a series of tests that can give us insight into our "Healthspan." I wrote about it here.
The most recent installment, Women Who Do Strength Training Love Longer. How Much is Enough?, explores a recent study of 40,000 women that found a causal link between strength training and a 30% reduction in cardiovascular mortality. This is remarkable considering that heart disease is the leading cause of death if U.S. women. According to one of the lead authors of the study, â"We were incredibly impressed by the finding," says study author Martha Gulati, who is also the director of preventive cardiology at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles. "We don't have many things that reduce mortality in that way."
That is impressive! A 30% reduction in risk is significant and it doesn't take much for women to see the immediate benefit. According to the study:
"women who do strength training exercises two to three days a week are more likely to live longer and have a lower risk of death from heart disease, compared to women who do none."
Share this information with your mom, your sisters, your aunties, your daughters and all of the women in your life!
According to the NPR article, there are other benefits to strength training that have a synergistic improvement of lifespan and healthspan. They are 1. Strength training helps protect joints. 2. Building muscle burns more calories 3. Resistance training protects against injuries and falls 4. Strength training helps control blood sugar 5. Muscle building may help boost mood All of you at True Spirit can rest easy knowing you are making a difference in your health. However, we have a long way to go to convince the women in our lives that lifting weights is good for them, too. According to the study, of the 40,000 people in the study, only 1 in 5 women had a regular strength training program. That's only 20% of the women in the study!Clearly we need to spread this message far and wide. âYou can read the article here or listen to it below. I encourage you to forward this blog or the link to this article to all the women you know!
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...Or, How to Spot BullshitI have written before about how to use reason and critical thinking skills to help wade through all the silly bullshit you see on the interwebs. In our current situation, misinformation, silly bullshit and conspiracy theories are at an all time high.
Every day I see something on "the" Facebook that makes me scream into my computer screen. It's an time of uncertainty and people are taking advantage of our collective vulnerability to gaslight us into thinking that the deep state, big pharma and modern medicine are out to get us. Keep calm and do CrossFit my friends, and also take comfort in the laws of math, specifically the lovely predictability of probabilistic statistics. Probabilistic statistics is our way of determining if something is plausible, or in other words if it's probable that something is true or not. We live in an ethos of you can do anything if you just try hard enough. Anything is possible so keep reaching for the stars. This is great for memes and encouraging Hallmark cards, and it sets us up to give credit to silly bullshit because, "it's possible". "It's Possible" is not the same as "it's probable" and probability is the world we live in. Thinking that anything is possible is giving equal weight to all possibilities or potentialities. In the real world, the one we all live in, all possibilities do not have the same probability. Let me explain it this way. What if I say to you, "It's possible that you can do a muscle up." Do you believe that? Based on your knowledge of your body, physicality, mobility and strength it may not be possible that you can do a muscle-up. However, with a focused training program and lots of skills progression you might be able, some day, to do a muscle up. You will have increased the probability through specific action. Some people will never get a muscle up, no matter how hard they practice and progress. You see? Possibility is "everyone" can do a muscle up where probability is the mathematical likelihood that it can happen for people who work towards it. Just because something is possible does not mean it is likely to be true. When it comes to conspiracy theories and other silly bullshit on the internet people are preying on our collective "it's possible" belief even though it's highly improbable that it's true. The more complicated the conspiracy theory the less probable it is purely based on mathematics. I hope this helps you wade through all the silly bullshit that is floating in the sea of collective craziness. When you get caught in a wave, take a deep breath and ask yourself how probable this thing is. Recognize people are trying to capitalize on your fear, and rely on your calm logic and reason to keep your head above water. Good luck! Spring Cleaning 30 Day Check-ListI know it feels like winter still has us in her grips, but SPRING is only 3 weeks away! For many of us, spring heralds a big cleaning up and clearing out of all the spaces. Sometimes, this job can be overwhelming and I often find myself standing in the middle of a room wondering what I should tackle first. That's why I love, love, love this 30 days of spring cleaning check-list from Commit30. You might recall that I started using a Commit30 journal this year as part of my 2023 goal to be more organized. What I love about this journal is that it makes space to commit to a new habit each month (thus the name, Commit30.) Each month since January, I have been sharing a new 30 day check-list or challenge (if you're into that kind of thing) so that you can join me on my healthy habits journey. January we set SMART goals and intentions for the new year. February we committed to 30 days of showing your love and gratitude. This month we are going to clean up and clear out! Let me know if you plan to do a big spring cleaning or if you have a favorite check-list you use.
Are you ready for The Open? The fun starts Friday!
You NEED Protein!
Did you know that women who are menopausal and post-menopausal need MORE protein because our hormones are no longer as active in muscle synthesis? Yep, it's true. The guidelines from the Whoop Women's Performance Collective is 2 g for every 1 kg of body weight. To calculate this divide your body weight (in pounds) by 2.2. Whatever that number is, 77kg for me, multiply by 2 and that's the DAILY protein goal. Mine is 155. what's yours?
You may have heard that you shouldn't eat more than 30 grams at a time because anything over that is "wasted." Or that you'll damage your kidneys if you eat too much protein. Or shouldn't supplement with collagen because it is an incomplete protein. Click on the Insta link below to read about 5 protein myths and what is really the case with protein with OptimizeMe Nutrition.
Protein is essential to human performance and most of us don't eat enough of it. Listen to the podcast below to learn about the myths and realities of protein.
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