Walking, Lifting, Sprinting - The Primal Keys to Longevity

There is a lot of fodder on the internet about the “best workouts” for longevity: VO2 Max training, Zone 2 cardio, strength training routines, and logging 10,000 steps a day are all touted as secret recipes to unlock the fountain of youth. It can get confusing and overwhelming keeping up with all the longevity “should’s”, so it’s important to recalibrate to fitness habits that are sensible, enjoyable and sustainable. Perhaps the best resource to consult is evolutionary biology, as humans have engaged in a blend of extensive low-level cardio, regular resistance exercise, and occasional all-out sprinting for two million years of human evolution. In this article, you’ll learn a strategic approach to cover all your longevity bases, and have fun while you’re at it. 

The baseline for lifelong functional fitness is increasing all forms of general everyday movement, the centerpiece of which is walking. Many seniors are doing great compiling a good daily step count. A prominent UCLA study revealed a stunning difference between seniors with insufficient daily steps (under 4,000), versus an active population of seniors (well over 4,000) The active folks had larger hippocampi, better short term processing, better long term recall, and vastly better health outcomes overall.

Walking and moving throughout life are hugely beneficial, but just moving is not enough for optimizing longevity. Sarcopenia and dynopenia—the age-related loss of muscle mass and muscle power respectively—are the biggest drivers of accelerated aging. The anaerobic muscle fibers decline much more rapidly with age than aerobic endurance fibers. Unfortunately, many people in the middle and older age groups are seriously deficient in high intensity exercise. Reasons for this are assorted: the intimidation factor of pushing the body hard or mixing with hard-core exercisers in public; lack of knowledge about proper exercise protocols; fear of injury, and so forth. The truth is, virtually everyone is capable of performing safe high intensity exercise graded to one’s age and ability level, with minimal injury risk.

Those who lead an active lifestyle and have a sincere interest in fitness and longevity can aspire to these three pillars of lifelong full body functional fitness:

Aerobic exercise foundation: This is achieved by increasing all forms of general everyday movement, especially walking, in addition to conducting structured cardiovascular workouts at comfortable heart rates below the “180 minus age” in beats per minute–an intensity level known as fat max heart rate. 

Regular brief, intense strength training sessions: You have to load the skeleton and muscles with resistance exercise on a regular basis in order to prevent sarcopenia and dynopenia and maintain healthy muscle and organ function throughout life. Strength training can be in a variety of forms, including bodyweight exercises (pushups, squats), strength machines at the gym, home fitness machines, free weights, kettlebells, stretch bands and tubing, and much more. The key is to perform compound movements (involving numerous joints and major muscle groups) in sets to near muscular failure, with 12 reps being ideal. For example, standing up and sitting down into a chair repeatedly makes for a great set of squats–one of the most highly regarded resistance exercises. Strength training sessions should be performed twice a week and last from 10-30 minutes. 

Occasional brief, explosive, all-out sprints: Sprinting is the ultimate high intensity exercise and a fundamental fitness attribute of the human. If you can sprint, you’re fit and you have great longevity prospects. If you can’t or won’t, it’s certain that you have a serious fitness deficiency. Most of us who are beyond our teen years are not well adapted to start sprinting on flat ground, so there are many low- or no-impact options that can deliver similar benefits. However, it’s great to strive to eventually be able to run sprints on flat ground, as this exercise delivers the best benefits for bone density, fat reduction, and the development or maintenance of lean muscle mass.

The ideal template for a sprint session is to perform 4-8 sprints lasting between 10 and 20 seconds, with at least a 6:1 recovery to work ratio. This means even a 10-second sprint entails 60 seconds of recovery. With this generous rest, you can deliver a consistent quality of effort (same performance at same perceived degree of difficulty) for each rep. 

These three fitness pillars are not suggestions for new hobbies, but rather mandatory behaviors to ensure that you enjoy the long, healthy, happy, fully functional life that you deserve. The sad truth is that sarcopenia and dynopenia are so commonplace today that we have come to perceive them as normal, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Use it or lose it! Start walking more in Peluvas to regain lost foot functionality, improve your aerobic conditioning base, and lay an excellent foundation for the high intensity workouts that will give you fantastic results and help you age gracefully. Learn more in the book, Born To Walk, available at Peluva.com and everywhere books are sold.