Part 2: Fighting the 'midlife assassin'

Do you move like an older person moves? Or like a younger one does?

Photo by Kampus Production

Warmup

This is Part 2 to last week’s post about key cognitive defenses we can take to ward off decline in middle age. (TL;DR: we’re going to find our edges and equalizers and do hard things.)

Today we’re going to talk about our physical defense.

I think of these two posts as a two-pronged strategy for battling the midlife assassin. I describe this “assassin” in my book as an invisible force taking aim at our minds and bodies starting in our 40s.

If we reach middle age, we’re all going to be in the crosshairs.

Lucky us. We lived this long. That’s a gift.

The N2L (“Not Too Late”) philosophy is about preparing ourselves to fight back against decline. To make the best choices we can to stay as strong as possible mentally and physically to keep doing what we love, with the people we love, for as long as we can.

Let’s get it done.

Summary

• I spoke with one of the country’s leading experts on aging to get his advice on what we all need to do to fight the midlife assassin.

• He came back to me with one word. You’ll find out what that word is in a moment.

• The good news: the one word will help you fight the assassin more than anything else.

• Today’s “N2L ask” has one simple goal: to embrace this one word more in our lives, starting now.

If you want a deeper dive, my new book NOT TOO LATE is packed with resources.

Post

Steven Austad is one of the most fascinating people I’ve interviewed in my 30-year career in journalism.

He is, by many measures, one of the country’s foremost authorities on aging. His street cred is pretty airtight. For starters, he’s senior scientific director for the American Federation for Aging Research. He’s authored more than 200 articles about aging.

The list goes on if you want to look him up. He also used to be a lion trainer for TV and movies. But I digress.

Here’s what matters for this post. After decades of deep research about the most powerful forces available to us to fight the decline of aging, he’s boiled it down to a single word.

Move.

We all must move, more.

Not just move from our bed to the office to the kitchen back to the bed. Not just move with low effort on the elliptical machine or recumbent bike once or twice a week while we scroll on Instagram. Not just occasionally take a walk around the block after dinner. Or collect a t-shirt after an annual 5K fun run.

But move regularly in a way that measurably improves our respiratory fitness and lean mass (think muscle).

By regularly, I mean with the same consistency as we brush our teeth or make a cup of coffee.

You may be thinking, I know this.

But are you doing this?

This isn’t about being a competitive athlete — though fantastic if that’s one of your goals. (It’s one of mine.)

This is about being fit for life. Can you …

1. Put your suitcase in the airplane’s overhead bin without assistance?

2. Get your dog’s ball when it rolls under the bed without straining your back?

3. Hike five miles in the snow and ice if your car breaks down?

4. Play soccer with your kids or pick up your grandkids?

5. Load heavy, wet bags of mulch solo into a cart at Home Depot?

Sure, I got this, some of you are thinking. Check on 1-5. Fantastic. You can do it now. But are you doing the work to ensure you can 10, 20, 30 years from now?

As Austad explained to me, once we reach middle age, “everything” we can imagine is in the cross-hairs of the assassin and will start to decline:

• Strength

• Endurance

• Immune system

• Mental activity

Regular movement is one of our best defenses — including for our minds.

“It’s actually very good for your brain, and physical activity is one of the best ways to avoid later-life dementia,” Austad told me.

It’s never too early to begin. But it’s also not too late.

You can do this

Eight years ago, I was a classic modern day workaholic spending a lot of time sitting and staring at my screens.

I exercised just enough to barely justify my gym membership. But I wasn’t getting stronger. I wasn’t markedly improving my respiratory fitness. And I sure wasn’t thinking about the midlife assassin.

Everything changed when I turned 45. That’s the story I tell in NOT TOO LATE.

But for our purposes here, what I want to emphasize is that in many cases (I acknowledge there will always be exceptions) science shows that you can make profound strides to improve your physical and cognitive health at any age.

One inspiring statistic I like: Frail elderly people who were put on a six-month strength training program along with a protein supplement added an astounding 2.9 pounds of new muscle. (Citations in my book.)

That’s muscle to protect them from falls, help them lift things, open jars, play with their grandkids, carry their own suitcase and be fit for life.

“Do you move like a younger person or what an old man/woman looks like?”

This question was put to me by the New York strength and conditioning specialist, Peter Duggan, after I’d been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis — and was moving decidedly like an older person.

“We all have that friend who is seventy-five and moves like a younger person, and the one who is forty and moves around like an old man,” he continued.

I think about this every day.

The N2L ask

We’re never going to boil the ocean in this newsletter. Each week, we’re going to bite off something we can actually chew.

In future newsletters, we’ll dig into more specifics about moving — ways to build respiratory fitness, strength and mobility. I’ll share more resources that have helped me. But for now, let’s keep it simple. Here is the ask:

For the next week, how can you add more regular movement to your life?

If you’re walking once a week, can you do it twice a week?

If you’re going to the gym twice a week, can you make it three times a week?

If you’re swimming for 30 minutes, can you add 5 more minutes?

If you’ve got 10 minutes between meetings, can you go climb a stairwell at work? (See “exercise snacks” below.)

If you’re already moving regularly 4-7 times a week, and getting a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise, that’s awesome. Forward this post to someone who isn’t. And see if you can push it to 180 minutes yourself.

If you are super dialed in on your fitness and putting in 350+ minutes a week, where can you add exercise snacks — brief spurts of intense movement (2 min or less) such as jumping jacks, lunges or climbing those stairs at work?

P.S. — I know I’m asking you to do this over the July 4th holiday. Just a note: the midlife assassin doesn’t celebrate July 4th. Or any holiday for that matter.

Cooldown

Feedback will make this newsletter better. What topics do you want covered? What blockers are in front of you right now as you age? What is something big you want to do, but are worried you’re too old to do?

Let me know. We’ll dig in together.

Thanks for reading. Fight the midlife assassin. Make sure you are moving regularly. Find something you love. Dig in. Stick with it when things get hard.

Wendy