Do you know if you’re choosing the right exercise for your overall health? Of course, any type of movement can be helpful but we also want to be mindful of what types of exercise we choose. Studies have shown that not all exercises are equal. They have found that there are certain areas we should focus on if longevity and disease prevention are the goal. This sounds obvious but more often than not people get this confused with exercising for fitness. Generally speaking, this means exercising to acheive a certain appearance or specific outcome. For example, you might be striving to finish a marathon in under 3 hours or to be able to deadlift 200 pounds. While sometimes these goals are part of exercising for longevity they are a different way of looking at exercise. In this article, I want to discuss how to exercise for disease prevention and longevity. Let’s start by breaking things down into broad categories: Cardiorespiratory fitness and strength/muscle mass.
1. Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Cardiorespiratory fitness looks at how well your body uses oxygen for energy production in your muscles. They are often looking at something called VO2 max, which is a way of measuring this. When they look at VO2 max they have found that people in the lowest 25% are at a much higher risk of early death. But, the good news is you can change that risk! In fact, if you can go from the lowest 25% to just below average your risk can improve by up to 50%! That means you don’t even have to be above average to drastically improve your odds of living longer. Of course, the further up you climb the better, but it’s good to know even small improvements can make a big impact.
How can you increase your VO2 max?
Many cardio-based activities will help your VO2 max, ie running, biking, hiking, swimming, HIIT training, etc. However, if improving your VO2 max is the main goal, interval training seems to be best. These intervals should be between 2-6 minutes and have an equal amount of rest. For example, you could do hard cycling for 2 minutes and 2 minutes of rest. *** Remember, you should be breathless at the end of your interval (2-6 minutes). This is how you make improvements. If we look at this from a non-exercise point of view there are other ways to improve your VO2 max. This involves improving the health of your heart, blood and lungs. Check out my blog to learn about risk factors that might be putting your heart at risk https://drrobinlewis.com/the-gut-heart-axis/
Of note, you can get your VO2 max formally tested to track progress and risk assessment. This testing requires specialized equipment and only certain clinics offer it. They will hook you up to a mask and challenge your maximal exertion on either a treadmill or bike. These are out-of-pocket tests in Canada, but they provide invaluable information!
*** If you want to learn more about VO2 max check out the awesome blog written by Dr. Peter Attia and his team. https://peterattiamd.com/breaking-down-vo2-max/
2. Strength & Muscle Mass
Unsurprisingly, it’s not just about just having good cardio. It’s also very important to have adequate strength and stability. The strength of your muscles is more important than the size, but obviously, the two can go hand in hand. Strength is important for keeping your body healthier, but also is important for fall prevention.
The stronger your muscles are, the better you are at stabilizing yourself. As we age falls become more and more dangerous and can be a leading cause of death! If we are looking at strength vs cardiorespiratory, it does seem that improving cardio-fitness is more preventative. That being said, overdoing cardio is damaging to our cardiovascular system. In other words, it’s easier to overdo cardio than it is strength.
How can you increase your strength?
Anything you do against gravity can be strengthening, depending on how you do it. The best strength-building exercises tend to be lifting weights, resistance bands, cycling, CrossFit, pilates, yoga and bodyweight exercises.
Tracking strength progress is far easier than VO2 max. All you need to do is ask yourself: can I lift more weight? hold my plank for longer? stand on 1 leg without immediately falling over? etc.
Disclaimer
Information can be empowering, but we all have unique health profiles and needs. The health-related information contained in this article is intended to be general in nature. It is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. In no cases should this information be used as a substitute for a visit with a licensed naturopathic doctor.
References
- Mandsager, K., Harb, S., Cremer, P., Phelan, D., Nissen, S. E., & Jaber, W. (2018). Association of cardiorespiratory fitness with long-term mortality among adults undergoing exercise treadmill testing. JAMA network open, 1(6), e183605-e183605.
- Clausen, J. S., Marott, J. L., Holtermann, A., Gyntelberg, F., & Jensen, M. T. (2018). Midlife cardiorespiratory fitness and the long-term risk of mortality: 46 years of follow-up. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 72(9), 987-995.