Monday Motivation - July 8th
Hi everyone,
This week’s Monday Motivation is designed for our more mature audience, but is relevant to everyone – if you’re younger, send this to your parents and loved ones over 60, or just review what may be important as we all (unfortunately) go through the ageing process. The focus will be on what we can to do to promote health, and how we can minimise risk factors of disease by regularly screening yourself.
Health promotion
When I saw a cross-section MRI of the calf muscle of an active triathlete (aged 70), compared to a sedentary 70+ year-old, the striking difference in muscle mass got me thinking about what else we can do to help us all age gracefully.
A guide to ‘a longer, healthier life’ can be found in the book The Four Pillar Plan by Dr Rangan Chatterjee. In it he summarises four key areas and how best to “eat, sleep, relax and move.”
Also worth a look are the videos in his ‘Movement’ section, and I’d recommend you check out his ‘Wake up your sleepy glutes’ playlist if you are after a real variation of simple exercises to promote a healthy back that can be done in your own home.
It goes without saying, but obviously keeping your spine moving is a great way to defy the effects of ageing on your joints. Gravity has its effect on the spine, especially on the neck and upper back, which affects your posture and promotes that ‘hump’ of later life. Getting a regular check at the chiro is key but moving every joint through its full range of motion on a daily basis is also important. You can find my videos for promoting spinal health here.
I bought my parents a pair of these Garmin devices for Christmas. They’ve embraced the sleep and walk tracking functions, which help monitor your sleep (and alter behaviour based on evidence) and motivate you to move more. Try it and see.
Did you hear that obesity now overtakes smoking as the leading cause of four major cancers? So keeping our BMI in check is another way to reduce risk factors (see below for a link).
Preventive testing and screening
Blood testing is an easy and cheap way to help you monitor your vitamin levels, cholesterol, and other functions. This company also gives you a personal dashboard to keep track over months or years, as well as dietary measures to improve low or poor results.
Take this free British heart foundation online test to work out the age of your heart. It will also give you your current BMI. Warning: it will ask you about your cholesterol level - if you don’t have this, get down to the GP to get it tested, or use Forth (mentioned above) to test your own blood at home.
Age UK lists the tests that we should all consider having once we hit a certain age – this includes breast, bowel, skin and a few others you probably haven’t even thought of!
I hope you’ve found this email useful. In closing, have a read of this article for motivation about one of the fittest over-70s I know – adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes – who has survived two heart attacks but still trains daily!
Have a great week,
Craig