This is a terrific book by Chris Crowley and Dr Henry S. Lodge.
I read this book in the fall and early winter of 2018, though I had purchased it in January of 2016. It is well written and well researched. They also have a blog that it might be worth checking out, though I was not nearly as impressed with the blog as I was with the book.
Disclaimer: these notes are primarily for the purpose of reminding me about certain passages in the book so I can refer back to it if I need to. As such I regard this material as the property of the author of the book, though I usually paraphrase what they wrote in the interest of brevity. I present it here primarily to encourage you to buy the book!
Chapter One: The End of the World…Page 3
p 4 you can live like you are 50 until you are in your 80 years
p 5 most of us can be functionality younger year for 5-10 years
p 6 you do not have to get old the way you think.
p 7 50 years of illness in last 1/3 of life can be eliminated
p 8 70 years of “normal” decay associated with the old can be postponed.
p 14 3 key things: Exercise, nutrition, commitment
p 14 Exercise is the key to great health
p 15 dieting is dumb and doesn’t work
p 15 Genes are only 20 years of aging. Rest is up to us.
p 15 commitment = goals, charities, people, family etc.
Chapter Two: How’s Your Wife….Page 17
Chapter Three: The New Science of Aging….Page 27
p 28 Good medical cave not same as good health care
p 28 modern medicine does not concern itself with lifestyle
p 29 70% of premature aging & death is lifestyle related
p 29 can eliminate ½ of all disease of people >50
p 33 aging is different than decay which is optional
p 34 to beat decay : exercise daily, commitment and nutrition
p 36 in response to exercise body becomes leaner
p 37 as you exercise your brain changes: optimism, alertness, (etc) increases
p 40 decay is not aging. Aging is nature. Decay is up to you and is preventable with exercise
p 41 about half your basic metabolism inherited from bacteria
p 42 all the traffic on the internet and phone calls globally are dwarfed by the information traffic in your body.
p 43 fish invented the brain and we have some basic brain functions from them
p 45 we are not “designed“ for modern life
p 46 we have adapted a lifestyle that is life a disease
p 47 exercise will trigger getting younger by inducing growth
Chapter Four: Swimming Against the Tide…Page 49
p 49 Henry’s first rule : Exercise 6 days a week
Chapter Five: The Biology of Growth and Decay: Things That Go Bump in the Night….Page 63
p 63 Muscle cells are replaced roughly every 4 months
p 64 Blood cells are replaced every 3 months, platelets every 2 days, bones every 2 years, and taste buds everyday
p 64 exercise signals for increased growth
p 66 immune system tears down your body so it can regrow
p 68 you have 660 muscles that make up almost 50% of your lean body weight
p 69 at rest only 20% of your blood circulates through your muscles; when you exercise 80% of your blood goes through your muscles
p 70 Exercise enough to sweat every day you’ll be fit
p 71 researchers gave 10,000 men 2 stress tests 5 years apart. The fittest men had 1/3 the mortality of the fittest. People who started exercising between the 1st & 2nd test cut mortality in half! For each additional minute guys could go on the stress test mortality decreased by 8%!
p 74 a man 30 pounds overweight who smokes has lover mortality than a thin sedentary more smoker.
p 75 vigorous exercise cuts heart attack risk by 50%
p 77 heart will beat about 4 billion times
p 77 even arteries of healthy 50 year old person has plaque
p 78 arteries become brittle as cholesterol plaque stiffens them (“Hardening of the arteries “)
p 78-9 you can starve the plague of cholesterol with diet & medication or you can change biology from inflammation to repair with exercise
Chapter Six: Life is an Endurance Event: Train for It….Page 81
p 81 Rule #2: Do serious aerobic exercise 4 days a week
p 82 aerobic = 60-65% of maximum heart rate; for me = 96 to 104
p 90 some sports are healing: biking, swimming, cross country skiing and rowing
p 93 start out long and slow, 20-30 minutes / day until you are comfortable with the work. Then increase to 45 minutes a day
p 94 walking is not enough. You have to sweat.
Chapter Seven: The Biology of Exercise…Page 97
p 99 at rest & light exercise you burn 95% fat & 5% glucose
p 99 with consistent aerobic training body builds capillaries in muscle
p 101 at 65% of maximum heart rate (me = 104 bpm) you peak at your fat burning
p 102 at 80% of maximum heart rate (me = 128 bpm) your muscles switch to an anerobic fuel burning
p 104 the real benefit of exercise is seen after months & years of regular exercise
p 107 hard aerobic exercise increases muscle glucose stores
p 108 a person in good shape has enough glucose stored in muscles to last about 2 hours of hard exercise
p 108 do low aerobics (up to 65% of maximum heart rate) 2 days a week & high aerobics (over 65% of maximum heart rate) 2 days a week
p 109 past 85% of man heart rate is anaerobic. Used in interval training
p 109 do some internal training a couple days a week when you are in good shape
p 110 a variety of exercises do the most good
p 113 Arthritis is largely an inflammatory disease of sedentary lifestyle
Chapter Eight: The Heart of the Matter: Aerobics…Page 115
p 116 should be able to do 60-65% of maximum heart rate for 3 hours without exhaustion
p 116 should do that once a month
p 117 should be able to do 70-85% for an hour (me=112-136 bpm)
p 117 should be able to do anaerobic for 1-2 minutes
p 117 Author likes to do anaerobic once a week
p 119 to calculate maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220
p 119 Box: figuring out target heart rate
p 120 changes in resting heart rate indicates shape. The lower the better
p 120 Finding resting heart rate
p 121 Finding real max heart rate: it is your heart rate when you do maximum exercise for 1 minute.
p 121-2 Recovery rate: Best indicator of fitness. Get heart rate up (say 80% of max) then reduce exercise to a low rate. Wait until heart rate starts to fall. Then time 1 minute. What is total fall? A fall of 20 is satisfactory. 30-40 is super and 50 is amazing.
p 123 if in good shape doing 90% of maximum heart rate (me = 144) is not problem. It is good for you
p 126 Says to warm up–it is an antidote to injury
p 127 if going @ 60-65% & heart rate spires up 10-15 bpm, then stop. You are not ready for more exercise. Sudden spike, a drift of 5-6 doesn’t count.
p 128 On your first high endurance day :
1. warm up.
2. 60-65% (96-104 bpm for me) for 5-10 minutes
3. 70-75% (me=112-120) for 5-10 minutes
p 129 should be able to keep 70-85% for 20 minutes to start with, if you are in good shape you should be able to hold this rate for 1-2 hours
p 130 You can die of going anaerobic (85-100%) so it is very important to have physical to verify your heart health before exceeding 85% of your maximum heart rate.
p 130 interval training routine
p 132 skiing is a strength sport
Chapter Nine: The Kedging Trick….Page 135
p 136 to keep motivated, book adventure trips that you need to get in shape for (eg a skiing or hiking trip that is just beyond your current capabilities)
p 138 rowing is the best exercise
p 141 Their website: youngernextyear.com
p 145 exercises for skiing
Chapter Ten: A World of Pain: Strength Training….Page 152
p 155 lifting weights stops: sarcopenia, tendon, bone & joint loss
p 157 doing reps fast is bad
p 158 gain muscle fast, but joints take a couple mouth
p 158 so do higher reps (20) with lighter weights
p 158 free weights are better than machines
p 159 eventually need to do heavy weights, enough weight to failure @10 reps
p 159 need 2 days/week of weights for maintenance, 3 days/week for gain
p 161 Do weight training and you can skip a lot of aging
p 162 joints take a couple months to heal with weight training
p 163 physical therapy usually just weight training
p 164 the neuro transmitters that coordinate balance deteriorate with age. Lifting weights cures that
Chapter Eleven: The Biology of Strength Training….Page 165
p 165 strength training has as much to do with neuronal wiring as it does with actual strength
p 167 strength training is required to get enough c6 to trigger c10
p 167 aerobics for endurance, circulation, longevity
p 167 weights for power and neural coordination
p 168 every time you use them, you strengthen balance, power and muscular centers in your brain.
p 169 walking only use 10% of each muscle; stairs use about 30%
p 169 2 types of muscle cells: 1 for strength 1 for endurance
p 170 endurance = slow twitch. Has more mitochondrial strength
p 170 strength = fast twitch. Fewer mitochondria, more strength
p 170 nerves go to fast or slow (twitch) but not both.
p 170 skiing is a coordinated strength sport
p 171 have to get to the point of muscle fatigue with weights (eg 3x 10 reps) to be sure you have used your entire muscle not just a percentage of the muscle
p 172 strength training will not stop muscle cell loss [in box] but muscle cell itself can grow and offset loss
p 173 Because you need to damage your muscles to stimulate growth and repair only do strength every other day maximum (you need to take a day between to allow for healing).
p 173 be very careful not to get hurt using weights
p 174 proprioception = know where your body parts are in space
p 175 signals to brain from strength training makes new neural paths
p 175 more likely to fall as you get older. Falls have been carefully studied and you don’t stumble any more often when old but (because of poor balance) you fall more often
p 176 Supplements, even steroids, do not help average person.
[note: more to come, this is not quite all entered yet]
Defeating Aging 