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Wes: Welcome to the Lifelong Wellness Podcast, where we talk to wellness professionals from around the world to gain their insights into healthier living. I’m your host Wes Malik. It’s the New Year and most people make resolutions about changing their life or their lifestyles for the better in many respects, and one of those respects may be living healthier and feeling better about oneself. Those resolutions and aims and goals are fantastic. I’m all for them because you need to visualize before you can realize your goals. You need to have a plan of action and just starting with that resolution means that you’ve begun planning. Now, health is a lifelong endeavor. You might start now or you might start later on in life but it’s something that you will have to strive for as long as you're alive, and with that, let me introduce today’s guest, David Frost, who specializes in fitness and well-being for people over 40 and boomers. David earned his Bachelors of Science degree from the US Naval Academy and his Masters of Systems Management from the University of Southern California with a focus on Human Factors. He’s the author of KABOOMER: Thriving and Striving into your 90’s to Re-Enforce Key Habits for Living Longer and Better. It’s a great book. He’s also an NFPT-certified Master Fitness Trainer, a rowing coach, a champion competitor, and an award-winning adjunct professor. He’s the founder of Well Past Forty LLC, which promotes wellness and longevity for others like him who were baby boomers. Let’s welcome him to the show. David, welcome to the Lifelong Wellness Podcast. How are you doing today?
David: Wes, I’m living the dream and I hope many other folks are the same. But thanks so much. It’s a pleasure to chat. You’ve got many engaging guests to talk with and I’m honored to be considered one of them (laughs).
Wes: We’re really happy that you’re here. We’re really excited and thrilled to talk to you about your work, your book, and all the things you do. But I don’t know if you’ve ever been asked questions. It relates to your work, you work with seniors and people with physical challenges, CPMS, Diabetes, and you yourself are in the golden age. You’re a boomer and you work with boomers as well. But if I ask you this question… working with the segment of the population that you do, what advice would you give to young people before they pass their 40’s and 50’s?
David: Wonderful question. We are on a continuum, Folks in their 40’s and 50’s, as we know, life really gets complicated. Divorces, hot job pressures or do I move to a rural area because urban life isn’t what is used to be. So yes, I’m proud to be in the third of my life. I call it the Encore Years, it’s not my phrase but I love it.
Wes: Okay.
David: Where we, the forbearer of mine named Ralph Waldo Emerson talked about, wrote about The Felicities of Age. “We have to get older but we don’t have to get old”, borrowing from George Burns, and I live by that. I think that folks do have to get older, they do not have to act, look and behave old, and by old I mean throwing in the towel, becoming a couch potato, just saying, ‘well, my mom and dad worked hard and died in their 60’s so that’s where I’m heading for.' That’s horse-feathers! That’s not true. So my goal personally was, if I might share… we have a Social Security Administration in America and Social Security Administration says “At your early day you’re going to be dead at 85”.
Wes: Whoa!
David: Now, that might be right but I’m much more inclined if I do things well and with a little bit of luck to become a centenarian. When I do what I considered to be credible and valid estimators, one that I love to share with your reader’s, listeners, excuse me, is The Living to 100 calculators from Dr. Thomas Perls. It’s based on lifestyle. A little bit of diet but it's more on lifestyle, stressors things like that, the things that start in the ’40s and ’50s as you mentioned. It’s never too late to start. We can build muscle until the middle part of our 80’s with the latest results. But it’s a lot better if folks can start to blow off steam, move as medicine and stop if they can. Think more about taking steps two at a time rather than taking two pills at a time because they have aches and pains or stressors of life. Earlier is better and in fact, if we circle around, folks my age trying to be more like kid-like. The first third of our life where we are spry, we can get off the ground without using our hands, just fun stuff, laugh, socialize, don’t let life get you down.
Wes: Yes.
David: So earlier is better. I’m sorry about wrapping around your wonderful questions. Earlier is better and make a career when life stressors are really hard, is a great time to be thinking about investing in your own physical bank first. We are all concerned about money; we have to put bread on the table.
Wes: True.
David: We have to live. But I argue our government says, “Human life is worth 10 million dollars.” That’s a pretty good portfolio, isn’t it?
Wes: Yes.
David: If you believe our government (laughs), that’s a pretty good portfolio. So I'd have you keep thinking about your portfolio as a physical bank. What can I do? What are the small steps to do at the age 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 to make that portfolio outlive you? Unless you want to have it live just as long as you do. But physical banking can start early. The time value of money is complimented by the time value of motions to sweat and age 40 is a lot better than starting at 80, but you can still make progress at the age of 80. In one very valuable study, although it’s a small sample size, men in their 80’s were able to gain significant muscle mass if they exercised.
Wes: Really?
David: Yes.
Wes: Wow!
David: So we're warning a lot about aging. Perhaps some of your listeners have heard about the two researchers. I think it was the year 2000’s, these two gents, let me find their names, they’re not common names… Dr. Orshansky and Dr. Ostad made a billion-dollar bet in the year 2000. The bet was, one scientist said human longevity, averaging longevity by the year 2050 could be a hundred and fifty years. The other gent said ‘not going to happen'. Aging is just too complex. There’s too much going on in life; environmental pollution, toxins, opioids, pandemics. So we will see, but these two gents are pretty smart dudes, a lot smarter than me, and there’s a billion-dollar bet that will be decided for their successors.
Wes: Right.
David: In the year 2050, to find out if lifelong wellness, your podcast (Both laughing), it’s going to have people listening to it when they’re a 150 in a few years.
Wes: What do you think?
David: If I can back off, I’m bullish.
Wes: Yes.
David: I’m confident.
Wes: Yes.
David: But, I also believe that it’s a tough thing. We get the pandemic of the century and in America, this is the most deadly year in recent history, and it’s not opioids or heart or diabetes or cancer. It’s this unplanned devastation for those unfortunately who cannot respond with the proper immunity. So, if we have worked another deadly bat hosted or some other animal hosted virus that absolutely devastates society, I believe that it’s going to be a hundred. Not to play both ways (Both Laughs).
Wes: Okay. Playing in safe way (laughs).
David: I think if we’re smart and really focus and learn more from these new aging studies, that 100 is possible. Dan Buettner wrote an awesome work called, ‘The Blue Zones'. I highly recommended it, if folks wanted to learn about the simple yet the hard things about the 7 Blue zones in the world, where the life expectancy is very possibly 100 years’ young. One is in Loma Linda, California. Those happen to be Seventh-Day Adventists who don’t eat a lot of meat, they’re very social, they’re very spiritual, something to be thought about. But Okinawa, in Ireland, in the Mediterranean, these folks eat low sugar, they are multi-generational, they have modest, not over-bearing activities in daily life, they spend time on the ground. In Okinawa they have a word for leaving food on your plate, not in any instantiation.
Wes: Right.
David: So those are rules. One-third of our longevity is based on what our parents gave us and their parents. Our gene pool helps us in determine longevity to some extent. But when you look at some of the statistics, 20% of all cancers are diet-related. Isn’t that scary?
Wes: Yes it is.
David: All cancers are diet-related, that’s a documented study. One-half of all Americans my age has a metabolic syndrome which is a kind of group of things like hypertension, fat around their middles, heart rates, those kinds of things that can lead to earlier death and it should. Those are lifestyle things that are so needed to have your experts chat with you, talk about the things that can do.
Wes: That is great advice. Now, we’ve talked about the Blue Zones before and there’s something to be said about living simply and that's simplicity. Like you said, being grounded. They have simple diets, their lives are a little bit more simple, maybe they have less stress?
David: Boy, I should think so. I’ve only visited, I’ve not visited Okinawa. I’ve certainly enjoyed the Mediterranean lifestyle when we were allowed to travel, Wes.
Wes: Yes.
David: But Loma Linda folks, their clock speed may be a little slower and maybe there’s a message there. I certainly think it's arguable in a positive way. We don’t always have it on fire, ready, shoot. It’s not always a good way to go through life.
Wes: Okay.
David: There are times to do nothing.
Wes: Yes (laughs) and relax.
David: So yes, I think you’re onto something there and I’m not in my head, as you can see that the Blue Zone lessons, I think you can argue and if I could offer to be a simple guy, one of the lessons of the Blue Zones is I’m sure some of your listeners know is beans.
Wes: Beans?
David: Beans, that’s a low red meat but fiber wholesome vitamin stuff from the ground, with a little red wine and a little (laughs) olive oil, extra virgin olive oil in beans.
Wes: I love beans. Beans are my favorite. I request, I’m not a very great cook – I’m a good cook, not a great cook, but I request either my mom or my wife make me beans. I love black-eyed beans.
David: Oh.
Wes: I love those.
David: There are so many varieties. The folks in the Caribbean have a wonderful (laughs) there are so many beans you just don’t know.
Wes: Yes.
David: But whether its black or red or the hummus beans, the garbanzos…
Wes: Yes.
David: The fiber, the protein, and the vitamins and the minerals, macro and micronutrients. Beans are good for us, I believe it. I’m not a dietician, but I believe that beans help you live longer.
Wes: We've got a lot of questions for you, a lot of technical questions, very specific questions but before that, I want to tell you something. I have a radio show and we talk about music, entertainers, and just this morning on my show I was remarking that Kylie Minogue has a new song out with Dua Lipa who’s a newer singer. Kylie Minogue is now 52. Jennifer Lopez, I saw pictures of Salma Hayek just the other day, and she’s I think 54. Tom Cruise is in his 50’s and he’s coming out with Top Gun 2 and Mission Impossible 7.
David: And doing his own stunts if I hear correctly.
Wes: Yes.
David: I believe what I hear in the tabloids.
Wes: Yes, and because we're part of the internet, the internet gen, everyone is part of the internet generation. Somebody had taken pictures of actors or famous people who were the same age and put them together and compared them, and there were people that now looked like me, I’m going to turn 45 (laughs) this year. There are people that looked like me and then there are people who looked like Tom Cruise and I would be like “Okay!” of course they’re actors and of course they’re entertainers and it’s their job. They probably have, they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on fitness trainers. They focus on their appearance a whole lot more than a normal or average person. But it’s possible, it's physically possible to be youthful for a long time.
David: Yes, I learned enough in school (laughs) well if it smells, it's chemistry and if it’s green, it's biology that was about my scientific background, but I do believe that motion is medicine and these folks are active. I occasionally looked and I get plenty of information, men and women’s health prevention and all those sorts of things. The latest craze is crawling. Isn’t that interesting to be kid-like? The Bear Crawl.
Wes: Yes.
David: Or the Bear Crawl Plank.
Wes: Yes.
David: Is one heck of a workout.
Wes: Really it is.
David: I remember seeing, was it J.Lo, that was the Super Bowl Half-Time?
Wes: Yes.
David: Pole dance at the age of 50?
Wes: Yes.
David: She trains for it. You don’t have to be an extra-ordinarily provocative entertainer to move to sweat. All you need is a water bottle, clean water, and a towel and move.
Wes: Right.
David: And I think that’s the common theme, that keeping well and keeping fit does not have to be expensive. It certainly could be if you have coaching and not to pick on Peloton, I don’t have a Peloton, I don’t want a Peloton, I don’t need a Peloton. It’s not a whole-body exercise to rule. But for some people it’s motion and it’s sweat, and it’s good for them, so God Bless Peloton for getting people moving.
Wes: (laughs) Peloton just progressed from stationary bicycles with trainers, to now incorporating complete body training like HIIT. So you get off your bike and the trainer will ask you to do different exercises. Now apple just launched a service for I think $10 a month, which you can share with 6 of your family members, bringing down the cost I think to 2 bucks a month per person. You can go to their fitness regime, so of course, the accessibility and cost of somebody showing you these exercises definitely came down. And of course, if you are in an area like San Diego or California, like yourself or Ontario like myself, and the gyms are closed, there’s certainly a thing to do at home now.
David: Absolutely! And thank you for kind of steering me to Peloton as more than the expense of the bike. I’m really pleased that whatever it takes and the people can afford the little bit extra.
Wes: Yes.
David: Of paying on an app or a streaming service website, whether it’s Mirror, Peloton, Apple, Zipp, or whatever. But it’s interesting that we got to where we are after all these thousands of years of evolution by moving.
Wes: Yes.
David: Our forefathers didn’t have stationary bikes but they have to go hunt for their dinner.
Wes: Yes.
David: So it worked pretty well (Both Laughs).
Wes: Alright! You founded Well Past Forty LLC to promote wellness and longevity for others like you who were baby-boomers. So, what do you teach people past forty, what do you tell them, what do you advise them?
David: First thing, of course, is to encourage those folks, particularly after the age of 60, and in fact, a Canadian form that we use in America is called a PAR-Q Physical Aptitude Readiness Questionnaires. I encourage everyone to have a medical professional endorsement that these folks are ready to get elevated heart rate, ready to move, and ready to get better. But I always want to make sure that the medical professionals are behind this before we get started.
Wes: Okay.
David: Wonderful quote from Bill Bowerman, I put it in the book that I wrote, KA-BOOMER. Every one of us is an Athlete. So we all have aches and pains particularly as we get older, but everyone from YouTube or using a service or perhaps hiring a trainer can make progress. If he or she is committed to the small successes to make you live longer and live better. If I can share, I’ve been at this a while (laughs) as a collegiate rower.
Wes: Okay.
David: I had some people ask me why I was investing in 13 practices a week and why I was doing all this? When the studies at that point said that you might gain 2 years of longevity. So this is fifty years ago.
Wes: Okay.
David: Fifty years ago people thought with all the exercise that you do, a combination of HIIT, moderate and long slow distances, which of course is critical for stamina for staying alive. But 50 years ago people said, “You’re only going to get 2 years and you'll probably spend more than 2 years exercising. That’s a wash!”. I don’t think that way. I think your quality of life is better, your sleep patterns are better, probably your sex life is better. By the way, I loved the chat when your guest shared on November 23.
Wes: Yes!
David: Had sex on the back on their mind.
Wes: Yes.
David: Whether it’s explicit or implicit. So that was a great episode.
Wes: Thank you.
David: But it is important after the medical care, to have realistic goals, to pick successful persistent habits so the things become automatic. There’s a great book called ‘Good Habits, Bad Habits'. It suggests that 43% of successful habits happened because, I don’t want to use the term ‘muscle memory' improperly, but we do things once they are engrained that comes from doing it. You just don’t wake up one day and say “I’m going to run the fastest 10k or half marathon of my life, or set a personal record on the stationary bike if you don’t do the work. One of the great actors, we talked about how Hollywood a few minutes ago, Wes. Tom Hanks one of my idols.
Wes: Oh, he’s great.
David: In many roles that he played about every man. But Tom Hanks says, “You've got to do the work”. My advice to folks circling back to your question, is prepare to do the work, either on your own or with an advisor or a Rabbi, a coach, a workout buddy, or self-training. Figure out the small successes to keep you on your lifelong journey to live longer and better. So 50 years ago, 2 years the latest studies of all this magic about telling me your lengthening and someone said if you prudently work 6 days a week to sweat ,you may gain 10 years of livelihood. I want to prove the Social Security Administration wrong, Wes. I’d love to be running from my own little blue zone, not kick the bucket at 85. So medical approval…
Wes: Yes.
David: Start with small successes, be prepared to do the work. So those are the top 3 that I would share.
Wes: I’m glad that you shared those top 3 as well. You mentioned before that it’s never too late to start. It doesn’t matter if you start at 20, 40, or even at the age of 60, or even 80 you can start. If you are in your 60’s and 70’s or 80’s, I would think that people would say, “Maybe you should relax and sit down and take it easy”. Should we take it easy?
David: (laughs) Dave Frost abdicates unless the doctors say “Oh you better not do that”. I believe that motion to sweat is medicine.
Wes: Okay.
David: Super-agers, that’s a new buzz word, not a buzz word, sorry. But recently the term Super-ager has come up, meaning like a centenarian blue zone kind of thing.
Wes: Right.
David: We want folks to think about their fitness age being lower than their calendar age. To be spry and messing around with the kids and grandkids.
Wes: Right.
David: To answer your question, super-agers are active both in mind and body. They call it mind and body alignment. they do Suduko’s, Word Scrambles, whatever they do to keep their mind active and to avert those terrible… we’re blessed that dementia and Alzheimer’s don’t impact a larger percentage of our population, but its extraordinary costly to loved ones and to our medical health care system, and I believe to be a true statement that keeping the blood moving through the deep part of your brain from memory is a success.
Wes: Okay.
David: Dr. Sanjay Gupta just was on the TV show in America.
Wes: Yes.
David: Last Sunday morning, he said the best thing for your brain, other than to be socially active and sharp, is to eat berries.
Wes: Oh!
David: And then the interesting thing…
Wes: Yes it is…
David: Stays sharp whether it’s pickle ball, so you have the social connection or the word jumble, or trying to stay ahead of your grandkids when you play battleship or whatever.
Wes: Right.
David: Those 3 things are active, be sharp and be socially connected. Don’t be a couch potato. My homily, my sermon, my conviction, Motion is Medicine. When you start slowing down, there are two terrible S words, Wes. One is Sarcopenia. If folks my age knew sarcopenia meant the loss of flesh, I think they would get serious about keeping their muscle mass into their 80’s or beyond.
Wes: Oh.
David: The second one is Senescence, and that is normal aging. But isn’t that interesting that senescence is from the same word, that’s are you a senate? (both laughs) so senate and senile and senescence are all related to aging.
Wes: Okay.
David: So be active, be social, be sharp.
Wes: To keep mentally sharp, you mentioned a couple of games and because of Netflix, I think chess has seen a revival because of the Queen’s Gambit. I don’t know if you’ve seen that show but it’s all the craze here in the house. Everyone is buying chess sets and becoming chess masters, so I guess that’s also a great activity to keep your mind sharp.
David: Oh I would agree. In fact, there’s some folks that say, I think that’s the Brits, who have a combined chess and aerobic workout.
Wes: Oh really?
David: So you do something, I don’t think it’s HIIT.
Wes: Okay.
David: But I think it’s a mid-intensity exercise, and then shift gears and try to do a brain exercise like chess. Isn’t that interesting?
Wes: It is!
David: Mind-body alignment.
Wes: That is very interesting. So, these are the factors and the thing that we have to look out for in our 80’s the two S’s as well. That’s kind of a little scary. Degenerating, losing your body or your mind. Slow erosion I guess, it’s a fearful thought but…
David: Sorry.
Wes: With your advice and your help, those two things can be mitigated, prolonged, or completely eradicated.
David: Great book 20 years ago, ‘Younger Next Year'. I’m maybe a little aggressive. I don’t think it’s possible in many cases to actually be younger than you are last year. But I abdicate that you can certainly stretch out and while you’re doing it have a higher quality of life, by moving, by pushing heavy stuff as much as you can, by being the athlete. So from evolution and so on, move and think, you’re right creatively to think and find new challenges. If we’re on a plateau, that’s better than the downward spiral that our brains as I understand it, our brains are always neurogenesis, our brains will continue to generate new brain cells if we stimulate them.
Wes: Yes.
David: With innovative creative new things. Status quo is not good for super-agers or lifelong wellness.
Wes: Yes. This is, I believe our 62nd episode. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but my dad has been retired, he took early retirement, I think at the age of 52 or 53? Close to there and now he is in his 70’s, mid 70’s. He’s an outdoorsman and so is his brother. They’ve been outdoorsmen since they were young. Although they have, there’s a lot of medical conditions, my dad had a stroke, he had diabetes, he’s going to watch what he eats. When he was in his 30’s and 40’s he had high blood pressure, stuff like that. But now, he’s healthy because he moves, he’s outside, he’s always gardening, he’s always got a project, he’s always fixing something or creating something new. His mind is always active. Whenever I call him, my mom has to say, “Wait hold on your dad is outside, I've got to go get him.” (both laughing) Yes!
David: Wonderful story and I think you shared exactly what I was trying to make a case of… each of us is an athlete. We just do and challenge ourselves smartly under medical supervision to do the best we can. Again, physical banking is sleep, it’s not stressing, anti-inflammatory eating, stretching as your flexible deposits in your physical bank. The cornerstone is stamina. Your dad’s out there working with the general racing of his heart rate, low-intensity long duration. You said…
Wes: Yes.
David: He’s a blue zoner (Both Laughs). I didn’t ask where they live but he’s working his way towards that mythical centenarian status. Wonderful.
Wes: Well he’s in Montreal and the cold doesn’t bother him. He's even outside doing something in -15 degrees’ Celsius weather and that's what keeps him going. That’s a great thing. He wasn’t like that all his life, of course, just like every average human being we go through our phases in our 30’s and 40’s. Of course, career, family, other things take precedence over health, and it did take him a while to search for the activities that he loved to do. He remembered as a child he loved the outdoors and that’s what got him into much better health. I see people the same age around him and they’re stationary and they’re sitting, just waiting, and my dad is out doing something, he’s kind of like you.
David: Well, Gosh! Kudos to your mom and to his ecosystem.
Wes: Yes!
David: However long it takes for you to break the code that motion is medicine is a worthy journey. Success is the quality of the journey and hopefully folks cases. It’s a long journey. We can’t know whether we’re going to be hit by a bus tomorrow.
Wes: True.
David: But we certainly know that leaner organisms live longer and people that eat lower sugar diets, no matter what your lifestyle diet is, most of the successful ones you read about are the Mediterranean, Keto, Paleo low sugar.
Wes: Low Sugar. I want to talk about Fitness and Wellness. If you have some problems, like you have physical challenges or if you have a medical condition, maybe you had a back injury. You probably know a lot about this. You’re a rower, you’re in the Navy or how about for example; you have a heart condition or you're over-weight or something. How do you, what can baby boomers do for Fitness and Wellness if they have any issues?
David: Yes, again the triad is first to get approval from the pros and second is to look for a support network, so then you will be successful. Such as in your dad’s case, it sounds like he did a lot on his own, but I’m sure your mom and you folks are all wonderful and supporting him in his new active lifestyle or revitalized active lifestyle. It is important to plan for those small successes. Last night I had a group fitness class teaching rowing and one of my students, his dad died of a massive heart attack. He was a physician but died anyway, which is of course tragic. But this gentleman was told by his doctor after his own problems, he's in his late 40’s.
Wes: Yes.
David: The doctor said you are cleared. You need to increase the capacity of that muscle called your heart.
Wes: Right.
David: You need to move; you need to build with stamina induced exercise that heart muscle.
Wes: Okay.
David: And that’s really the key. We are breathing creatures and if we develop our cardiopulmonary or some say cardiovascular system to pump nutrients to our amazing bodies, we have a good chance of living longer.
Wes: So how do you increase or gain stamina or as you put it, I hope I can pronounce this correctly Staminity?
David: Staminity (read: Stami-ninety).
Wes: Yes Staminity.
David: A gent named Tim who said, “Dave that’s kind of a nice compound word. It is tough to say, but the message is, Stamina really keeps us alive”.
Wes: Right.
David: My dad’s dad was a country doctor in Vermont.
Wes: Oh!
David: Pretty close.
Wes: Yes.
David: …To the province of Ontario.
Wes: Yes.
David: And Dr. Frost died from overwork. Isn’t that interesting?
Wes: Interesting.
David: But he said in those days, pneumonia was the gentleman’s friend.
Wes: Okay.
David: Because when you get older, your lungs start to give out. You lose oxygen transport and your lymphatic system slows down. We don’t want pneumonia. We want to have a vibrant defense mechanism so that we can counter cytokines. Our cytokines work without turning into a storm, like both is killing people these days with this extraordinary pandemic.
We: Yes.
David: Virus. The point is that stamina is important and to your question, Wes, an excellent point. I kind of call it the physical bank for people of any age, but at the encore age, the Medicare age in America, the 60+ folks, I say they’re 7 S’s like the days of the week. 7 S’s folks should really focus in a related sense. So Strength is a cornerstone, but the bedrock is Stamina and stamina takes the longest for you to make notable improvements in your cardiorespiratory ability to stay alive.
Wes: Yes.
David: That takes much longer than 8 to 12 weeks, when even 80-year-old people can generate new muscle fibers or lengthen or thicken muscle fiber. Isn’t that interesting?
Wes: Yes.
David: Strength is relatively easy compared to stamina building. Stability is very quick. One of the tests for longevity if your dad, you may challenge your Pop sometime when he’s feeling good. Stand on one leg with his eyes closed and time him.
Wes: Right.
David: Kids can do it, but that’s the test for longevity. Grip strength is a well-validated. A grip strength flexibility to grab a dynamometer and give it all you have for 3 seconds.
Wes: Right.
David: If you have a strong grip, that means you won’t suffer something in life, but your constitution is strong enough to fight it better. So stamina takes a long time, Wes, it can take seasons. My rowing coach by the way lives in Ontario. Marlene…
Wes: Okay.
David: … Reminds me to take at least a year to make a notable improvement in your Vo2 max. That’s a measure of your respiratory efficiency and effectiveness. So, it takes time and yet I urge you – the journey is worth it.
Wes: I think I’m personally, I’m low on stamina, especially this year. This year I started out doing a lot of stuff, but after, I think it was June or July, I got very stationary and I feel my stamina regressing. How can I get it back or get to a better level where I feel good and I feel comfortable, what should I do?
David: Yes, pay yourself first.
Wes: Okay.
David: It does takes time, in spite of the extraordinary benefits of high-intensity exercise, you can get a shake up the system workout.
Wes: Yes.
David: In a short period of time.
Wes: Okay.
David: That doesn’t build mitochondria, that doesn’t help you build more capillaries to help you stay alive.
Wes: Right.
David: It does stretch the system and helps you do maximum performance, but it’s based on the bedrock of stamina. So you still have it, I don’t think you’ve lost too many mitochondria (laughs) or capillaries. But you haven’t built any.
Wes: Right.
David: And this has been extraordinary. Now, I don’t know when you folk’s locked down, but let’s just say 7 or 8 months.
Wes: Yes, that’s exactly right.
David: We call it the CoVid if you're generous or conservatively The CoVid five.
Wes: Yes.
David: I don’t know very many people that actually got leaner and fitter in this extraordinary period in history. My regattas have been canceled and we like to shoot for work. We’re competitive. Humans are competitive.
Wes: Yes.
David: Reaching for the brass ring, I can’t go to St. Catherine’s to row, the Canadian Henley because there isn’t one (both laughs) ,so it’s really easy and we’ve learned that if we get sedentary, it just happens, your basic metabolic rate slows down.
Wes: Yes.
David: Our dietary habits slipped a little bit.
Wes: Yes.
David: Holiday season as rower, in America, the average American male puts on two pounds over the holidays.
Wes: Yes, Thanksgiving, Christmas.
David: Past the age of 40.
Wes: Yes, absolutely. So what would you recommend? Hip exercises, something easy, something on a daily basis?
David: Yes, if you’re, well your dad is a couple of hours’ drive. Get outside, if you can, and enjoy nature. Isn’t it interesting that the Swedes kids spend 6 hours outside a day? The last time I checked, a few times I’ve been to Sweden, that isn’t Toronto or San Diego weather. So they don’t let the weather bother them. They get out and celebrate cold.
Wes: Yes.
David: By the way, cold is very good for us. Take a cold shower 90-minutes before you hit your pillow.
Wes: Yes.
David: It's wonderful for sleep. You work out better with cold temperature. The best temperature to run a marathon is 38 Fahrenheit. That’s chilly, and yet an overheated body is not a good thing to maintain because you lose water and all that sort of stuff. Find something that you like, mix it up so you don’t get bored. “Oh I don’t have to hit the indoor rowing again, I just did it yesterday”. Mix it up but try to find if you can. Our US government says that you should exercise, I believe it was a 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week to…
Wes: Okay.
David: As a way to maintain stamina. They pumped it up to 180 minutes.
Wes: Okay.
David: A week, so that you're building capacity, you’re just not maintaining. Because as we get older, physical walls are, senescence and sarcopenia are going to happen. We just want to further mitigate or mediate it, like you so justly shared a few minutes ago. Just start working toward 30-minutes a day, 6 days a week, and it doesn’t have to be continuous, Hey! Dave, I’ve got a frantic lifestyle. It can be a 3-10 minute segments. It can be parking a car a little bit further away if you’re out and about.
Wes: Right.
David: Which I know is tough these days.
Wes: Yes.
David: … Used to say It’s not a bad way to move. Takes little longer than the car.
Wes: Yes.
David: But a heck of a lot healthier for you. Find something you like to do and do it. 6 days a week at least 30-minutes a day. At a heart rate that’s not too high, not high intensity. How we build capacity is conversational, low-intensity work, 30 minutes a day. High intensity in my age, you could probably do it 2 times a week.
Wes: Yes.
David: My age, one is just puny.
Wes: I think so you’re absolutely right,180 minutes a week is absolutely very doable and does bring you results. I can testify to that. I may look like the Michelin man now; okay I’m exaggerating a little bit (Both laughs). But, okay, just call me soft alright? The coronavirus made me a little pudgy, but I work out half an hour, 3 times a week, with a trainer because that’s all I could afford and I did that for about 8 months and I was in the best shape of my life. It only took…
David: You invested the time did you?
Wes: Yes.
David: It’s a journey, no matter what you hear from Hollywood or Madison Avenue. I found the holy grail for getting things done without as Tom Hanks says “doing the work”. I found what I had been looking for because I like to make this journey easier on folks. But you know it’s a journey, it’s an odyssey there’s some ups and downs and that’s part of life and the time element in this physical bank, Wes. You could take the time value of money in your retirement account. I talk about the time value of motion to sweat TVM. That 30-minutes a day at the appropriate heart rate. You feel good and you see the results. So it’s a journey, it’s tough. Here we are it's 2021 the roaring ’20s is here.
Wes: Yes.
David: In 6 weeks, almost 90% of everyone that made a New Year’s resolution has fallen off the wagon.
Wes: Yes, true.
David: Why is that? Well maybe the success goal is too high.
Wes: Maybe.
David: Maybe they didn’t have a work out buddy or couldn’t afford a trainer.
Wes: Could be.
David: Or didn’t realize the Peloton, free month of Peloton right?
Wes: Yes.
David: Almost all these great programs have their free month before they hook up for your credit card number.
Wes: Yes.
David: It’s just doing the work, staying persistent, and knowing that your physical bank requires investment. It doesn’t happen automatically, or if it does fully, because I haven’t found it, Wes. (Both laughs)
Wes: It takes work. You’re absolutely right. This is fantastic advice and really golden words from you. I want to speak about the phases the body goes through as you get older. I can see that motor control. You mentioned stability, I want to talk about that too. Getting off the couch, getting out of your car sometimes for seniors is difficult. We complain about knee problems or your ankles getting swollen you cannot get around the mall as much, or your hands while you’re trying to eat might falter, might shake a little. All these things are related to age, what can we do not to have those or fix those things.
David: Oh wow! This is going to be a simple yet hard declaration, Wes.
Wes: Okay.
David: If we can try to be kid-like, stand on one leg with your eyes closed, that’s kid-like. We can train our fancy word, I tossed sarcopenia and senescence out a few minutes ago. But another fancy word for special awareness is Proprioception.
Wes: Okay.
David: Over time we don’t trigger our neuromuscular system to be aware of space and time. Kids will start their tones start to fall as much at my age do. But a statistic that absolutely scares the bejesus out of me is 1/3 of everyone in America my age, millions of people my age, fall every year. Sometimes it may just skin your skin, knee, or forearm. But if folks get older and they haven’t maintained their bone density and the falls get maybe more impressive in a bad way. Hips replacements and things like that are further challenges to your mobility and you're living long and better, your staminate as you asked earlier. So, it is so important to start with your big toe which is huge. I mean, if folks have lost a big toe to diabetes, it is much tougher but your balance, believe it or not, I believe from the ground up to start with your big toe. I’ve talked about duck feet.
Wes: Okay.
David: Whether you’re doing a deadlift or squat or a balancing test for single-leg stability.
Wes: Yes.
David: Spread out your feet. Get as much real state as you can. Walk barefoot more often. Don’t go in these cushiony shoes unless your doctors say you must.
Wes: Okay.
David: Getting contact with the earth…
Wes: Yes.
David: And balance.
Wes: Balance.
David: And it’s very quick. I think I alluded to that earlier. You can notably improve your time by standing on your one leg with eyes closed. In a few weeks, if you're diligent about doing it, or you can just say that was kid’s stuff, not interested, go ahead and fall.
Wes: Do you work out? Do you go to the gym? Do you lift weights?
David: I absolutely, in my case, my wife kind of hates this, but our garage is my first box.
Wes: Okay.
David: Or gym. I’ve got more metal around between weight vest and the battle ropes and the slam balls.
Wes: Oh wow!
David: Kilograms of weights.
Wes: Okay.
David: In my book, I share, doctors say resistance training, your ability to move heavy enough stuff under safe motion form. Do it right.
Wes: Yes.
David: Is one of the best for longevity. Jack Lalanne… maybe many of your listeners, Wes, don’t remember. Really, the start of the celebrity fitness generation, in his spandex and had a lot of rather attractive women around. He died at the age of 97 and his epitaph, Wes, I think it’s worth remembering.
Wes: Okay.
David: “It is better to wear out than rust out”.
Wes: True!
David: If you don’t move, you will rust out. Inflammation of bad diet, immobility is evil. Clean eating, good sleep, moving heavy stuff. Weight training for people my age twice a week. I need two days to recover with the next day and the next two days’ regimen. So I lift pretty religiously twice a week. I mixed it up sometimes. I do metabolic very slow, constantly changing, range of motions, which gets you very sore the next day.
Wes: Okay.
David: How slow can you do a hammer curl? If you could do 3 repetitions in 90 seconds, I almost guarantee you’ll be sore the next day. It depletes the glucose in your muscles, it’s wonderful for your metabolism. Diabetics often will try metabolic lifting to try to improve their insulin sensitivity.
Wes: Okay.
David: Other times you’ll go for power. How heavy can you do it when you're trained and warmed up. Then you’re ready to lift very heavy stuff.
Wes: Right.
David: I’m not an Olympic lifter. Isn’t it interesting, if I did the calculation right the world record for the snatch, that is to take a very heavy barbell…
Wes: Yes.
David: Get it off the ground and overhead is about 500 pounds.
Wes: Wow!
David: If I did the calculation correctly, that freak of nature generated 4 horsepower.
Wes: Wow! 4 horsepower. That is incredible.
David: People can do amazing things when they’re trained, when they've worked up to do extraordinary things. As long as you mention knees and of course hips and elbows. Our joints often let us down because our skeletal muscles sort of support our connective tissues, and our connective tissues are what keeps our bone socket joints and our hinge joints like the knees going. But if we keep moving, powerlifters, deep squat like prisoner’s squats 5 minutes a day. Why? It keeps their hips open, keeps them strong and be ready to do explosive things. 2 times for me Wes, 3 times for you is perfect.
Wes: Perfect.
David: If you’re not sore the next day, you probably didn’t cause enough micro-tears in your skeletal muscles. You don’t want to be too sore and yet you have to tear down to build up. That’s a true statement, that’s the way our cytokines work. You have to cause the little tiny micro-tears to have inflammations so that when your body recovers with sleep and clean eating, they build-up your muscle fiber, I guess little thicker a little longer. It’s awesome. It’s revolutionary. It’s awesome, but it’s what we have to do, we have to get a little bit sore in order to get better.
Wes: David, your positive outlook has given us a great start for the new year. Our first episode of 2021 and your advice has been golden and very targeted towards boomers like yourself. You wrote a book called, KA-BOOMER: Thriving and Striving into your 90’s. Where can we read this book? Where can we get it from?
David: Wes, this is a paperback. This is not a hardback. This is my first foray into authorhood or authorship. It is available at Target, Barnes and Noble, Amazon… as I joke, wherever you find books or paperbacks are sold.
Wes: Right.
David: Many folks have time to listen or prefer audiobooks.
Wes: Yes.
David: It’s available on several platforms, like audible.com.
Wes: Very nice.
David: Of course, there’s an e-book version as well for those of you who use Nooks or Kindle or other devices.
Wes: Okay.
David: It’s an almanac. It got morphed by some folks that knew how to (laughs) I get messages across, like Staminity.
Wes: Yes.
David: I believe that the 7 elements, there are 9 chapters, but the 7 elements or those 7 S’s in the physical bank account. People can listen to snippets on it at amzon.com. Just type in, ‘KA-BOOMERS David Frost', and they’ll find me. It’s a book of Sir Bacon, I can’t remember if it's Francis Bacon or Roger Bacon (laughs), one of the Sir Bacons said, “Some books are to be consumed but some are to be digested thoroughly”, and the intent of the Ka-Boomers, not a small paperback, its 308 pages.
Wes: Oh wow!
David: And the audiobook is 8 hours long. But it is an attempt to share this comprehensive systematic approach which to lifelong wellness, to live longer, and live better. So I thought that comic strip pages probably would do justice to something as fascinating as challenging as our bodies to live longer and to live better. So yes! Thank you. KA-BOOMER: Thriving and Striving into your 90’s online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble It’s not out in many independent bookstores yet but maybe someday it might be out and about. Of course, if folks were interested or having trouble, I’m available at [email protected] and I’m here on this planet to try not to give too many homilies, I hope if I get too many people excited about living longer and better as the subtitle says, Thriving and Striving. Shame on me if I don’t get back to people who are interested in taking those small successful steps to make 2021 the best year yet.
Wes: Well you've definitely given me hope and motivation, and I can hope that I can carry this through the year and years to come. It’s very wonderful advice that you gave to us. Thank you so much for your time today.
David: Wes, thank you. It’s just an honor to share things that I picked up on my journey. I’ve been around the block a few times. I do think that my journey can help other people can help live longer and better. So, an honor to chat and thank you so much for adding to your list of extra-ordinary speakers, not that I’m extra-ordinary, but there’s bunch of them (both laughs).
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