7d • General discussion
From Lifespan to ‘Health-span’: Use the New Year to Focus on Both Health and Fitness
Fitness includes several components such as cardiovascular endurance, strength training, and mobility/flexibility. These are non-negotiables for continuing to live throughout your later years with your independence and ability to move and socialize still operating normally. Instead of just thinking about living longer, let’s use the start of a new year to focus on getting healthier, so we live better. More than any other time each year, the New Year is a popular time to focus on a “start fresh.” Temporal landmarks like New Year's Day, Mondays, birthdays, or the change of seasons are standard starting lines for many of us when we have a goal to work towards and bad habits to break.
A New Focus on Fitness – Science Says Fitness Matters (Even More than Weight)
A recent study published in the British Journal of Medicine, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, BMI, and Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, shows that, regardless of body weight (obese, overweight, or normal), fitness matters more for all-cause mortality. They measured weight, BMI, and fitness of six groups: normal weight – fit, normal weight – unfit, overweight-fit and overweight-unfit, and obese-fit and obese-unfit.
Their findings: The analyses revealed that individuals classified as fit, regardless of their BMI, did not have a statistically significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease or all-cause mortality compared to normal weight-fit people. At the same time, all unfit groups across different BMI categories exhibited a two- to threefold higher risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality compared to their regular weight-fit counterparts.
About Body Mass Index (BMI) – Now, you may be saying, but BMI is flawed! Sure. BMI is not the best indicator for distinguishing normal weight, overweight, and obesity because it is simply a height-to-weight ratio that does not account for differences in body fat/muscle composition, age, sex, or other factors. Before you discredit this entire study because of the BMI issue, remember that it measured fitness levels among people of different sizes. Some had more muscle and were considered fit in the overweight/obese group, while others were deemed unfit in the normal weight group. Still, BMI helps place people of differing sizes (height and weight groups) and focuses on measuring each group's fitness. In the end, fitness matters more than BMI, so the goal is to exercise, get in shape, build muscle, and lose fat.
Set Your Training Goals to be Long-Term
It is fine to have short-term, specific training goals, such as strength gains and endurance times, or weight gain or weight loss. However, start this year with a 10-year fitness focus, as what you do in your 40s-50s will determine how you live in your 60s-70s. Always think ten years ahead, no matter what your age, because what you gain today and maintain tomorrow is needed for us to continue to live independently for a few more generations in your family’s lineage. You can focus on longevity and optimal performance for your fitness and health goals at the same time by maintaining a consistent activity level and healthful nutrition, sleep, and recovery.
Try This Annual Goal: Make Annual Physical & Blood Screening Appointments
If you have not been to a doctor in a while, set an appointment in January and get into the habit of annual health and wellness screenings. Treat annual physicals with the doctor as opportunities to PR (personal record) common blood work results, such as cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, body weight, and blood pressure. These are just the basics to help you assess how to adjust your sleep, nutrition, physical activity, and stress management. These meetings are also quite satisfying when you achieve solid results that show health and wellness.
Don’t Give Up
While a large portion of us (nearly half of Americans) will create a New Year’s Resolution, only about 9-10% will achieve their goals. After a stressful holiday season, we are typically burned out in January. This may not be the best time to start a lifestyle change, complete with quitting bad habits (over-eating, smoking, drinking) and starting new healthy habits (gym membership, diet, etc). Instead, use the first few weeks of January to focus on stress mitigation and recovery. This should include building easy habits of walking every day, stretching, taking deep breaths, and simply not overeating. This is a great way to move into a new fitness focus. Then, when feeling back to normal, focus a little harder, with more intensity, duration of training, and be specific to your fitness and health goals.
There are many ways to expand your “health-span”.
Check out these options and get consistent with any or all of them:
- Daily steps – Walk more. Set a daily goal.
- Sleep Better – Fall asleep quicker and for longer.
- Strength and Endurance Training
– Social Connections
- Lean Body Mass (more muscle / less fat)
- Reduce Stress
– Master Breathing and Stress Mitigation Skills
Final Advice
If you want to get started on a focused health and wellness goal of being able to do physical activities, stay social, and be independent, start with the basics of walking and stretching daily for a month. The following month, add calisthenics such as squats, lunges, push-ups, and the plank pose. The following month, add weights like dumbbells or kettlebells, or suspension trainers like the TRX. This steady progression helps you ease into the fitness habits gently and adds a new component each month to keep it interesting. To achieve results with lifelong wellness goals, you need to keep the fitness components of endurance, strength, and mobility/flexibility as primary focuses. Stability, durability, balance, speed, and agility can also be developed once you have built the foundation. This is the beauty of long-term goals. Focus on doing something each day, being disciplined about eating and drinking healthfully, and learning stress-mitigation techniques like breathing to take into your next decade on this planet.
There are hundreds of these types of articles at StewSmithFitness.com and MIlitary.com/military-fitness.
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From Lifespan to ‘Health-span’: Use the New Year to Focus on Both Health and Fitness
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Veteran - Stew Smith (former Navy SEAL) helps military, law enforcement, and firefighter candidates and recruits succeed with coaching and programs.
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