Run for Your Life
As an Allstate executive for nearly forty years, James Hammond was always on the move. While his industry transformed itself, he relocated from one southern state to another, training the future generation of managers in the insurance industry. In all, he lived in ten different states during his career. Hammond reminds me of most of my patients. It’s not that he was a couch potato by any means. In fact, he was quite active; but he was simply too busy to really exercise. Occasionally on the weekends, he would get in a jog. If this sounds familiar, it should. Hammond represents the vast majority of working-class adults around the world. Like you and me, they have the best intentions, but fitness takes a progressively lower priority as they get older. Hammond’s life, however, took a wildly divergent turn. In fact, though he never competed in an organized sport in his entire life, he decided to take it up—at the age of eighty-six! It was then that a friend suggested he enter the Georgia Golden Olympics. He did it and started down a remarkable path of continued good health.
Hammond decided to enter the state games in the 100-meter dash and, to his surprise, won a gold medal with a time of 30 seconds. It’s a time Hammond in his own affable way now laughs off as “very slow.” Still, he was hooked and was inspired to start running seriously. His goal was to get his time down to 18 or 19 seconds so he could place in the National Senior Games the following year in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Training on his own, Hammond was able to get his time down to 23 seconds by “running and running and running,” but he could get no faster.
“I was ready to throw in the towel,” Hammond recalls. Finally, someone recommended getting a coach. Hammond approached the man, a schoolteacher who had been a sprinter at Louisiana State University. He agreed to work with Hammond only if the octogenarian wanted to win. Hammond assured him he did.
Hammond’s training went to the next level. He began lifting weights to build up strength in addition to running hard. His times started dropping. Every week, his coach would drive him to an open track meet at the University of Florida in Tallahassee. He broke 20 seconds, then 19. The day before the nationals, he competed in the meet and clocked an 18.4. The next day, he ran an 18.3 in Baton Rouge and won the silver medal. Hammond says the only reason he didn’t win the gold was he ignored a piece of last-minute advice from his coach to pay no attention to the other runners. Halfway through the race, Hammond noticed he was out in front and eased up, convinced he had the race won. Winning the silver only fueled his drive to work harder.
Hammond has since moved to the Minneapolis area, where he lives within 8 miles of his only child, a minister; his three grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Every day, you can find him at a local health club, lifting weights, running a variety of sprints and other distances, and stretching.
“I know it helps to walk and jog, but I’m convinced what keeps your body working is strenuous exercise,” Hammond says. He speaks often to his peers and those seniors who are decades younger on the benefits of fitness.
As the next National Senior Games approached, in Richmond in 2003, Hammond was convinced he would win the gold medal. A day before the race, though, he decided to buy track cleats to help his time. During the race, a spike caught in the track surface, and Hammond was pitched face-first onto the track. He left the meet in an ambulance, with a broken wrist.
“It was a near-fatal blow to my ego,” he jokes. The disappointment only made him more determined. “The worst things in life can be real character builders. I come from a family that preached the power of positive thinking. My mother liked to say things like, ‘You’ll find good if you look for it.’”
Hammond says he inherited his positive attitude from his mother and father. His longevity, though, he credits to his fitness regimen, not genetics.
“My mother died when she was forty-nine. My dad died when he was sixty-five. I had a grandmother that made it to ninety-one and a great-grandfather that made it to ninety-one. Outside of those two, not many lived past their eighties.”
Now at ninety-two, not only is he alive, he is a world-class sprinter, a national record holder with his eye on the world mark.
“It helps every aspect of your life. It’s not possible to enjoy life if you’re not in good health, and I’m in perfect health,” Hammond says.
“It’s been a wonderful thing for me. Exercise has extended my good health through my eighties into my nineties. I’m in as good shape now as I was ten to fifteen years ago. I’ve really loved it. It’s opened up a whole new world for me. It’s made my eighties and nineties some of the happiest years of my life,” Hammond says.
Hammond has plenty of company. Even as America’s collective girth grows, there is a parallel fitness boom, persuading millions of Americans to challenge themselves physically.
For example, some 6.2 million Americans exercised with personal trainers in 2004, up 55 percent in five years, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association.
Also, the number of marathoners finishing races increased from 120,000 in 1980 to 423,000 in 2004, according to Running USA, a national trade organization for the sport of distance running. The number of men finishing marathons more than doubled during that period. The number of women increased fourteenfold! Road races, too, have experienced a remarkable growth in popularity, from 1 million finishers in 1980 to 8 million finishers in 2005.
Even triathlons, the often-grueling swimming, biking, and running races, have experienced enormous growth. The number of people joining USA Triathlon, the governing body for the sport, more than tripled from 2000 through mid-2006 to 66,000. Even more impressive, the number of competitors in Ironman triathlons in the United States hit a record 10,000 in 2005 and continues to grow. These are definitely not for the faint of heart. An Ironman USA triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a marathon.
What James Hammond and many others are teaching us is that aging does not always spell the end to fast times and extreme fitness—even for the most serious competitors. Former Northwestern University swimmer Richard T. Abrahams became the first fifty-year-old to break 50 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle. His time at age fifty was faster than when he competed at the 1964 Olympic Trials. A decade later, in 2005, Abrahams became the first sixty-year-old to break 50 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle. His best time during those intervening ten years actually slowed by only 0.34 seconds.
The Ukrainian Tatyana Pozdnyakova won the 2003 City of Los Angeles Marathon at age forty-eight. The Los Angeles Marathon is not some small-time affair. It attracts elite runners from around the world. Pozdnyakova finished more than three minutes ahead of the second female finisher in the highly competitive field. What’s more, Pozdnyakova won the Los Angeles Marathon again the next year, at forty-nine.
“I don’t think about age,” she told a newspaper reporter. “My age is very high, but my head is strong. It is not about your body. It is discipline.”
EXERCISE MORE, AGE LESS
As I was traveling the country talking to people about this book, one thing started to become increasingly clear. While so many of us are in search of the magical shortcut to boosting our life expectancy, we don’t take nearly enough advantage of what we already know. As a result of what I have learned, I have already started to change and lengthen my life. Here is one example that is almost guaranteed to increase your life span. As we grow older, we tend to lose lung capacity, flexibility, and strength. The fittest among us will gradually become slower, weaker, and less flexible. But that’s for people starting at their peak. Most of us are not there. Most of us are not even close. That means we can actually become biologically “younger” by getting into better shape. Think about that for a second. No pills, surgery, or magic potions, and you can still make yourself . . . younger. As we’ve already seen with James Hammond, you can become quicker, stronger, and more flexible if you really work at it.
Let’s consider the shape most Americans are in right now. More than two-thirds of American adults are clinically overweight. Not surprisingly, six in ten Americans surveyed said they never participate in any vigorous, leisure time physical activity.
You don’t have to be a hard-core swimmer like Abrahams, a distance runner like Pozdnyakova, or a sprinting nonagenarian like Hammond to reap the benefits of exercise. Lifting weights, walking, riding a bike, and jogging can all help the heart and lungs.
A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found much of the decline in exercise capacity as we get older is not from an aging cardiovascular system but largely from the result of plain and simple inactivity. Sedentary seniors who underwent a six-month exercise program of walking or jogging, bicycling, and stretching were able to improve their efficiency at sending oxygen to working muscles to levels closer to twenty- and thirty-year-olds. Put simply, they were able to do a lot more without becoming exhausted.
Walk for Health
Another study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, found that the ability of people seventy to seventy-nine to walk a quarter mile was a significant predictor of death and poor health. Those who could walk the distance—one lap on a standard track—were much more likely to be alive six years later. More than that, it forecasted how much disability and illness they were likely to have in the coming six years.
Lifting weights, too, should not be overlooked. Strength training can help reduce the symptoms of a number of diseases and chronic conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, back pain, depression, and arthritis. It can also boost metabolism by 15 percent. A Tufts University study put older men and women with moderate to severe osteoarthritis on a sixteen-week strength-training program, and their pain decreased by 43 percent. I was amazed at how much the simple bench press can do to increase your life span. This exercise alone will open up the ribs and the chest cavity. That, in turn, gives our lungs more room and makes us less prone to pneumonia as we get older. This is critically important, because respiratory disease becomes an increasing concern as we get older. In fact, every expert I spoke with recommended an upper body resistance-training program for men and women. That one exercise alone, because of its ability to ward off pneumonia later in life, can add years and help us chase life like no other.
Also, don’t forget exercises to strengthen your back muscles. So much of our lives are spent hunched over computers, the back is stressed like it’s been at no other time in human history. And let’s not forget the obvious. Weight lifting can build muscle mass and strength. Strength training can also increase flexibility, improve balance, preserve bone density, and prevent osteoporosis, which affects an estimated 8 million women in the United States. A study on postmenopausal women found lifting weights twice a week resulted in a 75 percent increase in strength, 13 percent increase in balance, and 1 percent increase in hip and spine bone density. Bone density may not sound like such a big deal, but consider this: the broken hip is the number-one cause for institutionalizing the elderly in nursing homes. By avoiding broken bones, the elderly stand a much better chance of leading independent or more independent lives.
THE BASICS
If you are just starting out, you should consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program. You might consider hiring a trainer at a gym to show you how the equipment works and how much weight you should be lifting on each machine. In general, you should find a weight that you can lift eight to twelve times using good form, and then, two minutes later, do another set. If you can handle more than twelve repetitions on each set, you should consider increasing the weight. If you can not lift the weight eight times on one of the sets, you should consider decreasing the weight.
If you are just starting out and prefer to lift at home instead of a gym, buy two small hand weights. You can do bicep curls and overhead presses with them. You can use the wall for “wall push-ups.” You can also use the steps in your home to build your quadriceps by stepping up with one leg and then the other. Holding the back of a chair, raising one leg at a time to the side, is also a good exercise to begin a fitness routine.
Warm up before you start lifting. In general, here is a good rule: Begin with the large muscle groups and work your way to the smaller ones. When you lift, it should be a smooth, fluid motion, not a violent heave. You can count to four as you lift the weight, if you’d like, to make sure you are not rushing it. Don’t forget to breathe. Exhale when you are lifting the weight. Inhale when you bring the weight back to the starting position. Don’t forget to lower the weight slowly as well. Younger weight lifters should give each muscle group twenty-four hours to recuperate between workouts. Older lifters should double that and wait forty-eight hours before working out with the same muscle group.
Aerobic exercise can lower the risk of such chronic conditions as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and breast and colon cancer. Aerobic exercise includes walking, jogging, bike riding, swimming, yoga, Pilates—anything that gets you breathing hard and your heart rate up.
Exercise should be done three to five times per week. You should make exercise part of your routine and give it the same importance as eating or sleeping. Don’t let exercise be the part of your schedule that is the first to go when there is a “fire drill” at work or a crisis at home. Think of your life as a marathon and exercise a vital part of “going the distance.” You will actually be more productive at work and have more energy in your home life if you take the time to be active.
In general, physical activity is also linked to reduced stress, healthier weight, and lower cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure. Exercise can also help you get a good night’s sleep (as long as you’re not exercising late in the day).
Get Motivated
If you are prone to procrastination or to putting off exercise, find a workout partner, join a cycling club, or sign up for an exercise boot camp. Camaraderie and peer pressure are great motivators. Giving and getting encouragement while you become fit makes exercise enjoyable—something to look forward to rather than a necessary task.
Another way to motivate yourself is to sign up for a 5K or 10K road race a month or two from now, even if you are not yet ready for one. It’s a great way to get you out the door and on your way to a fitter lifestyle. Give yourself a physical goal, and you’ll be amazed how a healthier diet naturally follows. Who wants to stuff themselves with junk if they have to run 10 kilometers? If you don’t know how to train for a race, look on the Internet. An online search should turn up a number of different week-by-week workouts to get you ready for running just about any distance. The important thing is to raise the bar. Challenge yourself.
Even if you don’t want to become a world-class nonagenarian, you can still make great strides as you get older, especially if you are a couch potato. No need for the elaborate wind sprints and other exercises Hammond puts himself through every afternoon at his gym. Most of the rest of us will benefit greatly from far simpler routines not only at the gym but in our daily lives. Next time, take the stairs instead of the elevator, or walk up the escalator instead of riding it. Find more ways to keep your body active in our largely sedentary world.
Hammond himself said his fitness routine started from scratch, so to speak, and gradually built to the intensity he now brings to his workouts. You are never too old to begin a fitness routine. Remember, Hammond didn’t begin really exercising until his eighties. Of course, the earlier you start a regular exercise routine, the healthier you’ll be as you age. What is most striking is the association between an active life and a longer, healthier life. Not only will your body be healthier, but your brain will be as well (more on this in chapter 5). There are very few things in medicine that have such a well-defined relationship. In addition, if you put in the time and effort, you will almost certainly be able to improve your strength, endurance, and flexibility.
Anyone who is just beginning to get in shape needs to remember to start slowly, no matter how tempting it is to begin in fourth gear. Starting out too fast is a surefire route to injury. You should also have reasonable expectations. Expecting too much, too early almost certainly guarantees disappointment. That said, it is a good idea to set specific, measurable goals. As I’ve mentioned, they should be reasonable. Don’t set your sights to levels that are unattainable. No matter how hard I trained, I would not be able to break the four-minute mile. Goals should include how often you intend to exercise and what physical accomplishments you would like to achieve, both in the short term and long term. Physical goals may be walking for an hour or running a ten-minute mile. They may also be functional accomplishments. For example, you may want to be able to walk all eighteen holes on a golf course or be able to walk up the five flights of stairs to your office. Remember, progress will be incremental. There will not be any great leap forward in your physical abilities.
You know, as I was writing this book and hearing James Hammond’s story, I felt inspired in my own way. My exercise routine had always been fairly simple and in accordance with my life. Because I have a 90-pound Weimaraner, I would run four miles every morning with him to get him in shape. I would also lift moderate weights every other day. I felt like I was pretty well conditioned, but I felt like I was punching my card instead of chasing life. So, with my newfound inspiration, I decided to sign up for a half marathon. Like Hammond, I enjoy shooting for goals. Following the same advice in this book by adding both increased aerobic training and weight training, I found my workouts to be both effective and delightful. As I ramped up my miles, my colleagues in television almost immediately told me I looked robust and younger. I finished that half marathon in under two hours, which was my aspiration, and have now made more rigorous and strenuous training a part of my life.
I did learn, though, that you should also listen to your body, especially if you are feeling pain when you exercise. If your knees are hurting when you jog, give them a break. Work out using an elliptical machine or swim. Even sixty-year-old President Bush, who has his health rated as “superior” by his doctors, had to make the switch from running seven-minute miles to riding a bicycle and using low-impact machines. Resting the joints will help. Bottom line: Don’t use pain as an excuse to stop exercising. Just find new and creative ways to stay in shape.
Many people are intimidated by the gym, especially if they haven’t had much exercise lately. You don’t have to go to the gym to get a good workout. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calculated the metabolic expenditures for various activities. What they found might surprise you. Climbing stairs was more rigorous than playing doubles tennis. Shoveling in the garden was more metabolically challenging than playing golf.
As you’ve probably heard, simply walking half an hour a day will do wonders for your cardiovascular health. What you may not know is that the benefits will extend beyond your heart, your lungs, and your sense of well-being. You will become healthy at the cellular level. Your mitochondria—your cells’ power plants—will become stronger. Experts recommend exercise that makes you breathe harder on most or all days of the week. Assuming you have a clean bill of health, you should exercise vigorously enough so talking is difficult, but not so hard you can’t talk at all.
Once you become comfortable with a basic routine, mix it up a little. Do shorter, fast walks one day and longer, slower ones the next. Try an exercise bike or an elliptical machine. A trainer I know likes to say, “Surprise your body every day.”
Stretching is also vital. We naturally become less limber as we age. Only stretching will preserve our range of motion. Hammond says he works at least as hard on stretching as he does on his workouts. It’s a smart decision, not only for his quest to be a world-record holder but for his general well-being. Stretching appears to have other benefits as well. Doing some light stretching before bed appears to help some people sleep. Also, yoga has been shown to reduce not only self-reported levels of stress but also levels of stress hormone in the body.
RISE UP, COUCH POTATOES
If you are one of those people who don’t like even the thought of exercise, that doesn’t mean you can’t stay fit. There are plenty of activities that work the muscles, lungs, and heart. For example, walk instead of drive whenever possible. Instead of taking the elevator, use the stairs. Rake leaves. Garden. Dance. Ride a bike. Skip. We live in a society where everything can be incredibly easy. We can go through the day without exerting ourselves at all. We take the elevator, the escalator, the car without thinking about it. We do it automatically. Choosing the more strenuous alternative takes a conscious decision—a new way of thinking. The next time you are standing on an escalator as it propels you to the next level, close your eyes and imagine yourself climbing a mountain instead, using every muscle group, from your tiny finger flexors to your gigantic thigh extensors. James Hammond teaches us that too many of us simply go through the routine of exercise every day. Instead of challenging our bodies with strenuous, surprising new exercises, we are content to jump on the treadmill every day, reaching a plateau in our aerobic development and never changing our metabolism or improving our core strength. If you make some simple changes, the rewards can be bountiful. Instead of suffering through his eighties and nineties plagued by inactivity and the associated diseases of the heart, lungs, and bones, Hammond was able to fill his life with steadily increasing goals and strenuous activity. Like most people who have incorporated regular fitness into their lives, Hammond never grumbled about the hard work, but instead constantly looked for ways to do even more and become even stronger. While having fun and becoming a world-class athlete in his eighties, Hammond shows us yet another way to chase life. Truth is, you don’t have to start running the 100-meter dash competitively, but what can you do today to live more like James Hammond? Check out some of my best tips in the Paging Dr. Gupta box at the end of the chapter.
I realized as I traveled the world talking to people about chasing life that almost everyone had one major concern: what is a long life without a limber mind? And that is our next stop. You are going to be amazed when I show you some simple ways to make sure your mind stays just as healthy as your body as we chase life together.
Paging Dr. Gupta
• Surprise your body every day. Try a new exercise.
• Push the limits. Chasing life is hard work. Challenge yourself with some strenuous exercise.
• Make sure to do upper-body training now. It may add years to your life.
• Stretch. Stretching should take as much time as the rest of your workout. Your body will thank you.
• Don’t skip workouts, even when you’re on the road.
• Exercise daily. Don’t have time for a workout? Then take the stairs, park farther away, rake the leaves, or vacuum.