In a previous post, I discussed the Sick Aging Phenotype.
The Sick Aging Phenotype is a person who is beset by a whole host of maladies, not the least of which is Metabolic Syndrome.
So what is the best way to turn around the Sick Aging Phenotype, or better yet, avoid it altogether?
Exercise.
Exercise is the best medicine.
What is medicine?
As usual, I will steal some discussion from The Barbell Prescription, my fitness bible. If you don’t own it yet, get it!
In his description of “medicine” Dr. Sullivan considers two meanings. 1) Medicine is the art and science of healing and preserving health and 2) medicine is a specific prescribed treatment or practice.
Modern medicine
Over the last 200 years, western medicine has made leaps and bounds in its treatment of disease.
However, we’re now in an area of diminishing returns.
Modern medicine will keep you from dying from syphilis and smallpox, but instead we die at an older age from heart failure and dementia.
“Medicine is supposed to preserve life and relieve human misery” Sullivan says, but suggests that we do well with the former, but not the latter.
The issue in current times is that most people think of medicine as a drug, a pill or an injection.
Healthcare has turned into going to a doctor to find out what pill to take.
Consider more the viewpoints of more traditional societies.
Medicine included a broad range of practices, from treatments of injury and illness to the maintenance of health through rigorous exercise and meditative practices.
In a previous article where I discuss the Sick Aging Phenotype, I included Sullivan’s fictional character Phat Phil.
Phat Phil is highly reliant upon modern medical prescriptions to get himself through the day.
He’s got a prescription for his diabetes, high blood pressure, lipid irregularities, arthritis and depression.
And not one of these medications makes him healthier.
Exercise is the most powerful medicine
Modern Exercise
In that Sick Aging Phenotype post we also talked about Phil’s twin brother, Wellness Will.
Will loved to enjoy the outdoors through hiking and fishing. He also put his time in the gym pumping iron.
Compare the two… Phil is dependent upon a whole host of medications to help him get through the day and he is still unhealthy.
Will only takes a bit of pain medication now and then when his arthritis flairs up, and he is healthy as can be.
Going back to the time of Hippocrates, doctors have always recommended regular exercise for its health benefits.
Exercise remained a focal point of maintaining good health until the 20th century when treatment of disease became the focus of the medical profession.
We now have a pill or shot for every ailment you can imagine, while vigorous exercise seems to have taken a backseat throughout the developed world.
Yet, the fact is, exercise is the most powerful medicine we have. This is not a new concept, but it seems to be overlooked more and more.
When people think of modern medicine, they think of drugs, and the health profession is complicit.
Hospitals and drug companies don’t make money off of healthy people.
Yet, the evidence is clear… no drug will ever match the power of exercise medicine.
Here are the primary benefits of regular exercise…
- Improved musculoskeletal health
- Improved cardiovascular health
- Improved metabolic health
- Improved cellular health
- Improved neurological health
- Improved psychological health
The beauty of exercise medicine is that you don’t need a prescription, you can administer it yourself, it reduces the need for other medicines, and it can be taken your entire life.
Why strength training is the best exercise medicine
Now that we understand that exercise is the most powerful medicine you can take, how do we determine what exercise modality is best?
Here are the criteria…
- It must be safe
- It must have a wide therapeutic window, aka, wide range of dosing
- It must be comprehensive
- It must specifically and effectively combat the Sick Aging Phenotype
- Our exercise prescription should be efficient and simple
The primary modalities of exercise include strength training, long slow distance cardio exercise (LSD), mobility and balance training (Yoga and Pilates), and high intensity interval training (HIIT).
When considering all of these modalities, and our required criteria, strength training is far and away the most indispensable for health and performance as we age.
Why?
First, all of the modalities meet the safety requirement.
Strength training begins to separate itself from the others with its wide therapeutic window.
No matter how weak or frail you may be, there is some form of strength training you can complete.
I’ve seen Dr. Sullivan train a 95 year old man in his gym in Michigan, and he deadlifts more than the average untrained 55 year old man.
That same 95 year old man would find it quite difficult to run 3 miles and adequately recover from it.
Strength training is comprehensive… there are numerous exercises you can train with varying weights and rep ranges. It effectively trains the entire body.
Strength training is able to specifically address the sick aging phenotype.
People who are significantly obese can get started with strength training right away, but it will be difficult for them to do much cardio exercise in the early stages.
A HIIT workout on an assault bike can work, but the limited duration of these workouts in order to avoid muscle loss due to catabolism limits its overall effectiveness toward dealing with the sick aging phenotype.
Yoga and Pilates are simply not going to do much in the way of changing his body composition.
Lastly, strength training is time efficient, particularly when compared to LSD training.
What about general performance attributes?
Strength training admittedly won’t do much for your endurance. But, that is the only area where strength training lags LSD and HIIT.
What about mobility and balance? Yup, strength training will improve those areas.
Learning how to squat with a barbell on your back or press it overhead will effectively give you improved mobility and balance.
It’s not quite as effective as Yoga and Pilates, but much more so than LSD and HIIT.
When you consider the attributes of strength and power, none of the other modalities are in the same ballpark as strength training.
How do these modalities deal with the Sick Aging Phenotype?
Long Slow Distance
Strength training is effective at attacking obesity and visceral fat as are LSD and HIIT. Yoga and Pilates are not as effective.
Strength training is effective at dealing with insulin resistance as are LSD and HIIT. Yoga and Pilates are not as effective.
Strength training is a bit weak in dealing with cardiovascular disease compared to LSD and HIIT. Yoga and Pilates are about as effective as strength training in this regard.
Where strength training really shines is in dealing with sarcopenia, osteopenia, weakness and frailty.
LSD and HIIT are largely ineffective in improving these areas.
In fact, doing too much LSD cardio (unless you stay in Zone 2 on the cardio intensity scale) and HIIT can actually be detrimental to muscle growth.
Yoga and Pilates can help somewhat but are nowhere near as effective as strength training.
The best exercise prescription
HIIT on assault bike
By now you hopefully understand that strength training is the best exercise medicine.
However, strength training is somewhat weak in dealing with or countering cardiovascular disease.
While it is effective at dealing with obesity, visceral fat and insulin resistance, it is not the most effective modality.
Therefore, we need to add a modality to our exercise prescription.
That component is HIIT.
Because HIIT workouts can be of a much shorter duration, they don’t affect your recovery from strength workouts.
Yet, HIIT workouts are notably effective at improving cardiovascular health and keeping your metabolism high after a workout. This helps to burn fat.
Therefore, a complete exercise prescription includes strength training and high intensity interval training.
I highly encourage you to check out my 12 Month Transformation program which provides you all the information you need to deal with the sick aging phenotype.
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