As I sit down to write this it has been a little over a week since the passing of my father-in-law. I haven’t experienced the death of a family member in my adult life until now and I am finding that it is getting me to think about how fragile things are and what we can do to become less fragile. Fragility is concept that can be applied to health, fitness, finance, mentality, relationships, etc. You could break down any of these topics to its roots and see how each subcategory has an element of fragility to it that we are all closer to than we think.

Last week, in an instant my life changed. I did not see it coming, I was not specifically prepared for it, and I had no idea what to expect as the family came together to grieve and plan next steps. I look back on this process in amazement of all of the variables at play and how we came through it as a family, improving the relationships of all the individuals involved through the process. The lesson learned for me here is that if you can get through an unexpected hardship and say that you are better for it, you have proved to yourself how much you can handle and how resilient you really are.

I want to put fragility in focus as it relates to health and fitness because becoming less fragile in these categories will almost without a doubt extend your life.

I think some of the most important areas to focus on are:

  1. Body composition, muscle mass, strength, and total body weight
  2. Resting heart rate and blood pressure
  3. Dietary quality
  4. Total daily activity
  5. Blood markers and other medical diagnostic measures

I put the above list in a certain order because from what I can tell, if you prioritize your bodyweight, body composition, aerobic performance (think resting heart rate), dietary quality, and total daily activity your blood markers and health metrics will follow and react to your lifestyle. Start with the lowest hanging fruit before you get into the nuanced approaches for longevity.

Here is what we know:

  1. According to the CDC, a BMI of 25 is considered overweight and above 30 gets you into the obesity categories (https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/basics/adult-defining.html)
    • The formula for BMI is [weight(lbs.) * 703]/[height(in^2)]
      1. Mine comes out to 25.5 which is in the overweight category. I mention this because just because your BMI is high, it does not mean you are unhealthy or need to make a change. This metric is great when applied to a broad population but sometimes when applied at the individual level it can be misleading.
    • You can use BMI as a starter and then go to body fat percentage if it seems like the BMI conclusion is not correct for you.
  2. The more muscle mass you have, the stronger you likely are. Muscle mass is going to be something that you want to build in your early years and maintain as you age. It is not that you can’t build it as you are older, it is just harder that way. I have written about this before but the way to do this to do “enough” resistance training, eat “enough” protein, and eat “enough” calories to make sure this happens. More on this later.
  3. Resting heart rate and blood pressure are other metrics to pay attention to. Having a higher resting heart rate means that your heart has to work harder in a given period of time to pump blood through the body. The amount of resistance encountered by the blood in the system is your blood pressure. If there is higher pressure, it means the space for which the blood to pass is smaller and vice versa. There are different problems associated with high and low blood pressure so keeping that in the normative ranges is in your best interest.
    • Blood pressure can be influenced by training strategy and consistency, body mass and composition, dietary quality, daily activity, and genetics amongst other things.
  4. Total daily activity is worth monitoring as well. We as a population are moving less than ever and eating more than ever. Dosing movement throughout the day can go a long way for a number of important health metrics. Moving more influences:
    • Calorie balance and body composition – the increase in movement leads to an increase in calories burned which helps to control body composition
    • Blood pressure – moving more forces your heart to pump a bit faster for the period of time you are walking. The more you send the signal that you are going to be moving more, the more your heart will react over time by not needing to work so hard during certain activities.
    • There is a lot more that can go on this list

This can get very complicated very quickly if we let it. I want to simplify things and make it very easy to understand. These are going to be general recommendations and of course will not apply to all individuals, however in most cases you can take these guidelines and apply them.

  1. Prioritize building muscle & strength: this happens when we combine properly performed resistance training, adequate protein intake, and adequate calorie balance.
    • Resistance training: The amount of training will depend on a number of circumstances, however if you are not training at all, just start by getting to the gym and using the machines. Keep things simple. Do 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps on all exercises and you will be better off than you were before. 30 minutes per workout likely will do the trick to start.
    • Adequate protein intake: eat .8 grams – 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. I am a 180lb individual so I should shoot to eat anywhere from 144 grams to 180 grams of protein per day. If you do not know how to measure this you can use your hand as a guide. See this chart for some help.
      • Some foods are better than others as a protein source. For example, beef would be more protein dense than almonds. One cup or about 4 ounces of 93/7 ground beef is about 180 calories, of which 96 calories are from protein. One cup of almonds is about 850 calories of which 116 calories come from protein. The beef option is about 53% protein while the almond option is about 14% protein. Pick the most protein dense options when you can.
    • Adequate calorie balance: This one is unique to you as an individual and depends on a number of factors from your past. To put simply, if you move throughout the day (think of the 10K step rule), perform resistance and aerobic training multiple times per week, and do not have a problem controlling your body composition you are in a good spot. If you struggle to control your body composition to your liking, it takes some work but you need to drill down on your daily activity, weekly workouts, nutrition, hydration, and sleep. If that does not work, there are more steps to take which I will not get into today.
  2. Work to lower your resting heart rate over time: The American Heart Associate says that for adults between 60 and 100 beats per minute is normal. 100 sounds high to me and I think can be attributed to how unhealthy we are as a society. One thing we know for sure is that a lower resting heart rate is better as long as there are no underlying medical problems to consider. To lower your resting heart rate you just need to train your heart like any other muscle…progressively. This is where “Zone 2” cardio comes into play. Generally speaking, performing aerobic exercise where your heart rate is between 110 and 150 is the way to create a favorable adaptation to your resting heart rate over time. The higher your resting heart rate, the harder your heart is working to circulate blood. We want the heart beating fast when we need it to (during exercise or high stress activity) and slowly when we are at rest.
    • If you are currently performing no aerobic training, starting with something is better than nothing. Wherever your starting point is, work your way up to spending 3 hours per week in the 110-150 beats per minute range and you likely will make some great changes.
    • Blood pressure adaptations should follow if you are consistent with your aerobic training.
  3. Optimize your nutrition: There are a lot of theories and diets out there that primarily just confuse us all on a daily basis. Here is I think is important to focus on, in order:
    • Calorie control and balance is the most important rule when it comes to bodyweight and therefore overall health. If you let yourself get overweight you put an immense amount of risk on the table that could be easily avoided. All diets that are successful for someone who wanted to lose weight simply reduced their calories consumed so that it was lower than the calories burned over a certain period of time. Usually the strategy is wrapped up in marketing making it seem like magic when really it is as simple as getting yourself into a calorie deficit.
    • As stated before, consume adequate protein.
    • Consume adequate nutrients. The only way to really know this is to check your blood levels often to see the impact of the foods you eat on your physiology. If you do not want to do that more often than your annual physical (I do not), you need to find a strategy that helps you to consume the foods that contain a full array of nutrients. This is a topic for a whole other article that I will not get into right now.
  4. Move more: The 10K step rule is arbitrary however it can be used as a great tool. Audit yourself and determine what your daily average step count is. You can use a health tracker for this (apple watch, whoop, fit bit, etc.). If you do not have one, borrow one from a friend. If you are close to that number and are happy with your health and fitness you are likely in a good spot. If you are well below the 10K mark and are not happy with your body composition, or health and fitness than this is very low hanging fruit for you. Just work to increase your daily activity by some amount. Start with 1,000 more steps per day. You may be able to get that by taking the stairs more, parking at the furthest parking spot from your destination, more chores around the house, a 10-minute walk after each meal, longer dog walks, etc. If you get more active you give yourself a chance to improve your calorie balance, resting HR and blood pressure, body composition, and help to limit the deterioration of the skill that is walking. Think about some of the elderly people you see, some can walk really well while some cannot. You want to do your best to be one of the best walkers around for as long as you can be.

This was a lot. It was kind of a brain dump for me after a long time of not posting. Take your time reading through this and start to think about which of the categories you need work on. This can serve as a good jumping off point to start auditing some of your health metrics and get ahead of any problems that may arise in the future.