Recently, I was speaking with my bank officer, Angelo, and noticed that he had a muscular build that suggested that he lifted weights. I asked if he did, and he replied that he had indeed lifted a lot in college. But then he let out a sigh and said, “Now that I have a bad back I wouldn’t think about lifting anything heavier than my 2-year-old son.”

He went on to tell me about how his back went out, and his wife had to call an ambulance because he couldn’t get off the floor.

Why Are We Plagued With Painful Backs?

This wasn’t the first conversation I’ve had with an individual with a bad back. Whether it’s with a familymember, coworker, or a friend, the subject of a bad back frequently arises. That’s not surprising since back problems are at epidemic proportions.

While low back pain rarely indicates a serious disorder, it is the number one cause of disability worldwide.

Consider these statistics:

• Approximately 60% to 80% of Americans will get at least mild back pain at some time in their lives.
• In 2007 alone, about 27 million US adults aged 18 or older reported having back pain.
• About 70% of these people – 19.1 million – sought treatment by a doctor.
• More women (10.9 million) received medical treatment for their back pain than did men (8.2 million).

Is There A Solution To Painful Backs?

I sympathized with Angelo and related that I too had problems with my back. I told him that I was diagnosed with a herniated lumbar disc 25 years ago. Until about a year ago, I had severe back spasms that would keep me immobile for days.

But, I told him, that’s all in the past now. At 61-years-old, I have no more spasms and no more pain. Infact, my back is stronger than it’s been in 30 years and soon I’ll be attempting a 300 lb deadlift.

Apparently I aroused his curiosity because he wanted to know what I did to make my back better. “Simple,” I said. “I do heavy barbell deadlifts, squats, and some additional core training.”

“How old are you again?” he asked. “Sixty-one”, I replied. He just shook his head in disbelief and lamented, “Well, I don’t think I’ll be lifting weights any time soon.” He then excused himself to go make some copies.

The Quirkiness Of Low Back Pain

I noticed, however, that Angelo got up from his chair, seemingly without any pain, and returned to his chair and sat down, again without any obvious difficulty. If he was currently having back pain, he didn’t show it. Apparently, his back had gotten a lot better.

Research has shown that after an acute low back pain event, about 90% of individuals recover in a few months. However, here’s the problem. Recurrent back problems are common, varying between 25 to 50% in a year. Unfortunately, for about 10% of the adult population, an acute back pain episode will turn into chronic low back pain.

My Strengthened Back

Since I’ve learned how to properly protect and strengthen my back, my back problems are just a bad memory. Also, my back is getting stronger. Here’s a 300-pound deadlift I did a few months ago. I’m 61 years old and weigh 165 pounds.
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Perhaps this strategy will help you to continue lifting heavy things well into your senior years or even help you get your back strong again so that you have no need to fear lifting up your young children or even your grandchildren.

First though, let’s take a look at why our backs are failing us.

Why Are Our Backs Failing?

Our spines are a wondrously created biological system. They’re called upon to be stiff enough to bear loads and at the same time flexible enough to allow us to twist and bend. They’re composed of a series of stacked vertebrae that are separated by fibrocartilaginous water filled discs that provide shock absorption.

The discs are composed of two parts: a tough outer membrane (annulus fibrosus) and an inner water segment (nucleus pulposus).

Unfortunately, as we age these vertebral discs begin to degenerate.

Degenerative Disc Disease

The accumulated daily stress from compression and minor injuries will cause our discs to break down. This is known as degenerative disc disease (DDD). Technically, DDD is not a disease but a normal process of aging. Nearly everybody over the age of 40 is experiencing some disc degeneration.

However, not everyone who experiences DDD will have back pain. Some people with awful looking back x-rays never have any pain. But for most of us, a degenerative disc spells trouble.

These problems occur when the annulus fibrosus degenerates to a point where it tears or ruptures. If the tear is serious enough, the contents from the nucleus pulposus may leak out causing the disc to gradually collapse. This may result in decreased shock absorption capacity and/or create pressure on surrounding nerves.

Specific Causes Of Back Pain Associated With Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD)

Back pain from DDD is usually caused by four scenarios.

1. Annular Tears
2. Inflammation
3. Disc Herniation
4. Abnormal Micromotion Instability
5. Spinal Stenosis

All of the above conditions can result in lower back pain. Sometimes pain may also radiate to the hips, buttocks, thighs or legs. If pressure, is placed on an adjacent nerve by the nucleus pulposus of the disc, then sporadic tingling or weakness through the knees, legs, and feet can also occur. See sciatica.

Severe muscle spasms can also result from DDD. These spasms are the result of your body’s attempt to stabilize your spine. If you’ve ever had a back spasm, you know how painful it can be.

A Sedentary Lifestyle Can Worsen Degenerative Disc Disease

Though DDD is a normal process of aging, our less active lifestyles may be worsening the condition. Research (and here) has shown that approximately 25 percent to 35 percent of American adults are inactive. Inactivity is defined as having a job that requires little physical labor, engaging in no regular physical activity program, and being generally inactive around the house or yard.

Further, consider that many of us have office jobs that require sitting for eight to nine hours a day. Now add another hour or two of driving time and that adds up to a lot of sitting.

The result of a sedentary lifestyle compounded by prolonged sitting is disastrous for back health because it leads to a weakening of the muscles of your midsection or core. A weak core contributes to back instability. An unstable back is not something you want when your discs are degenerating.

Disc Herniation Due To Injury

Disc herniation doesn’t always have to be the result of DDD. Injury, especially from sports-related activities, can also cause herniation. I initially injured my back in high school during wrestling practice. Twenty years later, I injured it again on the Back To The Future Rideat Universal Studios. Go figure. But any sudden bending or torsional movements can cause a disc herniation.

Treatment Of Acute Pain With DDD And Disc Herniation

My purpose in this post is not to discuss what to do with acute low back pain or a herniated disc. Forinformation on that, you can check out WebMD and the Cleveland Clinic.

Fortunately, according to research, most annular tears and minor disc herniations will get better over time. Orthopedic surgeons at the University of California, Irvine, estimate that only 5% of us who have back pain will need surgery. However, if your pain is intractable, surgery may be an option. See Dr. Peter Attia’s story.

Healing Chronic Back Pain

If you’re someone who has suffered from chronic back pain, I’m sure you’ve heard the same advice from well-meaning friends that I’ve heard over the last 30 years. It goes something like this. Why don’t you see my chiropractor? Have you tried physical therapy? I have some good stretches you need to try. You need to strengthen your core with sit-ups. Rolling on a big stability ball did the trick for me.

All of these techniques are supposed to cure back pain and prevent problems in the future, right? Well, some of them worked for me over the short term, but not over the long term.

The reason was that they didn’t fully address the number one factor we can control when it comes to DDD. That’s back stability.

Spinal Stability

As I mentioned before, our spines are to be rigid enough to bear loads and at the same time flexible enough to allow us to do crazy things like dancing, simple things like tying our shoes, or wondrous things like looking up at a beautiful nighttime sky.

In order to do that, your spine has to be stabilized by muscles and other soft tissue. These structures act as a guy wire system to stiffen and stabilize the spine when it is required to bear loads.

If these muscles are weak, the stability of your spine will be severely compromised. That makes it possible for vertebrae to pinch and poke around soft tissue and squeeze discs. That’s disastrous to a back that is already in decline.

In order to increase spine stability, you’ve probably heard that you have to strengthen your core muscles. This is good advice but is usually not sufficient. Let me tell you why.

The Limitation of Bodyweight Core Training

Your core muscles are those found in your midsection and the mid and lower part of your back.

To strengthen those muscles, we’re told to do exercises like planks, crunches, bird dogs, etc. This is excellent advice, and I’ll talk about those exercises shortly. However, these exercises usually target smaller muscles which are not the only muscles that support the spine.

The largest stabilizer muscles of the lower back and the largest amount of abdominal muscle tissue cannot be adequately strengthened by bodyweight-only exercises.

In order for these muscles to get stronger, they must be progressively loaded. This means that once a muscle has adapted to a load (e.g. 200-pound squat) an increased load (205-pound squat) must be employed so that muscles can continue to adapt and grow. Body-weight only exercises can’t accomplish this.

This is not to disparage body-weight only exercise routines. Dr. Ted Naiman has a body-weight weight only exercise plan that is extremely intense.

That brings me to the 10 strategies for protecting my back.

1. Barbell Squats And Deadlifts

Performing heavy deadlifts and squats to strengthen a bad back may sound counter-intuitive. But it’s not. These exercises performed with progressive loading over time strengthen the largest back stabilizer muscles. Deadlifts strengthen the erector spinae, and squats strengthen the abdominals. At the same time, they will also strengthen the smaller muscles responsible for stabilization.

When done correctly (with a flat back), these exercises strengthen and stabilize the back. They mimic normal body movements which will train your body to perform daily movements correctly.

In other words, when you bend down to pick up your child, your body will assume it’s performing a deadlift and stabilize the spine accordingly.

My Start To Deadlifting

When I started deadlifting, I wasn’t experiencing acute back pain. I had slight achiness when I stood up after sitting for prolonged periods, but it would subside after I walked around a bit. That was about it.

At 58 years old, I started deadlifting with 65 pounds and have progressed up to 300 pounds. Never despise the day of small beginnings. You never know where hard work can take you.

In the over 4 years I’ve been lifting, I’ve only missed about five days of training because of my back. More on that later.

I wasn’t able to start squatting right away because of bad shoulders (I couldn’t grab the bar). But I’ve been doing back squats for over 2 years without any significant problems.

2. Proper Technique

Strategy 2 continues to deal with barbell resistance training. If you’re going to do barbell back squats or deadlifts, they must be done with proper technique. Proper technique will reduce your chance of injury and improve your strength.

If you can find a good coach, fantastic. There is online coaching available from the good people at startingstrength.com. If you’re a home gym do-it-yourselfer like me, there are videos online that show how to perform the lifts correctly.

3. Treat every weight as heavy

Sometimes we assume because a weight isn’t near our max, that it isn’t heavy so we can’t get injured on it. That couldn’t be more false. The one time I did tweak my back on a deadlift, it was on a warm-up that was well below my workout weight.

Check out this video from Aaron Lipsey featuring the instruction of world-renowned back expert Dr. Stuart McGill on proper deadlift form.

The takeaway is to prepare for the lift by mentally and physically activating your core.

McGill has helped numerous athletes return to their respective sports after back injuries. In this video series, elite lifter Layne Norton from Biolayne.com, documents how Dr. McGill was instrumental in his rehabilitation from a severe back injury.

A key to that rehab was the incorporation of McGill’s Big Three.

4. McGill’s Big Three

Let’s get into some of the body weight core exercises. While deadlifts and squats made my back stronger, they didn’t solve all my back problems. They did relieve a lot of chronic lumbar pain, but I was still experiencing occasional severe spasms while not lifting. This occurred about twice a year for the first three years I was lifting.

For the last year, however, I haven’t experienced any spasms or injury. I believe this is because I have incorporated Dr. McGill’s big three core exercises into my daily workout.

The Core Strengthening Exercises

McGill recommends these three core exercise for back rehabilitation but they are also used as a preventative measure. These exercises include:

1. Curl-ups
2. Bird dogs
3. Side planks

McGill demonstrates these exercises in the video below.

The curl up and bird dog workout sets are based on a descending pyramid structure. Six repetitions on each side, 20 seconds of rest, then 4 reps, then 2 reps. Each rep is held for 10 seconds. On bird dogs, this is done for both sides. For curl-ups, I use the same pyramid for each side of the raised leg.

For side planks, I hold it for 45 seconds on each side. You could also alternate 10 seconds per side.

I do these exercises religiously at least once a day.

5. Daily Walking

One of the ways to keep your spine healthy is by engaging in a program of walking. According to McGill, proper walking prevents the pelvis from tilting to one side, thus keeping your spine in alignment.Also the process of walking deloads the spine. (McGill, Back Mechanic. pg. 114).

Here are important tips for a good walking program for back health.

1. Walk with your chest out and your head up
2. Maintain a brisk pace (I usually maintain a 3.5 mph pace). A slow pace is not good for back health.
3. Walk 3/day for 10 minutes or 2/d for 15 minutes.
4. Let your arms swing from your shoulders.

I started walking 10 years ago as a therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome. When I started, I could barely make it around the block. Now I walk between 1.5 to 2 miles at least 6 days a week.

For those of you who like scientific studies check out this one showing the efficacy of walking for back pain.

6. The Cobra Pose

As I mentioned earlier, I did have a lumbar disc herniation. While I never had severe sciatic pain, I often had recurrences of tingling and other paresthesias in my foot. To solve this, I used a yoga exercise called the cobra pose.

It’s essentially a back extension exercise that is supposed to push the disc back into its proper space.

I first found out about it from these physical therapists in the video below. They’re a riot.

I do this exercise 3 times a day. I hold the pose for 30 seconds and do 3 sets.

7. Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

When you lift your knee while standing, the muscles responsible for doing this are your hip flexors. The major hip flexors are the iliacus and the psoas. Often they are grouped together and called the iliopsoas.

The psoas muscle starts at the vertebrae T12, L1-4 (and possibly the discs), runs down to the pelvis where it joins the iliacus, and then to the femur. One of its major functions is to provide stability to the spine.

Often, from constant sitting or other reasons, this muscle can become tight. The effect of this is to cause your pelvis to tilt forward. This causes instability in your spine and an abnormal pressure on the lumbar discs.

Below is an excellent tutorial on how to stretch the hip flexors. I do it 3 times a day. 30 secs on each side for 3 sets.

8. Back Bridges

Back bridges are another stretch that I do as part of my core routine. Dr. McGill tells us why they are an important exercise.

“Chronic back pain tends to cause people to use their hamstring muscles, instead of their glutes to extend the hip. This changes patterns that increase spine load when squatting. Performing the back bridge, squeezing the gluteal muscles, and eliminating hamstrings, helps to establish gluteal dominance during hip extension.”

When we arise from a squatting or stooping position, we want the glutes to be the dominant muscle extending our hip. If the hamstrings predominate, then more pressure than necessary will be put on the spine.

Here’s a video on how to do back bridges.

9. Be Back Conscious During The Day

If you have a bad back or an aging back, one precaution you must take is to be back conscious during the day. You’ve heard the saying, “lift with your legs, not your back.”

Well, you can’t totally eliminate the use of your back when lifting. So that means you have to be especially careful when lifting anything or even when bending.

If you have to lift something, remember to stiffen your core first. Brace yourself with your arms if possible.

When getting out of the car, use the handle to help yourself out. When lifting, brace yourself and make sure your back is stabilized.

Here’s a lesson I learned the hard way. If you’re going to sneeze while standing, stiffen your core first.

This is pretty common sense advice, but it’s so easy to forget.

10. I Take Collagen Every Day

There is some evidence that a possible cause of degenerative disc disease is a reduction of collagen in the disc. Further, as we age, our natural collagen synthesis decreases.

Also, because I lift heavy weights, I know I’m causing significant tissue damage.

So in order to make sure my body is getting enough collagen, I take collagen peptides as a supplement.

The evidence that collagen supplements actually helps your spine is scant, but it may certainly help in keeping other bone, tendons, and ligaments healthy. It seems to work for me.

Okay, that’s what I do to protect and strengthen my back. Hopefully, some of these strategies may help you. God bless and have a great week.

Please remember…
The information in this post is not intended as a substitute for professional medical help or advice. These are the things I do to help my back. Everyone is different and not everything works for the same person. A physician should always be consulted for any health problem.

This article originally appeared on glutenfreehomestead.com.

The post 10 Ways I Protect My Back So I Can Barbell Train At 61 Years Old appeared first on The Progressing Pilgrim.

I remember when I was 15 years old thinking to myself, “If I live to be 65 years old, that means I’ll be around for 50 more years. Wow, that’s a long time!” When you were 15, 50 years seemed like forever, didn’t it?

We’ve all had these kinds of thoughts when we were young. Our bodies were strong and vital and we thought we’d never grow old. But years sneak up on us, don’t they?

At 40, you start to notice that you don’t recover from exercise like you used to. The aches and pains that disappeared after a few days now linger for months.

At 50, you realize that your body has definitely seen better days. Fifty-five brings a medicine cabinet that is starting to get populated with prescription meds for what our society calls lifestyle diseases. You know what they are: high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and even heart disease.

At 60, aging starts to become a concern. Maybe you notice it’s a little bit of a struggle getting up the stairs, maybe at times you forget where you put your car keys, maybe you hesitate to pick up your grandkids because your back isn’t as strong as it was 20 years ago.

Wow, isn’t this all kind of depressing? Is the best we have to look forward to a continuous descent into ever worsening physical decline? I mean, is a walker or a wheelchair or the assistance from a stranger just to go to the bathroom what we’re destined for?

No! It doesn’t have to be. In this post, I’m going to show you that it’s scientifically and empirically proven that we can delay the aging process or even, possibly, make our bodies young again.

Reversing The Curse

I’m not saying that we can get rid of gray hair (if we have any hair left to gray). I’m also not saying that we can get rid of those crows feet around our eyes or the brown spots accumulating on our hands.

What I am saying is that even if you’re a 57 years old aging couch potato (like I was), you can once again have a strong and vigorous body, perhaps even one to rival the one you had in your thirties or forties.

And here’s something very important. Not only can you recapture strength even into your eighties, but your muscle cells can also actually regain a gene expression that is of a much younger age than your actual chronological age.

Did you catch that? Your muscles can not only get stronger, but they can also get younger as well!!!

Life Span Versus Health Span

Now, no one can guarantee you a long life. Our lifespan (the number of years we live) is in the hands of the Lord. But we can strive to improve our healthspan (the years we live with good health).

In this post, I’ll show a scientifically proven way to improve the cellular age of your muscles.

And I’ll also show you how to develop better muscle quality. That means you’ll have stronger, healthier pain-free muscles and joints.

You don’t have to resign yourself to the fact that your body has to eventually disintegrate into a pool of mush.

Before we look at the science, let’s take a deeper look at the problem.

Aging Muscle – The Danger Of Sarcopenia

After the age of 30, our muscle mass begins to deteriorate. It happens to everyone, and it’s called age-related sarcopenia. However, for sedentary individuals, the loss of muscle mass can be profound and ultimately become a dangerous health situation.

Researchers estimate that physically inactive individuals can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after age 30. This study is a little more conservative and states that age-related sarcopenia begins in approximately the fifth decade of life (our 40s) and proceeds at a rate of 8% every decade.

That means by the time you’re 70 you could have lost about 24% of your muscle mass.

Different muscle groups may also be more affected than others. Research has shown that you could lose as much as 40% muscle mass in your quadriceps muscles (thighs) between the ages of 20 – 80. See my post here on why barbell squats are an important exercise for all adults.

Age-related Loss Of Muscle Strength

Muscle loss translates into a loss of muscle strength. Older adults can expect to be at least 20% to 40% weaker than their younger adult selves. However, after the age of 60, the loss of muscle strength exceeds the loss of muscle mass. This study concluded that,

Muscle strength might be more important than muscle mass as a determinant of functional limitations and mobility status in older age.

Think about how the loss of muscle strength could affect your quality of life. Does your house have stairs to climb? What about taking packages out of your car? Do you get off a toilet every day? If we want to be able to perform these activities well into old age, we must maintain muscle strength.

Losing too much strength due to aging means losing independence and perhaps even a devolution into a life of frailty.

Why Do Our Muscles Decline With Age?

As researchers delve more into the science of aging, they have proposed a number of reasons why our muscles deteriorate with age. These include programmed cell death, oxidative stress, alterations in protein turnover, inflammation, hormonal dysregulation, disuse, and mitochondria dysfunction.

While all these factors play an important role in the aging of muscle mass, mitochondrial dysfunction has caught the attention of researchers.

The Role Of Mitochondria Dysfunction

You’ll remember from high school biology that mitochondria are the power plants of your cells. Researchers are now convinced that dysfunction within these mitochondria is a major cause of aging. They are, however, not as of yet sure of the exact processes involved.

If you’re really into the geeky science behind mitochondrial dysfunction and aging, see here and here. Also, Dr. Rhonda Patrick from the Found My Fitness podcast has a fascinating interview with Dr. Judith Campisi of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging here. They discuss various theories of aging and possible life extension strategies. Again, beware, it’s science heavy.

But consider this. If you could limit mitochondrial damage, you should theoretically be able to slow down the process of muscle aging. Let’s take that a step further. If you could improve the function of your mitochondria, could you reverse the aging process and possibly make your muscles young again?

Researchers suggest that this may be possible.

Strength Training Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle

In a 2007 study, researchers led by Simon Melov of the Buck Institute studied 25 healthy, relatively active, older individuals (65 – 79 years old) and 26 younger (18 – 28 years old), sedentary individuals. Skeletal muscle biopsies were performed on the younger and older individuals. The older individuals were placed on a 6-month progressive (weights gradually increased) strength training program.

After the 6-month exercise period, muscle biopsies were performed on 14 of the older individuals. Okay, you’re probably thinking the population size is not that large. True, but studies of this type are extremely difficult to perform. However, the study was well randomized and controlled.

Okay, you’re probably thinking the population size is not that large. True, but studies of this type are extremely difficult to perform. However, the study was well randomized and controlled.

Nonetheless, the results were astounding!

The Results Of The Buck Study

Strength Increases

After the 6-month strength training program, the study researchers found that,

…the older individuals were able to improve strength by approximately 50%, to levels that were only 38% less than that of young individuals…”. This means that the older individuals who were engaged in the weight lifting program were able to narrow the strength gap between themselves and the 30-year-olds from 50% to 38%.

That’s a 36% improvement in strength in just six months. Imagine what could happen after three years of training. See my results later in the post.

Does Stronger Mean Younger?

Okay, so far this study showed that older people even up to their 70s can recapture strength. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they reversed their age, right?

Well, yes and no. If I’m stronger today at 61 years old than I was at 30 years old, then I’ve in a sense recaptured the strength of my youth. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll have another 30 years to live.

But it may have an important effect on my healthspan. If I can remain strong in my years going forward, then my risk of disability is greatly reduced.

But let’s get back to the question of getting younger. Did the seniors who lifted weights get younger? Let’s see what the study said.

Mitochondrial Improvement

Researchers in the Buck Study performed muscle biopsies on seniors before and after a 6-month training regimen in order to examine their mitochondria. Previous to weight training, even though the seniors were healthy, their mitochondria revealed a gene expression that was consistent with their age.

However, when the researchers observed the muscle biopsies in the seniors who had weight trained for six months, they found,

…a remarkable reversal of the expression profile of 179 genes associated with age and exercise training…Genes that were down-regulated with age were correspondingly up-regulated with exercise, while genes that were up-regulated with age, were down-regulated with exercise.

They continued,

Genes that are downregulated with age show a marked reversal to youthful levels with exercise, and genes that are upregulated with age also show the same trend to return to youthful levels in association with exercise.

In other words, the 14 older individuals who weight trained developed younger muscles as expressed by their genes.

The researchers summed up by stating,

We report here that healthy older adults show a gene expression profile in skeletal muscle consistent with mitochondrial dysfunction and associated processes such as cell death, as compared with young individuals. Moreover, following a period of resistance exercise training in older adults, we found that age-associated transcriptome expression changes were reversed, implying a restoration of a youthful expression profile.

Did you get that? When it comes to muscle mitochondria, weight training can reverse almost 40 years of aging!

Weight training, however, is not the only way to improve mitochondrial function. Let’s take a look at a Mayo Clinic study.

The Mayo Clinic Study — Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Exercise

As I’ve mentioned, researchers believe that mitochondrial dysfunction plays a key role in the aging of muscle. This dysfunction ultimately leads to a loss of strength and endurance.

In 2017, the Mayo Clinic released a report on their finding concerning muscle cell adaptations of younger and older individuals as a relation to different types of exercise.

The younger age group (aged 18 to 30) and the older (age 65 to 80) were split into 3 different exercise groups. These were high-intensity interval training (specifically biking and walking), strength training using weights, and a combination of moderate intensity interval training and strength training.

Following 12 weeks of training, researchers took a biopsy from the thigh muscle of each individual. They then compared the molecular makeup and lean muscle mass of each group, along with sedentary controls.

This is what they found.

Results of the Mayo Clinic Study

The Mayo team found that strength training is more effective at building muscle than the other forms of exercise. That was an expected finding.

Another expected result was that HIIT had the greatest effect at inducing positive changes at a cellular level, especially on mitochondria.

However, what surprised the Mayo researchers was the effect of HIIT on the muscle cells of the older group.

The Older HIIT Group Showed Dramatic Mitochondrial Improvement

While the younger group of HIIT individuals showed a 49% increase in mitochondrial capacity, the older volunteers experienced a stunning 69% increase. Combined training produced the least favorable results.

Also, the HIIT group comprised of older individuals showed the highest amount of increased gene expression which also surpassed that of the younger HIIT group.

The researchers also found that HIIT caused an increased expression of the genes that produce mitochondrial proteins and protein responsible for muscle growth. This means that HIIT may slow down or even reverses the age-related decline of muscle.

The Conclusion of the Mayo Clinic Study Authors

Dr. Sreekumaran Nair, one of the Mayo clinic’s study authors stated,

Unlike liver, muscle is not readily regrown. The cells can accumulate a lot of damage, however, if exercise restores or prevents deterioration of mitochondria and ribosomes in muscle cells, there’s a good chance it does so in other tissues, too.

According to Nair, exercise may prevent mitochondrial deterioration and possibly reverse damage already done, even in other tissues.

The editors from Science Daily were also enthusiastic concerning the results of the study.

… exercise — and in particular high-intensity interval training in aerobic exercises such as biking and walking — caused cells to make more proteins for their energy-producing mitochondria and their protein-building ribosomes, effectively stopping aging at the cellular level.

So, according to this study, the best way to restore or prevent muscle deterioration is to engage in HIIT.

However, is HIIT alone the best exercise for anti-aging?

The Best Anti-Aging Exercise Strategy

Concerning the best anti-aging exercise program, Sreekumaran Nair stated,

Based on everything we know, there’s no substitute for these exercise programs when it comes to delaying the aging process. These things we are seeing cannot be done by any medicine. Exercise is critically important to prevent or delay aging.

Ok, but which is the best? Nair clarified by adding,

If people have to pick one exercise, I would recommend high-intensity interval training, but I think it would be more beneficial if they could do 3-4 days of interval training and then a couple days of strength training.

From a cellular standpoint, HIIT is the best anti-aging exercise program. However, HIIT will not build the muscle quality that strength training can provide. Therefore, in order for you to achieve improved health and possibly a longer life span, it would benefit you to combine both methods of training.

Now, this is all good in theory. But an important saying goes, “the best exercise program for you is the one that you’ll stick with.” While HIIT has been proven to be the best at optimizing cellular function, it’s also extremely difficult to do.

Does it really help our cause if the best exercise for anti-aging is nearly impossible for us sedentary over-45er’s to actually engage in?

The Problem With HIIT

There is no one standardized HIIT workout routine. The Tabata method, though, gives an idea of what’s generally involved. This method calls for 20 seconds of maximum effort and is followed by a short 10 seconds of rest. This cycle is repeated eight times.

For example, you sprint on a treadmill at an all-out pace for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds. You rinse and repeat for seven more times.

Greatist has a great infographic on HIIT.

I’ve never tried this type of exercise nor do I expect I ever will. If you can do it, God bless you. It’s supposed to be utterly brutal.

Recovering From Chronic Illness and HIIT

Now, if you’ve been sedentary your whole life or you’re recovering from a chronic health condition like I was (chronic fatigue syndrome), does that mean that we should entirely discount HIIT?

Not necessarily. Dr. Mercola has suggested a modified HIIT here.

Again, at 57 years old and recovering from CFS, I wouldn’t consider Mercola’s HIIT workout. After watching him do it, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to recover sufficiently.

So what kind of high-intensity exercise can we actually do that will give us the best anti-aging cellular benefits?

One thing we shouldn’t do is despise the day of small beginnings. Meaning we start from where we are and then progress. Let me briefly illustrate this from my experience.

57 Years Old Untrained, Sedentary, and Recovering from CFS

Four years ago, at 57 years old, I was about 80% recovered from a 30-year struggle with CFS. I was also recovered from a two-year bout of severe bursitis in both shoulders.

Needless to say from a musculoskeletal perspective, I was in pitiful shape (I had been doing a brisk 35-minute walk at least 5 days/week for about 6 years)

One evening, I happened to glance at my arms and was shocked at what I saw. My arms were puny and frail looking. That was my motivation to start strength training.

Initially, I started with 15-pound dumbbells. I did three sets of eight reps of bench press, overhead press, and curls three times a week. I didn’t have a specific plan.

Since I had no pain and little fatigue, I continued on. After a few weeks, I graduated to a barbell. My son had an inclined squat machine so I used that to exercise my legs.

As the months went by, I thought I could do this consistently, but I needed a plan. I eventually found the Starting Strength method. This system is a barbell program that involves four basic exercises: the deadlift, back squat, bench press, and overhead press.

So, I went out and bought some Olympic weights and a power rack, and I started the program. Remarkably, I experienced very little fatigue from Starting Strength and I progressed rapidly. If you’re interested in Starting Strength, check out Mark Rippetoe’s excellent book here.

See my post here on how I used Starting Strength to get stronger.

Where My Strength Is At Now

After three years of lifting, I’ve graduated to an intermediate level. At this stage, it’s a little more difficult to make gains. However, last month at 61 years old, I pulled a 300-pound deadlift at a weight of 167 pounds.

 

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I’m not saying you have to lift weights to get strong. Some people get ripped on body weight exercises. But strength training with weights the right way is guaranteed to build muscle.

So if a completely untrained individual recovering from CFS can lift weights, many of you can as well. The only thing holding you back is if you have a debilitating illness.

By the way, for you ladies out there thinking weightlifting is not for you, Barbara has been lifting for 3 years as has my 28-year-old daughter Nicole.

If you’re an older adult and you want to get into barbell training, an excellent resource that will answer all your questions is The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40.

But what about HIIT????

Me and HIIT

Until recently, I haven’t been able to do any kind of serious HIIT. Every time I tried, I developed severe fatigue that often compromised my weight training. So, I just continued to walk.

If you can’t do HIIT, then definitely walk. I believe this has been one of the most important factors in my healing from CFS.

Recently though, I’ve started to introduce my body to some HIIT.

I Begin HIIT

I went on a keto diet in August 2017. Within a few months, I felt better than I had in over 30 years. Most of the fatigue symptoms left my body and I experienced a surge of energy.

So last month I decided to start to add in some HIIT to my routine. Here’s what I do on my treadmill.

• 3-minute warm-up at 3.5 miles per hour (heart rate is at 60% of max)
• 1-minute run at 4.0 miles per hour (HR is at 80% of max)
• 2-minutes at 3.5 miles per hour
• Continue the above 2 sequences for 4 more times
• 3-minute warm-down at 3.5 miles per hour

I do this twice a week.

So far this has been working well for me. I suspect over the coming months I’ll probably improve cardiovascularly, and I may be able to intensify the program.

Even though I’m not doing the classic HIIT, I am getting some intensity. As I said, we should not despise the days of small beginnings.

Okay, am I getting younger? I don’t know. I do know I’m the strongest I’ve ever been. And I know I feel better than I have in 30 years. Something must be working.

The Bottom Line

HIIT combined with resistance training is a scientifically proven anti-aging strategy. Experientially, I can attest to that fact.

As the people from Nike say, “Just do it”.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Remember, we would love to hear from you. Have a blessed week.

This article originally appeared on glutenfreehomestead.com.

The post One Scientifically Proven Way To Reverse The Aging Process appeared first on The Progressing Pilgrim.

If you’re a regular visitor to our site, you’re probably someone who wants your diet to be dominated by healthy, clean food. You want to eat food to be nutrient dense and free from plant toxins (gluten, lectins, etc.), free from poisonous chemicals (glyphosate), and free from nasty bacteria.

Sometimes, though, our efforts can be thwarted by something simple and completely unnoticed. For instance, since Barbara and I have a big family, are home often, and run a cooking blog, our kitchen gets really messy on a daily basis. That means we do a lot of cleaning up.

Much of that cleaning up is done with paper towels. We use so many paper towels that I’ve made it a mission to get the best price I can on our favorite towels. Sometimes I buy enough that my garage looks like a Bounty distributorship.

My Foolhardy Plan To Ditch Paper Towels

A few months back, I got to the point where I had had enough of buying and using paper towels. It seemed like such a waste of money. So I had this bright idea. Why not switch to using cotton dish towels? After all, couldn’t they accomplish the same thing as paper towels but also provide significant savings?

So I asked Barbara to limit the use of paper towels. I then suggested we use cotton dish towels as they were cheap, washable, and reusable. “Okay, she said, “but you’re not going to like it.”

“Why not?” I responded. “We’ll save a lot of money. It makes very good sense.”

She knew I was committed to this new course of action so she didn’t argue the point. But she had that look on her face women get when they let a man think he’s smart, but they know he’ll regret his decision later on.

A few days after the start of my experiment, I went to use a dish towel and I noticed that it had a peculiar smell. I asked Barbara what it was, and she gave me the low down.

“I told you we can’t use dish towels in our kitchen. We do way too much cooking and cleaning. They simply can’t handle the job. Once they get grease or food on them, they’re done. After a few days, they start to culture stuff.”

Then came the hammer.

“And, do you really want me wasting valuable time by washing hand towels every other day?”

Wow, my wife is a smarty. She hit me with a scientific argument and then clinched her position with an economic argument (cost-benefit analysis).

She won. It was back to paper towels. Before I sulked away with my tail between my legs, I just asked if we could be a little more economical with their use.

“Yes, dear,” she replied.

Not only had my wife proved that she had a lot more kitchen wisdom than I, but she had also protected her family from potential disaster.

New research shows that lurking in those cotton dish towels might be millions of disease-causing microbes.

New Research On Kitchen Hand Towels

Earlier this month at the annual meeting for the American Society for Microbiology, research was presented that showed that kitchen towels could carry pathogens potentially leading to food poisoning.

Researchers from the Department of Health Sciences, University of Mauritius, collected 100 kitchen towels after one month of use and found that 49% of the towels had bacterial growth on them, including E.coli and S.aureus. You definitely don’t want those critters around your food.

The number of bacteria found was increased with larger families, the presence of children, in multiple purpose towels, and in families with non-vegetarian diets.

Lead researcher Dr. Biranjia-Hurdoyal concluded,

Our study demonstrates that the family composition and hygienic practices in the kitchen affected the microbial load of kitchen towels. We also found that diet, type of use and moist kitchen towels could be very important in promoting the growth of potential pathogens responsible for food poisoning.

I have personally validated this research via the smell test.

Did you know that the U.S. government has actually published guidelines for proper kitchen towel use?

.Gov’s Kitchen Towel Playbook

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) and Kansas State University identifies kitchen towels as the number one source of cross-contamination in the kitchen.

Here are some of their guidelines to prevent the spread of bacteria in your kitchen.

Keep Your Hands Clean

According to the USDA, properly washed hands is the first step to eliminating contamination of kitchen towels with bacteria. If your hands contain bacteria, it will be transmitted to the towel and then to whatever the towel touches.

They recommended washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Obviously, this should be done before doing any cooking. But they also recommend washing your hands after:

• Handling raw meat
• Handling raw meat packaging
• Handling raw eggs (even if you just touch the shell)
• Throwing away trash
• And after cooking

Never Reuse Paper Towels

Because of the porous nature of paper towels, bacteria can get in the towel and stay there. If the towel is used more than once, any bacteria in the towel will get a free ride around the kitchen. Therefore, paper towels should only be used once. Use the towel and then toss it. Better the bacteria end up in the trash than in your kitchen.

Keep Cloth Towels Fresh

The USDA tells us that cloth towels can build up bacteria after multiple uses. They sure can, trust me. The USDA recommends washing the towels frequently on the hot cycle of your washer. They also suggest that you keep a cabinet well stocked in order to have a ready substitute.

This is all great advice for limiting the potential for bacterial contamination in your kitchen. A healthy kitchen can be just as important as healthy food.

In our home, we’re sticking with the judicial use of Bounty for now.

But here’s something to be concerned about with the use of paper towels.

A Big Problem With Paper Towel Usage

Each year, Americans use about 13 billion pounds of paper towels. That amounts to over 45 pounds per person.

There’s a problem with that kind of usage. Many paper towels, especially the ones found in commercial restrooms, are often made out of recycled paper. Unfortunately, these towels cannot be further recycled. This means that paper towel waste will end up in landfills and other parts of the environment like our oceans. So it makes sense to use these kinds of paper towels wisely.

Experts estimate that if every person reduced their use by just one towel per day, 571 million pounds per year of paper waste would be eliminated.

Watch this video to see how to lower your paper towel consumption when washing your hands.

If you didn’t watch the video, the keys to lowering your paper towel consumption is to shake your hands vigorously 12 times before drying and then fold the towel to increase absorbency.

Eco-Friendly Paper Towels

I checked on Bounty towels. Their website states that they are recyclable and will biodegrade in 60 days or less. Now that’s a good thing.

However, Bounty towels are made from 100% virgin wood pulp. That means people have to cut down trees to make the paper. Wasting towels means wasting resources which is not a good thing.
Bounty does claim that their paper comes from 100% responsibly managed forests. That’s a good thing.

If you’re into super environmentally friendly products, Seventh Generation has paper towels at a low price. We use a lot of their product but we haven’t used their paper towels. You can check out the reviews on Amazon.

I hope the information I have given you will make your kitchen time a healthier experience for you and your family.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Remember we’d love to hear from you. Have a blessed week.

This article originally appeared on glutenfreehomestead.com.

The post Could Your Dish Towels Make You Sick? appeared first on The Progressing Pilgrim.