Saturday coffee: aging, strength & going deep

Plus: government as a longevity influencer | weighted vest pro/cons | the importance of being social

Good Saturday morning, courtesy of the most important machine in my life.

Five brief, actionable Saturday coffee thoughts on the subject of aging with strength — in the myriad ways strength is defined and expressed in our daily lives.

1 | A philosophical note to myself from 1982

Somewhere around my 15th birthday, I typed out the following declaration on an IBM Selectric and Scotch-taped it to the top of my bedroom mirror:

Your mind should always push your body to work, and your body should always work your mind to push.

That I bothered to plaster this phrase on my mirror tells you how impressed I apparently was with this workmanlike epiphany of metaphysical truth. Was it on par with “You cannot step into the same river twice” (Heraclitus) or “Only the dead have seen the end of war” (Plato)? I believe the answer is no.

Does it hold up after four and a half decades of life fairly well lived? It just might.

So much of what we are trying to accomplish for ourselves — toiling as we are somewhere in the Back Forty of our 100 acres of life — is a productive symbiosis between our bodies and our minds. But which controls which?

Is it easier for your mind to push your body? Or for your body to work your mind?

Perhaps the best answer is a quote attributed to Napoleon Hill, author of the 1937 book, “Think and Grow Rich,” one of the best-selling self-help books of all time:

“The body achieves what the mind believes.”

2 | The single greatest positive influence on longevity is…

Government.

That’s the thesis¹ of Devi Sridhar, author of a new book, “How Not to Die (Too Soon).” Sridhar, a University of Edinburgh public health professor, argues that the most efficient way to get most of us to live to a healthy 80, 90 or 100 is to create and enforce policies that attack the reasons we live shorter instead of longer lives.

These reasons, Sridhar says, include epidemics of childhood obesity, adult cardiovascular disease, ultra-processed deathfood, environmental toxins, gun violence and a healthcare system focused on treating illness instead of preventing disease.

That argument will make libertarians wince. But as I’ve written previously, research has drawn a clear correlation between shitty government (that’s my phrase; the studies use the more polite term “weak democracies”) and shorter lifespans. Newer research appears to show how low-drama political environments and equality-based societies — like Denmark’s, for instance — age their citizens slower² than high-drama, high-stress governments — like, well, the United States of (whatever it is we’re becoming now).

3 | Weighted vests: Pros and cons for women and men

A former newsroom colleague, a 50-something mother of four, inspired me to add a section to today’s newsletter about weighted vests. I won’t spend too much time on this subject because it’s been in the public bantersphere for a good year or two already. But, like creatine, it still generates questions from women and men.

Before you buy a weighted vest…

Ask yourself why: what’s the goal you want to achieve? Weighted vests can help you:

• lose weight by burning extra calories on daily walks

• build muscle strength by introducing a heavier load during those walks

• increase cardio fitness if you walk briskly

• improve bone density — a big deal especially for many women during and after menopause

• improve posture by forcing your core muscles to provide more support during movement

But there are some considerations and potential downsides to consider, because weighted vests can also:

• exacerbate preexisting conditions in your lower back, pelvis, hips and knees

• become uncomfortable, especially on the shoulders, if used for long periods of time because of how tightly they are designed to fit.

• be too heavy (risking injury or pain) or too light (waste of time and money)

• fit poorly, causing hotspots or uneven weight distribution

How heavy should a weighted vest be?

The general rule is the vest should be around 10% of your bodyweight, depending on how ambitious and aggressive you want to be. Personally, I’ve found that to be correct. The first vest I tried was 40 pounds, which is 20% of my bodyweight (200 pounds), and that was too heavy and, also, obnoxiously bulky to wear to and from walks to my daughter’s grade school. I switched to a thinner 20-pound vest that is just right for a mile or two on a steep hiking trail or the sidewalk hikes to school.

When shopping for weighted vest, consider….

• going a little lighter rather than a little heavier — you’ll wear it more if it’s not an onerous carry

• choosing a vest that uses a series of removable smaller weights, rather than one or two large, heavy plates, so you can adjust the heft to suit your mood or needs

• buy once, cry once — in other words, buy a high-quality vest that is build to last and made for comfort, instead of a cheap vest that fits poorly, looks stupid and you hate wearing

4 | What’s your social strategy?

As a born introvert whose 10-year-old daughter will in three years’ time want to spend radically less time with him than she does now, I’m asking myself this question more these days.

If you believe all the scientific and anecdotal evidence all but proving that a strong social life is a necessary ingredient of a long and satisfying life, you’d be remiss to not consider what your social strategy for the next 15 or 30 should be. Especially if, as a classic introvert, your default mode is “alone time” or habitually failing to reach out to people close to you when you’re not feeling great.

In your fifties with a grade-school child around, you can get away with that behavior. You’re in regular demand. But in 10 years, what’s your social strategy? I’m writing this to myself, publicly, but maybe that question speaks to you or someone you know, too.

I started playing tennis two years ago explicitly to have a sport that requires having other people around (unlike weight training, surfing or sport shooting — all of which I enjoy doing…mostly alone). But there are more, creative ways to build a social strategy, too. What’s yours?

Which leads me to the last point in today’s Saturday thoughts:

5 | Go deeper into what you love

There are things we all say we want to do, or do more of — a one-day camping trip; going out for walks after dinner; trying an infrared sauna or hyperbaric chamber; seeing a therapist; flossing. Yet we so often frustrate ourselves by ignoring small things that would generate actual joy. Because they’re small. They’re not that important. They’re difficult to plan. They’re expensive. I’m not good at it….

To which I say: do it. In the next 7 days, do it. Mark your calendar and do it. Going deeper into your native interests, into what you love, is aging with strength.

A personal example: I want to commit, finally, to a 10-minute meditation, where every day I manage to shut the lid of my laptop, lie on the floor, pick a spot on the ceiling and box breath — in through the nose, out through the mouth. Whenever I’ve done that, the results are obvious and profoundly positive.

Instead of remaining frustrated, commit to a plan that obligates me to do it regularly, because I know I love it.

I guess what I’m saying is, Listen to your body. Listen to your mind. They’re pushing you. In the direction you need to go.

1. Read a Q&A with Sridhar here: https://archive.ph/khsZZ#selection-1347.5-1347.39

2. https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/ageing-countries