Your Lifestyle Is Your Medicine
“Your Life Style Is Your Medicine” is a podcast that focuses on how a person's lifestyle can be the key to health and happiness. Routed in the principles of lifestyle medicine, Ed Paget, osteopath, and exercise scientist, interviews area-specific experts on how lifestyle impacts well-being, focusing on purpose, physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and stress, which could lead to a longer, happier life. Edward now runs immersive lifestyle medicine retreats, with the purpose of helping others take back control of their lives to live longer and healthier.
Your Lifestyle Is Your Medicine
Episode 42: Aging Strong - Insights on Sarcopenia and Longevity with Justin Keogh
Can losing muscle mass determine how long we live independently? Join me, Ed Padgett, as I explore this critical question with Justin Keogh, the Associate Dean of Research at Bond University and a seasoned expert in sports science and geriatric exercise. We'll dissect the phenomenon of sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass, and its profound effects on our daily lives and longevity. Justin shares his extensive knowledge on maintaining muscle strength and physical performance as we grow older, providing invaluable insights into overcoming the challenges of aging.
One muscle often overlooked but vital for preventing falls and maintaining balance is the tibialis anterior. We'll discuss the significance of strengthening this muscle and how tailored exercises can boost muscle strength and endurance in older adults. Justin also highlights the potential risks of overly accommodating environments that can hasten physical decline and underscores the benefits of an active lifestyle. Drawing lessons from communities known for their longevity, we touch on the importance of incorporating resistance training and cognitive challenges into daily routines to sustain muscle mass and overall function.
Ever heard of "movement snacks"? We'll introduce this practical concept, perfect for those struggling to find time or motivation for traditional gym sessions. Justin offers creative ideas to seamlessly integrate resistance training into everyday activities, making fitness an achievable goal for everyone. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of varying exercise routines to keep engagement high and prevent monotony. From changing sets and repetitions to using different equipment, these minor adjustments can significantly enhance physical fitness. Join us for a holistic discussion on health and wellness, blending physical activity with mental well-being, and learn strategies to live a longer, healthier, and more independent life.
Welcome to the your Life's Fault is your Medicine podcast, where we do deep dives into the topics of mind, body and spirit. Through these conversations, you'll hear practical advice and effective strategies to improve your health and ultimately add health span to your lifespan. I'm Ed Padgett. I'm an osteopath and exercise physiologist with a special interest in longevity. Today's guest is Justin Keogh. He is currently the Associate Dean of Research at the Faculty of Health Science and Medicine at Bond University. He is a sports scientist, a strength and conditioning coach, and his research focuses on the area of geriatric exercise prescription and sports biomechanics, and he has garnered awards from the International Society of Biomechanics and Sport, as well as Exercise and Sport Science Australia.
Speaker 1:Justin and I talk about age-related muscle loss In particular. I'm interested in how a loss of muscle as we get older could affect our ability to live longer. So do people who lose muscle die earlier? That's one of my questions. And if that is true, then what can we do to either put on muscle or maintain muscle as we age and keep function and live a long life? Justin, welcome to the show. Thanks very much, ed, for having me. It's a pleasure. Now I'm really excited to pick your brains about sarcopenia or age-related muscle loss. What I want you to do is explain a little bit to us about one, what sarcopenia is, and then two, your interest in it. How did you become a researcher? How did you get into the strength and conditioning field? A little bit of story and a little bit about how that all fits together with helping people keep their muscles.
Speaker 2:So sarcopenia was a term I came across probably in the late 90s when I started my PhD. Initially it was more around just the loss of muscle tissue as we age. That in itself is important. Muscle is a very important sort of tissue for metabolic sort of health. But potentially more of interest to me is the role of muscle in maintaining function and independence as we age.
Speaker 2:So um contemporary views of sarcopenia are now um muscle mass strength and physical performance, so physical performance being measured by typical gait speed or sit to stand, sort of um activities that again are fundamental to our independence and function. As we age, so many older adults, particularly as they get into their 70s or 80s or become at risk of entry into residential aged care or nursing homes, depending on the term in the world where you live, getting out of chair becomes difficult. Walking at a reasonable speed, particularly crossing roads or walking up and down stairs or hills, become really difficult. So it's really that aspect of sarcopenia and aging that I'm most interested in, basically how to help people maintain their lives, the functions, the activities of daily living, the pastimes that are of interest to them.
Speaker 1:And so how did you get into this? Because you have a huge background in all sorts of power-based sports, strongest man, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:So how did you get into the research behind this and and phd, phd level understanding I always knew I was going to do a phd, I wasn't quite sure where it was going to go.
Speaker 2:I always thought aging was an interesting place to go. But at that time in the late 90s, most of the aging exercise work was around mobility. So I wanted to flip it a little bit. So I looked at fine motor control of the upper hand, because again, one other thing that we often lose with aging is at fine motor control, the of the upper hand, because again, one other thing that we often lose with aging is that fine motor control um. So it becomes more difficult um just to do some of the common activities of day living dressing, eating, drinking particularly those who might have some form of enhanced pathological or even physiological trauma. So that was the focus of my phd um and then, following on from that um have kept that combination of sort of sports science related stuff with athletic younger populations, again typically regarding strength, power and performance in those sports, and and also the aging research helping people improve their function and prostate cancer, as well as sort of residential aged care residents, have been perhaps the two main foci.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I remember being taught as an osteopath about when a limb is immobile from a break or from something like that, that different muscles waste at different uh speeds. Now I don't know if that's true or not, so I've got to ask is that true? Like the vmo apparently is a very fast muscle to waste, is that physiologically possible or is it all the same?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm not sure on the research of that, but I've actually personally had some knee injuries in the last five years, and both left and right knee, and have found that actually happened for myself very rapidly. So my prehab before surgery and then sort of other rehab afterwards second injury hasn't required surgery yet but yeah, I did find that happened um very quickly for me. So I've heard of some levels of neural um sort of inhibition with injuries at certain muscles. Perhaps the um action potentials from the central nervous system which in essence helps the initiates muscle contraction, is sort of lost in some way. I know there's some evidence with that, with sort of hamstring injuries as well. Um, but yeah, there's definitely perhaps some potential. Yeah, from my personal experience, the VMO um needed substantial rehab and um, yeah, with this latest injury working hard on that, um, working hard on that. The knee specialist I saw was quite happy with that and said at this point no surgery requirements needed, even though the MRI scans aren't positive.
Speaker 1:Now we've described what sarcopenia is and we've mentioned that the things that get lost are things like gait, speed and strength and so on. But I can imagine some people sitting there in their 70s and 80s and saying, well, okay, isn't that just part of aging? What's the big problem with losing muscle? And before you answer that, maybe we could flip it and say what's a good predictor of longevity? It might be a nice way to look at that.
Speaker 2:There are multiple, I I suppose, markers for longevity. So walking or gate speed is a very well researched um in essence biomarker. And at a sarcopenic level the threshold was typically considered 0.8 meters per second. So that means in 10 seconds that threshold is that you would walk eight meters, which is about 9 yards for our American colleagues. So ultimately if you're walking at that speed or less, your ability to ambulate in the community, cross roads, get through busy airports or train stations is quite compromised and as that walking speed gets lower, the rate of severity of negative consequences and mortality increases quite dramatically.
Speaker 2:So when you go into aged care, some research we've done here in Australia in different chains, we've typically found and these are perhaps the more functional people in these aged care facilities who are in essence allowed to participate in research from their managers. They act as a gatekeeper and with some of the other inclusion-exclusion criteria we have, they're probably the more functional. We're still getting sort of mean walking speeds of 0.5 to 0.6 meters um, typically around that 0.5 um. So again, in 10 seconds they only walk five meters and that's not something they can even maintain for a long period of time. So one of the other big issues as you age, not even in aged care. But if you're not overly functional um living in the community, you might not really get out of the house much yeah yeah, um, and being stuck in your house is not great for your physical health, your physical activity.
Speaker 2:It's also really poor for your mental health. That in itself is a very poor, um, sort of prognostic factor moving forward for many people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and the community aspect isn't it. It's like if you lose community sometimes, community can sometimes trump other things. People live longer if they have a good community, as evidenced in some of the Blue Zone work by Dan Buettner. I think Community is a big factor there. Okay, so someone listened to this and they're saying, okay, fine, I'm community back to there. Okay, so someone listened to this and they say, okay, fine, I'm walking a bit slower. Can't I simply just train walking, or do I have to go to the gym and lift some weights?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and not something that's necessarily been really addressed in research. So I might start just with the training walking aspect to begin with. Um, from a specificity principle, that makes a lot of sense that you improve more so at the tasks that you do, um, but we don't really have any clear guidelines of how individuals would actually train walking to walk better. In essence, if you continue to walk um, the question is, what is the progression that's going to increase your walking ability? So, for many people, unfortunately, their walking ability is compromised due to a number of factors. One might be reduced muscle strength across a range of muscles from, say, the calves. Most programs talk about the quadriceps, but they don't seem to be as important as we think. Hamstrings and gluteus maximus is the hip extensors and maybe hip flexors for swinging the leg forward, increasing that step length. So, um, the exercises targeting those movements are crucial. Um, balance is obviously another big thing for many people, um, and some, unfortunately. Some previous research has indicated that if we just strengthen some of these lower limb muscles, particularly in those seated exercises that are very commonly prescribed leg extension, like curl leg press that fall rates can actually increase. And I remember years ago, looking at a meta-analysis. Um, I've got two daughters now they're 15 and 12. And I remember this is probably like five or so years ago and said to them if grandma or other older people exercise and they sit down to do these leg exercises, do you think they'd get stronger? And they both go yep for sure. And then I said, will it increase their, their balance? And they just sort of both look at each other and go dad, why would that happen when they're sitting down? So ultimately, um, we need to have exercise prescriptions that involve more exercises that are performed standing. You might have to progress to that over a period of months, depending if your function is quite poor, but there should also be a progressive balance component of the exercise program done, and that balance should go from what we call static balance exercises, where you're standing on the same spot, perhaps having narrowing the base of support, so bringing your feet in closer, perhaps having one foot sort of in front of each other in what we call a heel to toe stance, or potentially even trying a one foot sort of in front of each other in what we call a heel to toe stance, or potentially even trying a one foot stance and maybe holding on to something initially to then dynamic movement tasks, so things that look perhaps more like dancing tai chi, those sort of things where you are moving in different directions that require that dynamic balance. So those things combined have good evidence for improving gate speed.
Speaker 2:And even work we've done in residential aged care in Australia. One of my PhD students cement the theme. She's now at Central Queensland University in Australia did a project with aged care residents, of which none of them the theme. She's now at central queensland. Central queensland university in australia, did a project with aged care residents of which none of them could get out of a chair with their hands on their chest initially. Um, 12 weeks of exercise, two sessions a week, with nothing more complicated than four dollar four kilogram dumbbells from kmart found found they could increase their sit to stand from zero to seven in 12 weeks and they could improve their gait speed by more than 0.1 meter per second, which is considered a clinically meaningful improvement, particularly that these individuals are walking at about 0.5 or 0.6 meters per second. I think it was something like about a 12 increase across 12 weeks with a relatively simple exercise prescription. So, um, I think there's definitely scope for us to get more specific about what aspects of gait need to be trained in different people.
Speaker 2:And one other crucial thing a muscle group that's tiny for some people can still be an issue is the tibialis anterior, the muscle that dorsiflexes the ankle that brings the toe up.
Speaker 2:We know that the most common falls that older adults typically experience is a trip and that happens when the toe contacts something as we swing the leg forward.
Speaker 2:So sometimes that lack of strength in those tibialis anterior muscles at the front of the shin, which are such a small muscle, that muscle group is completely often neglected.
Speaker 2:And for someone of a history of trip falls that might want to warrant investigation, is that that physical decline in the muscle and it's basically like a toe drop, that physical decline in the muscle and it's basically like a toe drop, um, which can be a neurological condition.
Speaker 2:Uh, because again, if that toe is dropping, the older person needs to lift the knee higher so that stresses the hip flexor muscles to a high extent and causes that increased energy expenditure. So they just can't do that for sufficient period of time. So muscle strengthening exercises have been shown to increase endurance capacities in many older adults because their lower limb muscles just don't have the strength to sustain um walking or low intense or low intensity cycling for for much duration and ultimately, if you're an older person who struggles to get out of the chair. That's a very simple assessment at home. If you can't do it with your hands on your chest, if you can't do, say, five repetitions with that within 10 to 15 seconds, there is probably you're getting towards that threshold, for where that loss of muscle strength is going to start to affect your function and potentially cause lots of challenges going forward from there.
Speaker 1:Okay. So to summarize basically, sometimes we can't go straight after the walking or gait as the thing we want to change, because they don't have the musculature or the joint movement or the strength in certain muscles to actually do that. So we regress to more specific exercises and then get more functional later on. Is that right?
Speaker 2:yeah, in that there might be that weak link somewhere, a particular muscle group or something, or the balance that is hindering it, and there can also be medical complications as well. So, particularly if you're seeing a geriatrician who's the older adult specialist, they might do a whole range of different assessments, or your GP might also look at some assessments or refer to a geriatrician to look at if there's other medical reasons, perhaps underlying poor gait speed, poor balance and a history of falls or something of that nature as well and a history of falls or something of that nature as well.
Speaker 1:A friend of mine, just um, was talking about his grandparents, or his grandmother in particular. She's got into a home in australia and he noticed that the light switch is about 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters. It's huge. The chairs are higher, the exercise class that's there is all done seated and he thinks that her physical decline has increased since she's gone to the, uh, to the elderly care facility, because everything's too easy. Any thoughts about that?
Speaker 2:this needs to be taken of a grain of salt, because there's always times where some of these resources will be needed. But one thing I suppose when you look at aging, you can look at things as sort of um, if you keep taking the easy approach, that spiral into decreased function and more Dependence will just continue to increase. So, um, if you think about things such as let's go with a walking cane or a walking frame, wheelchair is the potential progression for people who walk slowly, um poor balance and are at risk of falls. So obviously that is a safety issue. And if you're in some sort of care facility, that might almost be sort of mandated by the facility In saying that once we get to become dependent on the walking stick, realistically the time frame to then get to the walking frame might not be too far away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speeds up away and before you know it, you're now with the walking frame. It's very difficult to engage in any sort of activities that you used to do walking with younger people. It's very difficult to go on grass or up hills, so now you've really limited your mobility into these different areas. I feel it's better to try to prevent further decline by doing appropriate exercise, looking at nutrition, getting some medical assessments, etc. Then just accepting the walking stick, the walking frame um the wheelchair or perhaps those mobility scooters another way to think about longevity and aging and strength is to look at long-lived people.
Speaker 1:So again, you know, with the blue zones, those long-lived people, as far as I know, aren't necessarily going to the gym. So what is it that they're doing that helps them? Long lives, yeah. What can we bring back into our world, probably a host of things.
Speaker 2:So in essence, some of those people in these long-lived communities are still very much living lifestyles where lots of their food, growing, processing and cooking is done by them individually. Their physical activity levels are high. A reasonable amount of that physical activity is also loaded. A reasonable amount of that physical activity is also loaded. So they're carrying things as they walk around often or they're pushing and pulling objects as well. So in essence, they're doing a low to moderate intensity resistance training activities throughout the day and they've been doing that for decades of life. So because that in and often they're doing a lot of stuff up and down the hills as well. So in essence, what they've done is continue to perform predominantly aerobic activities, but interspersed with higher intensity, higher load versions of that. So these people in essence are doing those levels of intensity and volume and duration are sufficient to maintain a large amount of their muscle mass and their strength and function. So all of the things that they are doing are requiring strength, hypertrophy, balance, endurance all these things throughout the day. Balance um endurance all these things throughout the day.
Speaker 2:If we can include um some cognitively challenging components in exercise, um so doing any resistance training exercise standing up like a lunge is cognitively demanding, even for younger people. If they're switched off, they're going to lose balance, perhaps fall. So those sort of exercises or the difference between um walking on a or going for a bike ride versus stationary bike by doing things that require both cognitive engagement, physical engagement there's some evidence that those exercises better um maintain our sort of walking ability, our falls prevention and perhaps also our cognitive function as we age as well. And the research around exercise can help maintain cognitive function. Reduce dementia risks is something that's starting to develop as well. Nothing I'm completely on top of, but again, yeah, something that most people, I think, would like to maintain as they, as they age is it possible to increase mass the older we get?
Speaker 1:and I'm going to ask you this is I'm 46 years old. I set myself a challenge of putting on two kilos of muscle mass in uh, in three months. I bought a 12-week bodybuilding program and optimizing my protein intake, optimizing my creatine rest days, corrective exercise days, the whole thing. And it's a month in. I put on zero ounces or zero or whatever we want to call it, zero pounds. Is it possible to put on muscle masses? We age?
Speaker 2:It is, with some caveats. The people are most likely to do it are those who haven't been physically active before. So I think, ed, from what I know of your background, you've been active in a range of things I'm not sure the mix of activities, but even endurance. Trained individuals might still struggle to put on much muscle mass. Potentially it's definitely harder as you reach middle age and even more so at older age. It's definitely difficult to improve hypertrophy, but the strength and those functional changes can still be very pronounced, particularly for the individuals who are perhaps in their 60s or older and are at some level less than they were in their 20s, 30s and 40s less than they were in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So that's interesting from the physiological point of view of the muscles being like a glucose sink, helping with things like pre-diabetes or diabetes. We have an older person. That's not necessarily going to be the path. We'd go and say, okay, put on muscle mass, that's going to help with your diabetes, but is there something to do with the physiology of the muscle?
Speaker 2:that's trained and untrained works differently mitochondria, that kind of thing yeah, again, I'm not necessarily a full expert in this area, but a host of just the acute effects of the resistance training exercises and what then happens in the body in terms of some of the endocrine and metabolic responses, in terms of all the different aspects of energy metabolism, have been found to change quite substantially. Resistance training and some of those things will definitely improve insulin sensitivity, your risk of type 2 diabetes etc. And obviously we're focused on muscle here to a large extent. But unfortunately there's even another subcategory of sarcopenia and that's called sarcopenic obesity. So these are individuals with low muscle strength and function but higher than normal levels of body fat.
Speaker 2:So exercise and diet can also help to improve that body composition proportion.
Speaker 2:So reducing some body fat, maybe some small increases in muscle mass, and I remember an ad on TV years ago, some weight loss company I can't remember what it was, it doesn't really matter but they had these individuals trying to play tennis and walk around with three, three kilogram bags of oranges strapped to their body.
Speaker 2:So it'd be like an athlete who wears one of those weighted vests to do an exercise session wearing that throughout the day and very quickly that extra nine or so kilos of body fat is going to cause reduces in gait, speed reduction, sit to stand performance, instability when walking, et cetera. So again, it can be for some older individuals that if that increase in body fat has gone past a level that they're happy with, losing five kilos or so of extra body fat can also have quite substantial increases in function, particularly when combined with that resistance training and balance training as well. So, um, even some relatively small changes at both ends can make quite profound changes in your function and metabolic health, because type 2 diabetes is highly prevalent in our developed countries and has a host of negative side effects associated with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've heard you mention a sneaky little way to get activity into your lives called movement snacks. I'm going to let you explain that, because some people will be like okay, I get it, I need to exercise more. I might not put on much muscle, but I'm going to have increased function and and hopefully add health span to my lifespan, and I'm also going to potentially reduce muscle fat. But how do I do that? I can't go to the gym or I don't have time to go to the gym, so what's your solution for that?
Speaker 2:yeah, not something I've done research on, but, um, I remember reading some stuff from lindy clemson and a tease uh, groups of ot's maybe 15, 20 years ago, and jackson fife, I think said deacon university here in australia read a really good paper on it recently. So with resistance training we've typically had um traditional approaches where in essence it comes from bodybuilding two to three sets, eight to twelve repetitions of a number of exercise that target the major muscle groups and movements of the body, and that still is very much the recommended exercise prescriptions for most chronic conditions, be it cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, whatever it is. However, the barriers so many people face to exercise or any other health behavior is often time, cost and effort. So going to the gym three times a week doing these things, particularly if you're living in a big city and the travel there is is challenging, the cost can be high, um, it's just a barrier that many people say is too much. So, um, in this paper they described another option and again, this might be suitable for everyone, but it's a super high intensity but low frequency approach and again, that's typically gym based. Um, so that's for the person who's happy to train really hard but for a short period of time after they've progressed and developed some competency. But the snacking approach, I think, has a lot more value for many people, as you suggested. So similar to the general advice for physical activity where we might say, if you want to increase your steps per day, use the stairs rather than elevators or escalators, or park further away from the shops or your work than spending five minutes trying to get that closest park driving around in the car park. We look to do some of these resistance training activities throughout the day. So occupational therapists have done some of these things for years where they might get you to post just little notes in different parts of your house.
Speaker 2:So every time you go into the kitchen to boil the kettle or go to the fridge, you see this little sign that might say calf raises and at that point you do a certain number of calf raises and over time you can progress the number of, say calf raises and at that point you do a certain number of calf raises and over time you can progress the number of those calf raises. Or you might even end up doing calf raises with one leg while balancing with a hand, to some extent if you get that strong and if you're doing one-legged calf raises. You know your calves are pretty, you're pretty strong and functional. That's. That's a great level of function for people to strive to. Or it might be. Every time you get out of a chair you again do at least one additional sit to stand movement and again progress that over time.
Speaker 2:So these little things that you can do in your house can be things particularly for the lower body that can then increase that sort of strength and function. So it can be leg lifts, where you're going to lift the knee towards your hip because again, that hip flexor muscle is important to increase the length of each step. So there's these different activities you can do particularly for the lower body, and then you can look to perhaps look at some of the movements for the upper body. What are some things that you could perhaps snack on throughout the day there? So again, therabands are such simple light objects that you can pretty much hide anywhere. You can hide under a couch or next to whatever.
Speaker 2:It is in a draw that you might use them for some upper body pushing activities or pulling activities at different points of the day as well. So, um, or carrying sort of extra objects, taking stairs more, and for those that take stairs, um, if you look to take two stairs instead of one stair, with each step again, the load through the quadriceps, the gluteus maximus, will be increased to a large extent that those muscle groups are going to have to, um, strengthen to tolerate that sort of load as well. So there's a host of things you can look to do in in that sort of regard. For the snacking approach, um, and, yeah, just look to implement that as many times a week as you can.
Speaker 1:So if someone's saying, yeah, okay, I get it, but I don't like resistance exercise, I just want to do cardiovascular exercise. I like my bike and my recliner bike and that kind of stuff Good or bad for longevity.
Speaker 2:Good Would look to throw some interval training, some high intensity interval training, in the mix in some way.
Speaker 1:Someone starts exercising and they're like, yeah, I get it, I need to do the resistance stuff, but they get really sore. How can they minimize that delayed onset muscle soreness?
Speaker 2:All right. With all the programs we've been involved with, we go very conservative to start with. So we have often a four week we might call it a familiarization training phase where we might look to if they did 10 repetitions on an exercise, let's say two sets, we would select the load that they would probably be able to do between 15 to 20. So they're learning to do the exercise with some load, but not so much load that their focus is on my God, god, this feels heavy. Oh, get the bar off me if it's a bench press, for example.
Speaker 2:And we're not taking them to the point that they're anywhere near that muscular momentary failure. So the level of delayed onset muscle soreness is quite mild and each week we just get a little bit closer. So again, by the end of the fourth week there might be five repetitions still in reserve or something that they could do, and then from there they can progress and get closer to that sort of level of muscle failure which, again, for most people is probably still two or three repetitions in reserve for most sets. And if you are training to those levels of relative intensity you're still going to get some pretty good results. Some people might take it closer, but again, not everyone wants that level of that final ramp or two being really difficult. So those are some good tips and even if you do get the delayed onset muscle soreness, within a couple of sessions that will actually become quite minimal.
Speaker 1:But it can be a very off-putting outcome for someone who's never trained so someone's got a routine maybe the person training the gym's given their routine, or they've gone online and they've got one. How long should they be doing a routine before they need to change it?
Speaker 2:if it's working, you might not change too much of it, um, but often for people, if they stay on a program for more than eight weeks with no variation, they might start to get to the point where they're just getting a little bit bored of aspects to it. So at that point, if you're either self um prescribing your own program or have a trainer, you probably expect some variations to come and, be it repetition and set changes. Are you super setting some things? Or straight sets or even simple things? Like you might have started off with a chest press machine or a lap pull down machine or a leg press machine, what movements would be very similar, but now start to use free weights and require a bit more balance. So would you do a sit to stand with um like a goblet dumbbell on your chest, for example, instead of the leg press or or something else? So similar movements, so similar benefits by just a variation of exercise?
Speaker 2:Um, and really, when we look at my exercise prescriptions of what's in the in the research, where some bodybuilders might say, well, this is the best exercise for this muscle group, find those variations of similar movements. It might be using trx instead of dumbbells or something of that nature. And again, trx is something you can easily put up at home, those suspension cords, and you can. Again, depending on how horizontal your body is. The more horizontal your body is, the greater the lie that you're actually lifting, and the more vertical, the much more easier it is. Similar to an older person perhaps doing a wall push-up, initially progressing to then putting their hands on maybe a desk around hip high and ultimately perhaps getting back to be able to do them on the floor.
Speaker 1:As we bring this to a close, where can people find out more about your research and where can they learn a bit more about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm currently working at Bond University in Australia, so I've got a profile there. I've also got a Twitter account DrStrength4, the number life, I'm pretty sure my Twitter profile is. So those are probably the two places where you can get me.
Speaker 1:All right. Is there anything that people sometimes ask you on podcasts or something that's interesting in the research space at the moment that you think you would like to tell us about?
Speaker 2:It's much easier to prevent issues becoming a problem than to fix a problem when it happens. So, again, some of the things with falls as we get older, particularly if you fracture your hip and then require weeks of bed rest, coming back from something like that is it's probably even worse than an athlete getting an anterior cruciate ligament injury and then having to rehab for a year. Um, because ultimately a proportion of um older people post hip fracture will ultimately die within six months. So my biggest thought would again be it's better to prevent issues before they happen. And really the best ways to prevent issues are remaining physically active.
Speaker 2:Initiate some resistance training components in that, be it snacking at home, if you like, your cardiovascular exercises, look to do some of that high intensity intervals where you might go quite intensely for anything from like five seconds up to 30 seconds or even a bit longer. Um, if you love walking and hiking, get some Hills into you, get some stairs into you, maybe carry a backpack if you're still safe to do so. Um, do things in the garden where, again, you're digging, lifting, carrying stuff like that, again, similar to those, um, those zones throughout the world where people are still functional without ever hearing of a gym? Um, look to eat predominantly a processed um, an unprocessed diet. So, regardless if you are either in the continuum being a vegan or carnivore or anything in between, if you're a vegan, great, but make sure when you go shopping, what you predominantly have in your trolley is fruit and vegetables and things of that nature. It's not all these processed versions.
Speaker 2:Um, and beyond that, um, think of things that maintain your mental health as well. So what is your social circles? What are the activities that you do? How do you unwind? Are you someone who might want to get into things like meditation, yoga, et cetera, or is it just being in nature or other things like that that give you that mental sort of break as well? Because it does seem to be some link between stress and a host of these adverse events we see that are associated with aging, and particularly for those individuals who've been very busy with their careers through middle age, um, have children, have mortgages all those stresses can accumulate. Look after yourself in all those different domains and don't neglect one, because it will come back to buy at you sooner than later okay, all right, justin, thank you very much for coming on the show.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate your time all right.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for your time and it's been a pleasure that's the end of this episode of the your lifestyle is your medicine podcast. Thank you so much for joining me in my conversation with Justin Keogh Now, if you'd like to support the show, the best thing you can do is to subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so that you can be notified when the latest episode comes out, and I'll be very grateful if you'll be able to go onto your podcast app and consider giving this a five-star review so I can get this information out to more people. Additionally, if you're watching this on YouTube, please leave a review or comment below. Remember, if you want my direct help, go to my website, edpadgettcom, subscribe to my newsletter and drop me a message via the contact us link so I can see if I can help you make your lifestyle your medicine.