The Importance of Getting Stronger for Health Improvement

When aiming for healthy aging and reducing chronic disease risk over the lifecourse, exercise, specifically a combination of resistance training and cardiorespiratory fitness, has a fundamental role to play. In addition it can mitigate age-related declines and support independence in later years.

A strong evidence base exists showing the benefits of increased strength and cardiorespiratory fitness on a range of important outcomes related to lifespan and healthspan. But some intriguing questions remain, such as:

• How strong is strong enough?
• At what point do we maximize the benefits of exercise?
• How “fit” do we need to be?
• Is simple participation enough or do we need a true training adaptation?
• How can this actually be implemented in practice so that it is doable?

In this episode, Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum shares his insights on this topic and offers advice on how we can increase our probability of a long healthspan, through exercise interventions.

Links:

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• Barbell Medicine

Timestamps:

• 04:40 Dr. Feigenbaum’s Journey and Barbell Medicine’s Mission
• 05:57 Defining and Achieving Healthy Aging
• 10:37 The Impact of Exercise on Health and Longevity
• 28:52 Strength Training: How Much is Enough?
• 38:43 Muscle Mass vs. Strength: What Matters More for Health?
• 47:18 The Paradox of Muscle Mass vs. Strength
• 49:05 Designing an Effective Strength Training Program
• 01:01:27 Cardiorespiratory Fitness: Importance and Assessment
• 01:06:19 Optimizing Cardio Training: Intensity and Volume