Rather, I focus on the variable separation of our calendar years from vital fitness years. Yup, calendar years have “some” actuarial reasons for being – like mandatory retirement ages, or Social Security/ Medicare start times. And, sure, it is pleasing to celebrate many candles on birthday treats as we age. However, calendar ages become 6 7 if we focus on vital healthspan and healthitude years. After all, what good are birthday candles if we cannot blow ’em out like this, a discouraged and winded elder?
I hone in on three vital estimators that you should put in your healthitude toolkit.
The first is Dr. Thomas Perl’s Living to 100 calculator. This free and anonymous questionnaire pegs the factors that determine your and my lifespan prospects. Think of seat belts, no smoking, and dental flossing as life extenders! You know that I say there is more to vital lives than “just longevity” – right?
2. The second estimator focuses on America’s top killer – heart disease prospects. The American Heart Association’s PREVENT calculator is an evolving “yardstick” that now includes vitals for older folks like me. Yes, the PREVENT acronym is relevant: Predicting Risk of cardiovascular disease EVENTs … This tool is for “clinicians to help people understand their risk for developing heart disease, stroke, or heart failure. It is designed to estimate risk based on health factors that assess cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic health.”
I particularly like the inclusion of metabolic health in this PREVENT estimator as it is intertwined with cardiovascular health in systematic ways!
If your medical team doesn’t use the PREVENT tool to help you evaluate your CVH strengths and weaknesses – it should!
3. The third tool that I cite is the very credible and valuable estimator developed by a Norwegian research organization for VO2 maximum. Our capacity for ingesting Oxygen to produce motion and work is vital. Period.
I challenge anyone who is interested in healthspan and healthitude to get familiar with and to improve VO2 maximum. Yes, you can!
Why?
My personal example today:
The average VO2 max for a 73-year old male is 35 ml/kg/min.
I am blessed, and work hard to have a VO2 max of ~ 48 ml/kg/min. That is the cardiovascular capacity of a 42-year-old male.
I’ll take that as a reward for my hard work, and acknowledge a little blessing of nature.
How much sweat is recommended for you and me to improve our fitness age and change the trajectory of physical decline? IT DEPENDS. I have written about the evolving awareness of DOSE-RESPONSE curves for each athlete.
Today, in addition to being a ‘ol college roomie’s birthday, marks the 50th anniversary of my Graduation from America’s Naval Academy.
We were sailors then, and are salty veterans now. We had 801 Graduates in our exceptional class on June 4th, 1975. Four years earlier, 1330 young men raised their right hands and made their solemn oaths to protect and defend.
Yes, that is an uncovered me at the right side of this polaroid picture, with a botttle of bubble in my right hand, and with “Ensigns’ “butter bars” on my shoulders. As a newly commissioned officer, I had a monthly pay of $666.00. Those were different days, with Vietnam just evacuated and with a Red Storm Rising in the Cold War. I was in love, yet not yet married to a saint who has tolerated me for 49 years of marriage.
Wayback then, I had just received two awards in addition to my B.S. Diploma. I was a co-recipient of the Rusty Callow Award for Navy Crew. I was one of 7 recipients in my class for “Outstanding Student Athlete” status.
Those were meaningful service recognitions that stick with me to this day.
What does the next half-century đ look like for this 1975 college graduate?
Heck if I know. After all, predictions about the future are hard to make, according to Yogi Berra.
I intend to keep on truckin’ as long as I am able.
A third non-fiction book, to be released this year, is one goal that I will crack a bit more bubbly over.
Stay tuned for more sharings of my big KAHUNA effort – to Keep America’s Healthspans UNAbated. Yes, we can. There is no affordable alternative. TINA.
Stay tuned, keep using motion as your very good medicine, and commit to a thriving and striving campaign as did I.
META: Did you know that our valuable term, Metabolism, comes from a Grecian word metabole that means âto changeâ ?
Well before a Harvard dropout named Zuckerberg changed the name of the social network corporation he leads to Meta, this multi-purpose word had philosophical and self-reflective meaning.
Then along came a Monarch butterfly
Metamorphosis – such as the life cycle from a caterpillar to its chrysalis to a butterfly is a dramatic change of shape.  Well, we certainly donât change our shapes as radically as a butterfly, yet we can transform our body composition and shape to healthier profiles – canât we?
Be or transform to a healthier pear-shaped profile rather than a relatively unhealthy Apple profile, please!
Just One
In a science quiz, one MET is measured as 3.5 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. Whew, that is a breathful.
For a 70 kilogram person, one MET equates to a total of 1/4 liter of O2 per minute (70 times 0.0035 liters/kg/minute) .
METs quantify the energy expenditure of an activity relative to resting metabolism, with one MET equal to the energy cost and oxygen demands of sitting quietly. The higher the MET value of an activity or exercise, the higher the demand placed on oneâs metabolism. And, we’ll delve into the key VO2 Max measure too, so stay tuned!
Incidentally, scientists do adjust the MET standard for age with a breakpoint at age 65. With lower heart rates, a bit of sarcopenia and slightly smaller lung capacity associated with aging, one MET older is about 20 % lower than the METyounger standard for a younger individual. For your quiz, that is 2.7 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute.
3 Key Components of a MET Table:
You may see a matrix or table that lists 3 components:
Activity: ranging from light to vigorous.Â
MET Value: The numerical value representing the energy expenditure of the activity, relative to resting metabolism.Â
Intensity Level: Categorized by their intensity level (e.g., light, moderate, vigorous) based on their MET value.Â
Three Levels of METAs with example activities are:
Vigorous Intensity: Singles tennis, shoveling, competitive soccer, running, rowing, and rucking in hilly terrain.
I want us to understand the intensity of different activities so that we can tailor our workouts at this stage of our periodization, and in line with our performance goals.
Example:
Weightlifting effort âgenerallyâ is in a moderate intensity range, with MET values between 3.0 and 5.9. A MET value of 6 or greater is considered âvigorousâ or high intensity.
Moderate weightlifting for maintenance and tone, or nominally >12 repetitions exercises in a set with light resistance, is around 3.5 METs. Heavier weight or resistance training with 8-12 repetitions can reach 5 METs. Vigorous weight lifting, such as circuit training with minimal rest, or power lifting (3-6 repetitions with heavy weights) can reach 8 METs.
This Figure illustrates a Met and Time process calculation:
Using this illustrated walk example, a reasonable Daily META for us is based on our governmentâs recommendation of 90 Met minutes or 1.5 MET Hours daily – 5 times each week.Â
This totals 7.5 Met Hours per week to meet our Government standard – which is actually fairly low.
Remember that this ½ hour walking activity is in addition to the basic metabolic rates that are equated to sitting quietly or sleeping. Those sedentary or still âlow levelâ MET hours far exceed the activity or exercise MET hours we just considered.
Next, letâs relate MET minutes / hours to the second half of our Governmentâs activity recommendation per week.
Seventy-five (75) minutes of MET level 6 – per week – are our Governmentâs suggestion for more intensive activity. These higher intensity efforts require more oxygen, and higher lub dub beats of our working hearts. See my blog article for more details of interval or higher intensity training.
Note that this alternate channel for activity also tallies 7.5 MET Hours per week, just as the lower intensity option did.
This too is a fairly low bar. Yet too many Americans do not get enough META, as the obesity and sickness of our unfit society shows in mortality statistics.
Those of us who strive to be better than decent may double, triple or triple- double the META recommendation (MET Hours).
For example, in this phase of my fitness periodization, I log 6-8 hours of low intensity exercise, and 1 to 1.5 hours of higher intensity and interval sessions each week. For this case, my low intensity is 7 hours x MET Level 3, or 21 MET Hours.
And, my higher intensity work per week (which I limit to about 20 percent of my total training time) results in level 7 x 1.5 hours for another ~10.5 MET Hours.
The Goverment suggests 7.5 MET Hours per week, and my investment average of 31.5 MET Hours is 4 times our Governmentâs minimum. Parenthetically, my weekly workload is about average for competitive rowers of my age.
Do I suggest that more folks raise their MET Hour bars? You betcha.Â
That is, of course, with medical approval, plus sense and respond awareness of exercise-induced stress and recovery needs.
I do acknowledge, and will delve into the uniqueness of exercise Dose-Response for âproperâ metabolic effort. Too much of a very good thing, like exercise, is not wonderful when it is toxic or harmful.
This graphic shows a âsafe rangeâ between no-good risky, and good healthy exercise doses for an individual:
As we wind up this META overview, I virtually shout out to our down under Health professionals who kindly document how much exercise Medicare-aged folks (in any country) should pursue.
A âlil bit extra ?!
Just a slight increase in activity each day can improve our health and well being. Our revved-up metabolism at work and at rest can help:
Before we reflect on our Christmases Past, have you been to your home-gym, or Big Box to work those sarcomeres?
Credit Cartoon Stock
If you, dear Viewer, were like me in that latest Leap Year, you had both Highs and Not-so-High experiences.
These FROSTY post mortems are evidence of my fascination for a year’s worth of healthspan and vitae:
Our amazing bodies are prone to niggles, conditions, and injuries that come with ages and miles.
2. My unhealthy Kryptonite explains the coronary artery calcification of a 92-year-old male. (Spoiler alert: Lipoprotein(a))
3. God is great, Microbrews are very good, and some people are zany.
4. It Depends.
Eating my own V I T A* dog food, so to speak, my enduring quest to thrive and strive needs adaptations. [*V I T A represents Volume, Intensity, Tempo, and Adaptions in my STRONG to SAVE model.]
5. Researchers need more time, perhaps a decade, to better grasp the complexities of atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) for 2024’s baby boomers and Kaboomers (like me.)
6. Lives, that can be terse, are enhanced by episodes and encounters.
7. Don’t take your body’s “shock absorbers“, like knee cartilage, for granted.
8. I have one or more healthspan/lifespan tomes left to launch.
Yes, my #3 libro – YOUR TICKER TAPE – may launch in the new year.
9. Comedy and death are easier than book branding and marketing đ
10. The Obstacle can be your better way , so man up, like Marcus Aurelius.
Thanks to author Ryan Holliday for coalescing stoical practices that I embrace.
Adieu 2024
We bid adieus to many good folks – like Toby Keith, centenarian Jimmy Carter, my college classmate, CC Adams, and these luminaries:
, this multi-purpose word had 
