Birthdays, Reflection, and Biological versus Chronological Age
In 2017, one of my closest friends and colleagues, Dr. James Fisher, led a group of authors in writing one of the most important papers in the last 10 years: “A minimal dose approach to resistance training for the older adult: The prophylactic for aging.” Published in the journal Experimental Gerontology, the authors make a compelling, evidence-based case for resistance training being the closest thing to a fountain of youth.
One of my favorite comments from this important paper represents the true promise of resistance exercise: “It was recently noted that a primary objective of persons undertaking RT is ‘to have a biological age equal to, or lower than, our chronological age.’” Of course, this is what we are all chasing. We want to feel better at 40 than when we were 30. We want to feel and function better at 80 when compared to 65.
Brian Davis, my Vistage Chair (Vistage is a worldwide community of peer executive groups) and a ten-year Discover Strength client, embodies the essence of this article. I met with him this week on the eve of his 72nd birthday, and I want to share his story as it serves as tangible proof of “biological age equal to, or lower than, our chronological age.”
Brian Davis has been my Vistage Chair for almost ten years and has been a Discover Strength client since then. At age 72, he is the top-ranked Vistage chair in the state and is committed to staying at the top of his game. He currently leads four Vistage Peer groups consisting of about 70 business owners, CEOs, Presidents, and Key Executives. He is also the Best Practice Chair for Minnesota and the Dakotas, which means he helps the 20 Vistage chairs in Minnesota and the Dakotas elevate their games to provide more value to their members. When he is not helping his members, he enjoys a very active lifestyle, with daily walks around one of the city lakes with his wife, playing golf (he still walks and carries his own bag), and hanging out with his five grandkids.
We recently had a conversation about when he wants to “slow down” and his thoughts about retirement. His answers may surprise you.
“Friends my age and my younger siblings (who are retired) frequently ask me when I am going to retire, which is a euphemism for ‘stop working.’ I absolutely love what I do, and I can’t imagine anything that I would enjoy doing more. Not only do I enjoy the work, my role provides me with a sense of purpose, great friends and colleagues, and opportunities for continuous learning. I believe that people don’t wear out; they rust out. My role as a Vistage Chair helps me to ‘Sharpen the Saw’ every day and get better at what I do. I would like to continue working well into my eighties. That means I need to do everything I can to increase my Healthspan – eat right, sleep 7.5 hours a night, exercise, and take care of my mental and emotional well-being. Of these, the most important is exercise, and research shows that strength training is critical, especially as we age. Research shows that most people lose muscle mass and strength as they age. While that may be true in the long run, I think for most people my age, it is because they don’t exercise rigorously (people don’t wear out - they rust out). I started working out at Discover Strength about 10 years ago when I was 62 years old. At 72, when I look at my quarterly progress assessments over the years, I am lifting more weight on almost every exercise. I know at some point, I will plateau, but I haven’t seen any signs of it yet, and I want to never stop improving for as long as I can. My wife and I both are big believers in Discover Strength and see our workouts as a key strategy to doing what we can for as long as we can.”
Brian’s observations are astute. He is among one of the strongest people I have ever trained (including hundreds of professional football players). Striving for increases in strength as we age is directly correlated with the important cognitive function improvements observed in the scientific literature. To be clear, we are not called to simply be active as we age; we are called to attempt to get as strong as possible. Brian’s work-life revolves almost entirely around his mental acuity; his day-to-day work involves guiding executives on important and complex strategic decisions. Brian is both strong and sharp, and it turns out that strength is interconnected with acuity.
On your next birthday, I hope you (1) have a great strength training workout and (2) are biologically younger than you are chronologically.
