Hard To Kill

These days you can’t watch TV or listen to the radio for more than a couple of minutes without hearing about the latest thing that causes this or that chronic disease such as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. All you really ever hear is about how this or that environmental factor or dietary practice or supplement reduces or increases your chances of acquiring said disease. The list of things goes on and on ad infinitum. But the real message is essentially, “Do this and not that so that you don’t die earlier than you were supposed to.” But maybe there is something simple you can do that reduces your chances of early death without all the contradictory evidence of environmental factors and food choices. There is. It’s called being strong.

Many studies have been performed on the old (age 65-80) and the very old (85+) that look at strength levels and mortality rates. What the researchers basically do is test the old people’s strength levels (most often hand-grip or leg extension maximal efforts) and then follow them around for a specified period of time and see who dies and who doesn’t. This is science at its most complex, folks. What they’ve found a lot of the time is that the people that were the strongest at the beginning were more likely to still be alive at the end. These studies are compelling but do have their drawbacks. First of all are the confounders. Are people stronger because they happen to be in good health or are they in good health because they are stronger? And on the flip side, are older people weak because of their failing health or is their failing health due to them being weak. It’s hard to separate and show causality of the strength level from the health level. But the proof is still in the pudding. The strong survive.

So that’s the old people. But what about young, robust characters that are in the prime of life? A huge study was performed at The Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas in the 80’s. If you ever had to do the Pacer (beep) test in gym class you can thank the Cooper Clinic. This study was a longitudinal study like the ones done on the elderly, but on a much bigger scale. When it was all said and done there were over 8,000 participants. And when the researchers controlled for variables that would skew data they found much the same thing. Those that were in the strongest third of study participants lived longer. For all the runners out there they even controlled against cardiovascular fitness and found the same thing.

In fact, muscular strength has been shown to be a great predictor of risk of cardiovascular disease in young adulthood. In two studies done on younger Swedish men, baseline levels of strength were assessed and were then followed up on later in life. Researchers found that muscular strength was inversely associated with risk of fatal and nonfatal heart disease and stroke, meaning that the stronger you were the less likely you were to have incidents of fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular disease or stroke. But why is that?

The studies, to my knowledge, didn’t take into account current levels of physical activity. They just made the association between current health statuses and where they end up. This means that someone who is just naturally strong has more protection against these diseases than someone else. This is my theory and I may be off, but it makes sense to me. In order to lift a heavy weight you must have a high tolerance to elevated blood pressures. Normal resting blood pressure is around 120/80. When lifting weights, that pressure can sometimes get to around 200/75. This is dependent on the weight lifted and the intensity of the weight relative to the trainee’s strength level, but that’s a lot either way. The same goes for heart rate. I was once working with a client who was wearing a watch with a heart rate monitor on it. During her squat workout I would glance at the watch to see how much her heart rate had climbed and at one point it had gone up about 45 points in a span of about 15 seconds.

What the studies seem to indicate is that it’s not so much that you do this on a regular basis, but that you have the ability to do it. They only measured strength levels at the beginning, waited a specific amount of time, and checked to see who was alive, who was dead, and who had had any instances of heart disease or stroke. The protective effects lie in the ability, not so much the doing. Now this is not to say that if you belong to the strongest third of the population you can put things on cruise control and ride in the easy lane until you kick the bucket at a robust 112 years old. It doesn’t work that way. Very few people have the ability to maintain a lot of strength and cardiovascular fitness if they all of a sudden stop doing the things that got them strong and fit in the first place. You still need to train and you need to maintain some type of cardiovascular fitness. Because if those things aren’t a big part of your life then what’s the point of living anyway?

Sources:
Association of body size and muscle strength with incidence of coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases: a population-based cohort study of one million Swedish men. Silventoinen K, Magnusson PK, Tynelius P, Batty GD, Rasmussen F. Int J Epidemiol. 2009 Feb;38(1):110-8.

Muscle strength and body size and later cerebrovascular and coronary heart disease. Shrier I. Clin J Sport Med. 2010 Mar;20(2):131.

Physical fitness and 6.5-year mortality in an 85-year-old community-dwelling population. Y. Takata, et al. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2011 May 16.

Objectively measured physical capability levels and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis. Cooper R, Kuh D, Hardy R; Mortality Review Group; FALCon and HALCyon Study Teams. BMJ. 2010 Sep 9;341:c4467.

Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study. Ruiz, J.R. et al. BMJ 2008;337:a439

Tuesday- Lower

Squat:
135x5
225x4
315x3
405x2
455x1

395x3 Paused
420x3 Paused
435x3 Paused

Speed Dead Lift:
340x3
360x2
380x2x3

Single Leg Step Down:
4x8
w/
45` Back Extension
3x12

Glute Ham Hypers:
3x12
w/
Leg Press Calf Raises:
4x10

Not sure what it was, but squats felt pretty awesome today. Everything felt strong and explosive out of the bottom, nothing hurt, and my technique didn't break down at all. Just got to keep it going.

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second." -William James

Thursday- Upper

Bench:
85x5
145x4
184x3
150x2
275x2 singles

225x8

DB Low Incline Bench:
55x8x8

Pendlay Rows:
154x8
242x5x3

Swimmer Lat Pull Downs:
3x12

Push Ups:
3x12

Arms

Finisher:
Log Clean and Press x10
Farmer's Carry x60 yards
Tire Hits x15 each side
all x3

Bench felt ok. The first single at 275 was pretty awful. I came back and got mentally in the game and the second one went much better. That's always been my problem on bench, not being intense and attacking the rep.

"I never did anything worth doing by accident." -Plato

Tuesday- Lower

Squat:
160x5
265x4
340x3
455x2 singles
490x1

Speed Dead Lift
340x3
360x2
380x2x3

Leg Press:
4 plates x8x4
4 plates +25 x8x4
:30s rest on all sets

Single Leg Step Downs:
3x10

Leg Curls:
3x15

Ok session. 490 was a grinder. Felt like the up part of it took 20 seconds. Still got it though. Need to get stronger.

"Only the mediocre are always at the top of their game. -Anonymous

Saturday

Squat:
225x8x8 w/ :30s rest

Chain Bench:
145x3x6

Single Arm Row:
110x8x6

Decent session today. I think I've figured out why my right side is so tight and gives me so much pain. I have a feeling that my glute medius (smaller glute muscle to the top and outside of your buttcheek) on my right is weak and relatively inactive. When I walk and palpate at the same time my left side is much more developed than the right. So today and the last week I've been focusing on using it more. Today on the squats I really focused on pushing through my left heel to squeeze my glute medius. I'm hoping as this muscle develops more the pain and tightness on my right side will go away. Only time will tell.

Song of the Day: Smoke or Fire- Goodbye to Boston

"Human behavior flows from three sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge." -Plato

Thursday- Upper

Bench:
85x5
145x4
185x3
245x2
265x1

225x9

BTNPP:
135x5x3
155x5x2

DB Low Incline:
50sx8x8

Chins:
BWx6x5

Lat Pull Downs:
3x15

Dips Plus:
3x15

If I had to use one word to describe this session it would be, "Meh". That is all.

Tuesday- Lower

Squat:
160x5
265x4
340x3
445x2
475x1

340x10

Pin Pull (#34, just below knee)
245x5
425x4
510x3
540x2
630x1

Leg Press:
4 plates x8x8

DB RDL:
110's x 8,12,15

Leg Press Calf Raise:
8x8

Pretty good session. Squats felt good. Deadlift felt heavy, but 630 lbs. is always going to feel heavy.

Song of the Day: The Flatliners- Mastering the World's Smallest Violin

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
-Dylan Thomas