Tag Archive for: longevity

How to Get More Benefits from 10,000 Steps per Day

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By Nicole Molumphy

How to Get More Benefits from 10,000 Steps per Day

Many of you are familiar with the 10,000-steps-a-day walking trend, but you may not know where it originated. The idea of walking 10,000 steps per day did not come from scientific research; rather, it came from a marketing campaign for a pedometer ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Since the Japanese symbol for 10,000 looks somewhat similar to a person walking (see image below), the pedometer was named Manpo-kei or 10,000 steps meter, and the 10,000-step-a-day walking trend was born.

 

 

We know walking is good for us, but what do researchers have to say about this 10,000 number? Is this the right number of steps? What are the health benefits of reaching this number?

A 2023 research study showed 8,000 to be the sufficient number of steps to yield significant health benefits. In this study, participants who took 8,000 steps or more on one or two days during the week showed substantially lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk.

Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Movement and Exercise pillar member Corey Rovzar, PhD, DPT, puts the 8 and 10 thousand numbers into perspective. “What is more important than hitting an exact number is that you’re moving more throughout the day,” says Dr. Rovzar. “If looking at a pedometer and trying to hit 8,000 steps will help you move more, then it’s a great tool, but rather than fixating on an exact step count, I recommend you think about your day and envision opportunities to move.”

Rather than walking all 8,000 steps in one go, which would take about 80 minutes at three miles per hour, Dr. Rovzar recommends walking the 8,000 steps throughout the day, such as in the morning and evening and after each meal. For example, you could split the 8,000 steps (80 minutes of walking) into four, 20-minute walks. If you stick to the 10,000-step goal (100 minutes of walking), that breaks down to five, 20-minute walks. This recommendation is good news for those who sit at a desk since taking several short walks during the workday is a perfect way to take a break. “It is important to note that all steps count! Even a few steps to the bathroom or to another room contributes to this overall count,” says Dr. Rovzar.

Ideas on How to Meet Your 10,000 Steps Goal:

  • Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
  • Walk more during errands by parking your car farther away from your destination or getting off the bus or train a stop early.
  • Walk more during your work day by taking a “walking meeting” or walking while on the phone.
  • Walking after each meal can help with digestion, blood sugar management, and cardiovascular health.
  • Walk every morning, evening, and during your lunch break. Even 10 to 15 minutes of walking can add up to 1,000 steps.
  • Catch up with a friend by going on a walk instead of meeting for coffee.
  • Use a step tracker to help you stay motivated and track your progress.

How to Get More Out of Your 10,000 Steps

If you’re already walking 8 to 10 thousand steps daily, you may be ready to take your walking to the next level. If so, Dr. Rovzar recommends adding modifiers to your walking routine to help you meet additional fitness goals, such as improving balance or building muscle.

Here are a few of Dr. Rovzar’s recommendations for intensifying your daily stroll and gaining more health benefits:

1) Cardiovascular (Endurance) Modifier:

Interval walking

Interval walking involves alternating fast and slow walking cycles. Researchers recommend five intervals of fast and slow phases, each lasting roughly three minutes. The effort expended should be 40 percent of your maximum effort for the slow phase and 70 percent for the fast phase.

2) Muscular Strength Modifiers:

Walk up and down hills or stairs multiple times

If you are looking for strength benefits, hills may become your new best friend. Walking hills or stairs not only has excellent aerobic benefits but also serves as a great form of strength training.

Add ankle and wrist weights or wear a weighted backpack

Another strength training modification is adding weight to your walk, either with ankle or wrist weights or by rucking. The term rucking originated during boot camp training and involves using weighted vests or backpacks while hiking or walking.

3) Balance Modifiers:

Take side steps

March (i.e., lift your knees as you walk)

Walk backwards

It is essential to perform balancing exercises as we age. Implementing side steps, marching, or walking backward are great ways to train your body to handle non-forward-facing movements, enhance joint mobility, and improve flexibility. Balance training is also an effective way to strengthen different muscle groups. For example, side steps engage your abductors, which are hip muscles involved in getting out of your car and transitioning out of bed in the morning.

4) Cognition Modifier:

Dual-task training

Cognition may also be enhanced with walking practices, like dual-task training. This practice involves performing a mental task while walking, such as talking to someone while walking, keeping step time to a metronome, or counting backward from 100. Combining the mental task with the physical action of walking forces the walker to increase concentration, which sharpens the mind and improves balance and stability.

Whole Body Health Benefits

In addition to the physical benefits walking offers, Dr. Rovzar says that walking improves mental clarity and well-being. Taking a step away from work and going on an outdoor walk can help you overcome mental roadblocks. Studies have found mental health benefits from walking outside in nature, including decreased cortisol levels, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, and pulse rate. While using a treadmill may be a great way to multitask and get in extra movement, there are considerable mental health benefits from taking a break outside, getting fresh air, and stopping to smell roses and pet dogs on your walk.

“We often strive to maximize our time working, but in reality, you might not be saving yourself time by omitting the breaks,” says Dr. Rovzar. “I recommend getting out of your work environment and going for an outdoor walk every couple of hours during the workday, even if it’s just five-minutes of movement to get your blood flowing.”

Practice of the Month:

Walk 5 Days per Week for 30 minutes with a Modifier

The US guideline for moderate physical activity is 150 minutes per week (which breaks down to five 30-minute brisk walks with a modifier per week). To ensure you’re improving muscle strength, balance, endurance, and cognition every week, Dr. Rovzar recommends assigning different modifiers to different days.

Sample Walking Routine (30 minutes per walk):

Monday: Walking up and down hills on Mondays (endurance)

Tuesday: Rucking (strength)

Wednesday: Incorporating intervals of side-stepping, marching, and walking backward (balance)

Thursday: Interval walking (endurance)

Friday: Adding ankle and wrist weights (strength) while counting backward from 100 with each step (cognition)

 

If a 30-minute walk seems too daunting, Dr. Rovzar suggests starting with 10 minutes of walking and incrementally working your way up to 30 minutes daily. “Much of this comes down to goal setting,” she says. “If you set too lofty of a goal, it becomes unachievable, but if you break your goal down to an amount that seems feasible and perhaps try it just for a week, it becomes more likely you will remain consistent in attaining it.”

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How to Build Your Own Centenarian Decathlon

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By Mary Grace Descourouez, MS, NBC-HWC

How to Build Your Own Centenarian Decathlon

 

We all know about the Olympic Decathlon (ten track and field events held across two consecutive days), but have you heard about the Centenarian Decathlon?

Stanford alumni Peter Attia, MD, coined the term Centenarian Decathlon as the ten physical tasks you want to be able to do at age 100 (or in the final decade of life).

Everyone’s list is likely different, but the following is Dr. Attia’s personal list from his book Outlive. The list includes both common exercises as well as functional movements and lifestyle actions that most of us take for granted in middle age.

Dr. Peter Attia’s Centenarian Decathlon:

  1. Hike 1.5 miles on a hilly trail
  2. Get up off the floor using a maximum of one arm for support
  3. Pick up a 30-pound child from the floor
  4. Carry two five-pound bags of groceries for five block.
  5. Lift a 20-pound suitcase into the overhead compartment of a plane
  6. Balance on one leg for 30 seconds with eyes open. (Bonus: eyes closed for 15 seconds)
  7. Have sex
  8. Climb four flights of stairs in three minutes
  9. Open a jar
  10. Do thirty consecutive jump-rope skips

“There is a difference between lifespan and healthspan. Lifespan is the number of years you’re on this planet, but healthspan is the number of years that you’re healthy—being able to live independently and partake in activities you enjoy,” says Jonathan Bonnet, MD, MPH, and Clinical Associate (Affiliated) Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. The Centenarian Decathlon requires a thoughtful analysis of what ‘health’ means for you as you age. Creating a personalized Centenarian Decathlon can serve as a powerful motivator and will help inform what types of exercises need to be done now in order to achieve those goals in the future.”

 Creating your own Centenarian Decathlon

Think about what you value in life. Is it being able to play with kids or grandkids? Traveling? Hiking? Sailing? Creating delicious meals in the kitchen? Identifying what is most important in your life will inform which activities will be on your personal Centenarian Decathlon.

“When creating your list of 10 functional activities, pair them with exercises that cultivate the type of abilities you would need to enjoy the activities you love,” says Dr. Bonnet. “For example, if you want to be able to play with a grandchild, being able to ‘lift 30 pounds from a squat position’ would be a valuable objective, as it would mimic picking up a small child from the floor.”

Here are examples of activities and values for a Centenarian Decathlon.

If you:

  • Enjoy bike rides with your spouse – Ride a bike for 1 hour.
  • Live in the snow and value being independent – Shovel snow off a driveway.
  • Enjoy playing golf with friends – Play 18 holes of golf.
  • Enjoy walking your dog – Walk 10,000 steps in a day.
  • Enjoy international travel – Lift a 20-pound suitcase into the overhead compartment. Climb 30 stairs without stopping.
  • Enjoy cooking – Lift a cast iron skillet with one hand. Carry two five-pound bags of groceries up four flights of stairs. Open a jar.
  • Enjoy being in nature – Hike up a steep hill for 10 minutes, operate a kayak, or whatever your favorite outdoor activity is.
  • Enjoy swimming in a pool – Tread water for 10 minutes. Get out of a pool without a ladder.
  • Enjoy dancing with your family in the kitchen – Perform 30 jumping jacks in one set for aerobic endurance.
  • Enjoy playing with children – Deadlift 30 pounds (to lift a young child from their crib or the floor). Get up off the floor using only one arm for support.

Lastly, it’s important to include activities that meet the following four fitness goals, which are important for healthy aging.

Fitness Goals Important for Healthy Aging:

1) Build muscle strength by doing activities such as:

  • Perform 10 push-ups in one set.
  • Perform 20 squats in one set.
  • Perform 10 bicep curls with 20-pound weights.

2) Cultivate stability, flexibility, mobility, and balance by doing activities such as:

  • Complete 30 minutes of Yoga or Pilates.
  • Walk up and down stairs with feet pointed perfectly forward (this is a sign of good ankle mobility).
  • Do a plank in perfect form for one minute (any core workout).

3) Increase maximal aerobic capacity (i.e., VO2 max or maximum oxygen consumption)

You can increase VO2 max with interval workouts where you give roughly 90 percent effort for a short amount of time (ideally 3-5 minutes), followed by a recovery period. Shorter intervals can be used initially to increase VO2 max, however, the duration of sessions should be increased for optimal results.

Examples include:

  • Perform 30 jumping jacks in 40 seconds, followed by 30-40 second recovery period (work up to repeating 6 times).
  • Perform 3 minutes of stair climbing, followed by a 3-minute recovery (work up to repeating five times).
  • Perform 4 minutes of interval running followed by a 4-minute recovery (work up to repeating)

4) Improve aerobic efficiency

You can improve aerobic efficiency with longer duration, steady state physical activity. These workouts are done at a much lower intensity, where you can hold a conversation, but not sing a song. The absolute intensity will vary depending on fitness, but could include activities, such as:

  • Walking 3-4 miles in 1 hour
  • Jogging for 30 minutes while maintaining a conversation
  • Riding a bike for 45 minutes at a 12-14 mph pace

“Each of these areas is important, though having a high VO2 max will generally allow one to do most things on a Decathlon list. If you can jog, that means you can hike. If you can hike, that means you can walk for three miles. If you can walk for three miles, you can likely go up a flight of stairs, and so on,” says Dr. Bonnet. “It’s not that VO2 max is magical by itself, it’s that it requires a certain amount of strength, stability, and aerobic efficiency to be able to attain a high VO2 max level.”

 

Now, take a moment to make YOUR list of 10 activities you’d like to do when you’re 100 (or in your final decade). Be sure to have a mix of strength, stability, VO2 max, and aerobic efficiency activities. Add a column to the right to note why this activity is valuable to you.

For example, at age 100, I want to:

  • Deadlift at least 50 pounds | in order to pick a suitcase up off the ground
  • Do a body weight step up | in order to be able to get up off the floor unassisted
  • Climb 4 flights of stairs in 3 minutes | in order to walk independently (e.g., hike up a hill, walk up a broken escalator at an airport, etc.) without requiring an elevator or ramp
  • Walk 2 miles in 1 hour | in order to walk my dog every evening

Continue until you’ve reached 10 activities.

Centenarian Decathlon is a Framework for Longevity

Now that you have your list, you need to make a plan regarding how you’re going to achieve the 10 goals listed on your personal Centenarian Decathlon. Since we naturally lose strength and aerobic capacity as we age, whatever it is we want to be able to do at age 100, we need to be doing much more now.

In his book, Dr. Attia writes: “Over the next thirty or forty years, your muscle strength will decline by about 8 to 17 per­cent per decade—accelerating as time goes on. So, if you want to pick up that thirty-pound grandkid or great-grandkid when you’re eighty, you’re going to have to be able to lift about fifty to fifty-five pounds now. Without hurting yourself. Can you do that?”

It’s time to ask ourselves, if we want to attain these 10 goals, what daily actions must we do now to get there?

Look at your list of 10 activities and add a column: What do I need to do now to be able to do this activity at age 100? Include the area of fitness and be sure all four areas are addressed at least once in your list of 10.

Note: a general rule of thumb that can be used to estimate approximate strength loss over 50 years is that the load at age 40 should be roughly 150 percent of what the intended goal is at 90 years old.

For example, at age 100, I want to:

  • Deadlift 30 pounds | in order to pick up a suitcase off the ground | so, now I need to deadlift 75 pounds (muscle strength)
  • Do a body weight step up | in order to be able to get up off the floor unassisted | so, now I need to do a step up holding dumbbells equal to 50 percent of my body weight (stability, balance, flexibility, mobility, muscle strength)
  • Climb 4 flights of stairs in 3 minutes | in order to walk independently (e.g., hike up a hill, walk up a broken escalator at an airport, etc.) without requiring an elevator or ramp | so, now I need to do climb 10 flights of stairs in 3 minutes (VO2 max)
  • Walk 2 miles in 1 hour | in order to walk my dog every evening | so, now I need to walk 5 miles in 1.5 hours two times per week (aerobic efficiency)

Continue until you’ve reached 10 activities.

Revisit this list every five years to update the column: Am I on track? What do I need to do now to be able to do this activity at age 100?

There you have it! Now you have a personalized framework for longevity and a specific pathway to win your very own Centenarian Decathlon. Be sure to take out this list on your 100th birthday and try out each activity!

“Having a personalized Centenarian Decathlon is valuable because it translates activities that matter most to you into tangible metrics that can be tracked over time,” says Dr. Bonnet. “While we may not be competing for a gold medal at the Olympics, the Centenarian Decathlon promises something better. A lifetime of being able to do the things we love with the people (and pets) that matter most.”

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Optimism as a Means to a Longer Life

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By Jonanne Talebloo

This blog is part of our Gratitude & Reflection newsletter. If you like this content, sign up to receive our monthly newsletter!

We have all heard the saying “mind over matter” when it comes to athletics and physical challenges. But can this saying be applied to health, healing, aging, and longevity? Studies suggest that optimism may play a leading role in improving not only one’s emotional well-being but also physical health and increasing lifespan.

Optimism, defined as the tendency to be hopeful and expect positive outcomes, has been linked to improved mental health and well-being in that it uplifts one’s mood and outlook on life. Optimism alone may not be the silver bullet for health and happiness, but studies show that it is one of many factors that can positively influence health, longevity, and lifespan.

For example, research shows that optimism helps diminish stress and anxiety, which lowers the stress hormone cortisol. Elevated levels of cortisol and blood pressure have been linked to an increased risk of stroke, hypertension and heart attack. Chronic stress can have negative effects on almost all of our bodily systems, including the endocrine system, where stress can impair communication between the immune system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and potentially lead to immune disorders.

Optimism also assists with healing. Akivah Northern is part of the Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Gratitude and Reflection Pillar and earning her doctoral degree in Religion and Health at Loma Linda University. She is a chaplain, which are professionals who listen and accompany patients and their families in life-threatening, physical, existential, moral, or spiritual distress. Northern is the founder of a soon-to-open healthcare center that incorporates lifestyle medicine, chaplaincy intervention, and the arts.

“Optimism is not just helpful, it is vital for those who are suffering,” says Northern. “As a chaplain, I engaged patients in optimism and hope, instilled a sense of the sacred, and offered explorations regarding ultimate meanings. These conversations served as calming, hope-filled, and relieving medicine for patients.”

Optimism and Longevity

Recent studies have explored the connection between optimism and longevity and how a person with a positive outlook has the potential to live a longer, healthier life. A recent study revealed that optimism (defined as “the global expectation that things will turn out well in the future” and measured by cortisol stress reactivity and questionnaires) was linked to decreased cortisol levels, which is an important factor regarding increased longevity. Another study found that higher levels of optimism (assessed using the Revised Optimism-Pessimism Scale) were linked to increasing lifespan by as much as 15 percent.

In a review article examining a variety of health and longevity benefits associated with optimism, researchers found a whole host of benefits. Highlights from the review were that greater optimism predicted greater career success, better social relations, and better health. The article also concluded that the positive effects of optimism appeared to reflect individuals with a greater engagement in pursuit of desired goals. Another large-scale study showed that the link between optimism and increased longevity was independent of ethnic origin and applied across many racial and ethnic groups.

In order to understand how optimism can make such dramatic impacts on our health and longevity, the neural underpinnings of optimism have also been studied. Research suggests optimism activates areas of the brain involved in mood regulation, attention allocation, emotional expression, language processing, and perception of oneself. Modulating these areas with our thoughts may improve psychological well-being by improving one’s perception of the world, themselves, and self-expression.  

“Optimism is the opposite of stress, worry and anxiety, which can increase inflammation and chronic illness in the body,” says Northern. “By leaning toward a calming and optimistic way of being, we are increasing not only our mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being, but also our physical health and longevity.”

Optimism can be Cultivated

Although optimism is defined as a trait ingrained in individuals, people can learn to develop optimism over time. Learned optimism can be cultivated through music, gatherings, and culture in community. This sense of community strengthened by optimism can promote individual well-being, contribute to advancements in public health, and even inspire social change on a global scale.

An example of cultivated optimism through culture and community is the fact that millions of Iranian women worldwide have learned to adopt an optimistic attitude in their fight for freedom and equality. Research also shows that optimism improves resilience, another essential characteristic for Iranian women. Optimism and resilience among the Iranian diaspora have been the foundation of a global community that continues to inspire change regarding women’s rights. 

Optimism can also be developed at the individual level by working with internal thoughts, such as breaking pessimistic thought patterns or cultivating the experience of gratitude by keeping a gratitude journal. Another way to work towards adopting an optimistic mindset is by challenging and re-writing negative self-talk. For example, this can mean changing phrases such as “I will never be able to do this.” to “This is a challenge I look forward to working towards overcoming.” Furthermore, one study notably found that optimism can be increased through a very simple intervention in which individuals imagined their best possible self for five minutes each day.

“Our internal dialogue is everything. What we tell ourselves, the language we use on the inside will come out on the outside,” says Northern. “So, we need to be intentional about being optimistic, generous, and forgiving—this will make such a difference not only for those around us, but for our own health and healing.”

 

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