To answer that question we need to look at why we die. For the purpose of this discussion we will exclude accidental death, suicide and of course death by murder.
The big killers are cancer, cardiovascular events and falling down and it should be noted that death is not always quick, you can live for years in a degraded state with a low quality of life.
It’s not enough to live long if you can’t live well!
The single best thing that you can do to live long and well is to live STRONG and the best way to do that is through strength training.
Lifting weights is not going to cure cancer but if I received that awful diagnosis I would probably decline chemo and radiation and simply go on the Ketogenic diet and continue to lift weights with an emphasis on compound movements.
Ketogenic diets have been shown to prevent tumors from growing and since many times cancer patients die from body wasting, having strength and lean muscle might give me some extra time to wrap things up and maybe even have some fun!
Strength training builds muscle and if you are doing compound movements such as the bench, the squat, the deadlift and an overhead press, you are working your heart which is a muscle and you are working your entire cardiovascular system. Many people survive heart attacks but most do so in a diminished state, same with strokes.
You probably never thought of “falling down” as a killer but it just might be the cruelest of them all! We lose our balance and fall, break a hip, clavicle, ankle, wrist, arm, whatever. All of sudden we’re crippled, in pain and slow to heal. Did I mention lose of mobility and one day confined to bed? Every action a major effort!
Strength training, again the only real weapon if you don’t want weak bones. Remember, your bones are alive and if you don’t use them you lose them.
And so it seems that having strength and muscle is not just for aesthetics as strength and muscle are required for mobility and functionality.
“Expectations without a plan are just a thought.”
Life Part II +Encore 