We all have things in our lives that we want to improve. At least, I hope we all do. Whenever I need to figure out the next thing I need to focus on, the first question that I ask is; What is the biggest pain point? It seems to me that eliminating whatever is causing the most pain is the issue that should be the highest priority.

How does this work in the realm of health and fitness? If we want to be healthy and fit, it’s probably logical to not want to be the opposite of healthy and fit. Well, it seems to me that “dead” is a pretty good opposite from healthy, so maybe we could start with what is most likely to lead to being dead. This seems pretty sound, to me.

So, I went ahead and looked up statistics on the leading causes of death in the U.S. Not surprisingly, heart disease was the #1 factor. In fact, also not surprisingly, heart disease has been the #1 factor for quite some time.

When I started to dig into it, I found that heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the U.S. every single year since 1910! So, what about 1909? Well, I’m glad you asked. In 1909, the leading cause of death was tuberculosis….though, heart disease was a close second.

What I found even more interesting was that heart disease was the fourth leading cause of death in 1900, behind Pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhea and other intestinal diseases. So, in 10 years, heart disease went from fourth to first.

By 1950, heart disease was so far in the lead that the #2 cause of death (cancer) was behind heart disease by 40%! And, by the year 2000, while cancer had caught up a bit and was only 22% behind, in third place was stroke which was 76% behind heart disease. 

Some of the other causes on the top 10 list were:

• Respiratory diseases
• Diabetes
• Cerebrovascular diseases
• Suicide

It may interest you to know what, while I’m sure it’s pretty obvious to most people that better nutrition and increased activity (a.k.a. exercise) can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, exercise and good nutrition are also beneficial for reducing risk of these other causes on the top 10 list….yes, even cancer and suicide in some cases.

I won’t have time to get too deeply into those things today, but can cover that more in the future. Suffice it to say, physical training and good nutrition have enormous benefits beyond just what might be obvious to most people

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Besides the looming specter of death, there are other reasons for physical training. As much as it may be common for people to enjoy being pampered and taken care of, most of us do have a limit. Having someone cook, clean, do laundry, etc. is nice, but when we start getting into needing help to get off the toilet, I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a serious problem with that.

Unfortunately, without proper training, that’s where many of us are headed. The sad reality is that, as we age, we are subject to certain processes which, if not addressed head on, can lead to a life of dependence on other people for some of the most basic functions; getting out of bed, standing up from a chair and wiping our own butts.

You see, once we get to a certain age, we begin to lose muscle mass. This process actually has a name, sarcopenia. Big surprise that there should be some fancy Greek word for it. Sarcopenia literally means “flesh poverty.” Here, “flesh” is a reference to muscle.

Another thing we lose is bone density. Once again, the linguists come to our rescue with another Greek term, osteopenia. As you might have already guessed, this could be translated as “bone poverty.” 

By eating a healthier diet consisting of whole, unprocessed foods, we provide our body with the best nutrients to help build muscle and bone tissue. And by engaging in strength training, we force the body to keep up our muscle mass and bone density in order to adapt to the heavy loads that we subject our bodies to. All of this happens because of something that has been called the “stress, recovery, adaptation cycle” which is a more modern take on the General Adaptation Syndrome, developed by Hans Seley in about 1936.

We’ll have an episode coming up soon that explores that cycle in more detail, but for now, just recognize that this is what causes your body to respond to heavy resistance training by adding muscle and bone mass so that you can stay strong.

In addition to physical strength, exercise can help with depression in many cases, as well. Now, I’m not a psychologist or a doctor of any kind, so please, if you struggle with depression, make sure you get help from a qualified expert. But, studies have shown that physical exercise can improve moods, build confidence and help with depression.

At a technical, physiological level, this is partly because exercise can speed up metabolism and increase blood flow to the brain, which can improve your mood.

From a more emotional standpoint, successfully lifting something really heavy and completing your programmed number of reps and sets can be a psychological “win” which can help make you feel better as well. Most of us feel better when we accomplish something difficult. Lifting a heavy barbell for 3 sets of 5 is something difficult.

If all of that weren’t enough already, here are just a few more things that exercise can help with:

• Glaucoma
• High blood pressure
• Insomnia
• Lung disease
• Varicose veins

With all these benefits to gain, it doesn’t seem like there’s a downside. So, why not get moving! You can join a gym for as little as $10 a month in some places. Or, you can work with someone who meets at a park or even someone who does online training.

Whatever you do, do something. It doesn’t have to be complicated to make some improvement. Not only that, but you may just find that you actually learn to enjoy it. Start today and keep those weird Greek words about sarcopenia and osteopenia away from you.. But please, do something to get healthier and stronger so we can knock heart disease off the top 10 list once and for all..

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