In my working life of nearly 30 years and through my mentoring programme I have observed how so many people (including myself) struggled to look after themselves while trying to build and sustain a career.
As I got older performing well physically and at work became a little bit harder each year so I looked but could never find good sources, that could provide holistic age specific advice on how to be fit, eat the right nutrition, and recover well to help me perform.
In 2021 I got seriously ill when a virus damaged my heart, and I experienced the challenges a person with a serious health condition has trying to get back to health. Again, when I looked there wasn’t any content to help me.
I have now left the corporate world and run a practice called Longevity Performance Coaching that works with people to improve their longevity, especially in middle age.
The reality of people’s starting point with us, is that everyone I work with has been negatively impacted both physically and mentally by working and by today’s digitally enabled lifestyle.
The problem is that as we age past 30 years old, muscle and bone density deteriorate, metabolism slows down and hormones change. At this point the natural capabilities of youth disappear and everything you have to do gets a little bit harder each year.
But just at the point when you need to invest effort in off setting ageing, careers begin to peak, families are created and spare time evaporates.
If you watch Facebook, YouTube or Instagram, I bet there is a constant stream of wellness and fitness influencers promoting complex and time consuming practices, which are probably beneficial but so few people actually follow them because they don’t have the time.
You may also listen to Podcasts where academics and doctors present clear research and data showing that investing in fitness, nutrition and recovery have a significant benefit. Yet the majority of people don’t follow these practices.
If you are really unlucky you may have attended a work wellness course where the instructor who is normally into yoga and a vegan, but doesn’t really work much themselves provides “inspiring” advice on how you should look after your health and wellbeing while at work.
The reality is that although people in the developed world with a comfortable income have the content and resources like never before, to look after their physical and mental state, life expectancy is stagnating or even falling.
We pretend we are immortal. Ageing and death is ignored until it happens. There isn’t a manual for 30 year olds that sets out what will happen to your body when you are 50, 60 or older. The media present confusing and fragmented information on health. Health professionals offer very limited preventative advice and services. So through confusion and a lack of focus, we avoid the reality of ageing and prioritising the preparatory actions that can be taken to off set ageing impacts in later life.
We have low batteries. Work and family/social life (especially with all the digital content distractions) take up a huge amount of waking time. Not only does it take time, but the intensity and complexity of many work and life roles these days, leave people with limited motivational energy to do much else. Once you stop being active, it is very hard to start getting fit and healthy again, it’s even harder with a low motivation battery.
We love a comfort zone. In the developed countries we have got used to being comfortable. Few tasks are physically hard and if you want, you don’t need to leave the house, thanks to home delivery and broadband. Yet our bodies and minds are stimulated by hard challenges. The saying if you don’t use it you lose it, is very true.
We are very similar to Great White Sharks. If we don’t keep moving we die, as being sedentary results in our bodies developing chronic health conditions (Cardiovascular disease, Obesity, Osteoporosis, Type 2 Diabetes), that are very likely to kill us. To prove the point, recent research found a 47% reduction in All Cause Mortality if a person maintains aerobic and strength training till they are 75 (Source BMJ Volume 56 Issue 22).
I suspect all readers want to improve their longevity to both enjoy what you do now and continue to do those things long into the future.
If I asked you are you doing the minimum recommended activity levels suggested by the UK NHS, of 150 minutes of moderate to hard aerobic exercise a week, two resistance sessions a week and following the Eat Well nutrition guidelines, I bet many readers aren’t consistently getting close to these recommendations.
By the way this is the minimum standard, the ideal is much more which makes fitting that in while working and living very difficult.
You can keep moving if you have positive habits around fitness, daily activity, nutrition, hydration, recovery, sleep, stress and social contact. But developing and maintaining these habits is really hard due to all the competing priorities. Which is why so few people are able to really look after themselves and need support and help to start and maintain their positive habits.
At Longevity Performance Coaching we provide that support.