Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart – Until You’re 80 and Beyond, by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, MD

Category: Non-fiction; Rating: 3 out of 5; Ageing, Fitness, Health

The thinking about ageing has changed in the last couple of decades.  We used to be told that there wasn’t a lot we could do to change the trajectory of our declining years.  The biggest factor in determining lifespan, we were told, was genetic – if your parents lived a long time, then so might you.  Similarly, we were told to expect a constant, steady decline in our fitness and health as we aged, and there wasn’t much we could do about it.

Turns out that’s wrong.  Regular, vigorous exercise and a healthy diet can actually prevent around 70% of the decay associated with ageing.  The sore joints, obesity and apathy attributed to so-called “normal” ageing aren’t normal at all, and can be prevented.  It’s no big secret: the key is to exercise regularly and eat healthily.  Younger Next Year recommends vigorous exercise six times a week, including four sessions of aerobic exercise and two of resistance training (weights).

“Vigorous” means that you have to work pretty hard, going to failure with the weights, and including time at 70-75% of your maximum heart rate plus some all-out sprints during your aerobic workouts (but only after you’ve slowly worked up to it if you haven’t been exercising regularly already).

The advice about nutrition is straight-forward – stop eating crap.  Don’t diet, just eat sensibly, and not too much.

There’s one more requirement for a long and healthy life, and that’s to care.  Whether it’s a loved one, a community, a job or a cause, people with someone or something to care about do better than those who don’t.

There’s nothing here that we don’t already know, but there is something about the way this book is written that makes it an effective motivator.  It emphasizes the control we have over our health, the benefits of healthy behaviour, and the ailments we can prevent.

It’s not really an exercise book, as it doesn’t go into a lot of detail about what to do – there are no lists of weight-lifting exercises or recommended run-walk-sprint intervals.  It’s not a diet book, either, as it doesn’t have any meal plans or calorie counts.  What it really is, as a friend of mine commented, is a “crowbar” book – it pries you off the couch and gets you moving, and that’s a very good thing.

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Fit to Curl: Sport-Specific Training for the World’s Greatest Game, by John Morris with Dean Gemmell

This book will change the way I exercise.  For strength training, I’ve been doing nothing but core and upper body exercises.  I figured jogging and cycling would take care of my legs.  But for curling, I’m going to need extra strength in my legs, and Johnny Mo has some good ideas on how to get there.  I’ll also add some interval training to my running and swimming, instead of just endurance training.  That way I’ll get used to the bursts of energy needed for sweeping.

There’s a lot of justification up front, explaining why curlers really need these specific exercises if they want to improve.  If you’re already sold on that part, you can just skip to the exercises.  There’s lots of variety for core, upper body, and legs, and suggestions for training sessions for beginners, intermediate, and advanced athletes.  That’s a good thing, because I think the advanced sessions would kill me.  It’s all well laid out and clearly explained, and I just know it’s going to make me a lot better on the ice from now on.