<ul><li>Everybody should be screened early in life.</li><li>The frequency with which you need to test really comes down to the state of interventions. It doesn't make sense to just do blood tests for the sake of doing blood tests. There has to be kind of a reason. Is something changing?</li><li>A blood test is, for the most part, a static intervention. It's a look at a window in time. And there's benefit in having a few of those over the course of a year if you're unsure about a level.</li><li>Doctors might check blood 2-4 times a year, but they can also do things there to check reactions to certain drugs or diets.</li></ul>

The frequency of blood work

The 2 vectors of longevity: lifespan (whether you are alive and breathing) and healthspan (how many healthy years you live).<ul><li>What gets in the way of lifespan? The four horsemen of disease: atherosclerotic disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic disease, which directly isn't the cause of many deaths, but creates the foundation for all of those other diseases. Blood testing of biomarkers provides pretty good insight into lifespan.</li><li>When you get into healthspan, you have kind of the cognitive, physical, and emotional domains. Here, the biomarkers are far less helpful, and you re<warningtag>ly more on functional testing.</warningtag></li></ul>

Vectors of longevity

<ul><li>Atherosclerotic disease: ApoB is the most important biomarker.</li><li>There’s a blind spot when it comes to cancer: blood testing & biomarker testing for cancer aren’t usually the most helpful unless/until blood biopsies are more prevalent.</li><li>Biomarkers can be helpful for dementia but not most other neurodegenerative diseases – “The same things that drive the risk of heart disease are driving the risk of dementia.”</li><li>Lipoprotein(a): you are born with this; it’s the single most prevalent genetic driver of atherosclerosis (but unfortunately most physicians don’t know what it is).</li></ul>

On biomarkers

An annual DEXA scan is a more comprehensive measurement than BMI – but you certainly want to monitor weight.A DEXA is a moving x-ray. So you lay down on a bed and it takes maybe 10 minutes and this little, very low power x-ray goes over your body. It measures body fat percentage, bone mineral density, visceral fat, appendicular & lean mass metrics; visually, the definition of your abs is not a bad way to assess your fat visually

Quantitative measurements of weight, BMI, for the typical person

A marginal decade is the last decade of your life. So everyone will have a marginal decade. And outside of people who die suddenly or through an accident, most of us know when we're in that marginal decade.Until a person can tell you what it is that they want to be doing in that last decade, you can't design a program to get them there. Explicitly define what you want your marginal decade to look like, and then you sort of back script from there, figure out what you should be doing, given their current health status. This is called backcasting.

The marginal decade

Smoking is approximately a 40% increase in the risk of ACM (all-cause mortality). It means at any point in time, there's a 40% greater risk that you're going to die relative to a non-smoker and a never-smoker.It doesn't mean your lifespan is going to be 40% less. It means at any point in time, your risk of death is 40% higher. At some point that catches up.

Smoking as a cause of mortality

Augmenting acetylcholine through nicotine (not by smoking) is effective for enhancing concentration and focus.On the list of things that you can do to make your brain a little more focused, this is infinitely safer than what a lot of people are doing, which is using stimulants.

Nicotine and cognitive focus

There's a group of people who think "if I could just fix my testosterone, everything will be better." But actually, that's not true at all. The only purpose of fixing testosterone is to give you the capacity to work harder. It's really going to help you recover more from your workouts. This should just give you a greater ability to experience muscle protein synthesis.So if you get a bunch of testosterone and you sit on the couch and your nutrition doesn't change and you're not exercising anymore, you're not going to experience any benefits of this thing.

"Fixing" testosterone

<ul><li>ApoB is the concentration of LDL and VLDL particles. And they carrycholesterol and triglycerides. So anything that reduces cholesterol and reduces triglycerides, is going to reduce ApoB.</li><li>Triglycerides are generally driven by carbohydrate intake. So more insulin resistance, more carbohydrate intake, and more triglycerides. If you restrict carbohydrates, you will reduce triglycerides. But if you reduce triglycerides by raising fat intake so much, it can still raise ApoB.</li><li>Statins work by inhibiting cholesterol synthesis; the liver is really sensitive to cholesterol levels - it doesn't want too much<warningtag>, it doesn't want too little. When you inhibit cholesterol synthesis, the liver says, I want more cholesterol. So it puts more LDL receptors on its surface, and it pulls the LDL out of circulation. That's what lowers the LDL in circulation.</warningtag></li></ul>

Apolipoprotein B, diet, and statins

Metabolomics is just the study of metabolites. Metabolites can be defined as endogenous compounds such as amino acids, lipids, sugars, organic acids, etc., which are routinely being formed in the anabolism or catabolism process.

Metabolomics 

What is the best way to live longer? Here are a few factors within your control

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

longevity

Longevity

food

Food

health

Health

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

How To Live A Long Life

My guest this episode is Dr. Peter Attia, M.D., who trained at Stanford University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Attia is host of The Drive podcast and is a world expert on behavioral approaches, nutritional interventions, supplementation and pharmacological techniques to improve lifespan, healthspan and athletic performance. We discuss how best to evaluate your health status using routine blood work, body scans and regular tests of physical strength and endurance. Dr. Attia explains what he uses with his patients to “back-cast” their health goals as a way to design their exercise and nutritional programs. We also discuss hormone modulation and replacement therapy for both men and women. We explain how cholesterol and related factors contribute to cardiovascular disease risk and how to monitor and mitigate that risk. Dr. Attia details various supplementation, nutrition, exercise and prescription approaches useful to people in every decade of life to improve vitality, reduce their risk of disease and increase the number of years sustaining peak cognitive and physical health.  Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman Thesis: https://takethesis.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com Timestamps (00:00:00) Assessing Health Status & Improving Vitality  (00:02:51) Momentous Supplements  (00:03:46) Thesis, InsideTracker, Helix Sleep  (00:07:29) Lifespan: Bloodwork & Biomarkers Testing, The “4 Horseman of Disease”  (00:11:51) Healthspan: Functional Testing, Cognitive & Emotional States  (00:13:59) Blood Testing: Best Frequency  (00:16:01) DEXA Scan: Lean Mass & Fat, Bone Mineral Density & Osteoporosis  (00:22:33) Bone Mineral Density & Age-Related Decline, Strength Training, Corticosteroids  (00:29:24) Osteopenia & Osteoporosis Diagnosis, Strength Training (00:31:03) AG1 (Athletic Greens) (00:32:16) Back-casting: Defining Your “Marginal Decade”  (00:38:31) All-Cause Mortality: Smoking, Strength, VO2 max  (00:44:43) Attia’s Rule of Supplementation, “Centenarian Decathlete” Physical Goals (00:49:24) Importance of Exercise, Brain Health, MET hours  (00:55:23) Nicotine & Cognitive Focus (01:03:12) Menstruation, PMS & Menopause  (01:10:10) Hormone Replacement Therapy, Menopause & Breast Cancer Risk (01:22:06) Estrogen, Progesterone & Testosterone Therapies in Women (01:26:35) Hormone Replacement Therapy in Men, SHBG & Testosterone, Insulin (01:37:23) Clomid, Pituitary, Testosterone & Cholesterol, Anastrozole, HCG (01:47:46) Fadogia Agrestis, Supplements, Rapamycin  (01:52:06) Testosterone Replacement Therapy & Fertility  (01:59:26) Total Testosterone vs. Free Testosterone (02:02:51) Cholesterol & Dietary Cholesterol, Saturated Fat, LDL & HDL, Apolipoprotein B (02:17:42) Apolipoprotein B, Diet, Statins & Other Cholesterol Prescriptions  (02:25:15) Cardiovascular Disease, Age & Disease Risk  (02:28:53) Peptides, Stem Cells, BPC157, PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma), Injury Rehabilitation  (02:37:40) Metabolomics & Exercise  (02:40:44) GLP-1 & Weight Loss  (02:47:06) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, Instagram, Twitter, Neural Network Newsletter, Huberman Lab Clips Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

My guest this episode is Dr. Peter Attia, M.D., who trained at Stanford University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Attia is host of The Drive podcast and is a world expert on behavioral approaches, nutritional interventions, supplementation and pharmacological techniques to improve lifespan, healthspan and athletic performance. We discuss how best to evaluate your health status using routine blood work, body scans and regular tests of physical strength and endurance. Dr. Attia explains what he uses with his patients to “back-cast” their health goals as a way to design their exercise and nutritional programs. We also discuss hormone modulation and replacement therapy for both men and women. We explain how cholesterol and related factors contribute to cardiovascular disease risk and how to monitor and mitigate that risk. Dr. Attia details various supplementation, nutrition, exercise and prescription approaches useful to people in every decade of life to improve vitality, reduce their risk of disease and increase the number of years sustaining peak cognitive and physical health.  For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Assessing Health Status & Improving Vitality  (00:03:07) Sponsors: AG1, LMNT (00:07:29) Lifespan: Bloodwork & Biomarkers Testing, The “4 Horseman of Disease”  (00:11:51) Healthspan: Functional Testing, Cognitive & Emotional States  (00:13:59) Blood Testing: Best Frequency  (00:16:01) DEXA Scan: Lean Mass & Fat, Bone Mineral Density & Osteoporosis  (00:22:33) Bone Mineral Density & Age-Related Decline, Strength Training, Corticosteroids  (00:29:24) Osteopenia & Osteoporosis Diagnosis, Strength Training (00:29:52) Sponsor: AG1 (00:32:16) Back-casting: Defining Your “Marginal Decade”  (00:38:31) All-Cause Mortality: Smoking, Strength, VO2 max  (00:44:43) Attia’s Rule of Supplementation, “Centenarian Decathlete” Physical Goals (00:49:24) Importance of Exercise, Brain Health, MET hours  (00:55:23) Nicotine & Cognitive Focus (01:03:12) Menstruation, PMS & Menopause  (01:10:10) Hormone Replacement Therapy, Menopause & Breast Cancer Risk (01:22:06) Estrogen, Progesterone & Testosterone Therapies in Women (01:26:35) Hormone Replacement Therapy in Men, SHBG & Testosterone, Insulin (01:37:23) Clomid, Pituitary, Testosterone & Cholesterol, Anastrozole, HCG (01:47:46) Fadogia Agrestis, Supplements, Rapamycin  (01:52:06) Testosterone Replacement Therapy & Fertility  (01:59:26) Total Testosterone vs. Free Testosterone (02:02:51) Cholesterol & Dietary Cholesterol, Saturated Fat, LDL & HDL, Apolipoprotein B (02:17:42) Apolipoprotein B, Diet, Statins & Other Cholesterol Prescriptions  (02:25:15) Cardiovascular Disease, Age & Disease Risk  (02:28:53) Peptides, Stem Cells, BPC157, PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma), Injury Rehabilitation  (02:37:40) Metabolomics & Exercise  (02:40:44) GLP-1 & Weight Loss  (02:47:06) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, Instagram, Twitter, Neural Network Newsletter, Huberman Lab Clips Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

Huberman Lab discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has consistently published original research findings and review articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of several National Institutes of Health review panels and a Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology development companies, professional athletic organizations, and various units of U.S. and Canadian Special Operations.

Huberman Lab

Dr. Peter Attia: Exercise, Nutrition, Hormones for Vitality & Longevity

Dr. Peter Attia: Exercise, Nutrition, Hormones for Vitality & Longevity | Episode 85

Short answer: Yes. "Your body can't tell the difference between bending over to pull out a weed and bending down to pick up a kettlebell," explains <a href="http://w8lifterusa.com/">Robert S. Herbst </a>, a personal trainer and world champion powerlifter. So, in short, don't discount all the physical activities that you engage in without intending to exercise. Non-exercise activities are a great way to not only improve your health, but also complete tasks more easily and reduce your risk of injury (no more pulling a muscle carrying the groceries in). Here are 10 everyday activities that count as exercise, according to experts.

Can Daily Activities Count As An Exercise

Anyone who's ever mowed the lawn by hand in the height of summer knows that it's a true workout. Nunez explains: "Aside from the low impact and cardiovascular benefits, mowing the lawn requires a lot of functional movement primal patterns in the process of set up, mowing the lawn and clean up."Other types of yard work that are a great workout include gardening, weeding, shoveling snow or leaves and much more.

Yard or Lawn Care

Who says your hour-long daily walk can't be through the aisles of Target? Seriously, though, errands often involve plenty of walking, carrying, lifting and other movements.

Running Errands

Cleaning the house can involve a wide range of physical movements -- going up and down stairs, carrying things from room to room, pushing and pulling the mop or broom and more.

Cleaning the House

Need we say more? You may be more occupied with getting your pup exercise during their daily walk, but don't forget that you're getting your steps in at that time, too.

Walking the Dog

You may have heard that <a href="https://www.cnet.com/health/fitness/the-best-thing-you-can-do-for-your-health-right-now-standing-up/">sitting for long periods of time is bad for you </a> . But getting up and moving your body every 30 minutes or so is helpful, and walking is great exercise, period -- whether it's to the mailbox, down the hall to wave to your coworker or to grab a snack.

Walking, Anywhere

If you take public transportation regularly, you probably get a ton of light- to moderate-intensity activity throughout your days just by getting to the bus or train. And if you're running late and have to jog a little, that's all the more effort expended.

The 'I'm late' Sprint

Got kids in your life? Getting involved in their play, rather than watching from the nearest couch or bench, will have you out of breath pretty quickly.

Playing With Kids

Maybe you like to go out dancing, or maybe you're more of the "solo dance party in your pajamas" type. Either way, know that dancing can be a full-body workout and great cardio, too.

Dancing

Ever heard of "laughter yoga"? One <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24246140/">2014 study </a>found that laughter yoga is a better ab workout than crunches or back lifting exercises. So, the more humor you find in your day, the better.

Laughing

Sexual activity is also a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-021-02246-8">moderate-intensity workout </a>. Though, of course, it depends on the specific activity, it uses even <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/what-are-mets#examples">more energy than weight training </a>.

Having Sex

Workout is important. Surprisingly, sweeping, lawn care and even running errands can count as a workout, according to experts.

Sweeping, lawn care and even running errands can count as a workout, according to experts.

You Can Skip the Gym With These 10 Everyday Activities That Count as a Workout

Superbrain yoga is a holistic, <a href="https://thehumancondition.com/somatic-psychotherapy-an-overview/">somatic (i.e., bodily] technique</a> used to enhance brain function, improve mood, and promote health. It is particularly popular as a method of improving school children’s cognitive function and performance. The technique of superbrain yoga involves crossing the arms, holding one’s earlobes, pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and performing 10 to 21 squats while controlling the breath.

Superbrain Yoga: Description and Benefits

The technique of superbrain yoga involves crossing the arms, holding one’s earlobes, pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and performing 10 to 21 squats while controlling the breath.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

meditation

Meditation

Superbrain Yoga: Description and Benefits - The Human Condition

This is a story of one person's unlikely success within the context of scores of embarassing failures.Was my eventual success primarily a result of talent, luck, hard work or an accidental just-right balance of each? All I know for sure is that I pursued a strategy of managing my opportunities in a way that would make it easier for luck to find me.

The systems model can be applied to most human endeavors:<ul><li>In the world of dieting - losing twenty pounds is a goal, but eating right is a system.</li><li>In the exercise/fitness realm - running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system.</li><li>In business - making a million pounds is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.</li></ul>

Goals V Systems

A goal Is a specific objective that you either achieve or don't some time in the future.If you are waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it's a goal. A system is something you do regularly which increases your odds of happiness in the long run.If you do something regularly, it's a system.

Think of your priorities in terms of concentric circles, like an archery target:1st ring - you. Take care of your health.2nd ring - economics. Your job, investments, property. If you don't get your personal finance engine working right, then you place a burden on your family and the country.3rd ring - family, friends and lovers. To truly enjoy life, you need to be right with these relations.4th ring - your local community, your country and the world, in that order. Dont bother to fix the world before controlling the inner circles.

The Energy Metric 

The smartest system for discerning your best path to success involves trying lots of different things - sampling.It's generally true that if no one is excited about your art/product/idea in the beginning, they never will be.Don't be fooled by the opinions of friends and family. They are all liars.

Recognising Your Talents

Every business or social activity requires a basic understanding of how the human brain perceives the world. We are all in the business of selling some version of ourselves. Psychology is embedded in everything we do.How much more effective would you be if you had a greater understanding of psychology? Answer: a lot.It's a good idea to make psychology your lifelong study. On a scale of one to ten, the importance of understanding psychology is a solid ten.

Psychology

A list of important patterns for success:<ol><li>Lack of fear of embarrassment - this allows one to be proactive. Its what makes someone take on challenges instead of writing it off as too risky.</li><li>Education - having the right level of education limits the risk of unemployment.</li><li>Excercise - good health is a baseline requirement for success. Exercises makes a person smarter, psychologically braver, more creative, more energetic, and more influential.</li></ol>

Pattern Recognition 

People who enjoy humour are simply more attractive than people who don't.Humour raises energy, this boost in energy makes you more willing to excercise, which raises your overall energy even more.A map of traps to avoid: <ul><li>Overcomplaining is never funny</li><li>Don't overdo self deprecation</li><li>Don't mock people</li><li>Avoid puns and wordplay</li></ul>

Humour 

People become unhappy if they have too many options in life.You want to feel like you have researched and considered all your options. ﻿Find great comfort in routine.The happiness formula:<ol><li>Eat right</li><li>Excercise</li><li>Get enough sleep</li><li>Imagine an incredible future </li><li>Work towards a flexible schedule</li><li>Do things you can steadily improve at</li><li>Help others (if you've already helped yourself)</li><li>Reduce daily decisions to routine </li></ol>

Happiness And Routine

Focus on your diet first so you have the right energy to excercise.Excercise improves your energy which in turn makes you more productive, more creative, more positive, more socially desirable, and more able to handle life's little bumps.Happiness is the only useful goal.Acquire as many key skills as possible, including public speaking, business writing, a working understanding of psychology, an understanding of basic technology concepts, social skills, proper voice technique, good grammar, and basic accounting.Think in terms of systems, not goals.

Summary

A compilation of key areas to focus on in order to increase your chances of success in life ✨️

Blasting clichéd career advice, the contrarian pundit and creator of Dilbert recounts the humorous ups and downs of his career, revealing the outsized role of luck in our lives and how best to play the system. Scott Adams has likely failed at more things than anyone you’ve ever met or anyone you’ve even heard of. So how did he go from hapless office worker and serial failure to the creator of Dilbert, one of the world’s most famous syndicated comic strips, in just a few years? In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Adams shares the game plan he’s followed since he was a teen: invite failure in, embrace it, then pick its pocket. No career guide can offer advice that works for everyone. As Adams explains, your best bet is to study the ways of others who made it big and try to glean some tricks and strategies that make sense for you. Adams pulls back the covers on his own unusual life and shares how he turned one failure after another—including his corporate career, his inventions, his investments, and his two restaurants—into something good and lasting. There’s a lot to learn from his personal story, and a lot of entertainment along the way. Adams discovered some unlikely truths that helped to propel him forward. For instance: • Goals are for losers. Systems are for winners. • “Passion” is bull. What you need is personal energy. • A combination of mediocre skills can make you surprisingly valuable. • You can manage your odds in a way that makes you look lucky to others. Adams hopes you can laugh at his failures while discovering some unique and helpful ideas on your own path to personal victory. As he writes: “This is a story of one person’s unlikely success within the context of scores of embarrassing failures. Was my eventual success primarily a result of talent, luck, hard work, or an accidental just-right balance of each? All I know for sure is that I pursued a conscious strategy of managing my opportunities in a way that would make it easier for luck to find me.”

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

problemsolving

Problem Solving

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Blasting clichéd career advice, the contrarian pundit and creator of Dilbert recounts the humorous ups and downs of his career, revealing the outsized role of luck in our lives and how best to play the system. Scott Adams has likely failed at more things than anyone you’ve ever met or anyone you’ve even heard of. So how did he go from hapless office worker and serial failure to the creator of Dilbert, one of the world’s most famous syndicated comic strips, in just a few years? In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Adams shares the game plan he’s followed since he was a teen: invite failure in, embrace it, then pick its pocket. No career guide can offer advice that works for everyone. As Adams explains, your best bet is to study the ways of others who made it big and try to glean some tricks and strategies that make sense for you. Adams pulls back the covers on his own unusual life and shares how he turned one failure after another—including his corporate career, his inventions, his investments, and his two restaurants—into something good and lasting. There’s a lot to learn from his personal story, and a lot of entertainment along the way. Adams discovered some unlikely truths that helped to propel him forward. For instance: • Goals are for losers. Systems are for winners. • “Passion” is bull. What you need is personal energy. • A combination of mediocre skills can make you surprisingly valuable. • You can manage your odds in a way that makes you look lucky to others. Adams hopes you can laugh at his failures while discovering some unique and helpful ideas on your own path to personal victory. As he writes: “This is a story of one person’s unlikely success within the context of scores of embarrassing failures. Was my eventual success primarily a result of talent, luck, hard work, or an accidental just-right balance of each? All I know for sure is that I pursued a conscious strategy of managing my opportunities in a way that would make it easier for luck to find me.”

Adams was born in Windham, New York in 1957 and received his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Hartwick College in 1979.He also studied economics and management for his 1986 MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.In recent years, Adams has been hurt with a series of debilitating health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of his focal dystonia which has affected his drawing. He can fool his brain by drawing using a graphics tablet. On December 12, 2005, Adams announced on his blog that he also suffers from spasmodic dysphonia.

Scott Adams

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

The reasons are plentiful, mostly involving motivation and time. And herein lies the beauty of dance.Estimates suggest that people can burn about 200 calories in 30 minutes from a quick-paced dance routine. And growing research suggests that dancing not only helps people stay in physical shape but also improves brain and mental health.

The trouble with exercise is that it’s easy to avoid

The reason dance is the ideal exercise is that it’s a total-body workout. It’s a great way to access all movement planes and access some muscles that get ignored in typical day-to-day activities.Depending on the type of dance, it can offer cardiovascular benefits by increasing your heart rate, it can help strengthen the lower and upper extremities through repeated muscle contractions, and it can challenge coordination and balance, especially when following a choreographed dance at different tempos.Once you get into it, dance also feels good.

Dance: The ideal exercise

Dancing appears to affect the brain in ways that extend beyond mental health conditions. One of the benefits of physical activity is that it enhances executive function and attention, processing speed, and memory. Dancing involves both a mental effort and social interaction. <ul><li>Regular dancing can help prevent cognitive decline as we age and is associated with a reduced risk of dementia.”</li><li>It can offer cardiovascular benefits by increasing your heart rate, it can help strengthen the lower and upper extremities through repeated muscle contractions, and it can challenge coordination and balance.</li></ul>

Dancing and brain health

<ul><li>Dancing on your own is a great option for those who are not able to attend a class or feel uncomfortable dancing around others.</li><li>To get the most out of a solo dance experience, consider scheduling it into your calendar once a week, experiment with different music, and try it out when feeling different moods. </li><li>Dance just for yourself, allowing any movements to flow that feel good — or pretend that someone is watching to enhance your personal dancing experience.</li></ul>

Dancing is accessible

How to make home workouts fun and accessible

remotework

Remote Work

sports

Sports

How to Start Working Out at Home

The trouble with exercise is that it’s easy to avoid. Only 23% of American adults meet the federal recommendations for two hours and 30 minutes of weekly aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercises…

Dancing May Be the Best Form of Exercise

<ul><li>Work out as a family. Exercising together will not only enable you to motivate each other but will reduce the chance of distraction from having to tend to the needs of little ones. </li><li>Schedule time to exercise. Try to make this the same time each day and ensure that the whole family knows that this is ‘exercise time.’ </li><li>Collate a ripper playlist. Great music makes all the difference! </li><li>Dress for the occasion. Changing into comfortable workout clothes and shoes will help put you in the right headspace for exercise.</li><li>Track your progress.</li><li>Reward yourself. Set yourself a simple, achievable goal and cho<warningtag>ose a (non-food related) reward.</warningtag></li></ul>

Tips for keeping motivated to move

You need: 2 dice, a mat or towel , and a timerRoll a dice to establish how many sets of each exercise you will do. Roll it again to establish how many repetitions you will do in each set. Then you complete the 8 exercises one after the other. Do the first round at low intensity to warm up. When you have finished have a breather/drink break and roll the dice again. Continue for a half hour.<ul><li>Squats with punches at the top</li><li>Star jumps</li><li>Tricep dips</li><li>Crunches</li><li>Lunges (alternating legs)</li><li>Sprints across the yard</li><li>Bicep curls </li><li>Reverse crunches.</li></ul>

Roll the Dice workout

You need: A deck of cards, mat or towel (for crunches and plank/hover holds), a timerTurn over one card at a time and do the exercise associated with the suit. The number on the card is the number of repetitions you will do. Ace = 1. Jack, Queen and King = 10. Jokers = 10 burpees. Work out at low intensity for the first five minutes to warm up. Do 15 minutes of each round with a breather/drink break in between.<ul><li>First round</li><li>Hearts: Calf raises</li><li>Spades: Front kicks</li><li>Diamonds: Push ups (knees or toes)</li><li>Clubs: Supermans</li></ul>Second round<ul><li>Hearts: Sumo (wide-legged) squats</li><li>Spades: Star jumps or step touches</li><li><warningtag>Diamonds: Bicep curls </warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Clubs: Reverse crunches.</warningtag></li></ul>

Deck of Cards workout

You need: A mat or towel (for crunches and plank/hover holds), a timerWorkout at low intensity for the first five minutes to warm up. When you get to the end have a breather/drink break and repeat 1-2 more times.<ul><li>30 sec of squats</li><li>30 sec of tricep dips</li><li>60 sec of supermans</li><li>30 sec of lunges </li><li>30 sec of bicep curls </li><li>60 sec  of crunches</li><li>30 sec of sumo (wide-legged) squats (as 10 full squats, 5 pulses)</li><li>30 sec of sprints across the yard</li><li>30 sec of pushups</li><li>60 sec plank/hover hold</li><li>30 sec calf raises</li><li>30 sec punching up high</li><li>60 sec star jumps or step touches</li><li>30 sec power knees</li><li>30 sec arm circles</li><li>60 sec side planks.</li></ul>

30/30/60 Workout

You need: A mat or towel (for crunches and plank/hover holds), a timer You complete 6 exercises for 45 seconds each with a 15-second rest in between each, but you get to choose from either List A (Heads) or List B (Tails). If you prefer, you can flip a coin to determine which exercise you’ll do. When you get to the end, have a breather/drink break and then repeat 4-5 times. Perform the first round at low intensity to warm up.List A (Heads)<ul><li>Skipping</li><li>Tricep dips</li><li>Crunches</li><li>Kicks to the front</li><li>Squats</li><li>Wall sit</li></ul>List B (Tails)<ul><li>Running across the yard</li><li>Pushups </li><li>Plank / hover hold</li><li>Running on the spot (heel<warningtag>s to butt)</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Lunges</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Calf raises.</warningtag></li></ul>

Would You Rather? 

You can exercise at home. Here are our favourite fun workouts. All can be done at home with kids and require little to no equipment.

parenting

Parenting

Fun Ways to Exercise At Home with Kids

<ul><li>Lay down on the floor and cycle your legs in the air for fifteen to thirty minutes as if you were riding a bicycle.</li><li> It might not be as much fun as taking a ride in the fresh air, but on the bright side, you can do it in front of your TV while enjoying your favorite show. </li><li>You can also try a few crunches, scissor kicks, leg lifts, or other floor exercises you might think of while you’re down there.</li></ul>

Bicycle

If you have stairs in your home, or even one stair, just get stepping. You will want to step up and down one stair for a considerable time, again probably anywhere from fifteen minutes to half an hour, so think about turning on some music to help you stay motivated.

Stairs

Dancing is a great way to exercise indoors. Since you are in the privacy of your own home, you do not have to worry about anyone else judging your moves. Find a clear space, crank up the tunes, and let loose. Dancing is a great way to have fun and burn calories at the same time.

Dance

If you haven’t used a jump rope since you were a kid, you might be surprised at what a great workout it is – both in terms of cardio and for your lower body. If you do not happen to have a jump rope lying around when the next rain storm hits, you can always settle for doing a few jumping jacks – also guaranteed to get your heart pumping.

Jumping

<ul><li>Find the longest hall in your house and start at one end. </li><li>Do a forward lunge, but then instead of stepping back, step forward. </li><li>Then lunge forward with your opposite leg and step forward again. </li><li>Continue until you reach the end of the hall. Then turn around and come back.</li></ul>

Hallway Lunges

<ul><li>If you are in need of a little healthy relaxation on your rainy afternoon, consider doing some yoga.</li><li> Instructional videos are fairly easy to find online if you don’t already have one on-hand.</li><li> Yoga is a great way to stretch those muscles and relieve the stress of being stuck indoors.</li></ul>

Yoga

When the rain keeps you inside, it doesn't mean you can't get in your workout. Keep moving with these rainy day, indoor workouts you can easily do at home!

Indoor Workouts for Rainy Days

A great way to get arms burning while dusting is to wear some ankle weights around your wrists.Since dusting requires a lot of arm movement, even if you add just two to three pounds of extra resistance, you can get those arms burning with every swipe.

While you’re dusting, strap on weights

<ul><li>Place your basket of clean clothes on the floor, and instead of bending over to pick up the items to fold, squat down instead.</li><li>Stand with feet hip-width apart and bend the knees until your butt is level with them (but don’t let your knees go past your toes; stay slightly higher if you don’t have the range of motion to go low while maintaining your form). </li><li>And be sure to engage your core as you come back up to stand. </li></ul>

While you’re folding laundry, do squats

<ul><li>Stand between two tables such that you can take a bill from the right and then twist to the left to pay it.</li><li>If the table is high, you will also work your shoulders.</li><li> Keep your hips forward and backside tucked under to protect your back, and engage your abs on every twist (pretend someone is about to punch you in the stomach). </li></ul>

While you’re paying bills, do abdominal twists

<ul><li>When you’re carrying those heavy bags from the house to the cans, curl your arms 15 times per trip.</li><li> Hold the bags and keep your elbows close to your ribcage, advises Glor. </li><li>Lift and lower by extending the arms all the way down toward your hips and then bringing them up toward your shoulders.</li></ul>

While taking out the trash, do bicep curls

<ul><li>Do at least 20 calf raises, where you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and raise up onto the balls of your feet, then lower back down to the floor. </li><li>After 20, take the towel and start drying while you squat—pretend you’re sitting in an imaginary chair, or put a real one behind you and touch your butt to it; then stand back up. </li><li>After 20 reps, go back to washing with calf raises until the dishes are done.</li></ul>Your leg muscles—calves, glutes, and quads—will start to tone after about a week.

While doing dishes, do calf raises

Got laundry to fold? Dishes to wash? Floors to vacuum? Good news: You've got some free, quality workouts coming your way.

Turn Household Chores into Legit Workouts

We’ve often thought about muscle as a thing that exists separately from intellect—and perhaps that is even oppositional to it, one taking resources from the other. The truth is, our brains and muscles are in constant conversation with each other, sending electrochemical signals back and forth. In a very tangible way, our lifelong brain health depends on keeping our muscles moving.

Brain And Muscles: Two Constant Conversationalists

Skeletal muscle is the type of muscle that allows us to move our body around; it is one of the biggest organs in the human body. It is also an endocrine tissue, which means it releases signaling molecules that travel to other parts of your body to tell them to do things. The protein molecules that transmit messages from the skeletal muscle to other tissues—including the brain—are called myokines.

The Skeletal Muscle’s Messengers: Myokines

Myokines are released into the bloodstream when our muscles contract, create new cells, or perform other metabolic activities. When they arrive at the brain, they regulate physiological and metabolic responses there, too. As a result, myokines have the ability to affect cognition, mood, and emotional behavior. Exercise further stimulates what scientists call muscle-brain “cross talk,” and these myokine messengers help determine specific beneficial responses in the brain. These can include the formation of new neurons and increased synaptic plasticity, both of which boost learning and memory.

The Muscle-Brain Cross-Talk

In young muscle, a small amount of exercise triggers molecular processes that tell the muscle to grow. Muscle fibers sustain damage through strain and stress, and then repair themselves by fusing together and increasing in size and mass. Muscles get stronger by surviving each series of little breakdowns, allowing for regeneration, rejuvenation, regrowth. As we age, the signal sent by exercise becomes much weaker. Though it’s more difficult for older people to gain and maintain muscle mass, it’s still possible to do so, and that maintenance is critical to supporting the brain.

Muscles: Survivors Themselves And Supporters Of Others

Even moderate exercise can increase metabolism in brain regions important for learning and memory in older adults. And the brain itself has been found to respond to exercise in strikingly physical ways. The hippocampus, a brain structure that plays a major role in learning and memory, shrinks in late adulthood; this can result in an increased risk for dementia. Exercise training has been shown to increase the size of the hippocampus, even late in life, protecting against age-related loss and improving spatial memory.

Muscles, Learning And Memory

Further, there is substantial evidence that certain myokines have sex-differentiated neuroprotective properties. For example, the myokine irisin is influenced by estrogen levels, and postmenopausal women are more susceptible to neurological diseases, which suggests that irisin may also have an important role in protecting neurons against age-related decline.

Muscles, Neuropathy And Neuroprotection

Studies have shown that even in people with existing brain disease or damage, increased physical activity and motor skills are associated with better cognitive function. People with sarcopenia, or age-related muscle atrophy, are more likely to suffer cognitive decline. Mounting evidence shows that the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function leaves the brain more vulnerable to dysfunction and disease; as a counter to that, exercise improves memory, processing speed, and executive function, especially in older adults. (Exercise also boosts these cognitive abilities in children.)

Muscles Don’t Matter Just To “MuscleBrains”, But To Brains Too

Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. (A man should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.)

There’s a robust molecular language being spoken between our muscles and our brain. Exercise helps keep us fluent in that language, even into old age. 

There’s a robust molecular language being spoken between your muscles and your brain.

How Do Strong Muscles Keep Our Brain Healthy?

Our ancestors did around 15k steps a day. A modern human does about 4k, but 80% of the people in the US are doing way less than that. We should run more often and do it better. The idea we are destroying our joints while running is mostly a myth. Done correctly frequent running helps us maintain our mobility longer, not the other way around.

Running is important

As we get older we are loosing muscle mass. We thus think it's normal we should be more sedentary as we get older. But no:<ul><li>It's not a given we should exercise less if we get older. A lot of the older hunter gatherers are active until they die. </li><li>Activity and muscle training is how you remain active until later in life. The less you move and train the sooner your motor functions will disappear. </li></ul>

Strength train harder as you get older

As I get older I am more interested in ways of extending my health-span. This advice is basic but we usually miss the basic things. 

Exercise culture is crazy. But what you need to do is exceedingly simple. Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/c/bigthink Up Next ► Does exercise enhance creativity? https://youtu.be/1QOfkqIKfyw We hold many misconceptions about exercise. For example, we believe our ancestors were incredibly strong, or that there is a tradeoff between speed and strength. The worst myth is that it’s normal to be less physically active as you get older. But modern hunter-gatherers remain physically active as they age. Humans need about 150 minutes of exercise per week to be healthy, but 80% of us aren’t getting even that. A good solution is simply walking more. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/exercise-myths/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Daniel Lieberman: Daniel Lieberman is Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He received degrees from Harvard and Cambridge, and taught at Rutgers University and George Washington University before joining Harvard University as a Professor in 2001. He is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lieberman loves teaching and has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, many in journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS, as well as three popular books, The Evolution of the Human Head (2011), The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease (2013), and Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding (2020). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read more of our stories on exercise: When is the best time to exercise? ► https://bigthink.com/health/when-best-time-exercise/ This molecule may be the “secret sauce” of exercise — but it won’t work as a pill ► https://bigthink.com/health/lac-phe-exercise-pill/ How exercise changes your brain biology and protects your mental health ► https://bigthink.com/health/neurobiology-of-exercise/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century. ► Big Think+ Make your business smarter, faster: https://bigthink.com/plus/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Want more Big Think? ► Daily editorial features: https://bigthink.com/popular/ ► Get the best of Big Think right to your inbox: https://bigthink.com/st/newsletter ► Facebook: https://bigth.ink/facebook ► Instagram: https://bigth.ink/Instagram ► Twitter: https://bigth.ink/twitter

Exercise culture is crazy. But what you need to do is exceedingly simple.

Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/c/bigthink 
Up Next ► Does exercise enhance creativity? https://youtu.be/1QOfkqIKfyw 

We hold many misconceptions about exercise. For example, we believe our ancestors were incredibly strong, or that there is a tradeoff between speed and strength.

The worst myth is that it’s normal to be less physically active as you get older. But modern hunter-gatherers remain physically active as they age.

Humans need about 150 minutes of exercise per week to be healthy, but 80% of us aren’t getting even that. A good solution is simply walking more.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/exercise-myths/ 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

About Daniel Lieberman:
Daniel Lieberman is Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He received degrees from Harvard and Cambridge, and taught at Rutgers University and George Washington University before joining Harvard University as a Professor in 2001. He is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lieberman loves teaching and has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, many in journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS, as well as three popular books, The Evolution of the Human Head (2011), The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease (2013), and Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding (2020).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Read more of our stories on exercise: 
When is the best time to exercise?
 ► https://bigthink.com/health/when-best-time-exercise/ 
This molecule may be the “secret sauce” of exercise — but it won’t work as a pill
 ► https://bigthink.com/health/lac-phe-exercise-pill/ 
How exercise changes your brain biology and protects your mental health
 ► https://bigthink.com/health/neurobiology-of-exercise/ 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™
► Big Think 
The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century. 
► Big Think+
Make your business smarter, faster: https://bigthink.com/plus/

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Want more Big Think?
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Harvard professor debunks the biggest exercise myths | Daniel Lieberman

Stay healthier longer - Harvard Scientist Basic Advice

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