The Expedition: A trick to do 77% more workouts, critical info on kids and nutrition, the upside of problems, sauna, etc
The Expedition: A trick to do 77% more workouts, critical info on kids and nutrition, the upside of problems, sauna, etc
This month's most useful and important ideas.
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The post
The Expedition is a monthly journey into thoughts, opinions, ideas, observations, studies, facts, figures, etc.
Good ones, bad ones, insightful ones, interesting ones, and ones you can use to live better.
It’s a roundup of all the worthwhile stuff I’ve encountered in the last month. The Expedition is a bit of an island of misfit toys. But, hey, the greatest journeys are winding.
This month, we’re covering:
A book I enjoyed.
Numbers on:
How much your genes influence your strength.
How many workouts a week younger people have to do to preserve muscle and strength.
How many workouts a week older people have to do to preserve muscle and strength.
A trick that will help you do 77 percent more workouts—and like them all.
Hours of sleep a night that’ll make you sick, depressed, and anxious.
How to prevent half of cases of dementia.
How much money the casinos in my home state of Nevada won from gamblers last year.
Just how strong 80-year-olds can be (hint: really strong).
How we’re dying differently over the past five years.
Weird strength science.
Kids and nutrition—the competing problems of kids nutrition and what this can tell us about how you should feed your kids.
A great story about how competition can fuel fitness.
The true science of how sauna compares to exercise.
A far-out idea that explains why the Scandinavian countries are so happy (it involves bloodthirsty Vikings).
A smart, shocking take on smartphones (involving, um, McDonald’s?).
Why you should love those who push you.
Why problems can be opportunities (a wonderful case study involving Dead & Co).
A good parting quote about how to live.
A very important parting question (my answer involves guns and grapefruits).
Let’s roll …
A book I enjoyed: Little Chapel on the River
This book is a long-time favorite of my mother’s (who reads 50+ books a year). Then its author, Gwendolyn Bounds, joined our first Don’t Die retreat in April (the next Don’t Die retreat is in November).
So I read the book.
And I’m so glad I did. The book transports you to a time and place: A small Irish pub called Guinan’s along the banks of the Hudson right after 9/11.
Gwendolyn was a WSJ reporter living across from the World Trade Center when the planes hit the towers. In the aftermath, she ended up at Guinan’s. She stuck around, embedding herself in a bar that acted as the root of a small community. The book made me think about community and connection, how we build it, and how it’s changed over time.
P.S. We also covered Gwendolyn’s newest book, NOT TOO LATE, in this post.
By the numbers
30 to 50 Percent
That’s the amount of variance in muscle strength and size explained by genetics. The scientists wrote, “Muscle bulk and strength have a moderate genetic component explaining 30–50% of their total variance, leaving the majority of the variance to be explained by environmental factors.”
That is to say, how you live determines the brunt of how strong you are.
One
Is the number of strength workouts a younger person can do per week to preserve muscle strength and size.
Two
Is the number of strength sessions per week older people need to preserve muscle strength and size.
77
Percent more workouts people did when they were prescribed exercise based on what they actually enjoyed doing, versus doing what researchers thought would get them fittest.
The takeaway: You’ll need to push yourself to improve your health, but find ways to push yourself that you enjoy. Consistency wins in the long run.
Five
Hours of sleep a night that:
Increased hypertension risk by 29%.
Increased depression risk by 64%.
Increased anxiety risk by 46%.
That said, sleeping 10 hours a night was even worse.
It increased hypertension, depression, and anxiety anywhere from 61 to 163 percent.
Sleep is a fascinating subject, and the sleep world is filled with all sorts of myths and bad rules and advice.
Half …
… of dementia could likely be prevented.
For example:
Avoiding hearing loss reduces your risk of dementia by 7%.
Getting more education reduces your risk by 5%.
Lowering high LDL cholesterol lowers your risk by 5%.
Being active lowers it by 2%.
And on and on, with many more factors ranging from avoiding air pollution to spending time with friends all impacting risk.
15.77 Billion
That’s how much Nevada casinos won from gamblers in the last fiscal year—a 4.4 percent increase from last year.
Gambling thrives on The Scarcity Loop, the most powerful habit loop. It was revived in casinos and is now spreading into all sort of places. It’s leading us to decisions we regret. Learn more in this story: Why We Get Hooked on (Insert Anything)
1.68 and 2.3x
That’s how many more times their body weight the strongest 80-year-old women and men, respectively, could deadlift.
So, for example, an 80-year-old woman who weighed 120 pounds could deadlift 202 pounds. An equal-age man who weighed 160 pounds could deadlift 368.
The lesson: We can still be seriously strong into old age. We just have to remain active.
We’re dying differently
The leading causes of death in the United States have shifted drastically over the last four years.
Weird strength science
If you only do strength exercises in one arm, your other arm (the one you didn’t train) will get stronger.
The scientists wrote, “the magnitude of this effect was similar regardless of which arm was trained.”
Important data on kids and nourishment
The number of obese children in the world will soon surpass the number of those malnourished.
This issue is separated by development, political stability, and money.
Kids in wealthier, more developed countries are far more likely to face the issue of obesity.
Kids in poorer, less developed countries are far more likely to be malnourished.
Childhood obesity is increasing, and we should look for ways to combat it.
But childhood undernourishment is arguably a more significant problem because its repercussions impact the person for life.
A study conducted in Bangladesh found that undernourishment in babies was associated with a loss of 15 IQ points that held for life.
Another study found, “IQ scores in the Intellectual Disability range (< 70) were 9 times more prevalent in the previously malnourished group.”
Young brains without adequate micronutrients like iron and zinc don’t develop as they should. For example, roughly 40% of kids don’t get enough iron. Not getting enough iron explains 40% of the proper development, like a child’s ability to say more than ten words, jump with both feet, and count to ten.
Up to 500,000 kids each year go blind due to vitamin A deficiency. Half of them die within 12 months of losing sight.
Half of child deaths worldwide are linked to malnutrition, which equates to about 3 million kids.
The issue also impacts children in developed countries, albeit to a lesser extent.
The research gives us important wisdom on how to feed kids.