By Debbie Gardner
dgardner@thereminder.com
Is muscle the fountain of youth? Or is it mobility?
According to renowned fitness authors and co-founders of the training website “The Ready State” Dr. Kelly Starrett and his partner, Juliet Starrett, both are important, but for the best health span, mobility is king.
“Unlike our muscle mass, which we know we can hang on to as long as we can – but we know we are on a downward spiral – our mobility doesn’t have to change as we age and it can actually improve,” said Juliet during an in-depth interview on the science of movement at Stanford’s Healthy Aging 50+: the Science of Healthy Living seminar earlier this year.
Measuring mobility
So, what is stopping you from reaching your mobility potential? Is it pain? Stiffness? A decrease in range of motion?
You’re not alone.
When the Starretts started their most recent book, “Built to Move,” Juliet said she couldn’t do the sit and rise test – where you sit cross-legged on the floor and get up without using your hands or a knee.
“For a lifelong athlete – and someone who works in the movement business – that was an eye-opener,” Juliet admitted.
The experience, she continued, prompted the pair to ask themselves “What tools can we give to people that can actually change things in their bodies” to improve their mobility? Their answer was a three-step plan that anyone can adopt to improve their mobility.
Take a walk
“If you could give everyone a drug that would decrease their mortality by 52%, you’d do that – that’s walking 8,000 steps a day,” Juliet said. The only piece of equipment needed – a good pair of walking shoes,
How do you get those steps in without going for a planned walk? She said you incorporate walking into your everyday activities.
“Walk for five minutes after you [do your strength] exercise. Take a walking meeting. Walk while you are on the phone. Walk your dog. Take a walk after dinner,” she suggested. “The idea is to fit in your walking without going to a walking class or planning for a walk.”
Kelly said reaching that step goal involves “re-thinking our environment …[taking] a lot more control during the day… [because] you can’t always go to a class.”
Work your muscles
“Movement is a skill set,” Kelly stated. “We are complex, robust, sophisticated animals [and] there are functional ways for the body to express its native ranges.”
By “native ranges” he meant using the muscles in a way that is natural for the body. That includes exercises that help maintain strength as well as flexibility.
“We love isometrics,” he shared, referring to muscle exercises such as the plank, wall sit or calf raise that require no additional equipment.
The kettlebell – a weight with a top handle that comes in set amounts such as 1, 2 or 5 pounds – is a tool the Starretts also promoted as a way to improve muscle strength for mobility.
“The kettle bell swing is very effective,” Juliet said of the best way to use a kettlebell. “There’s a ton of YouTube videos to teach you how to do it right.”
Balance it out
“We think of balance as the unsung hero of longevity. It’s not ‘sexy’ – so nobody is talking about it on Instagram,” Juliet said.
And maintaining and improving your balance is an important component of mobility, the Starretts said.
“For women above the age of 65, the fall risk is just as likely to kill you as breast cancer,” Juliet said. “Having strong feet is important, having strong ankles is important.”
During a movement break in the Starrett’s talk, the pair shared some easy-to-do exercises to help improve both balance and mobility.
The first – simply “squeeze your butt as hard as you can” for three big breaths every time you stand up after sitting for a period of time. “This can improve gluteus strength by doing an isometric hold” helping to stabilize core muscles you use for balance.
The second – stand on one leg while brushing your teeth, lifting the other foot slightly off the floor. “Do it twice a day for a couple of minutes,” Juliet said, adding that to make it harder, stand on one leg with your eyes closed.
“You can do that standing in line at the grocery store,” she added. “We’re obsessed with standing on one leg.”
Another balance training exercise involves standing in a lunge position, with one knee behind your hip, foot as flat to the ground as possible. Kelly said this exercise can be done holding on to a desk or wall to start. “Breathe in and out through the nose, make sure not to hold your breath,” he added.
For advanced balance work, the Starretts said to try the “old man balance test,” created by a friend of theirs, Chris Henshaw.
“It’s a gigantic balance test,” Kelley said. “Take off one running shoe [and place it on the floor in front of you]. Then, standing on one leg, reach down and pick up that shoe and put it on” without the unshod foot touching the floor. To make it harder, continue to tie the shoe while standing on one leg. Again, to start, this exercise can be done standing near a wall or bed in case you need to steady yourself.
Don’t skip base camp!
The Starretts said, even in the elite athlete community, they often see people “have skipped over base camp … they are taking a ton of supplements, trying light therapy, cold plunges, ice baths, tracking everything on their Oura ring” to boost longevity, but not doing the simple things to improve their health like walking, muscle strength, balance exercises and good nutrition.
“You inquire and they haven’t eaten a vegetable in the past week,” Juliet said of these longevity strivers.
“What I think this conference is about, and what I think longevity is about, is practicing a pretty simple set of basics with radical consistency,” she said.
For more information on maintaining mobility, including exercises, visit https://thereadystate.com/
