There is a secret superpower linking 77-year-old Jeannie Rice, a world-class mid-to-long distance runner, to 102-year-old Kokichi Akuzawa, a man who just climbed the 3,776 meters-tall, Mt Fuji. On the surface the two could not be more different. Rice, a retired real estate agent, lives in Florida and spends her time between running on average, 50 miles a week and socializing with friends. Akuzawa, a retired livestock farmer, lives in Gunma Prefecture and divides his time between hiking, teaching painting and volunteering at an old people’s care home.
When the physical performance of Rice, who ran a world age-group record in the London Marathon, and Akuzawa, who climbed Mt Fuji after recovering from a heart attack, are examined and differences such as culture, lifestyle, socioeconomic background and diet are accounted for, what emerges is a secret we can all apply when it comes to achieving lifelong fitness.
The Engine Of Performance
Given her world-class status in running, Rice draws a lot of scientific interest. The highly respected Journal of Applied Physiology, published a case study on her. The authors highlighted how she has a maximum heart of 180 and a VO2 Max (the maximum amount of oxygen an individual can utilize during intense exercise) of 47.8 which makes her the equivalent of a 25 year old.
Akuzawa is less renown globally but he hikes every day and climbs a mountain every week. He is the Guinness Record holder for being the oldest person to climb Mt. Fuji.
When it comes to physical performance strength, agility and hip mobility is important but the ultimate driver of performance is the body’s ability to utilize the oxygen we take with each breath so that oxidative phosphorylation, a process that produces the all-vital ATP, can take place. ATP is short for adenosine triphosphate and it’s the fuel that drives every cell in the body. Without it, we die.
So, when something impacts the rate at which our body can produce ATP what we really see is a direct impact on physical performance. More ATP means more energy.
When older bodies like Rice’s and Akuzawa’s perform so well, the indication is that they have managed to maintain and, over time, even improve their VO2 Max so that their ability to produce ATP, as they aged, has not been compromised.
It sounds simple and, in some way, it is.
Consistency Over Intensity
The secret superpower of Rice and Akuzawa is consistency. Compared to world class athletes of her calibre, Rice runs almost a third fewer miles per week. But she runs every week, adds strength training to her routine and has avoided injuries that would result in a start-stop-and-start-again approach to training.
Akuzawa hikes every day. He climbs a mountain each week. Both have maintained their corresponding activities over decades of their lives. They don’t take ‘breaks’, they have not had to recover from serious injuries that set them back and they don’t believe in going super-hard.
What these two very different but at the same time so-similar athletes reveal about aging and exercise is something we can all apply to our lives:
- Create momentum – be active every day. Have a plan and have a structure and stick to it.
- Avoid regular intensity – exercise is already a stressor. The moment you up the intensity you increase the energetic load and the stress the body and mind experience. This means there will be more inflammation and a longer recovery time will be needed. The odd tough session is fine but daily training in the 50% - 70% of peak performance sends a more persistent signal for adaptations to the body and mind than a one or two times a week intense session done every week.
- Make it who you are not what you do – physical activity that is part of your identity affects you differently by activating different neurotransmitters in your system. This, in turn, affects the entire energy-management system in your body.
- Aerobic capacity matters – strength training, flexibility and speed are important, but as we age the body’s ability to maintain its oxygen uptake and drive ATP conversion is a key biomarker to longevity.
Make Better Decisions
On average, we make up to 1,600 decisions every day of our lives, from what to wear to what to eat and how to exercise. Science shows that those who get to be 100 have made consistently better decisions all along.
This just clarifies that the health and longevity outcomes we get as we age are the result of an accumulation of small, good decisions, made consistently. Put more simply, rather than constantly having to engage in energetically expensive, complex mental calculations each time we face a decision and weigh its outcomes against our future goals, it’s much easier to just tie this into who we are. Our sense of identity is pivotal to the decisions we make: we become who we think we are. Everything else follows that. (The mindmap below illustrates the concept in a more colorful way).
Pertinent Podcast: Longevity, Resilience & Powerful Habits