Reverse Engineering Longevity

By: Ed Lippie Chief Wellness Officer

As far as I can tell, Father Time is undefeated, but it doesn’t need to be a blowout. What do I mean by this? It means living life on your own terms for as long as you possibly can should be a priority. Until it’s difficult to do them it’s easy to take the mundane activities of daily living for granted, like clipping your toenails, putting a 20lb carry-on in the overhead bin or running to catch a bus. Not to mention the things you really want to do, like playing recreational sports or playing on the floor with a young child.

These activities require a level of strength, mobility, flexibility, stability and cardiovascular fitness. All of which are physical qualities that diminish as we age. Therefore, when thinking about an exercise program we need to think with the end in mind. Some call it reverse engineering, Annie Duke calls it “backcasting” in her great book Thinking in Bets. The label you use is less important, what’s critical is how you apply the concept. And I’ve actually never seen a more poignant example than I did in a German Christmas commercial several years ago, if you have 3 minutes I recommend watching it here.

So the next step in this reverse engineering process is defining what is most important to you and how you want to live your life by the decade. I’ll share some of mine, starting with the end in mind, of course.

Age 80 to my death:

Walk on my own
Stand from a seated position without any assistance and limited use of my upper body
The ability to travel (drive, fly, take the train)
The ability to climb 2 flights of stairs on my own without stopping
The ability to do all my own grooming
The ability to do my own grocery shopping & cooking

Age 70-80:

The ability to golf, play racquet sports & stand-up paddle
Hike moderate to challenging trails for a minimum of consecutive 2hrs
Swim in surf of 6-8 feet
Pick up and carry a 30lb grandchild
Play on the floor with my grandchildren and get up without assistance
Walk a 90lb+ dog in icy conditions
Shovel my sidewalk

To complete the exercise I’d continue with the decades 60-70 and 50-60 but I don’t need to belabor the point, you get the idea. So in order to be able to do these activities, what physical qualities will I need? Here are a handful (there are others but again in the interest of brevity I’ve only listed 6)

The mobility, stability & strength to do a bodyweight squat and step up to a 12″ step
The strength to pick up 30lbs from the ground and carry it
A Vo2Max of 35 or better
Active shoulder flexion of 160 degrees
Active shoulder extension of 30 degrees
Hip flexion of 90 degrees or better

Ok, so I have my goals and the physical qualities I will need to accomplish them. Knowing that each of these qualities will diminish with age, at 50 years old, where do I need to be?

I need to do 20 or more pain-free body squats and/or a squat with an external load equal to or greater of my body weight for at least 1 repetition
I need to pick up 55lbs from the floor
I need to carry my body weight divided by 2 in each hand for 20 seconds
I need to dead-hang from a bar for at least 1 minute
I need to do a 60-second wall squat
I need a Vo2Max of 45 or better
I need active shoulder flexion of 170 degrees
I need active shoulder extension of 35 degrees

These physical requirements now become the guideposts for my training and the framework I use to build my own exercise program. It’s often easier said than done but the hope is that tangible objectives combined with the right strategy and tactics will lead to higher levels of motivation. And of course, showing up every day and doing something to get either stronger, more fit, more stable, more mobile or more flexible will compound and pay dividends over months, years & decades.

Photo by: Stephen Baer