Changing the Narrative on Heavy Lifting and Long-Term Health

"All those heavy lifts are going to catch up to you. Just wait until you're my age."

I can't tell you how many times I've been approached in the gym (and everywhere else) by people telling me that I shouldn't be lifting heavy and that I need to "be careful" and not hurt myself.

There's a lot to unpack here. But let's start with the difference between lifespan and healthspan.

People tend to associate a barbell with wear and tear and injury

Do we want to live longer or healthier?

Human life expectancy has more than doubled in the last 100 years. But recently, this extra lifespan has been met with a decreased standard of living.

More doctor visits, more prescriptions, less movement, and thereby less ability to live fully.

Instead of aiming for a greater lifespan, I think we should aim for living a greater healthspan.

Healthspan is the number of years of life we live free of disease, and it is directly correlated with quality of life.

Would you rather live until 80 with your last 20 years being in steady decline and unable to do what you love? Or would you rather maintain your functional ability and enjoy those 20 years like the previous decades?

Lifting and lifting heavy is a big part of that.

Isn't lifting risky, though?

The biggest barrier to people picking up a weight is the fear of hurting themselves. In their eyes, they know exercise is beneficial, but the risks may outweigh the benefits.

Let's change our perspective. What happens when we don't lift?

We lose muscle mass and strength with it.

Muscle mass in exercisers vs non-exercisers over time

We lose bone density, especially women.

Decreases in bone density as we age for both males and females

But isn't this just a natural part of aging? Not as much as you may think. Take a look at this cross sectional muscle mass of both a 40 and 70 year old man, one of whom continued to train and the other stayed sedentary.

Quad muscle cross-sectional image of a sedentary vs a trained individual

It's quite clear that you can maintain muscle mass, strength, mobility, and therefore functional ability if you simply keep training regardless of your age.

I've seen this personally in a 77 year old runner that I was working work. We ran the Toronto half-marathon together, and he beat me by over 30 minutes, even though he was more than twice my age. The difference? He had been training for over 20 years.

So what's more risky? Continuing to train and lift, or staying sedentary? I argue that not training is far more risky because of the significant increase in co-morbidities and disease.

The risks of not lifting heavy

Loss of muscle mass ultimately leads to a decreased ability to perform your ADLs or activities of daily living. Think of your senior relative who needs help going to the bathroom, or needs a chair lift to reach the second floor.

Loss of bone density increases your risk of osteoporosis, which significantly increases the risk of fractures in seniors, particularly in the hips. 25% of individuals with a hip fracture die within the following year. Some studies indicate that excess mortality is observed for 10 years post-fracture.

Those who don't lift and exercise have an increased risk of chronic disease as a result of higher fat mass and cardiovascular disease.

Ironically, those who don't participate in strength training are at a higher risk of injury (the exact thing most people are afraid of when it comes to lifting). That's because when we don't lift, we have a decreased capacity physically, resulting in more vulnerability when we do need to do anything physical.

Think of how someone would feel running a 5k if they've never run before and how much more at risk they would be for injury compared to if they trained and prepared accordingly. Preparation beats avoidance in every case.

Training for longevity

To build and maintain muscle mass, you have to challenge yourself. Therefore, you must lift "heavy", whatever heavy means to you.

To build and maintain your bone density, you have to load your skeleton. That requires heavy weight, although there are plenty of ways you can load your bones. Runners, for example, have some of the densest bones out there because of the repetitive pounding stress that they go through with each stride.

And you have to keep this up, no matter how old you are. To maintain these benefits, you have to keep lifting. My oldest client right now is 84 years old, and he's the only one of his friends who's not in a retirement home, and there's a clear reason why.

Live a strong healthspan

So no, all that heavy lifting isn't going to catch up with me. You know what’s really going to? Not lifting.

But the decades of avoiding hard things:

• Sitting on my ass and letting my muscle mass decline

• Losing bone density because I never load anything

• Needing my daughter to help lift me off the toilet because I can’t do it myself

Want to know what actually protects you in the long run?

• Loading your joints

• Moving in all directions and ranges of motion

• Building confidence and resilience

Anytime I hear someone say, “You’ll pay for this later”, I genuinely feel bad for them. Because they’ve bought into the false narrative, and they’re the ones who will ultimately pay for it later.

Remember, if we don't choose to look after ourselves now, we'll be forced to later in the form of expensive band-aid treatments, doctor visits, drugs, and time lost that we could spend enjoying our lives.

My heavy lifting is going to keep my joints strong, my bones dense, and my spine resilient.

Lift heavy. Stay mobile. And enjoy functional freedom.

To your good health,

Coach Stephen

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Thanks for reading.

P.S.

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References:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-012-1931-z

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5650026/