From exercise to old age the latest research shows that what we believe can have some pretty dramatic consequences.

It seems our mindsets and beliefs towards a range of things like diet, stress, exercise, performance and old age have a significant influence over all of them, in many cases providing significant physiological responses. Think of mindset like a lens through which we view a subject. We all utilise mindsets as a short cut for our brains to make decisions. Some of our mindsets are good and others less so. What we’re discovering in latest scientific research is how much our mindsets influence what we do and how we act.

In our latest episode we chatted to science journalist and author, David Robson, about his latest book, 'The Expectation Effect'. As a result of experiencing the expectation effect himself (although unknown to him at the time), David embarked on a journey to dig into the science around mindset and beliefs and their impact and influence over our lives. Many of you will have heard of the ‘placebo effect’ which David explores through various case studies in the book. What is less known is the extent over which our mindsets have on almost every part of our lives.

In his book, David references the work of Dr Alia Crum of the Stanford Mind & Body Lab. The Lab is fascinating. Their area of focus is in understanding how mindsets affect important outcomes both within and beyond the realm of medicine, in domains such as exercise, diet, and stress. More specifically, they aim to understand how selective information through modalities such as media, marketing, and labelling can inform mindsets, and how mindsets can be consciously and deliberately changed through intervention to affect physiological and psychological health.

The Lab has done a lot of research on stress, in particular on how our mindset can impact how we handle stress. We inherently think stress is bad for us but if we change our mindset we can utilise stress to work for us. There is no better place to test such a hypothesis about ‘stress is an enhancer mindset’ than with the special forces. Thats exactly what the Lab did back in 2020. You can read the research here

As a result of their research the Lab has developed a toolset - Rethinking Stress - for anyone to use to help them reframe their mindset towards a stress-is-enhancer mindset. The course only takes approximately an hour and we’d encourage you to explore it and consider how reframing your mindset towards stress may help you in the future.

As well as interviewing David, we’ve also been scouring round other podcasts and found Dr Crum was a guest on the Huberman Lab podcast which you can check out here

Greg and Jason’s latest podcast explores brain health - how you can sharpen your mind but also reduce the risk of dementia in later life. Listen to Dr Kailas Roberts who is a consultant psychiatrist and psychogeriatrician with over ten years’ experience in the field of old-age psychiatry. He's a doctor with a specialist interest in cognitive health and dementia. He runs a busy private practice caring for people with cognitive difficulties, and advises on management of the behavioural and psychological difficulties that often accompany dementia. He lives in Brisbane, and Mind Your Brain: The Essential Australian Guide to Dementia is his first book.You can explore more from Kailas via his website:  https://www.yourbraininmind.com/about

Right from the word go in Mid Life Athlete podcast we’ve tackled perhaps one of the biggest issues for ageing athletes - the inevitable decline of muscles (S1E3). We’ve all felt it, some more than others. The decline continues over the years until we struggle to bend over to tie our shoelaces or even get out of a chair. Lots of the athletes we’ve interviewed have all spoken about how exercise in mid life has taken on a different meaning. Performance and competition are no longer the sole focus, with longevity becoming a key influencer on why and what we do. It’s this latter category of ‘what we do’ where strength training becomes inescapable. 

I’m no stranger to lifting weights. I started weight training when I was a teenager and can still recall the heady days of working out with mates in the ‘pain gym’. I continued into my twenties whilst playing rugby but then when I finished playing and drifted back into endurance sports weight training slowly faded away. There was no need; I was an endurance machine. I started dabbling again over recent years but limited mainly to strength work on my legs and nothing consistent. That all changed with recording these podcasts. 

I have enjoyed all the interviews we’ve done and there’s always something to learn or thoughts to ponder, but just occasionally one rocks your foundations. Greg experienced exactly this when we chatted to Stephen Seilor (S1E14). I had it coming and the earthquake hit when we chatted to Wayne Grimditch and Dan Hutchinson.

Wayne Grimditch has achieved legendary status. He was regarded as a child prodigy in waterskiing and went on to compete for the US at the 1972 Summer Olympics (although waterskiing was a demonstration sport). He achieved 4 world records for ski jumping and 16 US National titles. I think he still holds the world record for the longest ski jump by jumping 180 feet in the air in 1972. Not content with breaking records in waterskiing Wayne went on to compete in the US version of Superstars which he won in 1978 and came fourth in the world Superstars competition. 

After a good few years Wayne started his own fitness company and was getting approached by mid and later life people asking for his help in getting them in shape to allow them to continue playing sports they loved or even take up new sports to enjoy with their grandkids. This is where Wayne teamed up with exercise physiologist Dan Hutchinson of University of Colorado. Dan teaches undergraduate sports physiology students but teaching young students exercise training is entirely different when applied to us mid life students. Both of them worked collaboratively to figure out what was needed for those in later life and what worked. Over many years they’ve honed a sort of blueprint for strength training for mid and later life athletes. 

So what did I learn? There are 2 key factors namely mobility and power and these 2 factors are inextricably linked and they both decline very slowly as we age. Dan and Wayne realised that it was important to work on both mobility, power and strength and so a lot of their training exercises involve movement and weights. Depending on the age and condition of the person Wayne will very often start with an emphasis on movement without any weights and then gradually blend in weights as the person progresses and the exercises vary. What this looks like is a form of plyometrics. 

Why is this important?

According to Harvard Medical School, our age related muscle loss (it’s called sarcopenia) occurs at a rate of 1-2% a year and after age 60 it can accelerate to 3% a year. So those of us who don’t do regular strength training can expect to lose approximately 1.8kg - 2.7kg of muscle per decade. That’s an astonishing number. Worse we’re likely to be replacing that muscle with fat. We’re losing power, getting slower and getting weaker. Weak muscles hinder your ability to cope with and recover from an illness or injury. Disability is estimated to be 1.5 to 4.6 times higher in older people with moderate to severe sarcopenia than in those with normal muscle mass. Weak muscles also make it harder to balance properly when moving or even standing still—and loss of power compounds the problem.

The disuse of muscles play a much bigger role in ageing than I had previously thought. I suspect I’m not alone. Dan and Wayne’s work have shown that strength training focusing on mobility and power can help reverse the effects of sarcopenia and restore muscle function. That’s what hit home to me when we chatted to them and that’s why a day or so after I was ordering kettlebells on Amazon and doing burpees in my basement!

Enjoy listening to the podcast. 

Greg and Jason chat to midlife athlete, Jo Moseley, who in the summer of 2019 became the first woman to stand up paddleboard, coast-to-coast, across Northern England. Jo has an amazing story of how she went from a single mum of 2 boys and non-exerciser to a world of adventure and challenges.  Now Jo hopes to inspire others to take joy in any form of exercise. Hope you enjoy our podcast with her.

The film of Jo’s paddleboard challenge - Brave Enough, A Journey Home to Joy - can be rented/purchased via https://vimeo.com/ondemand/braveenough

Many more of us are challenging ourselves and performing at a high level in sport, particularly endurance sports, well into our middle age. This podcast explores everything you want to know as a mid-life athlete about how age and fitness affects our immune system.

The listen might raise some eyebrows as we learn that we can influence our immune systems a bit, but not that much. The biggest influence is during a child’s early years when their emotional, physical and mental wellbeing plays a huge role in how the immune system performs throughout life.

The episode delves deeper into the nuances of how the immune system grows, adapts and ultimately diminishes.

Listen to our latest pod: Milestone fitness goals - what we should all be able to do as we age

Jason and Greg chat to Joe Eisenmann, PhD, Head of Sport Science at Volt Athletics. Joe has 25+ years of experience as a university professor, researcher, sport scientist, and sport coach focusing on youth athletic development. Joe chats about his view of exercise as medicine and how he is meticulous about building some form of resistance and aerobic exercise into his daily routines. He's been setting some interesting milestone fitness goals since he was in his 20’s. There's a heap of fabulous stuff here for mid life athletes to learn from.

Trending #Movember - a chance to listen again to a podcast from 2020

Episode 17 from our first series of Mid-Life Athlete was a prostrate cancer special. We chatted to Mr Ben Challacombe, consultant urologist at Guys & St Thomas hospital, London on prostate cancer. We find out what it is; how you can get tested and how exercise can help reduce risk and recovery.  This episode is not just for male listeners but for all partners who can equally find out how to encourage and support a loved one. For a chance to listen again click here or go to www.midlifeathlete.buzzsprout.com

Upcoming podcast

We’re very excited about a podcast we’ve recorded with Ian Holdcroft, co-Founder of Shackleton. Ian is an adventurer who has run ultra marathons including a race across the Atacama desert and has also rowed across the Atlantic. Drawing on the spirit of adventurers we discuss the importance and relevance of pushing your outer limits in order to feel comfortable with the uncomfortable. In the podcast he reveals his latest challenge. Jason says this podcast is a real treat, definitely not to be missed! Out on Thursday 18th November.

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