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LenDentonThrive Letter #21

Exercise For Your ThriveLife

If you’re new to the LenDentonThrive Letter, welcome! My mission is to help Over-50 Guys lose weight, get fit, and stay fit for life! Basically, build their own version of the ThriveLife!

In this week’s edition, we’re talking about exercise to power your ThriveLife. Even if you’re not a big fan of exercise, you won’t want to miss this. Why? Because in the ThriveLife, exercise is supposed to be enjoyable!

Here’s a quick preview of what’s in the LenDentonThrive Letter #21:

• The Big Idea - This week, we’re talking about creating exercise plans that are effective AND enjoyable!

• Tip of the Week - A quick tip or strategy to help you improve your health, fitness, and life.

• News You Can Use - I’ll share two or three useful items from my reading stack for you to check out later.

I’m glad that you’re here! We have a lot to cover in ten minutes or less, so let’s get started!

1. The Big Idea - Exercise For Your ThriveLife

I talk about the ThriveLife a lot. I’m even writing a book about the ThriveLife. Maybe you are wondering: why am I so obsessed with this idea of the ThriveLife?

It’s because I think that it saved my life!

At the age of 55, I was 70 pounds overweight and my cholesterol was through the roof. My doctor told me that I was a poster child for a heart attack or stroke. I lost both my Dad and my little brother to heart attacks… in their 30s! So, I knew that I needed to change unless I wanted to become a cardiac statistic myself.

So, I did make some big changes. I started with my diet. I basically eliminated all of the hidden sugars and high-carb foods. I’ve written about that here and here.

Exercise was also an important component. Through some trial and error, I developed an exercise routine that helped me create a calorie deficit (essential for weight loss) and build strength and endurance. I’ll discuss that in more detail below.

Those changes led to some big results. I lost the 70 pounds in around 7 months. And, my cholesterol dropped by 60 points. My energy levels went through the roof and I felt healthier than I’d felt in 20 years.

That was 10 years ago. Today, at age 65, I’ve maintained my weight loss and I feel even healthier and more fit than I did when I started on this journey.

This is my ThriveLife!

The Benefits of Exercise

Exercise is really important for Over-50 Guys like you and me. Here are just a few of the benefits we get through regular exercise:

1. Calorie Deficit - creating a calorie deficit is absolutely essential for weight loss. In simple terms, a calorie deficit occurs when we burn more calories than we consume. When that happens, our bodies begin to burn energy stored in our fat reserves in order to power our metabolism. As that happens, we lose body fat and overall weight. Thus, a calorie deficit is highly desirable.

2. Muscle Building - exercise helps us to build strength and muscle mass. This becomes increasingly important as we age. That’s because our ability to produce important male hormones, including testosterone, begins to decline as we age. Testosterone production starts to decline around age 30. Increased muscle mass helps us to produce more testosterone, as well as other important stuff like stem cells.

3. Better Bone Density - exercise stresses our bones and skeletal muscles, making them stronger and less brittle as we age. This makes us less injury-prone.

4. Improved Coordination and Mobility - exercise can help us maintain and improve our coordination and ability to move well. It can help us maintain our sporting skills.

5. Improved Longevity - research shows that men who exercise regularly live longer and have a lower overall risk of all causes mortality (ACM) (1).

The key to unlocking these benefits is to discover the exercise approach that’s right for you. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to exercise. Next, we’ll look at the approach I suggest to help you find the exercise(s) that will work best for you.

The 4PM Approach to Exercise

I developed the 4PM approach to help you find the exercise approach that works best for you. To be most effective, the chosen exercise approach needs to deliver the needed results while fitting into your lifestyle. The better it meets these two criteria, the more useful it will be. If it doesn’t deliver the results or fit your lifestyle, you should find a better solution that does.

4PM is an acronym that stands for Personal, Practical, Portable, Permanent, and Measurable:

• Personal - how well does the exercise fit your personal preferences? Do you like to do it? The more you like an exercise, the more likely you are to do it. Conversely, if you don’t like an exercise, you’ll likely not do it for very long. Choose exercises that you like doing.

• Practical - how well does the exercise fit into your lifestyle and daily routine? This will usually determine how consistently you can perform the exercise. Choose exercises that fit into your lifestyle and routine easily to ensure consistency.

• Portable - how portable is the exercise? And, how portable do you need it to be? For example, let’s say that your preferred exercise is spinning (stationary cycling). However, you have an active travel schedule that prevents you from attending spinning classes. So, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to consistently perform the exercise. Choose an exercise that fits your need for portability.

• Permanent - is the exercise something that you can do for the next 10, 15 years, or more? Choose something you can do for many years to come.

• Measurable - Is the exercise measurable? How will you track it? Can you evaluate your progress in 3 months? In 3 years? Choose an exercise that you can measure, track, and compare.

Use 4PM as a tool to help you evaluate exercise options to find the one that best suits your needs and lifestyle.

The 3 E Test

There’s an additional, and optional, test that I recommend that guys use to evaluate their exercise choices. It’s especially useful if you haven’t been exercising in a while. I call it the 3 Es Test. The 3 Es stand for:

• Easy - you heard that right…I said “easy,” as in easy to get started. This means you can launch your new exercise program without a lot of extra baggage. For example, you don’t need much training or equipment to get started.

• Effective - will your exercise deliver the necessary benefits? If it won’t, there’s no value in the effort.

• Enjoyable - lastly, do you enjoy doing it? Because, if you enjoy it, you’ll be much more likely to keep doing it. And, consistency matters when it comes to successful exercise programs.

My Personal 4PM Story

I’ve given you a lot of things to think about when it comes to building a sustainable exercise program that will work for you over time. To help bring it all together, I’ll share my personal experience with 4PM from 2014 to give you an example.

I began my own journey to the ThriveLife in January 2014. As I noted in my intro above, I was 70 pounds overweight at that point. An important side note is that I had also injured my leg a month earlier in a trail race. As a result, I was experiencing extreme pain whenever I tried to run. So, for my exercise, I chose the only pain-free option available to me at the time. That was walking. I assumed that I’d upgrade to running and lifting as my leg injury healed.

• Personal - I enjoyed walking and it gave me a chance to listen to audiobooks while I exercised.

• Practical - With my leg injury, walking was my only choice at that time. It also fit nicely into my lifestyle. I was able to walk daily before work.

• Portable - I was traveling globally for work at that time, so walking fit my portability needs perfectly. I just tossed my walking shoes into the suitcase. I was able to walk in every city I visited.

• Permanent - Walking is still my primary exercise 10 years later. I never upgraded to running, because walking proved to be such an effective weight-loss exercise. I have also added body-weight exercises to my daily routine for strength training.

• Measurable - I bought a fitness tracker at the start of the process. That made tracking my steps a breeze. Now, I have 10 years of fitness history stored in my Fitbit account.

But, what about the 3 E Test? Let’s see.

• Easy - walking is the simplest form of exercise I can think of. I initially chose it because of my leg injury. If I was starting over today, knowing what I know now, I would still choose walking over every other exercise.

• Effective - walking was extremely effective in my weight loss. I lost 70 pounds in about 7 months, using only walking. I never ran a single step!

• Enjoyable - this is the best part for me. I love to walk. I’m still walking every day 10 years later. And, I plan to walk every day for the rest of my life.

Walking turned out to be the perfect solution for my 4PM 10 years ago, and still meets the need now. Your best exercise solution will be whatever fits your own 4PM. It doesn’t have to fit into anyone else’s expectations. It just has to meet yours.

Exercise is an important part of your ThriveLife. There’s no reason it needs to be hard or unpleasant. That’s because in the ThriveLife, exercise is enjoyable!

Thrive and Prosper!

Footnotes:

1. https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/massive-study-uncovers-how-much-exercise-needed-live-longer#:~:text=This%20means%2075%20to%20150,by%2022%25%20to%2031%25.

Want to Go Deeper?

Do you want to dive deeper into ThriveAge and what it can do in your life? If that sounds like a smart move for you, then consider subscribing to the LenDentonThrive Letter. It’s totally free!

As a bonus, new subscribers will receive a free .pdf version of Chapter 1 of my upcoming new book, The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight, Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life).

ThriveAge is the roadmap to your custom-built ThriveLife!

2. Tip of the Week: Get Your Check-ups

Are you getting your regular annual check-ups?

Simple Rule #1 tells us to take charge of our health and fitness. And, getting your regular annual check-up is one of the best ways to take charge of your long-term health and longevity. That’s because early detection and prevention of serious diseases is the best way to avoid dying from a serious disease!

So, if you haven’t seen your doctor in the last year or so, bite the bullet and schedule your check-up.

3. News You Can Use

Here is some “news you can use” from my research and socials:

1. The timing of your walk could significantly increase your fat burn! In this YouTube, Thomas DeLaur explains how walking in a fasting state can seriously up your fat loss! (I do this daily!)

   https://youtu.be/3MZb__YYjKs?feature=shared

2. More good news about walking from my recent X post:

Follow me on the socials for daily tips and strategies for living your ThriveLife:

I’m Writing A Book!

I’m a busy Over-50 Guy who has spent the past ten years building a practice of personal health and fitness that relies on real food and smart exercise instead of crazy diets and killer workouts. This process, called ThriveAge, helped me to lose 70 pounds and keep it off for going on ten years. Now, I want to share what I have learned with other Over-50 Guys. So, I wrote the book!

In The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight, Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life), I share everything I’ve learned about the principles and practices necessary to create and sustain a healthy lifestyle. I call it my ThriveLife.

New subscribers to the LenDentonThrive Letter will receive Chapter 1 of my new book for free. To get your free copy of Chapter 1, just subscribe to the LenDentonThrive Letter.

Thanks for your time and attention. Have a great weekend. See you next Saturday!

Thrive & Prosper,

Len

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See you next weekend!