Functional Health

Finding your functional WHY

Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash

In my final years I want to be swimming, walking myself through an airport, and getting myself up from the floor after playing with any great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews that may be running around my house.

It may sound drastic to be planning for my final years when I’m just ino my early 40’s. Yet the reality is that these types of functional goals need to be planned for sooner than later because, as expertly explained by Dr. Peter Attia, strength and endurance is not on our side as we age.

Functional health is one of the four ingredients necessary for lifelong health & wellness, which I introduced in a previous post, Insight into Health.

In short, functional health is the ability of your body to be able to do what you want it to do at any given stage of life to support your independence, health, and happiness.

At its foundation, basic functional health is essential for self-sufficiency. Being able to live independently throughout your life may degrade if functional health deminishes. The same can be said about poor physical and cognitive health, but more on that later.

Taking it a step beyond the basics, continually challenging your functional health allows you to experience things in life that bring you joy, a sense of adventure, and life satisfaction.

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Exploring your functional health WHY is an important first step in creating the life you want now and long into the future…

Take a moment to think about what your body does for you now - Takes you on a beautiful hike? Swims with your best bud? Picks up those heavy Amazon deliveries (that seem to always arrive when your husband isn’t home)? Thanks, body!

Now, what do you want your body to be able to do for you that it can’t, or you are afraid that you won’t be able to keep up for much longer? Feel the exhileration of a runners “high”? Rearrange the livingroom furniture when nobody’s home? Pick up your growing kids and grandkids? Well, let’s get to work!

Regardless of your functional health goals, regularly engaging in the following activities is an important part of training a body that can work for you¹:

• Cardiovascular - challenges your heart and lungs work a little harder than at. baseline without it feeling impossible (walking, jogging, swimming, bike riding, dancing, etc, etc, etc!)

• Strength - encourages your muscles to build in size, power, and endurance (body weight exercises, exercise bands, free weights, weight machines, and more!)

• Balance - coordinates your muscles, joints, and nervous system (brain) to be aware of your body in space to avoid falls and injury

• Flexibility - maintaines full range of motion of joints and muscles to enhance mobility and reduce injury and pain

Lyle and I have been prioritizing our functional health lately as our almost-7-year-old special needs daughter, Emily, creeps towards the 4-foot and 50# mark. While we know that at some point we will have to install lift equipment to help move her throughout the house, we have been working hard to increase our strength, balance, and flexibility so that we can continue to pick her up off the floor unassisted for awhile longer. In fact, Lyle would be the first to admit that has never been one to want lift weights “because they are heavy,” yet having Emily is the functional health WHY that has gotten him stronger than ever been before.

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Let’s get back to my goal of swimming and traveling into my final years. Maintaining and increasing functional health with age takes a little more planning and effort because the reality is that loss of muscle mass and aerobic capacity is inevitable. Meaning, you can put on muscle more easily in the first several decades of life, yet starting in your 50’s you will naturally start lose muscle and endurance.

But there is good news! For those of you who are still approahcing your 50’s, there is time to raise peak muscle mass and aerobic capacity. The higher you can get it, and keep it, during the first half of your life, the less detrimental a decline will be because you will have so much more in reserve.

And if you have already sailed past your 50’s? There is new and exciting research that shows appropriate² strength & cardiovascular training can help preserve and strengthen the muscle you have in effort to support your functional goals.

Thus, the year I turned 40 I moved strength training waaaay up on my functional priority list because I have known for years that it is essential for my muscle health, bone health, and ability to care for my daughter. I have tried several types of strength training, from working with a trainer, barre classes, and now more challenging weight training classes to keep myself challenged and engaged. And I give myself permission to keep mixing it up so that I stick with my goals.

The take home message? Get moving, and stay moving! Honestly evaluate where you are, where you want to be decades into the future, and keep these motivations in mind as you prioritize your functional health and happiness.

Someday I hope to have an interactive way for people to submit different in-person and online classes and resources that provide a variety of ways to work towards your functional goals and enjoy doing it. In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment about the ways you enhance your functional health -

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~Allison

The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended as professional or medical advice. For personalized guidance or treatment, please consult a qualified healthcare provider or professional.

1. Refer to CDC for cardiovascular and strength training frequency and intensity recommendations, remembering to start where you are at.

2. I’m the first to admit that I am not a personal trainer, so please work with someone who knows what they are doing if you are attempting something new.