younger next year

by Kathleen Moore, Ph.D.
January 2007

How would you like to “turn back your biological clock” and become functionally younger every year, living a vibrant, healthy life well into your eighties? Instead of looking forward to decades of pain as your body slowly deteriorates, this book says it’s possible to live as if you were 50, maybe even younger, for the rest of your life.

The persuasive arguments in Younger Next Year, by Chris Crowley and Harry Lodge, are presented in a readable, entertaining style. The authors, a doctor and one of his patients, alternate chapters in sort of a team-teaching effort, where Harry, the soft-spoken MD, presents the science, and Chris, the no-nonsense coach (who just happens to be in his 70s), talks about how the science relates to real life.

Crowley and Lodge argue that a sedentary lifestyle sends our bodies a constant message of famine – yes, famine! – triggering the body’s automatic survival strategy of conserving resources by holding onto fat cells while allowing other vital cells to decay and die. “Exercise—the physical work of hunting and foraging—has always been the single most powerful signal we can send that life is good; that it’s spring and time to grow,” they say.

To counteract this modern-age decay, the authors came up with “Harry’s Rules.” There are only seven, and they sound deceptively simple. But if you follow these rules, they claim that you can halt or even reverse the process of aging and decay.

1. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life. Yes, this is hard, they say, but do it anyway. Joining a gym is strongly recommended, and recruiting a spouse or friend to work out with you, and signing up for classes like spinning, aerobics, or yoga, can greatly enhance your success.

2. Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life. Get a heart monitor. Learn your rates for fat burning and glucose burning. Stop trying to read the paper while you exercise; if you can read, it’s probably not aerobic enough.

3. Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life. Strength training makes your muscles and bones stronger, but the greatest benefits come from increased coordination and muscular integration, i.e., better balance, fewer falls, fewer injuries.

4. Spend less than you make.

5. Quit eating crap! Stay away from the things you know you shouldn’t eat. And stop trying to diet. Eat good food and exercise regularly, and excess weight will go and stay away.

6. Care. Care about yourself and about others. About life. And about things greater than yourself.

7. Connect and commit. Volunteer! Get involved. Make a difference.

One thing that seems overlooked in the “rules” is that keeping healthy and living longer also require mental fitness. I suggest the addition of an 8th rule, “8. Keep challenging your mind.” Websites such as Agogus.com (billed as the “Fitness Club for the Mind”) offer an opportunity to learn new things and stimulate your neurons.

Crowley and Lodge assert that “aerobic exercise will save your life; strength training will make it worth living.” If you exercise religiously and get and stay connected with others, your reward will be wellness, vigor, and joy into your 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. To get even more inspiration, visit the Younger Next Year website, www.youngernextyear.com (currently a bit truncated as they move to a new webservice provider).

Many people claim that this book has changed their life – it may change yours. You owe it to yourself to read it and find out.

ROCHESTER RESOURCES: Younger Next Year and Younger Next Year for Women, by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, M.D., are both available in local public libraries and bookstores.