getting younger is possible. This is one of the mottos of Marcos Vázquez, one of the great experts in physical exercise in Spain and whose approaches have been at the forefront of healthy training in the country for a decade. His latest book, ‘Live more. Reduce your biological age and increase your vitality’ (Grijalbo publishing house), is a compendium of good practices in one of the hottest topics in the world of fitness: trying to achieve maximum longevity.
His latest work analyzes psychological and intellectual aspects – Vázquez is a defender of Stoic philosophy and has helped recover this system of thought – but also those related to diet or daily rest. In this article, Marcos Vázquez explains one of the aspects that are included in his work and that refers to the pyramid of physical exercise to ensure healthy aging. As he assures, you can be 80 years old but have the vitality and energy of someone 25 or 30 years younger.
The daily steps
According to Vázquez, “one of the keys to longevity, and that is why I place it at the base of the pyramid, is to move often. There is a lot of talk about the myth of 10,000 steps, but it is not necessary to stick to a figure. It could be 7,000, 8,000 or whatever. The important thing is to incorporate the decision to be active and move into daily routines. It can be with strategies such as getting off the subway one stop before the destination to arrive on foot; “park a little further away from where we are going to walk more or use the normal stairs instead of the electric ones in a shopping center.” The basic message is to avoid a sedentary lifestyle, one of the great evils of this time.
For Marcos Vázquez, the other two steps that must be ascended in the pyramid of physical fitness and longevity are low-intensity cardio – performed in what has been called ‘zone 2’ – and strength training. ‘Zone 2’ refers to that moment of gentle sport, in which the heart rate is somewhat higher than when walking, for example, but does not lead to imminent exhaustion.
When defending strength exercises, Vázquez insists that it is a type of activity “that until now was linked to vanity, but that is increasingly associated with the keys to what would be the elixir of youth, since “which is essential to combat the loss of bone mass or muscle mass that occurs with age.” In this area, the expert does not defend a single way of training this ability. «Everyone can have preferences for an activity. From going to the gym and using the machines to lifting kilos in the free weight area or using body weight.
In this sense, one of Vázquez’s first books was ‘Unchained. Your body is a gym’, in which the author proposed doing exercises with the weight of the body, such as squats or push-ups, as a way to be able to do a complete physical activity at home or outdoors without having to go to a gym. a sports center. “For example, sitting on the couch and getting up fifty times or doing push-ups is already a way of practicing strength.”
One of the most practical – and cheap – aspects that Marcos Vázquez defends is the use of elastic bands to perform some exercises and even to replace weights. «They can allow for very effective training, as they add resistance to regular exercises. “Many people who go to the gym every day end up with sore muscles the first time they use them.”
on one leg
And at the top of the pyramid is high intensity interval training (HIIT), a form of exercise “in which the heart rate rises much higher and, although there were doubts with this type of training Due to the stress to which the heart is subjected, it has been shown to produce very good results. And it doesn’t matter if it is done by sprinting at intervals or with another activity derived from strength exercises,” he adds.
On the sides of the pyramid, Vázquez places mobility and balance. The first function refers to the ability to use the joints in wide ranges of motion. “But balance is very important, because it has to do with sight, hearing and, in a certain way, with all the wiring of the brain and our nervous system,” says the expert. The author of ‘Live more’, in this sense, proposes the challenge of standing on one leg for ten seconds. “If this time cannot be reached, we are facing a predictor of high risk of mortality,” he warns.
Training in balance also helps prevent falls “and that is key when studies show that, for example, 30% of people who have suffered a hip fracture die within three years after the accident.” The specific activity that helps improve balance are unilateral exercises, that is, those that are performed by moving only one part of the body, such as Bulgarian squats, which are performed with only one leg. “But cycling from the age of 60 is also an activity that helps improve balance substantially,” he says.
But, for longevity, the expert also recommends practicing a social sport. «It doesn’t matter if it is tennis, in which you are with another person, than football or basketball. “What it is about is being able to carry out physical activity not alone but developing social skills.”
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