Peak Nutrition. Maria Hines
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If you apply this tinkering mindset to your learning, you will see failure as a valuable part of learning and improving. In Zen Buddhism, the term shoshin means “beginner’s mind,” referring to the quality of being open and eager to learn without discrimination. Often as beginners, we are more open to possibilities and have no preconceived notions about what we are doing. As we become more expert, we hold prejudices in our minds and become self-critical, making failure a bad thing. Adopting the beginner’s mind, we can welcome failure no matter what stage of learning we are at. Apply this to your climbing, or to your long outdoor pursuits, and see how it can change your perspective, your awareness, and the value of what you love to do.
CREATE RITUALS AND A GOAL CHECK-IN
In addition to practicing how to be 1 percent better each day, you can make a list of all the things you want to improve that will help you get closer to your goals. Choose one for the day and make one tiny positive change. It can be super helpful to write down your goals and values. To bolster your motivation and ensure consistency, it’s beneficial to create daily rituals. For example:
•Morning ritual. First thing in the morning, review your stated goals and values. Write down your habit or your 1 percent change for the day.
•Evening ritual. Take a look at what you wrote in the morning, then reflect on how well your behaviors matched your habits, values, and goals. Revise and adjust your habits and goals if your behaviors did not match—maybe your goals were unrealistic? Come up with a plan for the next day that you will review again in the morning.
“Care for your own lantern so that others may benefit from its light.” —Zen saying
Devise a goal check-in when things get tough in your efforts to create and form a new habit, or when you wander off your path. This is a great little exercise to do when you are faced with potential failure or decision-making. Before making any decisions that feel impulsive, give yourself a moment to reflect. Sometimes the urge to do something will fade. Ask yourself: What do I want right now? What do I ultimately want? Am I willing to sacrifice my values and goals for what I want right now? Could I wait a little while? See the Resources section at the back of the book for a great reading list on habit building and motivation.
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LONGEVITY AND THE AGING ATHLETE
MOST MOUNTAIN ATHLETES WE KNOW want to figure out how to live a longer and more fulfilling life. Everyone wants to feel better as they age and continue to improve on their training and activities. The fact is, you are aging and will eventually see a decline in performance. But there are some strategies to help you maintain your quality of life as you age and perhaps enjoy life even more. This chapter looks at athletic performance and the physical body, the biomarkers of aging, ways to increase longevity, the aging brain, and supplementation and the benefits of fasting as they relate to longevity.
PERFORMANCE AND THE PHYSICAL BODY
Beginning at around age 30, there is often a marked difference in how you recover from training and big days outside. Between the ages of 30 and 60, there is a slow decline in performance. Once you hit 60 or so, the process of aging increases rapidly. This is especially true for those who are sedentary, who don’t work out, and who haven’t consistently eaten well over the years. The human body has 35 trillion cells that have to regenerate and replicate themselves over and over. With each replication, there is DNA damage. It’s like making a copy of a picture in a photocopier, then copying that copy, then copying that copy, and so on. By the end, you have a very fuzzy, diluted version of the original picture. Essentially, this is what is happening to your body. DNA damage is caused by oxygen free radicals that are by-products of cell regeneration. They also come from your environment, stress, food, and even exercise.
BIOMARKERS OF AGING
As you age, more than 99 indicators known as biomarkers decline, including muscle mass, reaction time, coordination, memory, and so on. But you can influence a few biomarkers. The primary age-related biomarker is sarcopenia—loss of muscle mass (specifically the fast-twitch type IIa muscle fibers—the ones used during maximum strength, power, or dynamic movements). The result is a loss of strength and power, which can be a real blow for older mountain athletes. This decline may be the result of a decrease in activity because of life changes and priorities. Inactivity can also be caused by prior injury or pain, which can psychologically limit movement. The fear of pain during training is a considerable limiter for folks coming back from an injury. It is an even greater deterrent when you are much older. Don’t let pain stop you from moving. Find a way to move around the pain, and stay as active as you can.
Another age-related biomarker is metabolic rate. Metabolism decreases over time and is dependent on mitochondrial health and thyroid function. Over time, especially if you are inactive, the DNA in your mitochondria gets deleted. Because mitochondria use nutrients and oxygen to generate energy and heat that controls your body temperature, your ability to regulate internal temperature also decreases because of this degradation. In addition, your body fat percentage goes up and your lean body mass decreases. These changes go hand in hand with the loss of muscle mass and decrease in metabolism, which further increases body fat percentage.
As a result of these factors, VO2 max (an indicator of cardiovascular fitness) decreases because of a decrease in aerobic work and loss of mitochondria. The body reduces its tolerance of varying blood glucose levels, making it harder to level out glucose in the blood, which can lead to diabetes. Blood pressure tends to fluctuate more. Bone density decreases, likely because of inactivity and a reduction in weight-bearing movements. Cholesterol ratios also can become an issue.
What is VO2 max? It’s an indicator of cardiovascular fitness, essentially how much oxygen you can consume during progressively intense cardio. It is expressed as milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute, or ml/kg/min. The more oxygen you consume, the more ATP the body can generate. (See chapter 6, How Fuel Provides Energy to learn about ATP.)
INCREASING LONGEVITY
But it’s not all bad news. It is possible to increase your longevity. Looking at the biomarkers of aging we’ve just discussed, you can design a program to slow down the process of aging and enjoy life as you age.
Strength. One of the keys is to improve mitochondrial health, and you can do this by maintaining or increasing muscle mass to stay strong. This helps you avoid the risk of falls when you are much older. But how? Easy: Lift weights, or lift something, even yourself and heavy packs. Doing heavy lifting a few times a week is great because it increases those type IIa muscle fibers. Lift in ranges of 1 to 5 repetitions to increase strength and power and ranges of 8 to 15 repetitions to increase muscle mass. Higher numbers of reps (25 or so) can increase type I muscle fibers, which helps to increase the capacity to do more work, which equals more mitochondria.
Mobility. Continue to move and work on mobility. If your muscles are tight, your arteries are probably also stiff. Move as much as you can throughout the day. These days, sitting is the new smoking, even if you exercise regularly. Prolonged time spent seated has been shown to affect the heart and