Training for the person you'll be at 73
I used to think dementia was mostly bad luck.
Monday was World Alzheimer’s Day, and for years that’s where I’d have filed it; sad and unavoidable.
But the evidence has moved on, and it’s a lot more hopeful than most of us realise. In 2024 the Lancet Commission on dementia, led by Professor Gill Livingston at UCL, listed 14 risk factors you can do something about. Deal with them and up to 45% of cases could be prevented or delayed.
Physical inactivity is on there, along with blood pressure, weight, smoking, alcohol, hearing loss and isolation, plus two new ones: LDL cholesterol from about 40 and untreated vision loss later on. Read it twice and it’s more or less the list for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. So the work you’re already doing counts for more than you thought, and it keeps paying out 30 years down the line.
My own reason for training has shifted as I’ve got older. In my twenties it was race times and how I looked with no clothes on; now it’s keeping my brain in a good place and staying on the move at 73, which is a lot less glamorous and a lot more useful.
None of it needs to be dramatic. Move most days, get your blood pressure checked, book the hearing test you’ve been putting off and take the cholesterol number seriously in your forties.
So how far ahead are you training? Most of us stop somewhere around next summer, and I reckon it’s worth pushing that out a few decades.
A quote worth sitting with
“It’s never too early or too late to take action, with opportunities to make an impact at any stage of life.”
— Professor Gill Livingston, UCL, lead author of the 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia.
Whether you’re 43 or 73, this week counts.
The Saturday Standard
Thirty Years Out
30-minute EMOM. 10 rounds of this 3-minute cycle:
- Minute 1: 15/12 cal row
- Minute 2: 15 kettlebell swings (24/16kg) + 5 burpees
- Minute 3: 10 dumbbell thrusters (2x15kg / 2x10kg)
Adjust the calories and weights so round 1 leaves you about 15 seconds spare each minute.
Three ways to make it consistent
If you’d like a hand turning all this into a habit rather than a good intention, there are three ways to work with me.
🏋️ 1:1 PT in my garage studio in Whickham. £35 an hour, pay when you book, no blocks and no contract.
👥 CommFit, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Whickham. £5 a class, and your first one’s free.
📱 Online coaching, with training, nutrition and sleep planned around the week you actually have. £35 a week, first week free.
Or just reply to this email and we’ll work out which one fits.