How To Increase Your Healthspan, Not Just Live Longer
Whereas lifespan is the number of years someone lives from birth until death, healthspan, is the number of years someone is healthy without chronic and debilitating disease.
Put simply, healthspan is the number of years where you are enjoying life, you are able to live and perform tasks independently, do the things you want to do ( like play with your kids/grandkids, travel, get out and enjoy nature) and you still feel like you are a contributing and valuable member of your community.
I’m pretty confident that training at PI has helped and will help many of our clients enjoy lengthy healthspans.
While we do work towards increasing how much you can deadlift, or dumbbell bench press, the real beauty of these things is how it translates to increasing your daily capacity to enjoy life and in some cases even help others. Here are some of the examples of how training at PI has helped our clients extend their healthspan.
Having the confidence to lift heavy luggage without injury
Having the stamina to garden for many hours, heaving heavy bags of soil
Being able to help lift a large elderly neighbour who had fallen on slippery ice without succumbing to injury themselves
Another client was able to deadlift her very elderly mother off the floor even though she herself came to us needing to rehab several injuries
Improved Posture resulting in less aches, greater confidence, and even increased height! One client told us that at a recent doctor’s appointment her doctor has flabbergasted that she’d grown an inch.
Improved Bone density. We’ve had several clients come back to us with reports of increased bone density which will eventually equate to longer health and independence.
What I described above are examples of things and capabilities that will lead to increased health span. Engaging in enjoyable and consistent exercise that highlights strength training and range of motion (just like we do at PI) is the most important thing you can do to enhance your potential healthspan.
However, a rewarding exercise practice isn’t the only important thing you can do to protect your healthspan
Also important:
1) Have Strong Social Connections
2) Nutrition – Plant centred diet focusing on lots of colours, made up of mostly whole foods!
3) Gratitude and Mindfulness
4) Check in with your Dr regularly
5) Sleep
Do you want help with your healthspan exercise plan or nutrition while creating new social connections with our fun and inclusive PI community?
Contact us today to get started at info@pitraining.ca or call 604-291-9941