Longevity Centred Fitness Classes
We have been providing science based programs for Montrealers for over 16 years. We have helped athletes improve performance, women optimize health during pregnancy, people overcome injury and thrive with physical disabilities and have helped hundreds of others go through their health and fitness goals.
Don’t believe the hype – How much muscle do you need for longevity.
You may have noticed the pendulum swinging with the new craze of huge protein consumption rates and big push to gain muscle mass. I came across one woman’s channel trying to convince every woman to bulk up – to go hard against the fear of it. Indeed I have had many women approach me over the past 2 decades for training and say that they don’t want to bulk up. And then you have loads of trainers, including myself that have for years tried to explain how hard it is to truly get bulky. But being aware that it’s difficult doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t do it. It is not, though it would appear many would disagree with me, all good to get huge. There are consequences, amenorrhea being just one of them. But to get attention now, you have to sell the other end of the spectrum, now, instead of simply reassuring that bulkiness is not necessary and also very unlikely without massive changes and effort, we try and sell the bulk, be the bulk, Bulk Smash. Extremes sell but guess what, as always, the answer to most questions lies in the middle, close to our instincts and often less fun to talk about at a party.
Ozempic: metabolic scourge or panacea?
Ozempic and other GLP-1 receptor agonists are both controversial and incredibly popular. The popularity and controversy stems mostly from its efficacy as a weight loss drug but this is only one small part of the story. I think weight loss, as a topic is an emotional trigger for people and because of this, the logical fallacies of Internet-land begin to pop up. The utopian future where people don’t take these drugs to lose weight is far off, if at all possible and so I think it is worthwhile to offer some insight as to when and how to use these drugs,. It is also important to know that these drugs are multi-functional. They may offer people a lot of benefit when taken properly and while some people will always see it as a cop out, it is by no means a free lunch. If you take it as it is often prescribed you may be in for some real problems.
The only supplements worth taking
In the current world of obsessive optimization its not hard to find yourself ordering loads of supplements, each one lauded as the next super ant-oxidant or life extension compound. Taking all the advice of Andrew Huberman, Rhonda Patrick and Ben Greenfield I would need to work extra hours each week to just to afford the pills…where would I find the time to add the daily sunlight, sauna, cold plunge, meditation, breath work, skin tapping, workout, meal prep, yoga, grounding and whatever else these health gurus suggest I need to make time for. Not that these sup’ pushers don’t dole out great advice on health and wellness, they do but things have really taken a turn towards what most nutrition experts call disordered eating (if you consider supplements as eating).
Increasing VO2max – your best tool to live longer
“Cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with long-term mortality with no observed upper limit of benefit.” This conclusion comes from a 2018 study published in the journal Cardiology (1) measuring all cause mortality in 122,000 participants under a treadmill based cardiovascular test.
Segmented into groups of cardiovascular health as such – Low, below average, above average, high and elite we can see how shifting from one group to another changes your risk of all cause mortality. For example, if you improve your fitness from low to below average you decrease your risk of mortality by 50%. If you can manage to move from low to above average it will decrease by 60-70%. When comparing this improvement vs the benefits of quitting smoking or reversing diabetes, increasing your cardiovascular fitness actually has a greater impact on mortality risk. These are incredible results. No single action moves the needle more for increasing longevity than improving cardiovascular health.
Cardiovascular disease: testing, prevention and reversal
I am not a doctor: I am a nutrition and fitness coach and a health researcher. The following information is based on dozens of hours of research predominantly using studies and lectures from the very top specialists in Metabolic disease, Cardiovascular health, Endocrinology and Health Science So while it is advice that I myself trust and use for my own screening and prevention, in no way do I write this as a personal recommendation for your health. This is just some information for you to add to your toolbox to help you advocate for your own health.
Slow Progressive Eating Plans
As stated in our nutrition plan overview we do our best to avoid comparative planning while using current nutrition science. This involves a deep dive into your history with food.
“Authors, nutritionists and doctors want to prescribe cookie cutter programs because it means way less work. If you throw ideas out that work for the average person then it will inevitably hit enough people and stick for long enough to make it seem legitimate.” In order to get around this unfortunate truth is that we ask you a s@#* ton of questions. Food is both metabolic and psychological, to treat it like metabolic math is to undermine the real and important subjective values it holds. Our questionnaire is mostly open ended questions, like; what was your favourite food growing up and why? If you could eat any meal, every day, what would it be? What foods do you eat that are linked to your family background? These questions get into emotional value of foods, they also tend to bring out life stories that give us an idea as to how you think about meals and food in general.
A Mountain of Youth
If you want to grow old but maintain a youthful energy, an agile, strong body and a happy and healthy mind, you need to seek out struggle; purposeful challenge. It is my opinion that rather than searching for a fountain of youth, we need to climb the mountain of youth. The passive path to health and longevity seems doomed to produce half measures at best. Drugs like Ozempic, “slimming” teas (laxatives), statins, most supplements, certain surgeries and even some uses of insulin only act as temporary or illusory band-aids , The easy path, as it seems, is laden with issues and does nothing to actually bolster the body from decay. Contrary to what you may think though, our minds and bodies respond very favourably to stress (the right kind and within reason of course) and so If you make intermittent discomfort a priority, it’s possible you can stave off chronic illness and mental strife.