It’s a great book, and you should read it regardless of your age. Although it’s squarely targeted at people approaching retirement I wish that I had read it when I was 30 instead of 41. Still, I’m glad I’ve got it under my belt now.
The basic premise of the book is this – through a lack of physical fitness most of us walk around with the health, stamina and outlook of a person with a body far older than our own. Worse, whether or not we even realize it we mistakenly accept the idea that a gradual decline in our quality of life that is directly proportional to our age is inevitable. In other words, each passing year brings with it a few more aches and pains and a thing or two more than we can’t do or enjoy any longer. Rubbish, say the authors. Their main thrust is this – our biology is adapted to the hunter-gatherer’s daily level of physical exertion, and building a lifestyle that respects that means that aging does not have to result in each year being less enjoyable than the one before it.
For our evolutionary ancestors, “will work for food” was not a mantra of the panhandler, but rather an unavoidable fact of life for every human being on earth. Instead of being able to order a #3 with Coke in the drive through, they exerted themselves to their peak physical performance in order to literally chase down their food. What’s more, they did so in groups that shared the common cause of survival. Those of our progenitors that got really good at working hard with their buddies day after day flourished. Those that didn’t were not able to compete so well, had fewer descendants and gradually disappeared.
Recognizing these facts begs the question of what they mean to our physiology and health. Getting to the root of that is the majority of the book. I won’t go into too many details (you should read it yourself) but suffice to say that the vigor and enjoyment we all want out of our existence can be almost entirely preserved to life’s end by exercising, eating properly and working to maintain and grow valuable relationships.
If that sounds like a dull or unrealistic message that you’ve already heard a million times before I can understand. What made this book different for me was two things. First, it explained the biochemistry of why this is the case far more effectively and confidently than anything I’ve ever read. Secondly, I just so happened to be reading it at a time when the message was perfectly aligned with my personal experience. I had already taken up serious exercise on my own precisely because my gut was telling me the message that this book offers. Deep down inside I knew that getting in better shape was absolutely necessary for me to continue the kind of adventures that I found myself enjoying with new friends this past summer.
As Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lighting bug.” This book delivers the message in just the right way.
Get it. Read it. Do it.
