Exercise

Harvard geneticist David Sinclair’s business pitch has remained largely the same: Aging can be slowed or reversed, and we are about to figure out how.

“A lot of my colleagues dislike that phrase, the reversibility of aging,” he told a roomful of longevity investors. “But I truly believe that, based on my lab’s research and now others, that aging can be reversed. If I can make one medicine that would change people’s lives, I’d be very happy.” Sinclair also has co-founded companies that sell directly to consumers products such as supplements and tests that purport to show one’s “biological age.” He has also helped raise more than $1 billion.

But according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the investors have almost nothing to show for it. Four companies trying to develop longevity drugs have gone bankrupt or largely halted operations. Another four either haven’t yet tested their drugs or gene therapies in humans or have run only small-scale trials that make it difficult to know whether a drug will work.

Sinclair has drawn criticism from fellow scientists, who say he exaggerates the findings and implications of age-related research. The board of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, a group Sinclair co-founded and led, asked him to resign as president earlier this year after he was quoted as saying a dog chew sold by a company he co-founded reversed aging in dogs.

Possible Preaching Angles:

It looks like we’re still living in the reality of the Fall, that human beings will age, grow old, and eventually die. We are still mortal!

An investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde revealed a potential security threat for several world leaders. The confidential movements of France’s president Macron, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and former president Trump -- even after two assassination attempts on Trump – were easily tracked online through a fitness app used by their bodyguards.

The security agents were found using the Strava app, which is primarily used by runners and cyclists to record their activities and share their workouts. The data it collects can also be used to track users' locations.

The newspaper identified a total of 44 U.S., French, and Russian security agents, all responsible for presidential security, who had public Strava accounts. Their movements, including professional trips, were therefore communicated online.

The U.S. Secret Service said in a statement to Le Monde that while staff are not allowed to use personal electronic devices while on duty, “we do not prohibit an employee’s personal use of social media off-duty.” However, they added that “affected personnel have been notified" and that they "will review this information to determine if any additional training or guidance is required.”

These potential security breaches illustrate the risks associated with tech companies and consumer data. "Companies love our data, and we love the product, so we give away the data for free," said Ibrahim Baggili, professor of cybersecurity at Louisiana State University. "The government really needs to start cracking down on how data can be used and how long it can be retained."

Possible Preaching Angle:

God gives us the freedom to decide how to live, but we must consider how our choices affect others.

Medical clinics are popping up across the country promising to help clients live longer and better—so long as they can pay. Longevity clinics aim to do everything from preventing chronic disease to healing tennis elbow, all with the goal of optimizing patients’ health for more years. Clients pay as much as $100,000 a year for sometimes-unproven treatments, including biological-age testing, early cancer screenings, stem-cell therapies, and hair rejuvenation.

The centers capitalize on Americans’ obsession with living longer. Many doctors caution that some clinics’ treatments lack robust scientific evidence or introduce health risks. One researcher said, “Anybody who is treating your toenails can say they’re contributing to longevity.”

People who visit these clinics are often wealthy people in their 40s to 60s who are seeing signs of aging. Several providers say they have noticed clientele trending as young as 20-somethings in recent years.

An article in Bloomberg Businessweek described the quest of multi-millionaire Bryan Johnson, a 45-year-old software entrepreneur, to turn back the clock. This year, he’s on track to spend at least $2 million on his body. He wants to have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, teeth, skin, and hair of an 18-year-old.

The effort has been named Project Blueprint, and Johnson’s doing it with the assistance of 30 doctors. They try the most intriguing new treatments on Johnson and obsessively track the results using everything from whole-body MRIs to blood draws. It's all on top of a rigorous framework of a 1,977-calorie vegan diet, and an extremely specific brushing and flossing routine. If you think he's crazy, “This is expected and fine,” he says. The crazy part is, it's working.

According to the article, "Johnson’s body is, as they measure it, getting medically younger," citing the biological age of his heart (37), skin (28), lung capacity (18), and gum inflammation (17). Each morning starting at 5 a.m., Johnson takes two dozen supplements and medicines. There’s a supplement for artery and skin health, another to prevent bowel polyps, others to reduce inflammation, and also his vegan diet. He follows a daily hourlong workout, consisting of 25 different exercises. Then there are weekly acid peels to counteract sun damage and sound therapy to better his hearing.

Kristin Dittmar, a cancer specialist, says, “I think what he’s doing is impressive, and he has personally challenged me to be better. What he does is also essentially a full-time job.” She also stresses that cancer has genetic components that no cutting-edge science, let alone juices or creams, can yet beat.

It’s also easy to imagine how a group of Johnson wannabes experimenting with ever-riskier procedures could go horribly wrong.

There’s a new trend at gym classes around the country. Americans emerging from more than two years of pandemic are looking for something new in their workouts: A good rest. Gyms say they are seeing increased demand for gentler classes, and they’re expanding their mellower offerings. They’re also rolling out dedicated “recovery” rooms equipped with massage lounge chairs and self-massage gadgets.

One participant said his workout reminds him of preschool nap time. He lies on a mat with pillows in a dimly lighted room and follows an instructor through a series of gentle stretches while calming music plays. Aptly named Surrender, the hourlong class in his Houston gym has been packed. The chain has increased the number of Surrender classes by an average of about 50% across its locations compared with 2019.

Months of stress and sweatpants have shifted priorities for gym-goers, with many saying they now care more about how they feel versus how they look. A recent survey of 16,000 Americans reported 43% are exercising to feel better and 59% to reduce stress. As one fitness expert said, “Leaving it all on the gym floor doesn’t seem like a priority as much.”

Dean Gunther is a tattoo artist currently residing in Manchester, England. And when a recent client came to him with a bold idea, he was so stoked about the idea that he did it for free.

The client was a friend who hates working out, but wanted to have the look of well-toned, “six-pack” abdominal muscles. So, he asked Gunther to tattoo the look onto his stomach. Gunther said, “I had seen really bad ones attempted before. Because I specialize in color realism, I wanted to give it a go.” Of course, it wasn’t only the technical challenge that got him on board. He also had an additional motivation. "I thought it would be funny."

Once they completed the two-day project, they took a video and shared it on TikTok to verify the rapidly spreading rumor of the six-pack-tat, which looks impressive from a distance. Gunther’s followers responded with a combination of disbelief and bemused congratulation. One user summed up the approach with a simple aphorism: “if you can’t tone it, tat it.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

We shouldn't be satisfied with only an appearance of goodness or righteousness. Without spiritual discipline and the holiness that results, it is nothing but empty posturing.

In a recent issue of Runner's World, Jess Movold shared how she lost her passion to press on:

Tempo runs scare me. Those long, hard, sustained efforts always look impossible when I see them on paper. Doubt creeps in. I remember one run in particular—I saw it on my plan and immediately began creating a laundry list of excuses as to why this was simply just not going to work, why I wasn’t fit enough, why I wouldn’t finish, why I would fail. Before I even laced up my shoes, I’d already convinced myself I couldn’t do this. Instead of using the warmup to find my groove, prepare for success, and get excited to make the best of it, I adopted a loser’s mindset, revisited my list of excuses, and fell further into a bad attitude.

The problem, I realized, was that I treated my entire training plan like a tempo run—hard, fast, strict. In a tempo run, if you don’t hit your pace early, it’s nearly impossible to catch up. In my training plan, I felt like if I didn’t hit a workout early, I wouldn’t be able to catch up.

How did she fix this problem? She started treating her workout collectively like a long run:

I love long runs … settling into a relaxed pace, enjoying the route, and focusing on only one goal—finishing. I love that I can have a bad mile in the middle and still end strong.

Now, when I set a new goal, I have what I call “the long-run mindset.” I find success and value in my training because I’m not desperate for immediate results like I have been. I care more about the big picture and my long-term goals as a runner. I have shifted my attitude to think bigger than short-term outcomes and work toward lifelong success.

Later, Movold offers this advice:

In training as a whole, your “why” will likely be more meaningful but just as important. What are you running toward? Figure out the reason for the miles, and they become easier.

A 2012 Pew study tracked the rise of a new religious group: the “nones,” or the religiously unaffiliated. One-fifth of Americans—and a full third of adults under 30—say they belong to no religion at all.

Yet, argues Casper ter Kuile, a researcher at Harvard Divinity School, this group is still looking for elements of religious experience. His later study explores ways modern millennials seek out meaning, community, and ritual in the absence of organized religion.

The study started by profiling organizations they deemed particularly formative in the lives of their students. One of the most striking spaces? Fitness classes. Institutions like CrossFit and SoulCycle are offering their students more than just a chance to lose weight or tone up. They function, ter Kuile argues, like religions.

“People come because they want to lose weight or gain muscle strength, but they stay for the community,” he said. “It’s really the relationships that keep them coming back.” We heard people say, “Well, Crossfit is my church,” or, “Soulcycle is like my cult,” in a good way.

“Once that religious perspective had been opened in our eyes, so many things came out. Whether it’s the flag [on display] in every CrossFit [gym]; the way that the space is set up; or how you could follow a kind of liturgy in a SoulCycle class, especially through their use of light and sound. So it’s really an emotional and spiritual experience as well as a physical one.”

Possible Preaching Angles: Church; Body of Christ; Meaning of life; Relationship - Young people are searching for self-actualization, fulfillment and a ‘spiritual’ connection. The role of the church is to show them that what they are searching for comes through a deep relationship with the living God and His people. If you want a workout, find a gym. If you want meaning, come to Jesus.

If you've ever tried to find the motivation to start exercising more (around the New Year, perhaps), you have likely been encouraged to find a "workout buddy" who can help provide you with encouragement and accountability to stick to the goal. However, according to a new study, it is not encouragement but competition that seems to be the best motivator.

The researchers in charge of the study observed over 800 students assigned to different exercise groups across a wide variety of activities: yoga, cycling, running, weight training, etc. Groups were structured differently, so that some would provide a sense of friendly camaraderie while others would be more intensely competitive. They then offered control groups where there was little to no structured encouragement or competition.

The results did not end up contradicting the idea that a friendly companion provides support for your workout regimen, but it did reveal that the motivation is significantly higher when competition enters the picture. Encouragement may feel good, but pride is powerful. "As people were influenced by their neighbors to exercise more, it created a social ratchet," said the author of the study, Damon Centola, "where everyone increased everyone else's activity levels." So if you want to work out more, a little friendly competition might be a good place to start.

Potential Preaching Angles: The biblical phrase "iron sharpens iron" is often thought of as a metaphor for believers encouraging one another. But that might be selling the phrase short. Some healthy competition - measuring oneself against someone and striving to match their spiritual disciplines/practices - can be just as productive in one's spiritual life, if not more.

How much does it cost Americans to stay fit? Here are some stats to prove that we often go all out to keep our bodies in shape:

• 69 million Americans have a gym membership.
• Health clubs rake in $30.6 billion per year in revenues.
• The average cost per person for a membership is $58.
• Among gym users, 16.8 percent (ages 18-34), 26.2 percent (ages 35-44), 28 percent (ages 45-54) use personal trainers, and the total income for personal trainers was $3.3 billion in 2021 (latest figures available).
• Americans also spend upwards of $87.8 billion a year on athletic apparel.

Editor’s Note: These statistics were the best available as of 11/2024.

Possible Preaching Angles: Spiritual disciplines; Spiritual growth; Spiritual formation—In contrast, how much do we pay and how much effort do we put into our spiritual fitness?

What if I told you that walking two minutes could reduce your mortality risk? According to The New York Times, a new study (fascinatingly titled "Light-Intensity Physical Activities and Mortality in the United States General Population and CKD Subpopulation"—makes you want to read it right now I bet), "offers some helpful perspective, suggesting that even a few minutes per hour of moving instead of remaining in a chair might substantially reduce the harms of oversitting."

The article says, "Those who walked around after standing, replacing some of their sitting time with a light-intensity activity like strolling, gained a substantial benefit in terms of mortality risk." This study found that some of the much-discussed risks of sitting can be mitigated by doing as little as taking a 2-minute walk.

Possible Preaching Angle:

It is amazing what a little activity can do—literally, save your life! In the same way, it's easy to become spiritually sedentary and lethargic, but a little hard work of being spiritual active in our lives can go a long way.

Every January, millions of Americans, brimming with optimism and a little extra belly from the holidays, commemorate the New Year by making an unfamiliar urban trek. They go to the gym. One in eight new members join their fitness club in January, and many gyms see a traffic surge of 30 to 50 percent in the first few weeks of the year. Stop by your local gym soon after January 1st, and the ellipticals will be flush with new faces. But next thing you know, it will be April, our gym cards will be mocking us from our wallets, and our tummies will have sprouted, on cue with the tree buds.

Gyms make most of their money from two sorts of people: 1) absentee members and 2) super-users who pay not only the monthly fee but also for the add-ons, like trainers and classes, all the way down to the whey smoothies. Unfortunately, most of us fall into the absentee member category. In January, our cup of willpower overfloweth. But by June, the odds that you've kept your New Year's resolutions fall to under 40 percent.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Discipleship; Endurance; Lukewarmness—When it comes to following Christ, are you an absentee member? Have you started with Christ but slacked off? (2) Church; Membership—Gyms may thrive on absentee members but the church can't.

Eighty-six year old Joy Johnson, a veteran of 25 New York City marathons, died with her running shoes on. Johnson, who was the oldest runner in this year's marathon, fell at the 20 mile marker in the event. She crossed the finish line at about eight hours. After the race she returned to her hotel room, lay down with her shoes on, and never woke up.

Amazingly, Johnson didn't run her first marathon until she was sixty-one years old. The only hint of the sport was the verse from Isaiah 40:31 which hung on the kitchen wall in her family farm home in rural Minnesota: "But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

Ironically, the career gym teacher, Johnson was a stranger to personal exercise until she took a three-mile walk in 1986. Then she started jogging and competing in 10-K races. By 1988 she had competed in her first New York City Marathon. Three years later she recorded her best time at age sixty-four with a time of 3 hours and 55 minutes.

A few years ago she told a reporter about her exercise regimen. She would wake up at 4 A.M., drink her coffee while reading her Bible, and then set out on an eight mile pre-dawn run. "When you wake up it can either be a good day or a bad day," Ms. Johnson said. "I always say, 'It's going to be a good day.'"

The devout Christian ran every day but Sunday so she could attend church. Johnson sang hymns to herself to pass the time while running. According to Johnson's daughter, "She was always a happy runner—and besides her faith and family, this was something she loved the most."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Change; New Beginnings—It's never too late and you're never too old to start a new journey with God—conversion, discipleship, ministry, etc. (2) Attitudes; Joy; Gratitude—Ms. Johnson epitomized an attitude of joy and gratitude. (3) Advent; New Year's Day—Advent and New Year's Day are especially two times in the church's year when people can start a new or deeper relationship with Christ.

Though skeptical of his teenage son's newfound determination to build bulging muscles, one father followed his teenager to the store's weight-lifting department, where they admired a set of weights.

"Please, Dad," pleaded the teen, "I promise I'll use 'em every day."

"I don't know, Michael. It's really a commitment on your part," the father said.

"Please, Dad?"

"They're not cheap either," the father said.

"I'll use 'em, Dad, I promise. You'll see."

Finally won over, the father paid for the equipment and headed for the door. After a few steps, he heard his son behind him say, "What! You mean I have to carry them to the car?"

God gives us the boat and the oars, but then tells us, "It's up to you to row." Making "positive acts of faith" is like training this faculty; it is developed by training, as the muscles are developed by gymnastics.

One day as my wife and I were walking our two-mile course, I secretly determined to keep up with her--a feat thus far never accomplished. I huffed and puffed most of the way trying to keep pace. I figured that with some effort, I could hold out until we got to her usual slow-down point. When we finally reached it, Deb kept right on walking at the same rate. Breathlessly, I asked, "Honey, aren't you going to slow down like usual?" She cheerfully replied, "Sweetheart, I never sped up!"

The unconverted man says, "Conversion is easy tomorrow, but hard today. I'll put it off." Even so, prayer that is now difficult appears easy in the future. Alas, you will find it just as hard in the future as now. ... Reading a book about prayer, listening to lectures and talking about it is very good, but it won't teach you to pray. You get nothing without exercise, without practice. I might listen for a year to a professor of music playing the most beautiful music, but that won't teach me to play an instrument.

God only gave you one body, so you better be nice to it. Exercise, because if you don't, by the time you're our age [103 and 105], you'll be pushing up daisies.

Lord Joseph Duveen, American head of the art firm that bore his name, planned in 1915 to send one of his experts to England to examine some ancient pottery. He booked passage on the Lusitania. Then the German Embassy issued a warning that the liner might be torpedoed. Duveen wanted to call off the trip.

"I can't take the risk of your being killed," he said to his young employee. "Don't worry," said the man, "I'm a strong swimmer, and when I read what was happening in the Atlantic, I began hardening myself by spending time every day in a tub of ice water. At first I could sit only a few minutes, but this morning, I stayed in that tub nearly two hours."

Naturally, Duveen laughed. It sounded preposterous. But his expert sailed, and the Lusitania was torpedoed. The young man was rescued after nearly five hours in the chilly ocean, still in excellent condition. Just as this young man did, so Christians should condition themselves by practicing devotional discipline, behavioral discipline, and discipline in doing good.