This Won't Add One Second to Your Life

Trying to stand on one leg for more than 10 sec will NOT help you live longer.

Back in June, an intriguing study published in the much-respected British Medical Journal splashed across the media. It found that...

"The inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds in mid to later life is linked to a near doubling in the risk of death from any cause within the next 10 years."

Wow, twice the risk of dying from any cause within a decade if you can't balance on one leg for more than 10 seconds. Yikes!!

Sensational findings like this often confuse people. They mistake correlation for causation.

The news got so much buzz that we received numerous requests to add more balance training to our programming. I heard from at least a dozen members, "I don't want to die in the next 10 years, so we've gotta work on my balance till I can stand on one foot for at least 10 seconds."

We certainly understand their concerns and genuinely want these good people around for much longer than 10 more years. But being able to balance on one leg will not add one minute to their lifespan.

Having said that, enjoying exceptional balance and stability well out into our marginal decades is indeed a key contributor to outstanding healthspan.

And can you guess the most effective method to develop exceptional balance and stability?

It's to develop an abundance of functional core and leg strength while meticulously working each of our major joints through full range of motion under progressively heavier loads.

What does it matter if you can balance on one leg for 10 seconds but can't do 10 full-depth body-weight squats, or one full pushup, or hold a proper plank for one minute, or control a lunge or split squat all the way to the floor, or lift 20 lbs over your head for 10 reps? We can try funky balance stuff all day, but if you can't complete those basic movement patterns, anything we do to improve your balance is like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.

Our Measure What Matters program will assess each of those essential movement patterns and more. Twice a year, in November and May, MidStrongers who sign up for MWM will complete a series of functional assessments that measure their functional fitness and track their progress. These are exercises you're familiar with, such as Leg Press 3RM, body weight squats, and pushups. And, yes, we WILL be including the now famous one-leg balance test.

We will also do InBody body composition scans. That'll happen quarterly - November 5th, Feb, May, and Aug.

Our first assessment kicks off soon - on Saturday morning November 5th. Yes, we will offer a make-up date. The deadline to sign up is Wed November 2nd. We limit participation to 25 members, so don't wait to reserve your spot. Several are already reserved.

The investment is $250 per year. Our current members can sign up by replying to this email confirming they want to participate and we'll charge the card we have on file. Or head to this link to sign up.

Whether they have the balance of a ballerina or not, we want our members and friends around for much longer than 10 more years. Even more so, we want them to enjoy robust and fully functional physical and cognitive ability through all of those years.

Work it. Live it. Keep it.

MidStrong is for life.