Are we old or not curious enough?
How curiosity is the driving force behind business, investing and longevity
“We don’t stop playing because we get old, we grow old because we stop playing”
They say you grow old when you stop pursuing your genuine curiosity every single day. In fact there are studies proving that genuine curiosity for things in life slows down the aging process. Well, that explains why my mother looks so very young.
Warren Buffet is now 91 years old. But he remains curious about new businesses around the world and reads on end for several hours every day. This has been the driving factor for his longevity. That being said his habit of drinking Coca Cola daily for the last few decades is purely down to his genetics and his portfolio management style is based on his risk appetite and investment horizon. So blindly following his investment style and general lifestyle could be hazardous for you.
The greatest investors in the world say that the key to longevity for your investing career and life in general is to be constantly learning, especially with the world around evolving at such a rapid pace.
In business, curiosity fuels innovation. And as shown by a study published in the Harvard Business Review, firms that innovate and create new things are the ones that succeed the most.
Elon Musk recently tweeted about the importance of curiosity
My mother has been balancing her job and managing the home for 30+ years now while never missing her table tennis, cycling, yoga, music class and numerous other activities. Looking at her you wouldn't guess that she’s pushing 60. She is driven by a perennial curiosity for everything around. Similarly my mama (her brother), who was the head of R&D at various multinational corporations and is now the CEO of his own biotech firm, always manages to find time for his music, writing, exercise, and socializing. He is ever ready to try a new sport or activity. Another case of genuine curiosity fuelling the fire every single day.
Inspirations for my previous blog posts have come primarily from conversations I have had with people, books that I read coupled with my genuine curiosity about how the human body behaves & how businesses function. The latter part is a curiosity that is required for my professional life.
While touching upon whether it is too late to start investing, and pursuing your curiosity about ideas, in this piece I would like to touch upon whether it is too late to start working out. We often hear the term that we should exercise less as we grow older. I am here to tell you that this is far from the truth. Science has proven time and again that exercising becomes more crucial as we age.
Sarcopenia
You often hear people say: “I am too old to run or lift weights”. This could not be further from the truth. To avoid sarcopenia- the loss of muscle mass with age- we need to incorporate adequate levels of exercise in our regimen. After the age of 30, we lose on average 3-5% of muscle mass due to physical inactivity. Even physically active people start to lose some amount of muscle mass. A study showed that sarcopenia is also associated with acute and chronic disease states, increased insulin resistance, fatigue, falls in elderly individuals, and mortality. The reduction in testosterone is one of the contributing factors to the process of aging. It is the hormone responsible for protein synthesis and growth of muscle mass. Testosterone is produced by the gonads and also the adrenal glands, and regulates a number of functions alongside sperm production, such as:
Mood and enthusiasm
Sex drive
Energy levels (thereby affecting productivity)
Muscle size and strength
Red blood cell production
I covered this in more detail in my previous topic on how Hormones drive the stock markets.
Here are a few symptoms and causes of sarcopenia:
Shrinkage of nerve cells in the brain responsible for and involved in informing the muscles to start movement (this is a possible explanation for laziness as you age)
Not getting enough protein to grow and maintain muscle
Lower concentration of growth hormone and testosterone due to a lack of adequate nutrition, sleep and exercise
Peter Attia has written an article in which he has interpreted various studies on how muscle mass and strength are so important as we age and how one should be able to kick ass even when we are 85. His simple twitter thread explains how ‘exercise’ is the best drug at delaying the onset of death and preserving lifespan.
Speaking of kicking ass till you are 85, here is a then-93-year-old veteran, full of zest and life, explaining to an awestruck crowd why bodybuilding at age 93 is a great idea and how exercising will save humanity and make the world a better place. Who doesn’t love the idea of going to a beach party at age 90? Who said it should stop at a certain age?
Here’s a great picture of an 83-year-old woman who has breached the social aversion to weightlifting and is now able to shoulder press and deadlift at her age-- something most people my age are unable to do (Zoom in for the text).
My long-time neighbour and friend Mr VV Nigudkar, age 85, who lives one floor below me has been a free source of inspiration for me since my early school days. He has been an avid weightlifter and swimmer well into his 80s. One look at him and you wouldn’t be able to second guess his age. Backward walking to protect the joints (which I often write about on my twitter and insta courtesy the kneesovertoesguy) was something that I saw him do a couple of years ago. I can now connect the dots.
My father- a diabetic and heart patient - at age 62, joined the gym for the first time in his life in the first week of February 2022. It was a great moment for me to see him begin his own journey towards a healthier and stronger future. In fact, he now sends me videos of kettlebell swinging techniques by legends like Pavel Tsatsouline. He has become obsessed with getting better. I find this inspiring. His progress shows that we do not permanently lose mobility and strength. They can be developed again.
In fact, here is a snippet of his progress within 2 months of workout (Note: He is someone who could not sit cross-legged for his entire life).
Day 1
Day 30
He is now comfortably dancing in the squat hold position and has progressed to weighted barbell squats, excited about things to come! So next year’s blog post may feature a complete transformation picture.
The most important point is that he hasn’t missed a single day and is consistently taking down notes of his workouts to track his performance. Note-taking is something that I myself had not done for years. It is one of the most underrated tools for making progress in the gym and in life. Since he and I are avid readers, his latest order Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, will probably be in my library soon and a few of my books in his library.
Initially it can get hard to convince your mom and dad to make changes but don’t give up on it. It’s called the ‘wiped your ass’ syndrome as mentioned by my dad, a term I clarified on the internet. Our mom and dad wiped our asses when we were small so it is difficult to take advice from someone who’s ass you wiped as a toddler. They still see us as their child, but you have to try anyway because they are your parents. You love them and it is good for the soul. So never stop working on it.
Chris Cornell dropping some words of wisdom to get you started:
A classic example of losing mobility as we age would be observing a baby. Look how effortlessly any baby squats and sits comfortably in that position.
In fact, observe your local vegetable vendor, house help or any worker. These guys do an ass to grass squat without any effort because lack of movement has never been a luxury they could afford.
Years of sitting and lack of movement has caused our hamstrings to shrink, our calves to get tight and our backs to get as stiff as a rock. We use aging as an excuse when the real culprit is a lack of movement.
Often you get up from your chair or off the bed and have a nagging back pain or body stiffness and you think to yourself, “Damn, I’m getting old”. Actually, this has got more to do with your lack of movement over the years than your age. In fact, it has everything to do with a lack of muscle to support movement and a lack of mobility to get that range of motion. When muscle tissue becomes tight, optimal blood flow is impeded to those areas of the body, thereby causing stiffness in that body part. Now this leads to a downward spiral. If your back muscles are stiff, your spine will not be hydrated adequately. The lack of movement in the spine will reduce hydration in the discs. You will eventually end up with back pain. You will then hope that it will magically go away or be temporarily numbed by popping a pill. Sitting is the new smoking.
How to Combat Sarcopenia?
Resistance Training
Resistance training is mandatory to ensure that we do not lose muscle mass as we age. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that tells us to slow down as we age and not to visit the gym or lift weights as we grow older, I suggest that you bear the following points in mind:
Here is why we need to maintain muscle mass in the body:
Muscle Mass plays a crucial role in preventing diseases as we age. Muscle plays a crucial role in vital bodily functions and protein synthesis in vital tissue and organs.
Studies have shown that 10 weeks of strength training helped to increase lean muscle mass by 1.4 kg, reduce body fat by 1.8kg and increase resting metabolic rate by 7% for inactive individuals. The study also pointed how strength training helped to reduce LDL-C (considered the bad cholesterol), triglycerides and increase HDL-C (the good cholesterol)
Strength training helps to reduce the weakening of bones, which increases the risk of fractures of injuries from falls as we age. Lifting weights can help to improve bone density and strength. In major cases of osteoporosis sometimes even a small sneeze has caused pains and fractures in individuals
Muscle mass helps to arrest the process of aging
Narici and Maffulli have reviewed how the Greeks back in the 4th and 5th century BC, detested the effects of aging and considered it an incurable disease. Things changed by 1st century BC and 1st century AD when Cicero and others began to view aging as a modifiable condition in his ‘Essay on Old Age’ in 44 BC Cicero mentions: ‘it is our duty to resist old age, to compensate for its defects, to fight against it as we would fight a disease; to adopt a regimen of health; to practice moderate exercise; and to take just enough food and drink to restore our strength’.
Protein
Protein is the building block for muscle in the body and the most important macronutrient. The body breaks rotein down into amino acids, which it uses to build muscle. However, older men often experience a phenomenon called anabolic resistance, which lowers their bodies' ability to break down and synthesize protein.
Therefore as you begin resistance training you will need more protein. The recommended levels of protein are 0.8g of protein per kg of bodyweight for inactive individuals. For active individuals carrying out progressive resistance training one would require 1-1.3g of protein per kg of bodyweight. For example if you weigh 70 kgs the minimum amount of protein you would require is 70-91 kgs. These are the baseline numbers to begin with! If you are working towards getting seriously lean I would recommend 1.8-2 g of protein per kg of body weight. There have been numerous studies backing up this claim and how increasing protein intake to this level can help improve athletic performance as well.
Protein helps to keep you satiated and will ensure that you are not unnecessarily snacking through the day, a common culprit for blood sugar spikes. It also helps to improve your metabolic rate by 15-20% thereby allowing you to eat more without worrying about calories. A fit person will often get the statement “Oh you’re so lucky that you can eat so much and not put on weight”, the discipline that is put in to be able to reach that state to raise their level of metabolism is often ignored.
Simply putting
Cc: @tjmroberston on Instagram (great page to follow)
Conclusion
And finally once you begin your journey, test yourself with the Old Man Test. The goal is to be able to comfortably pass the test. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t complete the test, it is just a sign that you need to work more on strength and mobility.
The goal of longevity isn’t to live to the age of 200, the goal is to try to improve your quality of life till the inevitable day comes.
Now rather than quoting someone else, here is an original Ankush quote for you to end this article.
“It’s never too late until your last breath”- Ankush Datar
Really interesting read, Ankush. Very fresh new perspective, a lot of food for thought - and - most impressively, several actionable suggestions from ‘one from a generation whose ass we’ve wiped ;)’ Keep up the good work!
Wonderful article