It’s no secret that cardiovascular fitness is an important marker for health and longevity in aging populations, but did you know that power is a significant predictor of mortality?

Preliminary results from a recent study out of Brazil examined power (how quickly a load can be moved -- think along the lines of a power clean) of nearly 4,000 participants aged 41-85, and compared their performance to all-cause mortality in a follow up ~6.5 years later. They found that those who performed in the bottom 25% had a 10-13x higher risk of mortality than those in the top 25%. That’s astonishing. For reference, that’s a far stronger effect on all-cause mortality than being a daily cigarette smoker.

What this signifies is not a new notion -- fitness and health exist on the same spectrum, and the performance demands of grandma and a professional athlete generally differ in degree, not kind. The fitness space has pushed a persistent trend away from any focus on performance-minded training for the general population, and this has nothing but negative outcomes to offer us. Training for power is not a luxury or a misguided waste of time, it’s an essential element of your health and fitness.

- PS

4/23/19

• 3 rounds for time:

• 400m run

• 12 DB push press (AHAP)

• 20 bent over DB row (AHAP)

Then...

• EMOM 9

• Min 1: 12 DB hammer curls

• Min 2: 12 DB tate press

• Min 3: 12 DB reverse flyes