Aging Backwards Tuesday Tips #31: The Key to Longevity?

I'm not a lazy person by any means, but I used to take a shortcut with my workouts that was not going to keep me Aging Backwards.

I enjoy exercising. I actually love the feel of burning muscles, sweat pouring down my face and even the slight soreness I get the next day.

The part I don't care for is the easy part - the stretching. It's not that I don't like it, exactly, it's just that it always seemed like a waste of time to me. That was before I met one of my heroes, Olympic hurdling champion Bert Morrow, who is Aging Backwards in his 90's!

I was visiting New York City and several people urged me not to miss breakfast at Norma's in Le Parker Meridien Hotel on W. 57th Street. So there I sat, with Geraldo Rivera at the table to my right and an elderly gentleman with a young woman who is a gerontology researcher on my left. I struck up a conversation with the elderly gentleman and found myself chatting with none other than Bert Morrow. Mr. Morrow STARTED hurdling at age 69! At some point in the conversation, I asked him, "What is the key to longevity?" He gave me a one-word answer: stretching. We talked more about stretching for a while, among other topics, but that one word impacted me and has stayed with me ever since. It's so simple, but so often overlooked.

One of the best, and possibly easiest, ways to stay limber and toned is to stretch using inversion. By "inversion" I mean hanging upside down. There are just a few contraindications to inversion, including high blood pressure, so you should check with you doctor first before trying it. Once you get your doctor's okay, the benefits can be enormous.

Benefits of Inversion

1) Decompress vertebrae. Inversion is a natural form of traction that uses your body weight in combination with gravity to decompress weight-bearing joints. While the body is rotated and suspended, gravity’s force applies traction, resulting in a customized stretch that elongates the spine, increasing the space between the vertebrae, which relieves the pressure on the discs and nerve roots. Less pressure means less pain.

2) Relieve stress. Stress and tension can cause muscle spasms in the back, neck and shoulders, as well as headaches and other problems. Tense muscles produce spasms and pain by restricting blood flow, which reduces the supply of oxygen to the muscles and reducing lymph flow, allowing for an accumulation of waste chemicals. Inverting yourself to even as little as 25 degrees for a few minutes can help relax tense muscles and speed the flow of lymphatic fluids which flush out the body's wastes and carry them to the blood stream. The faster this waste is cleared, and fresh supplies of oxygen are introduced, the faster stiffness and pain in the muscles can disappear.

3) Improve posture. Inversion can also help to encourage good posture. When inverted, the body is in line with gravity. The spine wants to naturally go to its proper form - a gentle "s" curve. A regular program of inversion can help maintain proper posture and keep the body in balance.

4) Maintain height. Most people will lose from 1/2 inch to two inches in height during their lifetime due to thinning discs. As a baby, your discs are 90 percent water. However, the water content in the discs decreases to 70 percent by age 70. An active inversion program can help maintain more of your original height.

5) Relieve varicose veins. When inverting, you're helping your heart to clear the blood from your feet, legs and lower body. This allows the blood in your limbs to circulate more easily, which may help to drain blood from varicose veins.

6) Strengthen ligaments. Inverted stretching and exercise provides gentle reverse loading and mobilization of the spine and weight-bearing joints, helping to strengthen the fibrous structure, or ligaments, encasing your joints. Ligaments are fibrous, collagen-filled strips of tissue that hold your bones together. They're flexible, but not very elastic, and can tear when they endure sudden strain or are stretched too far. Mobilization and gentle loading of ligaments can help to increase the collagen content of the tissue, which results in increased ligament strength. Strong ligaments and muscles are vital for proper joint support.

7) Increase oxygen to the brain. Your heart must work against gravity to pump blood up to your brain, which is the body's largest consumer of oxygen. Although it is only 3 percent of the body's total weight, the brain consumes 25 percent of the body's oxygen intake. Peter Russell notes in The Brain Book that the deterioration of the brain is not directly linked to age alone. Rather, this deterioration is caused by hardening arteries and high blood pressure, both of which decrease the supply of oxygen to the brain. Thus a major step in reducing mental deterioration over time may simply be increasing the oxygen supply to the brain. (Not for people with high blood pressure).

8) Decongest internal organs. As the body ages, internal organs (kidneys, stomach, intestines) begin to prolapse. Middle age spread, apart from weight gain, is due to the relocation of internal organs. Digestion and waste elimination problems are also common symptoms. Inversion helps these organs resume their normal shape and place in the body.

9) Stimulate circulation. The cardiovascular system is your body's transportation system, carrying food and oxygen to your body's cells. Oxygen-rich blood from the lungs travels out through the arteries and waste-filled blood comes back through the veins to be cleansed and recharged with oxygen. Because your body must work against gravity to retrieve blood from your legs and lower torso, inversion can help to ease the circulation process by placing your body in a position that utilizes gravity's force in your favor.

10) Take care of your discs. Your discs have three jobs: to separate the vertebrae, provide flexibility to the spine and to act as shock absorbers. Disc separation is especially important since all communication between the brain and the body is via nerves that pass between each vertebrae. Insufficient distance between the vertebrae can result in nerve root pressure and pain. The inner core of your discs is made of a jellylike material that provides the cushioning in your back. You can temporarily lose up to three quarters of an inch in height daily during your waking hours from the compressive effects of gravity. Loss of height is largely due to loss of moisture from the discs, which results in loss of flexibility and cushioning effect. While inverted, you are able to reverse the downward pressure on your discs, helping the discs to recover faster, regaining lost moisture and lost height.

More about Bert Morrow

In his fifties, Mr. Morrow suffered from four ruptured discs in his back. While this would have made many people contemplate the limitations of advancing age, he did his research and found inversion. The totally noninvasive benefits of inversion not only brought relief to his back but also increased his flexibility. With his relief and flexibility regained, Mr. Morrow became an active participant and gold medalist in the Senior Olympics in hurdling. This particular event requires a limber body and is compressive to every weight bearing joint, which is why Mr. Morrow uses inversion and recommends it to anyone who wants to keep "Aging Backwards."