- Noelle McKenzie is a personal trainer who says she reversed her biological age from 39 to 35.
- She helps her clients exercise to live long, healthy lives.
- McKenzie focuses on mobility, cardio, and strength training.
A personal trainer who says she reversed her biological age from 39 to 35 shared how she trains her clients to help them live long, healthy lives.
Noelle McKenzie, cofounder of Leading Edge Personal Trainers based in New York City, has incorporated into her training tests that measure how well a person is aging, or their “biological age.”
Biological age is an estimate of the health of cells, tissues, and organs, but there isn’t an agreed definition or way to measure it, partly because we don’t know what “normal” is for different ages.
But McKenzie finds it a helpful guide for understanding what she and her clients need to work on.
According to data from her Fitdays smart scale, her bone density, body fat, water weight, and muscle mass distribution are similar to that of a 35-year-old.
To test her clients’ biological age, she often combines smart scale results with data on aspects of fitness linked to living longer, such as muscle strength, cardiovascular health, and functional fitness.
She notes how long clients can stand on one leg, stay in a low squat position, and hang from a bar, as well as how many push-ups they can do in one minute and how far they can run in 12 minutes.
Research suggests worse muscle strength, for example, is linked to a higher risks of older adults dying, while grip strength is linked to better health.
“Biological age essentially tells you how fast your body is aging,” she said. “A lower biological age tells me your training and lifestyle habits are well-rounded.”
These are the three areas of fitness she works on with clients to lower their biological ages and improve their longevity.
1) Improve mobility and range of motion
If a client is mostly sedentary, McKenzie starts off “slow and steady,” and works on helping them do day-to-day movements as easily as possible, including grabbing things from overhead, getting up from a chair, and walking.
She also looks at clients’ form to ensure they aren’t putting extra stress on their joints when exercising.
“I want to get people to a place where it’s hard for them to practice bad form because their bodies have become so accustomed to moving the way they’re supposed to,” she said.
2) Do progressively harder strength training
One 2022 review of research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that for healthy adults, 30 to 60 minutes a week of muscle-strengthening activity was associated with a 10-17% lower risk of dying from chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes.
McKenzie does whole-body strength training with her clients, focusing on functional movements, which mimic those we perform in regular life, like carrying groceries or picking things up off the ground. For example, she might include a farmer’s carry or a hang from a pull-up bar to improve a client’s grip strength, so they can carry heavy things day to day.
She also follows a progressive model, meaning her clients improve in some way each week, whether that’s by increasing the weight they lift, adding more sets, or reducing recovery time between exercises.
Building muscle is great for longevity. Among other benefits, it can help prevent sarcopenia, or the loss of muscle mass in older age, which can make it harder to do everyday tasks.
3) Do two types of cardio
McKenzie encourages her clients to build two types of cardio into their routines: zone two cardio and interval work.
Zone two cardio is exercising at a low intensity so your heart rate stays low, or maintaining a pace where you can have a conversation without feeling out of breath.
McKenzie recommends her clients walk for 30 to 40 minutes at a brisk pace every day as a simple way to achieve this.
She also tries to improve her clients’ VO2 max, which is a measure of how well the heart performs during exercise. A higher VO2 max means you have better endurance and has been linked to living longer.
McKenzie has clients do interval training, which involves alternating periods of high-intensity exercise and rests, to improve their VO2 max and overall stamina.
