Vishen Lakhiani says leg strength is the top longevity factor. Strong legs keep you mobile and connected to people, which adds 7 to 8 years of healthy life. Weak legs lead to falls, a leading cause of death in older adults.
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Crazy fact. The single most important thing you can do, leg strength. The stronger your thighs are, the longer you live. So three reasons. One, if you want to live a long time, one of the things that's most important is maintaining robust social connection, right? We all know this. And in fact, there are studies that show that people who have complex social networks maintain robust real friendships, real familial relationships. It's about a seven to eight year boost in healthy longevity. Very, very, very important. When your legs are weak, balance goes away, mobility goes away. You just stop going out and hanging out with your friends more often, right? So one, there's a social penalty. Two, bones are the mineral factory for the brain. Where are the largest bones in the human body? Femurs. Right? So that's two. And three is third most common killer of older adults is falling. So if you maintain leg strength, you don't tend to fall as much. Leg strength also tends to preserve balance. And by the way, everybody, including the scientists who went looking, were shocked when they, they were like leg strength. This is literally, you got to remember there's a bunch of like, egghead neuroscientists and geeks who went looking for, like, correlates for longevity, and they come back with leg strength. This is not what they were expecting. And one of the most important exercises that anybody can do is the leg press.
