Leg strength is the single strongest predictor of how long you'll live healthily. Strong thighs keep you mobile and social, which adds 7 to 8 years of life. They also protect your brain and prevent falls, the third leading cause of death in older adults.
Chapters
Crazy fact: the single most important thing you can do— leg strength. The stronger your thighs are, the longer you live. So, 3 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 7 to 8 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? It's your 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, legs? 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.
