Sometimes life delivers delightful surprises. Experiences that lift your spirits and put a smile on your face. Just like the one I had last week.

It happened part way through a talk I was giving. Naturally, it was on Zoom, with my audience a screen full of faces. Whilst many faces were known to me, some were not, and many others I couldn’t even see at all. That’s what happens when your gallery view doesn’t fit everyone on screen, and you’re too busy focusing on what you’re presenting.

The surprise came 10-minutes into the Q&A. First came her name, and then her face. A friend I’d not seen or spoken to in many years…Audrey!

These days Audrey is 93. We first met as fellow classmates, around 20 years ago, when she was a spritely, curious and exuberant 75-year-old. She’s one of those people who stands out in a crowd. Stands out because of her zest for life, which she expresses through her joy of learning.

Based on the short chat we had during the Q&A, I was pleased to hear nothing much had changed.

Self-directed ageism

Part of my talk that night was focused on self-directed ageism. That’s a term I’ve been using to describe the beliefs people hold about what they’re capable of doing…based on their age. My point was simply this. Whilst human ageing brings some obvious limitations, evidence from health science clearly shows that these limitations are less severe than many people appear to think.

Although I didn’t use the word “mindset” in my talk, I could have. Why? Because attitude, motivation and confidence (all psychological factors) influence the rate of physical and mental decline at older ages. Declines that can be quite dramatic in Western societies but are less obvious in non-Western societies.

For Audrey, what I was saying struck a chord. She spoke briefly and enthusiastically about her pursuits – studying Latin and Roman history, participating in her book club, and rehabilitating from a hip injury. Interestingly, she was most enthusiastic about her rehab. It seems that, after 90-odd years, Audrey had discovered the joy of resistance training and become a bit of a gym-junkie!

After listening to her for just a few minutes, it was obvious we had to catch up. So, we did.

Age can weary us

It turns out Audrey’s introduction to resistance training came as part of a program offered by the gym at her local university. With the help of an exercise physiologist, she’s been improving her muscular strength, including muscles that help with stabilising her hips. As Audrey talked about her time at the gym, I couldn’t help but think of an amusing quote by English author A.A. Gill:

"The great misconception about gyms is that they're palaces of vanity, where the shallow preen and pump in front of 10-foot mirrors with devoted narcissism. Actually, it's precisely the opposite. Gyms vibrate with self-loathing and doubt. Going to the gym is an admission of failure. It's the realisation that your body isn't a temple to fun and fornication anymore. Rather, it's a decrepit, leaky, condemned shell that is decomposing faster than you can shore it up."

Like most things that are amusing, there’s some truth to what he’s saying: age can indeed weary us. From the age of 65 or so, our muscle fibres start to dwindle. They reduce in number and size, and the nerves servicing them become less effective. With that goes our strength and power, making basic tasks like getting out of chairs, carrying groceries and climbing stairs difficult. This part of the natural ageing process is called sarcopenia.

But should it (weary us)?

The problem with sarcopenia is it can snowball. As people begin to get weaker, they lose physical confidence. As confidence drops, they do less. When they do less, strength further declines and so does their confidence. If this morphs into a fear of falling, independent living becomes a risky proposition and feelings of self-worth can start to erode. Clearly, when it comes to muscular strength, there’s a lot at stake. As I recently heard it stated, “sarcopenia is to our muscles what osteoporosis is to our bones”.

For both these conditions, maintaining physical activity is key to maintaining physical functioning. And it’s never too late to try. When challenged, ageing bodies respond. Sure, they might not respond as impressively as a younger body, but bone density and muscular strength can improve and with it levels of confidence and energy.

This was something Audrey spoke about quite a bit. Confidence and energy. Critically important for an older person living in their own home.

Speaking with Audrey made me wonder…Why have I missed speaking to her? What is it I enjoy? Well, without a doubt, her positive attitude, motivation and confidence are part of it. Those are attractive qualities in people of any age. The difference is she’s utilising these qualities well into her tenth decade of life and using them to support a full range of activities.

This makes Audrey a bit of an outlier, as she’s doing things most other older adults are not. This also makes her a bit of a social curiosity, so much so the local paper has reported on her exercise habits.

The active grandparent hypothesis

To an evolutionary biologist, however, Audrey is less of a curiosity. Why? Because she’s merely acting in ways that align well with what humans have evolved to do.

In his recent book, Exercised, Daniel Lieberman notes that older adults in hunter-gather communities live highly active lives. Although not able to reproduce, they contribute to reproductive success by doing things to help children, grandchildren and younger relatives survive and thrive. As such, they remain quite hardworking and very helpful.

Lieberman calls this the active grandparent hypothesis. This is the idea that human evolution selected genes that (i) help people to live long enough to become grandparents in the first place, and then (ii) allow older adults to maintain their bodies whilst being physically active and socially helpful.

Put more simply, “we evolved to be physically active as we age, and in turn being active helps us age well”.

Not buying into “the age thing”

So, maybe that’s it?

Maybe I enjoy speaking to Audrey, and other active older adults, because it gives me hope. Helps me to glimpse an evolved capacity of human beings. Reminds me that – in a society that no longer supports physical activity in the way it once did – it’s possible to tap into physical capacities that have always been there. Just waiting to be called on. If only we would call on them.

And to do that, we need a positive attitude, motivation and some belief in ourselves and what we are capable of…regardless of whether we are 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80.

As for Audrey, at 93, she still doesn’t “buy into the age thing”. And why should she?

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