Norwegian 4x4 and Heart Aging: A Two-Year Exercise Study

But I would say the Norwegian 4 by 4 is the gold standard.

And that's because it's not only improving

cardiorespiratory fitness.

This is probably one of the most exciting pieces

of evidence I've seen with respect to exercise and aging.

And that is, that being part of an exercise protocol

was shown to reverse the structural changes that

occur with age in the heart by 20 years.

So, what do I mean by that?

I mean, people that were 50 years old,

that were sedentary, so they weren't really

going to the gym, they weren't engaging

in any sort of physical activity,

but they weren't, you know, they didn't have diseases,

they didn't have type 2 diabetes,

they didn't have cardiovascular disease.

I would argue sedentary, being sedentary is a disease,

but putting that aside, they didn't have any diseases, right?

And they're 50, so they're midlife.

And this was, again, this was done by Ben Levine

out at UT Southwest in Dallas.

He took these, you know, 50 year olds

and put them on a pretty intense exercise routine

for two years, or a stretching routine,

this was like the control.

And this type of exercise routine was progressive,

so they started out lighter and sort of worked their way up,

right, like you don't want to just start

with a Norwegian 4x4, people that never exercise,

I mean, that's gonna be tough.

So it was a progressive sort of building up to that,

but towards the ends of about the first six months,

these people were exercising about five to six hours a week,

and that included one to two sessions

of the Norwegian 4x4, and it also included a lot of,

you know, they're doing moderate to vigorous intensity

cycling or running, and some strength training as well.

And they did this for two years.

Their hearts were looked at, and so as we age,

our hearts shrink, and they get stiffer.

And that plays a role in causing cardiovascular disease,

I mean, that's the number one killer in the United States.

It also affects cardiorespiratory fitness, right?

Why does the heart, you know, stiffen with time?

Well, it has a lot to do with actually being exposed

to a lot of glucose.

When you're eating a lot of refined sugar

and refined carbohydrates, you're having a lot of glucose

around in your system.

This causes a chemical reaction called glycation,

so you get these advanced glycation end products

that sort of react with your collagen

that's lining your heart and your myocardium,

and it causes it to stiffen.

And so now the heart can't really respond to stress well.

It's stiff, and that plays a role

in like heart attacks, for example.

So exercise is one of the best things you can do

to move glucose out of your vascular system

and get it to your muscles.

And so that's one of the things that it does

and helps with not causing that stiffening of the heart.

And so essentially, these 50-year-olds had their heart,

the structure, so it was bigger and less stiff,

after two years of this exercise protocol.

It essentially made their hearts look like they're in pain.

And I mentioned they were 50-year-olds.

I mean, that's amazing.

That's incredible that you can take someone midlife,

put them on a two-year training protocol,

and reverse the aging of their heart by 20 years.