Can You Pass This 60-Second Muscle Test? (Most Over-50s Fail)
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Will Harlow, the over-50s specialist physio, gives us a challenge:
It’s time to get a grip
Grip strength reflects overall muscle health and, per a large body of evidence, is linked in research to independence, functional ability, and lower mortality risk.
Difficulty opening jars, dropping objects, or struggling with shopping can indicate declining grip and total-body strength, but there’s a more objective test than that:
- 50% carry test: hold roughly 25% of your body weight in each hand (so, 50% in total) and walk for 60 seconds to assess whole-body and grip strength.
- 50+ benchmark: aim to carry 50% of your body weight total for at least 30 seconds comfortably, and struggling early or failing due to grip is a fail for now.
What to not do (because it’s a common mistake): isolated grip tools don’t rebuild meaningful strength, because the body functions as an integrated system. Guess what happens if you have a integrated system of which one part is well-trained? That’s right, it fails, because one part can’t do it by itself.
To give a practical example: if you are just using squeezy grippers to train strength, any benefits you gain will vanish the instant you need to grip something at a different angle, or while rotating it in a certain way, or while slightly off-balance, or if it is a slightly different shape or weight distribution, or or or… You get the idea.
So, for functional strength that covers most bases:
- Reverse curl and press: lift dumbbells with your palms down to shoulder height, press overhead, then return under control to strengthen your forearms and upper body together.
- Towel wringing: twist a rolled towel tightly and hold for 5 seconds in each direction to train your grip, wrists, and forearms in a functional pattern.
- Farmer’s walk: walk with moderately challenging weights (about 15% of your body weight per hand) for 20–60 seconds to build grip, posture, core stability, and full-body strength.
As for how what to expect, consistent practice two or three times per week can noticeably improve strength and function within 6–8 weeks.
For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
10 Tips To Build Muscle Without Weights
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Instant Quiz Results, No Email Needed
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❓ Q&A With 10almonds Subscribers!
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A: You’re welcome! That’s one of the factors that influences what things we include here! Our mission statement is “to make health and productivity crazy simple”, and the unwritten part of that is making sure to save your time and energy wherever we reasonably can!
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Instead Of Standing On One Leg…
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Some better ways to train balance and stability:
Best foot forward… and back!
We’ve mentioned before that standing on one leg trains static balance—where you’re staying still—but most falls happen during movement, which requires dynamic balance.
For many people, it’s possible to stand on one leg for more than 20 seconds yet still feel unsteady when walking, turning, or stepping over things, because real-world balance depends on reacting to movement and the unexpected.
So here are some ways to train that real-world dynamic balance:
- Obstacle step or cross step over: roll two towels into sausages, lay them in a cross on the floor, step forwards, sideways, and backwards over them in different directions, increase your pace onto your toes as you improve, raise the towels and/or lift your gaze to make it harder, and train agility, coordination, and foot clearance.
- Tightrope walk: walk heel-to-toe in a straight line for about 10 feet as slowly as possible to narrow your base of support and challenge side-to-side control, then progress by turning your head or closing your eyes to further hone your balance systems.
- Cup taps: stand in a corner for safety, balance on one leg, tap three cups placed around you with your free foot without crushing them, vary the order and distance to build rhythm, coordination, and quick foot placement for stumble recovery.
For more on all of this plus some visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
90% Of People Over 50 Fail This Balance Test. Will You?
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Sesame Seeds vs Poppy Seeds – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing sesame seeds to poppy seeds, we picked the poppy seeds.
Why?
It’s close, and they’re both very respectable seeds!
In terms of macros, their protein content is the same, while poppy seeds have a little less fat and more carbs, as well as slightly more fiber. A moderate win for poppy seeds on this one.
About that fat… The lipid profiles here see poppy seeds with (as a percentage of total fat, so notwithstanding that poppy seeds have a little less fat overall) more polyunsaturated fat and less saturated fat. Another win for poppy seeds in this case.
In the category of vitamins, poppy seeds contain a lot more vitamins B5 & E while sesame seeds contain notably more vitamins B3, B6 and choline. Marginal win for sesame this time.
When it comes to minerals, poppy seeds contain rather more calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and manganese, while sesame seeds contain more copper, iron, and selenium. Marginal win for poppies here.
Note: it is reasonable to wonder about poppy seeds’ (especially unwashed poppy seeds’) opiate content. Indeed, they do contain opiates, and levels do vary, but to give you an idea: you’d need to eat, on average, 1kg (2.2lbs) of poppy seeds to get the same opiate content as a 30mg codeine tablet.
All in all, adding up the wins in each section, this one’s a moderate win for poppy seeds, but of course, enjoy both in moderation!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
- Chia Seeds vs Flax Seeds – Which is Healthier?
- Sunflower Seeds vs Pumpkin Seeds – Which is Healthier?
- Hemp Seeds vs Flax Seeds – Which is Healthier?
Take care!
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Are your Kidneys Ok? Detect Early To Protect Kidney Health (Here’s How)
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Tomorrow (at time of publication) will be World Kidney Day (WKD). Perhaps not the most well-known initiative, but it celebrates its 21st year this year!
For those of us who celebrated our own 21st year quite some time ago now, it’s as good a reason as any to check in on our kidney health.
Here are some things they’d like us to know about Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD):
❝CKD is a silent disease, people with CKD have no signs or symptoms until the late stage of the disease.
CKD usually does not go away, instead, it progresses, unless early treatment to slow or halt the disease is ensured.
CKD can progress to kidney failure – a condition when kidneys cannot maintain their function anymore, posing a life-threatening risk.
CKD ranks number 7 in the top ten causes of death among noncommunicable diseases worldwide.
CKD increases the risk of premature death from associated cardiovascular disease.
CKD is more common among certain ethnic groups due in part to high rates of diabetes and high blood pressure.
CKD is more common among women, here is why.❞Source: World Kidney Day: Your Amazing Kidneys
How can we check our kidney health?
There are clinical tests that can be done (they’ll just need a urine sample from you; ask your doctor about it), but there’s some screening that can be done at home already:
Are Your Kidneys Healthy? Take This One-Minute Quiz To Find out
👆 this is about medical indicators; there are also non-medical factors that affect risk, including:
- Where someone lives
- Where they work
- The foods they eat
- How much exercise they do
- If they are able to get the medical care they need
For more information on this, see: Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Especially After 60) ← there’s a lot more to it than just hydration!
What can we do for our kidney health, besides the obvious “hydrate”?
Some top things to do include:
Hydrate, yes. See also: Things Many People Forget When It Comes To Hydration
Don’t smoke. It’s bad for everything, including your kidneys. So, just don’t. See also: Addiction Myths That Are Hard To Quit
Look after your blood. Not just “try to keep it inside your body”, but also:
- Keep your blood sugar levels healthy (hyperglycemia can cause kidney damage)
- Keep your blood pressure healthy (hypertension can cause kidney damage)
Basically, your kidneys’ primary job of filtering blood will go much more smoothly if that blood is less problematic on the way in.
Watch your over-the-counter pill intake. A lot of PRN OTC NSAIDs (PRN = pro re nata, i.e. you take them as and when symptoms arise) (NSAIDs = Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, such as ibuprofen for example) can cause kidney damage if taken regularly.
Keep an eye on your urine. Hydration is only one side of the story, and our urine can say quite a bit about our health. Indeed, we have written about this before:
12 Things Your Urine Says About Your Health (Test At Home) ← no special equipment required!
On which note, see also: To Pee Or Not To Pee ← spoiler: there’s a flood of reasons to not hold your pee
Want to know more?
Check out the WKD website’s…
8 Golden Rules Of Kidney Disease Prevention
Take care!
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Arugula vs Spinach – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing arugula to spinach, we picked the spinach.
Why?
Both are great, but there’s a clear winner here:
In terms of macros, spinach has more fiber and protein for the same carbs, scoring an easy first-round win.
In the category of vitamins, arugula has more vitamin B5 (that is, the vitamin that’s in nearly all foods and in which it’s almost impossible to be deficient unless literally starving to death), while spinach has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B7, B9, C, E, and K, winning its second round convincingly.
Looking at minerals, arugula’s a little higher in calcium, while spinach has more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, selenium, and zinc, for another clear win.
In other considerations, spinach is much higher in oxalates, which is a non-issue for most people, but if you have certain kidney disorders, you might want to avoid those, so it’s worth knowing.
In any case, adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for spinach, but by all means enjoy either or both, unless you need to avoid oxalates, in which case, arugula is on the menu for you!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Make Your Vegetables Work Better Nutritionally ← there are a lot of tips here for many kinds of foods and kinds of cooking/preparation, including that cooking (any kind) reduces oxalates by breaking them down; not so useful if you want a leafy salad, but good for other purposes!
Enjoy!
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Thai Green Curry With Crispy Tofu Balls
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Diversity is key here, with a wide range of mostly plants, offering an even wider range of phytochemical benefits:
You will need
- 7 oz firm tofu
- 1 oz cashew nuts (don’t soak them)
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 4 scallions, sliced
- 7 oz mangetout
- 7 oz fermented red cabbage (i.e., from a jar)
- 1 cup coconut milk
- Juice of ½ lime
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 handful fresh cilantro, or if you have the “cilantro tastes like soap” gene, then parsley
- 1 handful fresh basil
- 1 green chili, chopped (multiply per heat preference)
- 1″ piece fresh ginger, roughly chopped
- ¼ bulb garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- 1 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
- ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
- Avocado oil for frying
- Recommended, to serve: lime wedges
- Recommended, to serve: your carbohydrate of choice, such as soba noodles or perhaps our Tasty Versatile Rice.
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Heat the oven to 350℉ / 180℃, and bake the cashews on a baking tray for about 8 minutes until lightly toasted. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little.
2) Combine the nuts, tofu, nutritional yeast, turmeric, and scallions in a food processor, and process until the ingredients begin to clump together. Shape into about 20 small balls.
3) Heat some oil in a skillet and fry the tofu balls, jiggling frequently to get all sides; it should take about 5 minutes to see them lightly browned. Set aside.
4) Combine the coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, cilantro/parsley, basil, scallions, green chili, ginger, garlic, and MSG/salt in a high-speed blender, and blend until a smooth liquid.
5) Transfer the liquid to a saucepan, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, add the mangetout, and simmer for about 5 minutes to reduce slightly. Stir in the red chili flakes and black pepper.
6) Serve with your preferred carbohydrate, adding the fermented red cabbage and the crispy tofu balls you set aside, along with any garnish you might like to add.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- Capsaicin For Weight Loss And Against Inflammation
- Ginger Does A Lot More Than You Think
- Why Curcumin (Turmeric) Is Worth Its Weight In Gold
- The Many Health Benefits Of Garlic
- Black Pepper’s Impressive Anti-Cancer Arsenal (And More)
- Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)
- What’s Your Plant Diversity Score? ← a score of 8.25 for this dish, not counting whatever carbs you might add. Remember, herbs/spices* count for ¼ of a point each!
*but not MSG or salt, as while they may in culinary terms get lumped in with spices, they are of course not plants. Nor is nutritional yeast (nor any other yeast, for that matter). However, mushrooms (not seen in this recipe, though to be honest they would be a respectable addition) would get included for a whole point per mushroom type, since while they are not technically plants but fungi, the nutritional profile is plantlike.
Take care!
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