Joe Signorile, Ph.D.

Signorile is Associate Professor, Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Miami

Joe Signorile

We got an exercise program here. What we're designing is an exercise program where we take a look at speed of movement in order to strengthen an individual. We know that people get weaker as they age. We also know that they get slower. So what we're doing here is we're training both the strength and the speed to make them better.

What we believe here is that by training we can bend the aging curve. Everyone has shown us an aging curve up to this point that says when we get to be fifty, we just drop off the edge. We don't believe that's true, and our people here are proving it's not true. We're heading for the ideal aging curve - straight across and then we leave the earth. That's it. We're going to find someplace in between with this training.

If you had one thing that you would tell people of all ages, what would it be?

I think probably just to keep moving. The human body itself has a lot of tasks that it has to do. You're seeing us address one of them here when you're looking at our resistance training, but when we look at the human body I think the best way to look at it is: I remember an old song by Pink Floyd: "Hey, remember when you were young? You used to shine like the sun, so shine on you crazy diamond." I think we need to do the same thing.

We need to say to ourselves, "What makes a diamond shine?" Polish all the facets. When we polish all the facets, that means we work every aspect of that body in order to make it work better. Then that also gets to the mind and the spirit. But our way to the mind and the spirit is through the body.

If you were a doctor, what would you prescribe?

I think the best prescription that I could give anybody is exercise. That's it - just exercise. Keep moving is the best thing we can do. I've seen a lot about medicine, I've seen a lot about drugs - I have nothing against them, I think they brought us where we are now. But, when all is said and done I think there's too much of that going on and not enough use of the body.

If you were to put on a list of items that people should practice in order to be in the prevention mode, what would they be?

Ten items:

• Number one, increase the strength and function of the skeletal muscle.
• Number two, move around and get that heart going.
• Number three, maybe as important than number one and number two, enjoy everything you're doing. Because laughter and happiness, while we do these things, is among the most important things we see here in this laboratory.
• Number four is to take a look at what you need in your everyday life and try and get it from the exercise and movement that we're doing here. We try to prescribe exercise. For us to prescribe exercise what we have to do is this: we have to look at what your needs are and we have to give you a prescription to match those needs. So we need to do an assessment, find out what we need, and try to address that through our movement patterns. When we do that, everything else comes up. We see people walk in here at the beginning of training and we know we really haven't had that much of a physiological impact on them, but already they're moving better just by the fact they've gotten into the environment.
• Number five - good diet. Make sure, you know, that the food you're eating is sufficient fuel. It's real nice if we can make a great engine out of you, but if we put low-test gas in you it's not going to do us any good.
• Number six ... Let's think. I don't know. I think I'm pretty much happy with one through five. I can't think of too much else that I need. Maybe other people need more than that, but that would keep me real happy.

Next: Preventing falls