Introduction
Last weekend, I listened to a podcast that featured Dr. Vonda Wright, MD, who is an orthopedic surgeon and longevity exper,t who spoke about our choice to do nothing and become frail as we age, or to implement mobility activity so we can retain and build muscle and bone mass. It was worth sharing.
After listening, I immediately began implementing the first of the four types of movement that Dr. Wright said are essential to maintaining a vibrant lifestyle as we age. By this weekend, I had implemented the first steps of all of them. Dr. Wright uses the acronym “F.A.C.E” to represent each of the four types of essential movement, so I have dubbed my daily appointment with myself to do these as “FACEtime”.
The Medicine of Mobility
The podcast began with Dr. Wright talking about her experiences interacting with her older hospitalized patients who had fallen and broken their hip, and the reality that of those who break a hip, 30% will die. Dr. Wright’s passion is that this outcome is not inevitable. It can be prevented, but it takes a conscious effort and a belief that we are worth the effort that it takes to avoid becoming frail as we age.
Dr. Wright highlighted the difference between lifespan and health span, and that while we are all going to get older, we do not need to become frail. She said that women, on average, in the U.S. live to age 80, and men to 76.4, but life expectancy does not equal health span. She pointed out that many times, the last 20 years of a person’s life are spent going to a doctor’s office three times a week in a steady decline, but that it does not have to be this way!
We don’t need to be the victims of the passage of time that we will all succumb to if we are not intentional. We don’t need to become breakable and frail — we can apply the “medicine of mobility” to pursue a different way to age.
Dr. Wright talked about “Sedentary Death Syndrome,” which are the 33 chronic diseases that kill people in the U.S., including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart attack and stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and osteoporosis — and that are directly treated by moving. Moving is the medicine that positively affects all of these. Layering Dr. Wright’s simple method for mobility on top of a diet that targets sufficient amounts of highly bioavailable protein and the amino acid leucine (both required to initiate muscle synthesis) rounds out the picture for aging well.
Changing the Trajectory of Aging
Dr. Wright points out that while there are health issues we cannot control, our lifestyle (both diet and exercise) can positively impact many things, including the health of our mitochondria (the energy of cells), the number of senescent cells that circulate (so-called “zombie cells”), as well as the level of inflammation in our body. We do not have to be the victims of the passage of time.
Dr. Wright, who is also a researcher, said that our understanding of aging is skewed because the studies that indicate a steady decline as we age were done with a study population of people who didn’t move much. Statistics show that 70% of Americans don’t do any form of mobility or exercise in a day. What we know from these large-scale population studies is what happens if we don’t move.
Dr. Wright’s research has found that if 35-40-year-olds — up to seniors in their 90s continue to be active their entire lives, they can maintain their bone mass, muscle mass, and cognitive function. She feels that age 35-45 is the best time to “course-correct” and choose an active lifestyle before things begin to change at age 45 for women due to the hormonal changes of perimenopause.
“There is no age or skill level where the strategic stress we put on our body in the form of mobility, strength training, and smart nutrition will not dramatically change the trajectory of your health.”
What does movement look like?
Dr. Wright uses the acronym “F.A.C.E.” to describe the four types of movement we should all be doing to maintain a vibrant lifestyle, and on which we can layer other types of activity or sports.
F.A.C.E. stands for:
F – Flexibility
A – Aerobic exercise
C – Carry a load
E – Equilibrium
Flexibility is required to keep from becoming stiff, and this involves regularly moving our joints through their full range of motion. Two examples Dr. Wright gives for flexibility activities are Pilates and yoga.
Aerobic exercise – we must invest in a healthy cardiovascular system, and this does not mean high-intensity exercise all the time. Dr. Wright recommends walking for 3 hours per week, broken into four 45-minute sessions. Then twice a week, she recommends finishing by sprinting as fast as we can for 30 seconds, for a total of 4 times. As we age, we need these intense bursts of activity to stimulate muscle and bone building.
Carry a load – it can be done at home with ordinary heavy objects. Women especially need to lift heavy objects in midlife because when we enter peri-menopause, we no longer have estrogen stimulating our muscles to grow. Lifting heavy enables us to produce a longevity protein called Klotho. Dr. Wright has found that 70-year-olds who put loads on their muscles regularly produced more Klotho than 35-year-olds who were sedentary.
Equilibrium and foot speed – Can we balance? According to Dr. Wright, starting at age 20, we begin to lose some of the muscle required to balance well, so being able to stand on one foot while we brush our teeth will enable us to stay upright and not fall, as we age.
Final Thoughts…
“FACE time” is easy to implement into our lives, which is what makes it perfect. All that is required is to commit and set aside a time to do it. If a 45-minute walk is too challenging to do at first, start with twenty minutes. Starting is more important than getting the program perfect right away.
I think Dr. Wright’s method dovetails well with my approach to designing Meal Plans for peri-menopausal women, as well as older men and women, which focuses on eating to retain and build muscle and bone mass.
More Info
Learn about me and the support I can provide to help you preserve both bone and muscle mass as you age. View my Healthy Aging Package.
To your good health,
Joy
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Reference
- The Mel Robbins Podcast – “Look, Feel and Stay Younger” with orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Vonda Wright, MD
© 2025 BetterByDesign Nutrition Ltd.
Joy is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and owner of BetterByDesign Nutrition Ltd. She has a postgraduate degree in Human Nutrition, is a published mental health nutrition researcher, and has been supporting clients’ needs since 2008. Joy is licensed in BC, Alberta, and Ontario, and her areas of expertise range from routine health, chronic disease management, and digestive health to therapeutic diets. Joy is passionate about helping people feel better and believes that Nutrition is BetterByDesign©.