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50+ FIT & HAPPY
RABBIT HOLES
FOR THE CURIOUS MIND
You followed your curiosity.
Good.
This is the companion library for 50+ Fit & Happy. Whenever your journal invites you down a rabbit hole, you'll find the resources here, listed by the page number in your book.
Read one thing or read everything. Nobody is grading this either.
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START HERE
Friendly, readable introductions. A cup of tea's worth of reading.
GO DEEPER
Books, longer articles and talks for when one cup turns into a pot.
NERD OUT
The actual studies. Bring your reading glasses and your skepticism.
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Find your page
p. 14
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p. 24
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p. 32
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p. 67
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p. 83
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p. 99
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p. 107
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p. 115
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p. 123
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p14 Steps
JOURNAL PAGE 14
The 10,000-step story
Where the famous number came from, and what large studies of adults over 60 actually found.
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START HERE:
University of Massachusetts Amherst news release, 2022. A short, plain-English summary of the study below.
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NERD OUT:
Paluch et al., The Lancet Public Health, 2022. A meta-analysis of 15 cohorts. For adults 60 and over, the drop in risk of early death leveled off at about 6,000–8,000 steps a day.
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p24 Body
JOURNAL PAGE 24
The body from the inside
Interoception: how you sense your heartbeat, breath, hunger and tension, and why sensing a signal isn't the same as reading it correctly.
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START HERE:
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
Lisa Feldman Barrett, 2020. Short essays you can read in an afternoon.
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GO DEEPER:
How Emotions Are Made
Lisa Feldman Barrett, 2017. The longer argument for how the body and brain build what we feel.
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GO DEEPER:
The Conversation Weekly, 2024. Neuroscientist Sarah Garfinkel on how we read the body's hidden signals.
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NERD OUT:
Garfinkel et al., Biological Psychology, 2015. The study that separates interoceptive accuracy from interoceptive awareness.
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JOURNAL PAGE 32
p32 Power
Power
Why speed matters more with age, and what the research says about training it.
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START HERE:
AARP, 2026. How moving with speed, using lighter loads, helps with balance, falls and independence.
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GO DEEPER:
Next Level
Stacy T. Sims, 2022. A popular, readable guide to training through menopause. Read it alongside the research below.
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NERD OUT:
Reid & Fielding, Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 2012. Why power matters so much for everyday function as we age.
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NERD OUT:
Byrne et al., Sports Medicine, 2016. A systematic review of power training studies in older adults, and what makes them work.
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p67 Brain
JOURNAL PAGE 67
The predicting brain
Your brain guesses before it knows. What that means for effort, pain and noticing.
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START HERE:
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
Lisa Feldman Barrett, 2020. The lesson on prediction is the place to begin.
GO DEEPER:
The Experience Machine
Andy Clark, 2023. A philosopher's tour of predictive processing, written for general readers.
NERD OUT:
Tracey, Nature Medicine, 2010. How placebo, nocebo and expectation change pain in the brain.
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p83 Bone
JOURNAL PAGE 83
Bone, strength & the long game
What happened when postmenopausal women with low bone mass lifted heavy, carefully.
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START HERE:
Bone Health & Osteoporosis Foundation. The two kinds of exercise that matter for bone, and which movements to be careful with.
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GO DEEPER:
American Physical Therapy Association. How a physical therapist builds a safe strength and impact program for bone.
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GO DEEPER:
American Physical Therapy Association. A free directory you can search by zip code and specialty, for supervised help with heavier lifting.
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NERD OUT:
Watson et al., Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 2018. Eight months of supervised high-intensity resistance and impact training in postmenopausal women with osteopenia and osteoporosis.
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p99 Recovery
JOURNAL PAGE 99
Adaptation + recovery
What happens after the effort, and how much of recovery science was actually done in women.
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START HERE:
Sleep Foundation. Written for athletes, useful for anyone who moves: what the body repairs while you sleep.
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NERD OUT:
Cowley et al., Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 2021. Across more than 5,000 sport and exercise studies, women made up only 34% of participants.
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p107 Fuel
JOURNAL PAGE 107
Beyond fuel
Protein, muscle and anabolic resistance after 50. And the questions nutrition science hasn't settled yet.
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START HERE:
Harvard Health Publishing. Strength training and protein after 50, with everyday food examples.
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NERD OUT:
Bauer et al., Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2013. An expert position paper on protein needs in older adults.
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NERD OUT:
Wright et al., Climacteric, 2024. How falling estrogen affects muscle, bone and joints.
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p115 Fun
JOURNAL PAGE 115
The serious science of fun
Why how exercise feels shapes whether we keep doing it, and what dancing may do for balance and the brain.
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START HERE:
ScienceDaily, 2017. A short news story on the dance study below.
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NERD OUT:
Rhodes & Kates, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 2015. A systematic review of how feeling good during exercise relates to doing it again.
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NERD OUT:
Rehfeld et al., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2017. A small t
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JOURNAL PAGE 123
p123 Tricks
New tricks
Learning something new and a little hard, at 60, 70 or 90, and what it did for memory.
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START HERE
Park Aging Mind Laboratory, University of Texas at Dallas. The research team's own overview of the study.
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NERD OUT
Park et al., Psychological Science, 2014. Adults aged 60 to 90 spent about three months learning digital photography, quilting, or both. Only the challenging-learning groups improved their memory.
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Science keeps learning. So do we.
We update this library as new research comes out, so check back. And if a study here ever makes you want to change something big, talk it over with someone who knows your health history first.
50+ Fit & Happy · WRKwell
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