Susan Stone is the creator and presenter of It's a Jungle, exploring the people, science, and ideas shaping our health and wellbeing. Here she explores the fascinating science of ageing.
When I first heard Dr. Vonda Wright say, "I want to be able to do what I want at 97," I thought she was being overly optimistic. When she followed it with, "and I want to bug the hell out of my children," I knew I was talking to someone who had fundamentally rewritten the ageing playbook.
Dr. Wright isn't just another longevity expert making bold claims. She's an orthopaedic surgeon, researcher, and author whose upcoming book, Unbreakable, challenges everything we've been taught about what it means to grow older.
And after our conversation, I'm convinced she might be onto something revolutionary. Here's what shook me: everything we think we know about ageing gracefully might actually be keeping us from ageing powerfully.
The Myth That's Killing Our Future Selves
"I'm a little tired of people just accepting, 'Oh, I'm getting old. Oh, I'm gonna be frail'," Dr. Wright told me. "Not that I'm fighting against ageing—actually, I love ageing. I'm ageing in the way I want to age."
This distinction matters more than you might think. Dr. Wright points out that when men talk about longevity in popular culture, it's all about "vibrance" and vitality. But for women? Everything is framed as "anti-ageing," as if ageing itself were a disease to be fought.
"Ageing is the most natural thing we do," she explained. "But what I do think we have to pivot the
conversation around is—let's call it longevity."
Women are already winning the longevity race, living five to seven years longer than men, depending on the country. But we're not living as well. And that gap between lifespan and healthspan?
That's where Dr. Wright's concept of becoming "unbreakable" comes in.
What "Unbreakable" Really Means
When I asked Dr. Wright to define unbreakable in one line, her answer was deceptively simple: "Unbreakable is both a physical and mental resilience that allows us into the foreseeable future to do what we want, when we want it."
But the more we talked, the more I realised this isn't about becoming invincible. It's about building
shields against what she calls the "time bombs of ageing"—the natural decline in our stem cells,
genes, mitochondria, and gut microbiome that occur as we age.
"You will have a natural decline with the hallmarks or time bombs of ageing," Dr. Wright explained, "but you can step in front of that and [by] using lifestyle and hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, really pivot the trajectory of your future."
The 90% Solution
Here's where Dr. Wright dropped a statistic that made me reconsider everything: ageing might be 90% lifestyle, not the 70% we've been told for years.
"Recently, new data have come out. It's probably more than 90% lifestyle because you get a set of
genes. But the epigenetic changes, meaning how those genes are expressed, is mostly dependent
on our activities, our nutrition, our stress, our recovery, probably even our relationships."
This isn't a burden, she insists. It's hope. "It's a hope that we are not destined to go from vitality to
frailty."
If Dr. Wright is right, this fundamentally changes how we think about our future selves. We're not
passengers on a predetermined journey toward decline—we're the drivers.
The Scale Is Lying to You
One of the most eye-opening parts of our conversation was about weight versus body composition.
Dr. Wright has strong feelings about our obsession with scales.
"We are conditioned to get information about our body from a scale that doesn't tell us much," she said. "It doesn't tell us what our potential metabolism is. It doesn't tell us what we're made of."
She referenced the old childhood rhyme: "What are little boys made of? Sticks and stones and
puppy dog tails. Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice." Her response? "Sugar and
spice is gonna kill us."
Body composition—how much muscle, bone, and fat we have—tells us what we're actually made of. And muscle, she explains, is metabolically active. It's not just about looking good under clothes; it's where our energy is processed.
"I would rather people pay attention not to strictly pounds, but percentage body fat, pounds of muscle mass," Dr. Wright said.
This shift in focus changes everything about how we approach fitness and health.
Nature's Spanx: Why Muscle Matters More Than You Think
Dr. Wright has coined one of my new favourite health phrases: muscle is "nature's Spanx."
"When we have muscle mass, we are technically lean like a lean flank steak, right? Not with a lot of
fatty rind," she explained.
"You can wear Spanx or you can build muscle mass because within a month of lifting weights consistently, you may not see a change on the scale, but your clothes will fit differently because you will be lean."
And unlike actual Spanx (or "girdles," as Dr. Wright calls them), muscle is comfortable. It's not constricting. It's empowering.
FACE Your Future: The Exercise Framework That Changes Everything
Dr. Wright has developed an acronym for how she prescribes exercise: FACE your future.
F is for Flexibility and joint range of motion. "We don't want to get tight and stiff and shuffling."
A is for Aerobic training. But not the way you might think. She prescribes both brisk walking (zone two training where you can have short conversations but can't sing) and sprinting.
C is for Carrying a load—lifting weights. But here's where it gets interesting. While you can
achieve good things with all forms of lifting, Dr. Wright teaches people in midlife and beyond to lift
for strength and power: heavier weights, fewer reps.
"What's the point?" she asked. "The point is to do what you want to do when you want to do it. And only ask for help if you want to ask for help, not because you're dependent and have lost your independence."
E is for Equilibrium—balance and foot speed. As Dr. Wright explains, "You may be strong and flexible, but if you trip and fall, you often have what's called a fatal fall and break something that 50% of the time puts you in a nursing home."
This component focuses on both maintaining stability and developing the foot speed needed for quick recovery when balance is lost.
E completes the framework, but the real insight is in her approach to lifting. She recommends compound lifts that use more than one body part across more than one joint: bench press for upper body pushing, some kind of pull for upper body, squats for lower body pushing, and deadlifts for lower body pulling.
Your Bones Are Having Secret Conversations
Perhaps the most mind-blowing part of our conversation was learning that bones are endocrine
organs—they're constantly communicating with the rest of your body.
"Bones are involved with even the manufacturer of testosterone," Dr. Wright explained. "They do that by one of the hormones it produces called osteocalcin that goes and communicates with all these other tissues."
Bones communicate with fat, the gut, the brain, the pancreas, and muscles. They even produce a hormone called LCN two that tells you when you've eaten enough.
"Bone is like the conductor," she said. "Muscle's doing its thing, but bone is like telling everybody what to do and we ignore it as if it doesn't even exist."
This is why impact exercises—what Dr. Wright calls "bashing your bones"—matter so much. It doesn't have to be jumping from a 24-inch box. Just jumping down from an eight-inch step and landing a little harder can have a good impact on your bones.
"Bones are built from impact," she explained. "Our bones know they need to build more of themselves when they perceive impact."
Even something as simple as hopscotch works. Dr. Wright recently reintroduced this childhood game on social media: "Why not draw your grid of 10 squares and jump around side to side and backwards, and have a little fun with it, right? All the while building better bone."
The "What Now" Philosophy
When I asked Dr. Wright what she'd tell someone who thinks they're too old to start—whether they're 50, 60, or 70—her response was immediate: "There is never an age or skill level when your body will not respond to the positive stress you put on it."
She continued: "It doesn't matter if you're a 90-year-old person living in a nursing home doing chair exercises or you're a 35-year-old just hitting in your head that, 'Oh my god, I've got to get in front of
this,' your body will respond. It's what we're made to do."
This is the heart of her "what now" philosophy. It's never too late because your body is designed to adapt and respond to positive stress.
Normal Is Not Sedentary
Dr. Wright made a point that stopped me in my tracks: "If normal for a human being was sitting around, nature is very conservative—we would not have our strongest muscles below our belly buttons. We would be shaped like a mushroom with a big giant stalk that held us to the ground."
But that's not how we're made. Our strongest muscles are below our belly buttons. "So normal is mobility. What's abnormal is sedentary living."
This reframes everything. We're not fighting against our natural state when we move—we're returning to it.
The Community Component
One of Dr. Wright's "tiny habits with huge payoff" surprised me: "Find 3, 4, 5 really close friends who believe like you do, that you can age in a different way."
"Sometimes changing our health means we have to change our environment even down to our relationships," she explained. "It's better if you do it together. Let's find those five friends that are gonna support you so that you're that funny group of old ladies at 97 that do what they want when they want it."
The Worthiness Factor
When I asked Dr. Wright what message she'd deliver if she had a megaphone and 30 seconds to reach every adult on the planet, her answer cut straight to the heart of everything: "You are worth the daily investment in your health because without that belief that you are worth it, nothing else matters."
This might be the most important insight of all. All the exercise science and nutrition knowledge in the world won't matter if we don't fundamentally believe we're worth the effort.
Your Unbreakable Future Starts Now
Here's what struck me most about Dr. Wright's approach: this isn't about perfection. It's about agency. It's about doing what you want, when you want to, and asking for help because you choose to, not because you have to.
Your action plan for becoming unbreakable:
- Reframe ageing: Stop thinking anti-ageing, start thinking pro-longevity
- Ditch the scale obsession: Focus on body composition, not just weight
- FACE your future: Build flexibility, aerobic capacity, and strength through compound
- movements
- Bash your bones: Add impact exercises—even jumping jacks or hopscotch count
- Find your tribe: Surround yourself with people who believe ageing powerfully is possible
- Remember your worth: You deserve to invest in your future self
If this feels overwhelming, start with just one thing: add 20 jumps to your day. That's it. Your bones will thank you, and you'll have begun your unbreakable journey.
The beauty of Dr. Wright's approach is that much of it can be done at home with no equipment. For those seeking additional support, explore local community resources for fitness programs, or consult with your GP about safe ways to increase physical activity.
The most revolutionary thing you can do? Start believing that your best years don't have to be behind you. Because, according to Dr. Wright, if you're willing to invest in yourself daily, your 97-year-old self might just be unstoppable.
Your Unbreakable Week: Where to Start
Ready to begin? Here's your practical starting point:
- Reframe your mindset: Replace "anti-ageing" with "pro-longevity" in your self-talk and planning.
- Ditch the scale obsession: Focus on how you feel and how clothes fit rather than daily weight
- fluctuations.
- Try the 10-minute FACE approach: 2 minutes of gentle stretching, 5 minutes of brisk walking, 2 minutes of bodyweight movements (wall push-ups or sit-to-stands), and 1 minute of balance
- practice.
- Bash your bones safely: Add 20 light jumps or controlled step-downs to your day, modified for any joint or pelvic floor considerations.
- Find your tribe: Reach out to two friends about starting a shared healthy habit this month.
Building physical resilience is just the beginning. Next week, I'll be exploring the hidden science behind women's bodies with neuroscientist Dr. Jennifer Garrison, who believes the key to longer, healthier lives might lie in an organ we've barely begun to understand: our ovaries.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
