At Nexus Performance, we regularly work with ambitious, high-functioning individuals who are seeking clarity, energy, and resilience, not just in the boardroom, but in every domain of life. One of the most underestimated levers for achieving this is muscle strength.

A recent deep-dive discussion on muscle mass and strength, led by physician and longevity expert Dr. Peter Attia, provides powerful evidence for what we see every day in our work: developing and maintaining muscle is not just about fitness it’s about leadership capacity, cognitive resilience, and long-term vitality.

Here’s what you need to know and what to do about it.

Muscle Strength Is a Lifespan Multiplier

Many people focus on lab markers or blood panels to gauge their health, and we use these at Nexus Performance, too. But what’s often overlooked is that muscle strength is a more predictive marker of mortality than many traditional risk factors.

According to longitudinal studies:

• Every 10 kg drop in grip strength is associated with a 30% increase in all-cause mortality.
• Individuals in the lowest quartile for muscle mass have a 2.3x greater mortality risk than those in the middle range.
• Low cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with a 5x greater mortality risk compared to elite fitness levels.

What does this mean in practical terms? If you’re neglecting muscle and strength, you’re quietly increasing your risk profile even if you’re doing everything else “right.”

Muscle and Metabolism: The Overlooked Link

Your skeletal muscle isn’t just for movement. It’s the primary site for glucose disposal, making it one of the most important factors in controlling blood sugar and reducing risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cognitive decline.

This matters enormously for high-level professionals. Elevated glucose and insulin resistance often untracked until it’s too late reduce mental clarity, increase energy crashes, and elevate long-term risk for chronic disease. Building muscle is one of the most effective strategies to reverse that trend.

The Silent Decline: Strength Loss with Age

Muscle strength begins to decline after your 30s and accelerates rapidly after age 70. More importantly, power, your ability to produce force quickly, drops even faster.

That’s a serious problem. Strength and power are what prevent falls, maintain mobility, and support recovery from illness or injury in later decades. For our clients in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, this decline is already in motion unless it’s being addressed head-on.

This is why Nexus Performance includes targeted strength and power training protocols, adapted to your personal and professional life. The goal isn’t just to build muscle, it’s to protect your independence, productivity, and capacity to lead over the long arc of your life.

Grip Strength: The Simple Yet Powerful Indicator

Among the various metrics of strength, grip strength stands out for its simplicity and predictive power. It correlates well with overall upper-body strength and is a reliable proxy for longevity.

If you can’t hold a dead hang for one minute or carry 75% of your bodyweight for 60 seconds, it may not seem urgent, but those numbers matter. They’re not just fitness milestones; they’re leading indicators of aging well.

Why Executive Coaching Is the Linchpin

Here’s where we go beyond the research, and into application.

If the solution is “lift more weights,” why don’t more people do it?

Because building strength isn’t just a physical challenge. It’s a psychological transformation.

We’ve found that with many of our clients achieving and maintaining these changes is through integrated executive coaching. Muscle mass and strength decline over years. Reversing that requires a shift in mindset, habits, identity, and priorities.

Whether it’s managing perfectionism, navigating time scarcity, or reprogramming internal narratives around health and performance, the inner work must happen in parallel with the training.

That’s why our model starts with cognitive coaching. We help clients recognize the self-limiting beliefs that sabotage consistency, and replace them with frameworks rooted in purpose, ownership, and long-term thinking.

Strength Is a Strategic Asset

In the boardroom, you’re judged by clarity, stamina, confidence, and decision-making under pressure. Strength training supports all of that.

Studies consistently show that resistance training improves:

• Cognitive function
• Sleep quality
• Stress resilience
• Mood regulation

Muscle mass isn’t vanity. It’s a strategic edge.

A Call to Action 

If you’re reading this and thinking, “I need to do more”, you’re not alone. Most of our clients come to us after years of drifting into disconnection from their bodies, masked by performance in other areas of life.

Here’s the truth: your physical capacity sets the ceiling on your  output. And regaining control doesn’t require two hours in the gym or a radical lifestyle overhaul.

It requires a strategic system, one that starts with how you think, adapts to how you live, and evolves as your performance improves.

That’s exactly what Nexus Performance delivers.

Next Steps

We don’t believe in hacks. We believe in building a high-performance engine that lasts.

If you’re ready to lead with your full capacity, body and mind aligned, email our team today about our program and its suitability for you in what you want to achieve.

Let’s build strength that serves your vision, supports your longevity, and unlocks the next level