Determining if you're FRAIL (or "Pre-Frail") and What to do About it

Move Your DNA with Katy Bowman

Nutritious Movement

Flexibility, Active, Aging, Mobility, Muscles, Health & Fitness, Mobile, Exercise, Community, Movement, Alternative Health, Fitness, Joints, Menopause

4.8 • 686 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Frailty isn’t just something that happens “later”; it’s a gradual loss of resilience that can begin much earlier than most people think. Katy Bowman and Dr. Jeannette Loram unpack what frailty and pre-frailty mean biologically. They explore the five key hallmarks used to identify frailty, including walking speed and grip strength, and how a large proportion of people in their 30s and 40s already fall on the spectrum of pre-frailty.

The conversation also explores the muscle–gut connection, explaining how frailty is influenced by exercise, diet, and the health of your microbiome. Katy and Jeannette also discuss the potential for rapid-onset frailty linked to the use of GLP-1 medications.

Most importantly, frailty can be reversed and this episode focuses on what you can do. From simple ways to improve resilience through movement, nutrition, and rest, to understanding how your attitude toward aging might influence your resilience

Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript

00:00 – Intro + Sponsors

01:30 – What Is Frailty (and Pre-Frailty)

03:00 – The 5 Hallmarks of Frailty

10:50 – How Pre-Frailty Can Start in Your 30s

12:40 – Muscle–Gut Connection & the Microbiome

19:40 – Exercise as “Fuel” for Your Microbiome

27:30 – Supplementation and the Psychology of Change

29:50 – GLP-1 Medication & Rapid-Onset Frailty

42:20 – Listener Question: Finding Glute Strength (Sponsored by Peluva)

Resources and Books Mentioned:

Joyspan by Kerry Burnight

Frailty Sets In Far Earlier Than You’d Expect But You Can Reverse It, by David Cox in the New Scientist

Frailty and pre-frailty in middle-aged and older adults and its association with multimorbidity and mortality: a prospective analysis of 493 737 biobank participants by Hanlon et al 2018

Evidence For The Contribution Of Gut Microbiota To Age-Related Anabolic Resistance by Watson et al 2021

Semaglutide Therapy and Accelerated Sarcopenia in Older Adults With Type-2 Diabetes: A 24-Month Retrospective Cohort Study by Ren et al 2025

Connect, Move & Learn:

Join Our Newsletter: Movement Colored Glasses
Follow Katy on Substack
Try Katy's Virtual Studio Free for 7 days!

Made Possible By Our Wonderful Sponsors:
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Movemate: Active standing boards with smoothly articulating wooden slats. Designed to keep you moving without interrupting your focus.

Thoughts/questions email us at podcast@nutritiousmovement.com
Your Voice on the Podcast: Read The Credits

October Retreats 2026

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Listen up, minimal footwear lovers. It's that time of year again. The Barefoot Shoe Expo is happening
0:06.8	May 16th and 17th of the Schaumburg Convention Center in the Chicago area. This is my third year
0:13.6	presenting a workshop there, but who am I fooling? Everyone goes there for the shoes. I know. If you hate
0:19.2	ordering shoes online and having to return so many
0:21.8	because things just don't fit, this event is a game changer. You can actually try on and compare a
0:28.3	huge range of options in person from super minimal styles to more cushion designs in widths from
0:34.7	average to extra wide. There are shoes for everything.
0:39.7	Athletic, everyday, dressy, even kids' options and specialty footwear like cycling shoes and
0:45.9	sports cleats.
0:46.9	That are minimal.
0:48.8	There's also a full lineup of free workshops running throughout the event.
0:52.9	You'll get to hear from podiatrist, biomechanists like me,
0:56.2	and other health professionals about foot health and movement mechanics. I'm going to be there
1:00.7	signing books and teaching a free workshop myself, so please come by and say hi. If you're planning
1:07.0	to go, I've got a little bonus for you. Use the code nutritious movement, one word,
1:12.3	at checkout to get a multi-day ticket for the price of a single-day ticket, because there are a lot
1:17.4	of shoes. And there's also lots of very happy, excited people to connect with. And this is actually
1:25.4	my favorite thing about the event, it's a massive dose
1:28.8	of vitamin community. So you know how you're like walking around and how excited you get when
1:33.9	you happen to see someone else in minimal shoes? Imagine an entire room full of your people,
1:39.5	an entire weekend full of just recognizing that we're all in this minimal shoe thing together.
1:46.2	It's a very exciting event.
	...

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