Weakness and frailty are not the inevitable consequence of aging!
You’ve heard that you lose .5% to 1% per year of your skeletal muscle mass after age 25? Sure, it’s possible, but hardly inevitable. Similarly, you’ve heard that your strength peaks in the mid to late twenties and then it’s down hill from there? This may be true for the few elite level Olympic and professional athletes, but it is absolutely not true for the rest of us. The potential for strength gains that we have control over dwarfs the small age related decline in ultimate potential.
My Goal – My Story
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- Strength at Any Age
My goal is to share with other people the deep satisfaction and good health that comes with being strong. Even though I did not start lifting and working out seriously until I was 30, through what I believe is a more deliberate way of training and always measuring my progress, I have passed up almost all of the “big” guys who were present at the gym when I first started 26 years ago.
So, how did I come to be called “That Strong Old Guy”, anyway?
I currently work out in the basement of a commercial building owned by a friend of mine. Even though he usually lifts at a more conventional commercial gym, he has collected various bits of heavy-duty equipment from gyms that have gone out of business. In addition, some of us “members” of his pit have some of our own equipment down there. All-in-all, it is very well equipped, but very far from fancy.
One day, I walked in on some of the younger gym rats blasting away. I knew two of them, but the third guy was a stranger to me. As expected, no one bothered to introduce anyone to anybody else. I got into my workout, which that day was incline chest presses with dumbbells. As the weights got progressively bigger as I moved through my warm-up, I noticed that the stranger was keeping track of what I was doing out of the corner of his eye. I had just finished a set of 20 repetitions with the 110 pound dumbbells when the stranger’s eyes opened wide with a look of recognition. He looked straight at me with this big smile on his face and said, “Oh, you’re that strong old guy.”
You Can Be Stronger and Fitter Even if You’re Older
I am here to tell you that anyone can learn to be ‘a strong old guy’ or ‘gal.’ Short of serious limitations resulting from accidents or degenerative diseases, most people should be stronger at age 50 than they were at age 20. Seriously, I mean that.
Follow my blog and I will teach everything you need to know to be stronger, fitter, and feeling better throughout your entire life.
If you have any questions or suggestions I can be contacted directly at: mk@strongoldguy.com.