Well, either we’re both really lucky from a genetics standpoint, or this exercise thing and watching what you eat appears to work. Strong Grandma just got her blood work back. She was a little high (for her) on the total cholesterol, but she beat me on most things. She has lots of good protective HDL, though: […]
Continue Reading...Strong On the Inside
The various anomalies collectively know as cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of Americans. One of the big benefits of regular cardio and strength training exercise is that they both reduce cardiac risk factors. Today I went in for a screening for various heart and vascular system risk factors. This was required by our […]
Continue Reading...Stronger is Funner (More Fun)
The many benefits of strength training are well established. A quick search will reveal documentation by such organizations as the American Heart Association. Therefore, I won’t talk about improvements in bone density; flexibility and balance; glucose metabolism; blood lipid and lipoprotein profiles; body image; and a host of others. Instead, this is just a personal […]
Continue Reading...A New Paradigm: Stronger Than Your Younger Self
The idea that getting weak and frail is primarily the inevitable consequence of aging is just wrong. Simply raising peoples’ expectations of what is really normal allows them to compete with their own possibilities, as opposed to being limited by averages and the bullying of conventional wisdom. It is not only possible, but indeed most people […]
Continue Reading...Sneak Up On Fitness Part IV
This is just a quick post to update my own experience with the bike and the AirDesk. As usual, I’m typing this post on the laptop while pedaling at about 520 calories per hour. Over the past four weeks I have burned just over 28,000 calories performing low to medium intensity aerobics. Some of it […]
Continue Reading...Sorting Out the Options
People get out of shape and put on too much weight for fundamentally two reasons: they eat too much and they don’t move enough. The solutions to these two problems are fundamentaly simple : eat less and exercise more. However, what people need to do depends on the relative percentages of these two main factors contributing to their lack of svelteness . Accordingly, their […]
Continue Reading...Introduction: This is Where It Starts
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 […]
Continue Reading...Home or Commercial Gym?
I work out at home, commercial gyms, privately owned hard-core “pits”, and out doors by hiking and biking. It’s all good. What is the most effective? That all depends on your individual circumstances; however, eventually I think it’s best if you can migrate to a commercial gym to get a solid, well qualified start to developing good, […]
Continue Reading...Guest Post by Jennifer Nagy, MD
I’ve known That Strong Old Guy ever since I can remember. Later, while attending high school and college, I worked at the small fitness center owned by him and his wife. I can’t remember exactly when he showed me how to do what he called at the time “aerobic squats”, but as a result of […]
Continue Reading...My One and Only: Strong Grandma
This is a picture of my bride of the last 34 years at what I believe was her second power lifting contest. She was 32 at the time and the mother of two. We had no idea then that there would be three more children within the next five years. I mentioned back in Who […]
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