Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

Rant and Tip for June 12, 2012

Quote: “Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.” President John Adams

Not only are our minds like old horses but so are our bodies. You need not look any further than the late great Jack Lalanne. This man was the original exercise guru. All others who are trainers and television fitness kings and queens owe a debt of gratitude to this man. He knew in the beginning the importance of exercise and also that, at any age strength and conditioning are vitally important.

I have blogged many times about how strength training is important as we get older. Studies have proven that as you strength, train that not only are you able to build muscle and get stronger but it also strengthens our bones. It can if done properly improve joint health as well. How many times have you heard of a senior citizen that has fallen and broken a hip? I would imagine everyone knows at least one person. It one of the gyms I workout in there are several senior citizens working out. As a matter of fact there is one gentleman who is in his 60’s who brings in his mother to work out as well. This is a wonderful thing. Now they do not workout with the intensity that I do and nor should they, but I am pretty confident that both of them are in great shape physically, mentally and emotionally. These are the benefits of strength training.

I was chatting with a Face Book friend last night and he was telling me he had changed his diet again. This man has struggled with his diet for some time. For me it is difficult to help when I am not right there with them, but I try. One of the things he had to do was increase his carb intake; once he did this he was able to start losing weight again. This happens often and while he did increase his carbs they were not simple carbohydrates. They were complex carbohydrates. Still at only 100 carbs a day this man is able to lose weight again. He is very active and hit body is using the carbs. Yet if you look at the way most Americans eat he is still eating low carb.

Today is my squat day and I aim to go heavy. My goal is to get to a 400 raw squat. If I watch my knees I think I can get there and I have a plan on how to do this. My central nervous system needs to get use to the weight first off and then I need to be able to trigger all my muscle fibers to explode up when the time to push comes.

Have a great workout!

Tip: If you are knew to working out, start slowly. Nothing is worse than pushing too hard in that first workout and having delayed onset muscle soreness for 3 days later and not wanting to workout again.