STAYING STRONG, THE TASK THAT NEVER ENDS

Staying strong, saying it out loud, leaves out one important part: How do you get strong in the first place?

Can you stay strong if you’re not strong? Of course you can, it’s just a different strength.

If the Greek ideal is a strong mind and a strong body, where’s the best place to start? Upstairs is that place.

Without mental strength, physical strength goes awry. If you task yourself to get fit, you will get stronger. The trick is getting started, and it begins with mental strength.

If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, mostly tired, see a doctor. You might have other conditions besides weakness. Come back in here after you get checked, I’ll wait.

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Okay, let’s go. First thing is a DG fitness check up.

Can you move your arms freely? Can you stand and walk comfortably. Do you have the ability to grip with your hands? Good, check up over.

If you’re not riddled with chronic pain, if you can still perform the daily activities of life, you can get fit.

Start with a plan, which means making a list. If my wife reads this, let me repeat, “First, make a list.”

She thinks I don’t like lists, but I do. She makes incredible lists about everything. I’m not saying too many lists, but sometimes . . .

So make a list. Does it include workout clothes, new shoes, a fitbit, a protein powder shaker? If so, start a new list.

Begin with a body part to improve, and write it down. By doing this you’re showing mental strength because you know if you work one area, you need to work the rest. If you didn’t know, now you know.

Men’s Health posted an article on Progressive Overload. Sound impressive? Scientific? What it means is avoid doing the same thing at the same time, same weight, same reps, over and over.

What it doesn’t mean is setting a personal record on the first day of a new fitness routine. Here’s the weird thing: doing a little bit is doing a lot more than you’ve been doing. Shape magazine lines up a good way to start strength training. Click the link for insights.

Benefits Of Getting Strong And Staying Strong

Yesterday was a Push Day, also known as Chest and Triceps Day. I started with the bar, a thirty-five pound Olympic bar, and warmed up with a few sets of twenty reps.

From there, my lifting partner and I added weight for the progressive overload.

The last overload included a forty-five pound plate, a twenty-five pound plate, and ten, and a five, on each end of the bar. It had a nice reduction symmetry. I’ll do the math, it was a final push of two hundred and fifteen pounds, followed by a one hundred and thirty five pound set for the finishing burnout.

In between sets we did other exercises for shoulders and traps and triceps. I mixed in sets of body weight squats.

Afterwards we took off on a three and half mile trek through the steep wooded trails near my house. It was a bright, clear, day that cast shadows on the steep trails that looked like trip hazards.

One of them wasn’t a shadow, but a stick that rolled under my foot. Instead of taking a fall, my body reacted like an athlete. That’s the good part of staying strong, you’re ready for the unexpected.

I hopped to catch my balance, flailed my arms, and tweaked my shoulder. Another benefit of strength training is being a little higher maintenance. It’s not a bad thing.

If you’re not fit enough, you can’t get off the beaten track far enough to face uncertainties, like a real trail with real obstacles. But if you are fit enough, you’re up to the challenge. Since my workout partner is also my kid, the biggest challenge is not being a jackass.

You’ve heard the saying, “The biggest problem facing old men is that they think they are still young men.”

I asked my kid how he liked doing senior care after I didn’t fall down and we had a nice laugh. At least I thought it was a nice laugh. Either way, I didn’t try and redeem my awkwardness by pushing the pace until he broke. I’ve tried that before and he’s never been fazed.

Become A Good Fitness Example

If you try to stay strong, people will talk. But it’s a good talk.

By the time I’m done in the woods part of the walk, my shirt is off, and I leave it off while walking back home through the neighborhood.

I heard, “Who does he think he is walking around without a shirt, Charles Atlas?”

The old soft guy showed his age with that comment. Just because I prance around in a leopard print speedo doesn’t make me Charles Atlas, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Brandon Curry, but a guy can aspire to greatness. So can you.

I’ve also heard, “What are you trying to accomplish by lifting weights,” which is a good place to wrap this up.

Weight training builds self-esteem and muscle. Resistance training improves attitude and bones.

After a few months, or however long it takes to make a lifelong commitment to fitness, you’ll feel like you’ve taken a dip in the fountain of youth, like you rolled back the calendar a few decades. The path there includes pain, soreness, aches, questions.

Maybe you’ve heard enough about pain, soreness, and aches since that’s what we live with as we age. If a normal person feels these things, they get checked out by their doctor. Weight lifting gives you the same feelings, but you know why.

Then, like magic, they go away. Yeah buddy, welcome aboard the fitness train. Just remember, the discomfort you felt getting here will revisit if you stop.

So, don’t stop. It’s that hard, and that easy.