Strong People Are Harder To Kill – and more useful in general

I’ve reached that age where I’m watching friends and family lose freedom to age related infirmities.  Over the past eight months four friends and mentors have died; two of them were younger than I am.  Three of them were fighting the ravages of the Metabolic Syndrome, although cancer claimed two.  The last was in seemingly good health, but his heart failed.

I wanted to do something proactive, so following a suggestion from Glenn Reynolds’, I took up weightlifting. I learned the lifts and started linear the progression in Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength program. The Starting Strength program is a weight training regimen based on Selye’s general adaptation syndrome.  Selye observed that when the body is subjected to a stress from which it can recover, it adapts.  Mark used this to build a very efficient program for increasing strength.  Start by lifting a weight you can handle, wait until you are recovered (24 to 48 hours depending on health), then increase the weight by just a little bit (say 5 pounds), and repeat until you can’t recover during the recovery period.  Then adjust the recovery period and continue on.

Last year, Jonathon Sullivan and Andy Baker’s book The Barbell Prescription was published. The Barbell prescription documents a program geared to building strength in people over 40. They give a justification for the program and describe how to get started. The first three chapters describe the effects of the typical urban lifestyle. They are very graphic and intense. But in an age of sedentary lifestyles, this book is vitally important.

Sullivan and Baker tailored the Starting Strength program for what they call Athletes of Aging.  Dr. Sullivan has a YouTube channel promoting the program.  He is an emergency room physician so daily he works to counter the ravages of what he calls the ‘sick aging phenotype’, the effects of what people are doing to themselves.  I can understand how that can be a prime motivator to avoid doing the same thing to yourself.

What got me motivated to actually start lifting heavy weights was watching this video:

If Gus could leave her cane behind by lifting weight, there was no reason someone thirty years younger couldn’t lift weights to avoid a walker. Look carefully at the weights on her bar.  They are real small; she may only be lifting 60#.  But that is where she is.  There is no shame there, only freedom.  Freedom to get out of the chair and walk across the room. I figured that I could do that.

I found her story incredibly empowering so I jumped in.  I learned the proper lifting forms by reading the Starting Strength book and watching YouTube videos.  I purchased an inexpensive Olympic bar with a few weights, and started to lift.  While I saw tremendous gains, the first six months were not terribly efficient.  Sadly, I violated a basic rule: keep a lifting log.  As a result I don’t have a record of my early progress.

In lieu of a rack, I piled plastic totes and wood blocks to hold the bar at close to the proper height and to catch it if I dropped it during a bench press. I draped a cushion over a picnic bench and blocked my feet to the proper height to do bench presses. I learned the value of weight lifting shoes after suffering with foot pain from lifting in bare feet on a carpeted cement slab- don’t do that either.

Eventually I purchased a much better bar, a bench, and an inexpensive rack with built-in safety arms. After two years of progress I now squat my body weight and deadlift over #250.  Due to past arm injuries and severe muscle atrophy, my press weights are much lower, but significantly higher than when I started.  To me this points out an unexpected benefit of the Starting Strength program; you will get benefits even if you don’t strictly follow the program. Lift the weight you can, and after recovery and adaptation, you will be able to lift just a bit more – so do it. It really is that simple. However, don’t confuse simple with easy; it’s hard work lifting heavy things, and progress is much slower than you can imagine – the benefits are awesome.

When I started I lifted three times a week. I wanted to do more as I was anxious to reap the benefits. However I learned the necessity of recovery as a part of the plan. Now, because the weights are so much heavier, I am lifting only twice a week. Each session takes about an hour and a half, which seems long but it is mostly spent resting between sets – that recovery thing. I strictly adhere to Sullivan and Baker’s regimen, so I know exactly what I’ll be doing in each session. I do exactly what they suggest, nothing more, nothing less.

I’ve learned to properly set my back and how to brace my spine with muscle while lifting. I’ve learned to properly employ a belt to enhance Valsalva control. And I’ve learned the difference between the pain from muscle work and the pain from physical damage. All things that I probably should have learned as a child. But better learned before I do myself an injury, “feeling the burn”. Most significantly I’ve learned the importance of recovery in building adaptation.

Rippetoe admits that the difficulty of the work, the lack of variety in the exercises, and the slowness of progress means that it takes a special person to stick with the program. The rewards are not entirely what I expected.  Sure I expected to recover bone density and that happened. I was hoping that my triglyceride levels would be reduced and that has happened. But I was also expecting to see muscle growth – that didn’t happen. Looking at my body you wouldn’t really notice a difference. I’m lifting much more, but I’m not bulging with muscle. There is new definition in my legs and arms, but nothing that will turn heads.  That being said, my back is incredibly stronger.  I now have a very well defined spinal channel in my lower back – the place where the muscles bulge on each side of the spine.  I have no back pain, and when necessary I can easily and gently lift my dear wife.  She has however drawn the line somewhat before overhead wife lifting.

No matter how little weight you can lift get under the bar and squat- the effects are amazing.  My friend Jon is a constant inspiration to me as he battles to recover from stroke.  When I think the going is tough for me, I remember how much harder it is for him. The time to start is now. The benefits take time to accrue, so don’t wait. Don’t get creative, follow the program, it’s the fastest, surest way to success. You will get stronger and your life will be improved, both Gus and I can attest to that.

One comment

  1. Mark,

    Aw-shucks… I think you’ve got the inspiration vector donkey backwards.

    Jon

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