Future You Is Taking Notes

Hey {{first name | reader}},

It's Tuesday, which means your weekly fitness check-in. Welcome to Week #23.

I've just returned from my college reunion, and one of my favorite traditions is that they recognize the oldest male and female alumni. This year the oldest alumnus was 101 and impressively spry. When they called his name, he practically launched himself out of his seat. No walker. No wheelchair. No helpful arm to lean on.

I have absolutely no idea what his fitness routine looks like. Maybe he's been lifting weights for eighty years. Maybe he walks five miles a day. Maybe he won the genetic lottery.

What I do know is that the habits we build in our 30s, 40s, and 50s become the bodies we live in during our 70s, 80s, and beyond. This gentleman had clearly been making deposits into that account for a very long time.

While anyone is free to come back to campus for alumni day, organized class reunions are celebrated every five years. One can look backward at the 5th, 10th, and 15th reunion classes and remember youthful athletic glory. Or one can look forward to the 50th, 60th, and 70th reunion classes and see several possible versions of the future.¹

While I occasionally miss the athleticism of my younger self, I am deeply uninterested in becoming a hunched-over cautionary tale.

Some of the older alumni gave me a great deal of hope.

Others were my motivation for two hours in the gym this morning.

Escaping the air-conditioned reunion events for some sunshine, I spent time talking with women from the 25th and 30th reunion classes. Several told me the same thing:

"I know I should be lifting weights, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

Fair enough.

The fitness industry has somehow convinced people that getting stronger requires specialized knowledge, complicated equipment, and the ability to decode Instagram videos filmed in warehouse gyms.

It doesn't.

So if you've never touched a dumbbell, don't know where to stand in the gym, and suspect everyone else received an instructional manual that somehow got lost in the mail, here's where I'd start.

Commit to walking 20 minutes a day.

Not a leisurely wander where you're stopping to admire hydrangeas. Walk with purpose. If someone is trying to catch up to you, they should need to put in a little effort.

Podcasts and audiobooks make this surprisingly painless.

Three days a week. About 30 minutes. A pair of dumbbells and a little determination.

We are not trying to become Olympic athletes. We are trying to build a body that can haul groceries, lift suitcases, get off the floor without assistance, and occasionally impress ourselves.

Perform each exercise for 10-12 repetitions. Move from one exercise to the next without resting. After you've completed the entire round, rest 1-2 minutes. Repeat three times.

The name sounds like something from a medieval banquet. Ignore that.

If I could only pick one exercise for a beginner, this would probably be it. Squatting is one of the most useful human skills. We spend our entire lives sitting down and standing back up.

Hold a dumbbell against your chest and squat. If you're nervous, put a chair behind you and lightly tap it with your backside at the bottom.

Congratulations. You are now training for adulthood.

Grab a pair of dumbbells and lie on a bench.

Start lighter than you think you need to. Every beginner believes they are stronger than they are on this exercise. This is a time-honored tradition.

Press the weights up. Lower them under control. Repeat.

This may be the most practical exercise in the entire program.

Every time you pick up a heavy suitcase, a bag of mulch, a box from Costco, or a stubbornly oversized carry-on, you're doing a version of a deadlift.

Most people just happen to be doing it badly.

Keep your back flat. Hinge at the hips. Stand up.

Congratulations. You have now practiced one of life's most useful movements.

This is your posture exercise.

Modern life is basically one long attempt to turn us into shrimp. We sit. We text. We stare at laptops.

Rows help undo some of that damage.

Pull the dumbbells toward your waist and squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top.

Press the dumbbells overhead until your arms are straight.

If your lower back starts resembling a suspension bridge, the weight is too heavy.

Put your ego down with the dumbbells and choose a lighter pair.

Hold a single dumbbell overhead with both hands.

Lower it behind your head and press it back up.

This exercise is responsible for a surprising amount of next-day regret.

That's normal.

Hold the dumbbells at your sides.

Curl the weights toward your shoulders.

Do not swing.

Everyone wants to swing.

Resist the urge.

We are training biceps, not auditioning to start a lawn mower.

Three 30-second planks with 30 seconds of rest.

That's only ninety seconds total.

You will spend approximately eighty-five of those seconds questioning your life choices.

I hate stretching with remarkable consistency.

Yet every time I do it, I grudgingly admit that I feel better afterward.

This is deeply annoying.

Take a yoga class. Find a YouTube video. Spend ten minutes working on mobility.

Learn from my mistakes.²

This is also my default hotel gym workout.

Most hotel gyms contain exactly three things:

That's all you need.³

The less rest you take between rounds, the harder this workout becomes. As you get stronger, shorten the breaks and see what happens.

Question: What do I do in the gym? Should I use the machines?

Answer: I spend most of my time in the dumbbell and barbell areas of the gym.

I'm interested in training for life. In all my years I've had to lift plenty of heavy things. Very few of them came attached to cables or machine-guided rails.

Free weights also force your core and stabilizing muscles to do some work.

Can you build a full workout with machines? Absolutely.

Do I prefer dumbbells and barbells? Also absolutely.

If you're still intimidated by the weight room, start with bodyweight exercises. Squats. Pushups. Planks.

The important thing is not where you start.

The important thing is that you start.

Myth: It's too late for me to start training.

Reality: No. Start now.

A quote often attributed to Arthur Ashe, one of my favorite athletes, is:

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

I live by it in fitness and in life.

Research consistently shows that adults in their 70s and 80s still benefit meaningfully from resistance training. Strength can improve. Balance can improve. Quality of life can improve.

Think about the 101-year-old alumnus popping out of his chair.

He didn't wake up at 101 and decide to start taking care of himself.

The work happened decades earlier.

Today's workout is really a gift you're sending to a future version of yourself.

When hunger strikes unexpectedly, preparation beats willpower every time.

That's it.

Sometimes the snack is just the almonds.

Because adulthood is exhausting and this works.

You know the drill by now.

The Mayo Clinic recently published a piece on resistance training and aging.

The short version: lifting weights continues to work even when you're much older than you think you are.

According to Mayo Clinic researchers, depending on your activity history, you can continue building muscle well into your 80s. Even more interesting, resistance training appears to help preserve parts of the brain that are especially vulnerable to aging.

Which brings us back to our 101-year-old alumnus.

Nobody gets out of a chair like that by accident.

Try the routine.

If you're a beginner, keep the weights light.

If you're experienced, challenge yourself.

The goal isn't exhaustion.

The goal is consistency.

But if you happen to be a little sore tomorrow, you'll know you were paying attention.

Stay strong,

{{first name | reader}}

P.S. He didn't even use his hands to get up. Think about that.