Fitness over 50

Building your inner coaches

Building your inner coaches Realizing your full potential as a lifter will be greatly enhanced by developing your internal mental skills that enable you to perform at your best. This is not positive attitude or motivation. This is using your mental capacity to...

Recovery: When You Make all the Gains

Recovery: When You Make all the Gains There is an underappreciated quote from the legendary coach Dan John: Lifting heavy weights will not make you strong. Lifting heavy weights and recovering will make you very strong. Probably 98% of all the content in power...

Static Contractions: A Forgotten Training Approach that can Build Big Strength

A Forgotten Training Approach that can Build Big Strength Anyone remember static contractions? A quarter century ago these were mildly popular. However, like many training techniques that produce significant results but require unusual types of effort, it was largely...

No Brain, No Gain

No Brain, No Gain Having spent many years in gyms, I am consistently surprised by the number of...

Longevity Research: Some Hard Questions

Longevity Research: Some Hard Questions Longevity research has gotten a lot of news coverage lately in part because Saudi Arabia has announced plans to spend a billion dollars a year on extending life. The bozo press has routinely concocted stories about amazing...

Turning 82 and Still Powerlifting

Reflections on turning 82 and still powerlifting I turned 82 this past week and am getting ready to participate in Bull Stewarts August 20 Bench Press-Deadlift meet at Alki Beach in Seattle. That sounds strange even to me. Im truly blessed to still be able to lift...

Making Improvements as an Experienced Lifter

Making Improvements as an Experienced Lifter We are all aware of how easy it is for a beginning lifter to make significant gains in the first two months of training. Beginners can show a massive improvement in a short time. When you begin in a weak and/or...

Mini Practice: Stealth opportunities for valuable strength building

Mini Practice: Stealth opportunities for valuable strength building Most of us make a clear distinction between the time when we are doing our workouts and all the other time in the day. Time in the gym (or wherever) is when you focus on physical training. At other...

Enjoying a Long Healthy Life: You Cant Fool Mother Nature

Enjoying a Long Healthy Life: You Cant Fool Mother Nature This past week a friend sent me an article from the Atlantic magazine that bemoaned how unfriendly and intimidating the fitness industry can be for those who are out of shape but want to start an exercise...

Sustaining a fit lifestyle: The value of Primary Experience

Sustaining a fit lifestyle: The value of Primary Experience Those of us in the fitness business are constantly trying to understand why people abandon fitness programs. In my view, part of the cause is using artificial realities for training where people do not...