Episode #33: Inspirational Interview | Beginning Barbell Training at 77 Years Old - it’s never too late to start
Are you too old to lift weights and barbell train? There is often a negative connotation associated with barbell training and the aging population. The thought is, it’s not safe to lift heavy weights if you’re old. But when done optimally, it’s safe, leads to improved function, and protects long term health.
Our goal with bringing on some of our clients is to share their unique stories, experiences with barbell training, and how their training has impacted their lives positively despite the negative medical narratives and belief systems surrounding barbell strength training in hopes that it inspires even just one person out there.
In this series of interviews each episode consists of a PRS client sharing their journey of overcoming injuries and illnesses, recovering from surgeries, and navigating changes in their lives and the role that barbell training has played throughout this process for each of them. These are just a handful of our clients that are truly inspiring and motivating and we hope that sharing their stories will inspire you, your patients or clients, or your family to incorporate barbell training into your life or continue barbell training during challenging times.
In this interview, we’ll sit down and speak with PRS client, Doug, who is a healthy, physically active skier, golfer, and retired engineer. Interestingly, Doug decided to pick up barbell strength training at 77 years old which is not something many people his age are willing or excited to do.
In this episode, Doug shares his story about how he was gingerly introduced to barbell training by his son, and how he decided that strength was the key to maintaining his healthy lifestyle for years to come. We’re sharing Doug’s story in hopes that it helps your parents, patients, clients, friends, or even yourself, realize it’s not only safe, but beneficial for long term strength and longevity, to barbell train, no matter how old you are. It’s never too late!
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Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:35] And Dr. Rori Alter, join us on our journey of barbell strength training and rehabilitation. Welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Rori Alter, head clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength, with my lovely co-host Dr. Alyssa Haveson, also a clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength. And we're back with another episode in our series of inspirational client interviews. Our goal is to bring on some of our clients to share their unique stories, experiences with barbell training, and how their training has positively impacted their lives despite the negative medical narratives and belief systems surrounding barbell strength training, in the hope that it inspires even just one person out there. In this series of interviews, each episode consists of a PRS client sharing their journey of overcoming injuries and illness, recovering from surgeries, and navigating changes in their life. The role that barbell training has played throughout this process for each of them. These are just a handful of our truly inspiring and motivating clients. We hope that sharing their stories will inspire you, your patients, your clients, or your family to incorporate barbell training into your life or continue barbell training during challenging times. In this interview, we'll sit down and speak with PRS client Doug, a healthy, physically active skier, golfer, and retired engineer. Interestingly, Doug decided to pick up barbell strength training at 77 years old, which is not something many people his age are willing or excited to do. In this episode, Doug shares his story about how he was gingerly introduced to barbell training by his son and how he decided that strength training was the key to maintaining his healthy lifestyle for years to come. We're sharing Doug's story in hopes that it helps your parents, patients, clients, friends, or even yourself realize it's not only safe but beneficial for long-term strength and longevity to Barbell train, no matter how old you are.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:02:27] It's never too late. Welcome to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. We are honored to have the opportunity to speak with you and share your story. What we wanted to bring you on to do is share the pretty normal life that you have. I know this kind of sounds silly to say, but nothing you have going on affects your health or your function so significantly that you need to do something different. Right? So you're 77 years old. You've been active your whole life. You ski, run, golf, and use the concept2 rower several times a week. You eat a very nutritious diet, and you are overall healthy; you know, there are you have no major medical conditions. You don't take any blood pressure medications, nothing like that. And you came to me to get stronger and to learn about barbell training and do barbell training effectively to improve your life. And we don't typically see people with this "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality at 77. And as they get older, they tend to stay in the same habits and do the same things and don't add something so significant, especially when we have the medical field and even the strength and conditioning and the fitness fields telling us that we're fragile. We can hurt ourselves doing something like this. So we wanted you to come on and sort of share your story about why you made this change at 77.
Doug, PRS Client: [00:04:21] Well, I guess I have to start at the beginning. And that was my dad. My dad was a great basketball star in high school. He was captain of the team for three years and put a ball in my hand, and I just wasn't interested. So I didn't do anything in high school. I mean, I was a motorhead, you know, I worked on cars and motorcycles and race motorcycles. So I did all these things. And once I got into my twenties, I thought about changing my body. So I changed my diet a little bit and then started adding tennis and bicycling. And then, I got into soccer, and I did a triathlon. And so I've been dabbling in all these things. And one of the things that I like to do I o go skiing, snow skiing, and alpine skiing. And to do that well, you need to be strong. If you're not strong, you get hurt. And that brings a lot of joy to my life, you know, traveling with my family and skiing and all that. So I've noticed that I'm just not as strong as I used to be. And I guess just to set the scene straight, I'm with all that, and I'm sedentary.
Doug, PRS Client: [00:05:50] So I worked at a job where I sat at a desk. So I was always figuring out how to stay active. During a large part of my day, I had to be on the phone or computer or just doing stuff at my desk, not moving. And that was that's, that's the biggest challenge. So, now I've been retired for ten years, and I notice it in my golf game. You know, I hang around with younger people, and it's getting harder and harder and harder. And basically, my goal is to age gracefully. And for some people, that may mean, you know, getting somebody to help them to do things. But I want to travel. I want to be strong, so I can lift my luggage and put it in the overhead compartment. I want to climb buildings, hike, and just do things. Well, the only way I know how to do better is to get strong. In other words, I won't age gracefully without getting strong. I think that's kind of what it comes down to.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:07:06] So when did you realize that it was that you needed like that it wasn't what you were doing and that you needed to bring in strength training? How did you make that connection? That getting stronger was through strength training and barbell training, rather than, you know, let's say some people think, well, if I want to be able to hike or climb to the top of the Empire State, like wherever I should hike more, I should walk more. I should do stairs more regularly. When did you realize that it was strength training that would get you stronger and not doing the things more that would get you stronger?
Doug, PRS Client: [00:07:50] Yeah, that's a great point because when you're young, you can do stuff, and you'll get strong enough to continue to do whatever it is you're doing. And, you know, I remember this. I was in Jackson Hole, and I was skiing some moguls, and then it smoothed out to a nice, easy mogul field that I should have been able to ski through. I couldn't. My legs wouldn't fire. They were just done. They couldn't. They just wouldn't work. I know how to ski, and my legs wouldn't move. And it wasn't like I could just relax and ski on even ground because it was full of bumps, which is when we gray snow. So, I tried a lot of different things. I had been working with kettlebells, you know, doing the Turkish get-up and doing all sorts of things and working a lot with yoga and Pilates, you know, to stay flexible. And I was even trying an extension exercise and a leg extension exercise to get my legs stronger, and all that helped. But I guess it was my son who helped me. If parents listen to this, they know how hard it is to take direction from their children.
Doug, PRS Client: [00:09:19] But I talked to my son about this a lot. And he had been in he suffered a fall and had a lot of orthopedic surgery. And his surgeon told him to get strong when he was done with his healing. And so my son learned about starting strength. And then one Christmas, a barbell shows up under the tree, and so I started doing it because, you know, I think I can do this stuff. You know, I listen to advice and watch videos and all that. And I got to the point where I didn't feel comfortable. I guess I was about 100 lbs in the deadlift and didn't feel safe or stable. And then COVID hit, and one thing led to another, and I kind of like put it aside and went back to my running and rowing to, you know, to stay healthy.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:10:28] So, at some point, you then returned to barbell training or strength training. When was that? Because I think that's what began you then finding Progressive Rehab and Strength and ending up where you are right now and talking to us.
Doug, PRS Client: [00:10:43] Yeah. So, I'm just doing my thing with COVID. I was kind of, you know, shy about it and kept to myself. And I talked to my son about what's going on, and he did the research, you know, and he found PRS and sent me this email. He says, you know, this might be good. You know, it might be good for you or mom. You know, it might be good. But, you know, that's the way he didn't say, you know, this is it. This is for you. This is what you should do. You know, he was very. You know, kind of let me decide. And then I'm thinking to myself, the best way to live the rest of my life, the way I want to, is to get strong. And, of course, I read about Rori, Alyssa, and the rest of the team, and I said these people could help me. I know, I know it can. I just have to have that first conversation, which I did.