Hope I Die Before I Get Old: Strength Training

Recently, our friend, Nicholas Orr, asked us to collaborate on a new book about Strength Training, “A Pipe Hitter’s Guide to Strength and Wellness”. Naturally, we were honored to do so. One of the points that Mr. Orr drives in his book is the fact that resistance training and putting genuine skeletal muscle on to your frame is not just about “looking good” or aesthetics.

We particularly appreciated the chapter entitled “Die Young”. So much do we endorse this concept that we obtained his permission to reprint it here. What follows is an excerpt from the book, enjoy. – PGM

Ronnie Jame Dio and Roger Daltrey are not the only ones to address dying young or dying before you get old, but they are two of the most notable examples. As RJD left us long ago and Mr. Daltrey is not returning my phone calls, we are left to surmise what they meant in their lyrics.

Were both men extolling the virtues of an early grave? Did they truly believe that a shortened life was preferable to a long one? The irony here is that Dio died at age 67, not young, and at press time, Roger Daltrey was alive and 81 years old.

Recently, I was listening to a CD of Black Sabbath’s greatest hits and the song “Die Young” from the Heaven and Hell album (a musical masterpiece, by the way) came on. That got me thinking, was Dio actually wishing for an early grave or was there something more to the song, something deeper.

Several years ago, I read the book “The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40”. In the beginning of the text, the author hypothesized about a pair of identical twins; Will and Phil. The twins had the same genotype, so one did not possess better or worse genetics.

In the story, Will makes the conscious decision to be active, to consider what he eats and to engage in purposeful resistance training. Phil, on the other hand, lived a common life. He worked, then he came home and spent his off time catching up on TV shows. Phil ate whatever he liked, pizza being a favorite, and it showed by his weight. By the time Phil was in his 50s he had Type 2 Diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure and ED.

He had a heart attack at 58 and spent the last six weeks of his life in the ICU. Will, who had the same genetic makeup as his twin brother, died from a brain aneurysm some three decades after his identical twin brother. Will’s death experience took 7 seconds.

While the tale in the book is fictional, it has a very important moral. Though the two men had identical genotypes, they had very different aging phenotypes and death phenotypes. In the tale of Will and Phil, we can see that though technically alive, Phil was in the process of dying long before the final heart attack took him.

Phil was existing on Earth, but was he truly living? Phil took the easy, comfortable road; he worked when he had to, relaxed whenever he could, ate whatever tasted good to him, regardless. When he got sick, Phil followed the typical road of taking innumerable prescription drugs, but never changed his diet or behavior.

Will, on the other hand, chose the hard, uncomfortable way. Disciplining yourself to eat what is nutritious, instead of what the TV commercials are shoving in your face, is the hard way. Forcing your body to push against the effects of gravity and to grind against heavy weight is not comfortable.

Will had to block out the time to go to either a home or public gym. The easy thing to do is say “I don’t have time to exercise”. Will chose to be constantly active and his death occurred during one final adventure. The fictitious Will was not “old” nor did he behave that way. Conversely, his brother Phil died an old man at 58.

We have all heard the cliche that age is just a number, but is it really only a cliche or is there some truth to that? My maternal grandfather left this earth at age 95. I recall his 90th birthday celebration and how amazing it was to see him still a mentally sharp as ever, cracking jokes as he always did.

Like many of our relatives, my grandfather moved to Florida with my grandmother when he retired. However, he didn’t spend his final years in front of the TV eating pizza or microwave dinners. He and my grandmother always loved to travel and continued to do so for decades after retirement.

My grandpa had a bicycle that he rode most every day. He played in the retirement community’s shuffleboard league. He loved to swim and did so often. Also, my grandfather was an active member of the community having served on his retirement community board of directors. He might have been on the earth for 95 years, but he was not “old”. When he died, he died young.

Going back to the songs and the artists previously mentioned, what I hear in the lyrics is that when you die, as we all will eventually, don’t die mentally old, die mentally young. The Reaper will come for us all, but when he does come he should find a person with a young spirit, not one that is old and beaten down by time.

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
-Dylan Thomas

If you had the benefit of a good education, you likely read the poem by Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night”. Thomas died at 39 years of age and left behind numerous works including poems, screenplays, scripts, and collections.

How Do We Die Young?

If you are with me regarding what it means to die young, then the next logical question is how can we make this happen? What steps can we take to ensure that we do indeed die young? Well, not to be too redundant, but the majority of what has been laid out in the previous pages can put us on the path to dying young.

As you should have figured out by now, a healthy, strong body is not about becoming some kind of “muscle head” or “gym bro”. The mind and body work together in consort. Strength training is truly a collective effort between the mind which initially puts you in gear and makes you start training and the body and muscle, the development of which creates a healthy brain.

The more muscle mass you put on your skeletal frame through resistance training, the healthier the organ that we call the brain becomes. The stronger the brain becomes, the more likely it is that you will continue to keep your body strong and feed it with the proper nutrition.

During Chapter 2, we spent a fair amount of time considering mental focus and clarity. How do we stimulate our brain? How do we challenge our mind and keep it active and young?

Many folks have said “My grandkids keep me young.” or “My dog keeps me young.” Caring for other people or for God’s creatures takes mental and physical effort. I know farmers who get up every morning and go out and care for animals into their late 60s and 70s. Despite the calendar age, they are active and young at heart.

Conversely, I also know some folks of the same age who have what we might call a “normal routine” and all I hear from them are tales about their last doctor visit and what new prescription drugs they are taking.

While young people’s neuroplasticity is off the charts and their capacity to learn new things is fantastic, older people can and should seek out new mental challenges. We have discussed the very real benefit to brain health of resistance training and doing things that are difficult, even things that you don’t necessarily want to do, but make yourself do anyway.

Back to the topic of musicians, many of the classic rockers who managed to avoid an early grave from abusing narcotics, alcohol, etc. are still busy and actively playing their instruments well into their 60s, 70s and in some cases, 80s. Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones were 81 and 77 respectively at press time and both still played guitar on stage.

People have been joking for decades about Keith Richards cheating the Reaper, but that man is still a young 80 years old. If he were to complete his journey tomorrow, it could be said of him that he died young. Holy cow, Mick Jagger is 81 as I write this. He has a girlfriend 40 years his junior and moves around better than most men half his age. Those are just a few examples.

As I put pen to paper, I am closer to 60 than I am to 50. I often find myself on the shooting range with men who are ten or more years my junior who complain that they cannot get up and down off the ground. They wheeze and struggle to get up from a simple kneeling position. Some have such preponderous guts that they cannot even get comfortable in the flat prone position. I often look at them and say, “I’m ten years older than you and I’m doing it. Stop complaining.”

Am I special? Was I blessed with superior genes? No, I was not. About twenty years ago I was forty pounds overweight and when I saw a picture of myself it made me sick and ashamed. My brain said I was still a Marine in my 20s and I could just eat anything that I wanted to. However, my body and my metabolism said otherwise. I had to make a hard choice; stop eating a bunch of bullshit and get your fat ass out and work harder.

I sometimes joke that I went through my mid-life crisis early and got it out of the way. I decided to drop the weight, start running and exercising like I should and to prove to myself that I was not washed up, I dropped back down to Marine Corps regulation weight for my height and went back into the USMC Reserve.

This was pre-GWoT and I was probably the oldest Corporal in the Corps at that time. When GWoT did come along I was out of the Corps again so I worked as a Military Contractor. As a Contractor, I had to maintain active duty height and weight standards. I also had to pass the active-duty Physical Fitness Test, all while in my 40s.

Why do I share this with you? Am I trying to be braggadocious? No. What I was missing at the aforementioned time in my life was a genuine friend to tell me, “Hey, you have let yourself become a fat ass and you need to fix yourself.” I had to figure out a way to fix myself on my own. What I want to impart to you here is that it does not matter what your current situation looks like. You can make changes. You can get stronger. You can improve your brain health. You can make a determined effort to die young.

There have been several times in my life when the Reaper was standing in the corner, waiting for the moment he could take me. Thus far I have been able to successfully keep him at bay. Sure, at some point I will lose that battle, but I will not go gently into that good night, I will rage against the dying of the light, I will, when all is said and done, die young. And, I am here to tell you that you can too.

Bio
Latest Posts

Professor Paul Markel

Founder & CEO at Student of the Gun

Paul G. Markel has worn many hats during his lifetime. He has been a U.S. Marine, Police Officer, Professional Bodyguard, and Small Arms and Tactics Instructor. Mr. Markel has been writing professionally for law enforcement and firearms periodicals for nearly twenty years with hundreds and hundreds of articles in print. Paul is a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio talk shows and subject matter expert in firearms training and use of force. Mr. Markel has been teaching safe and effective firearms handling to students young and old for decades and has worked actively with the 4-H Shooting Sports program. Paul holds numerous instructor certifications in multiple disciplines and a Bachelor’s degree in conflict resolution; nonetheless, he is and will remain a dedicated Student of the Gun.