A theme I come back to over and over again on this blog is the benefits of a simple exercise regimen that requires minimal time and equipment. Building on this theme, I’d like to briefly post today about one of my personal favorite exercises: the farmer’s carry (and its one handed equivalent, the suitcase carry).
A recent study out of Northeastern University (just up the road from here, in Boston) makes a point that I harp on a lot: you can go most of the way toward meeting your fitness needs without any gym membership, without any fancy equipment, and without leaving your home.
Time for some inspiration. Last year there was quite a bit of media coverage about one Richard Morgan, a 93 year old Irish man who is a champion indoor rower. Scientists analyzed Mr. Morgan and found him to have the cardio-respiratory fitness of a man half his age. The reason this is so amazing is that Mr. Morgan didn’t take up any exercise at all until age 73, after he retired from his career as a baker. And while it’s impossible to ever draw broad medical conclusions based on one-single case, his story certainly lends credibility to the idea that it is never too late to start getting into better shape.
I’ve written at length on this blog about the benefits of regular physical activity and a simple approach to staying fit that doesn’t just rely on “working out.” To highlight this point from a different angle, I want to revisit a study that is now a quarter-century old.
My last post discussed the importance of building muscle for good health and slower aging, and how this in turn requires regular strength training (such as lifting weights, though that is not the only modality for achieving muscle health) and adequate protein intake.
Before moving on from this topic, I want to take a moment to give a special emphasis on this point to any female readers of this blog.
One of the concepts I spend a lot of time talking to my patients about is the importance of maintaining muscle health. The reason for this is that virtually all people start to gradually lose muscle beginning somewhere in their 30s or 40s. At first these changes are barely noticeable, but by the time they are in their 70s many people will experience a huge degradation in their degree of fitness.
