Lessons from the Junkyard

What can an old car teach us about the benefits of strength training for our health and longevity?

If a car is driven regularly, the engine well maintained, and properly cared for, it will run for many years, even decades. However, if that same car is left in the backyard, not driven and not properly cared for, it will eventually rust, degrade and fall apart.

The human body is the same way.

Over the course of the aging process the human body will degrade, like a car left in the backyard, UNLESS it is properly cared for which includes doing hard exercise on a consistent basis.

Shift your Mind…

It’s time for a mindset shift, instead of thinking about exercise as a means of weight loss or aesthetics, consider hard exercise like strength training and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), as the means for repairing your body so that it can continue to run like a well-maintained car.

In short, strength training allows us to build new tissue from the cellular level on up. Other modes of exercise simply do not provide this benefit. Low-intensity exercise can help improve our circulation and oxygen delivery to tissues, but it does not have the same effect on the body as high-intensity exercise like strength training to a point of momentary fatigue or high-intensity conditioning that leaves you out of breath.

Mechanotransduction

Mechanotransduction means mechanical force stimulating chemical change (ok, wiki isn’t the most reliable source, but this is a good description so you know I’m not making this word up). When mechanical force, like strength training or jumping and landing on a hard surface, is applied to the body, specifically muscle tissue and bone, the response is a chemical change which results in the production of the satellite cells that repair damaged tissue.

The Repair Process

The whole purpose of hard exercise is to maintain the body’s ability to self-repair. Strength training relies on muscle fibers to generate force to move a resistance. As the fibers slide across one another to produce force, the surface tension damages the fibers. Post-exercise, satellite cells and hormones like testosterone, growth hormone and growth factors, along with protein, are used to repair the damaged tissue, helping it to function more efficiently.

Muscle Protein Synthesis

Muscle protein synthesis is the repair process to repair the damaged muscle tissues. The goal of strength training is to damage the tissues in an effort to initiate the muscle protein synthesis repair process. That is how new muscle tissue is created in the body, and the more muscle we have, the better the chances for long-term health.

Similar to how it is possible to replace the parts on an old car to ensure that it can still operate, strength training stimulates the production of cells and hormones to repair the tissues damaged during exercise. In addition, strength training optimizes a muscle’s ability to metabolize the energy to fuel its own contractions.

This explains why strength training to grow muscle is the most effective thing we can do for our longevity:

Performing different types of strength training, from endurance to hypertrophy to power, trains muscle tissue to be metabolically flexible - able to produce energy both with and without oxygen. We are not only optimizing how our muscles generate the energy to move us, consistently challenging strength training is the means of improving the ability of muscle tissue to repair itself post-exercise.

The Secret Sauce

THAT is the secret sauce - we can use strength training to grow new tissues. And metabolic conditioning to improve muscle’s ability to produce the energy used by all cells. This explains why an individual who has been strength training and doing hard conditioning exercises for multiple years can have a lower biological age (the health of cells and tissues in the body) than their actual chronological age.

The next time you’re doing that hard strength training workout - you can be rest assured that you are building a new body, one cell at a time.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

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• Provide a gratuity (very greatly appreciated - if the info you read here is helping you to optimize your health, this is a great way to say thank you).

Gratuity - Thank You!

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Learn more about how high-intensity exercise can mitigate the effects of the aging process…

Helping you to Stay Fit - Anywhere

The past few posts have covered how to decide whether a studio or gym is right for; you’ve learned what to look for when shopping for a health club and you understand a lot more about how to hire a personal trainer.

There are some of you out there thinking, “Thanks for the club info Pete, but I have no interest in exercising around other people.’ Or, you live in an area where a health club or studio may not be that accessible. Or, you want the option to have a good workout from home when your schedule is tight.

No worries, because I got you covered; it is not that difficult or expensive to set up a home gym, all you need is a little space and some creativity. Whether you are looking for a little space for some stretching or core exercises, or you want to build out a full home gym now that your kids are off in the world and you have your house completely to yourself. This post will offer home gym solutions for three budgets: less than $100 (the approximate price of 3 studio workouts, or 4 months of a HPLV gym membership), $300 (the estimated cost of 6 months of a HPLV-gym membership with the recovery center upgrade - highly recommended) or 2 months of unlimited classes at a boutique studio) and unlimited budget (in case Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg are reading). (affiliate links noted, a fella’s gotta get his protein).

Less than $100

• Mini-band - this piece of rubber resistance is very affordable, easy to store and provides a number of great options for both the lower and upper body.
  
  

• 1 set of dumbbells - many of the large big box retailers that sell groceries also sell fitness equipment, select a pair that makes 10-12 reps challenging. As you become stronger, you can increase intensity by doing reps for time to increase metabolic fatigue or do circuit training with no rest intervals between sets to increase overall metabolic fatigue, essential for muscle growth.
  
  

• 2-arm resistance band - this band can easily be attached to a door frame and allows you to replicate a number of cable machine exercises while at home.
  
  

• Jump rope - budget friendly, easy to store and can make you sweat = win, win and win.

• Stretch mat
  

  

Less than $300, all of the above AND

• Stability ball - you can do a number of bodyweight exercises to strengthen all of your muscles, especially those in the core region. These can be bought at many big box retailers like Target and Walmart.
  
  

• A Sandbell by Hyperwear (affiliate link) - the unique design is great for grip strength and are easier to store in a small space when compared to medicine balls.
  
  

• A kettlebell - again, many big box retailers now sell kettlebells which can be used for strength, power or metabolic conditioning exercises. Pick up one at least 20 lbs - it can be used for carries, deadlifts and swings - all important exercises for longevity.
  

  

  
  

Jeff Bezos (Unlimited budget), all of the above AND

• TRX Suspension Trainer (affiliate link) - the original, pick up the commercial version for a piece of long-lasting equipment.
  
  

• Another pair of heavier dumbbells and a 2nd, heavier kettlebell. Heck, if you can afford it, get a whole rack of dumbbells and three or four kettlebells to have the widest variety of training options. Also, it would be smart to invest in a proper weight-lifting rack for safety. A squat cage offers a lot of variety for also attaching a TRX and resistance tubing, making it a great choice, if space and budget allow.
  
  

• A HIIT Bike or Indoor rower - using both the upper and lower body at the same time can increase the number of calories you burn, do a search for companies that sell used commercial gym equipment; yes, this could be more expensive but it’s much better quality than what is sold via normal retail channels like sporting goods stores.

Where to buy:

NOT AMAZON - with the exception of buying straight from the manufacturer; for example, both TRX and Hyperwear have moved all sales on to the Amazon to help with fulfillment - BTW, they have an AMAZING new vest, watch for a product review coming soon. Otherwise, the stuff on Amazon is relatively low quality. You’re much better off spending a little more and buying from the same suppliers as the fitness industry. Perform Better makes and sells all sorts of equipment from bands to barbell racks, health clubs, colleges and pro teams buy from them - you want the same level of quality, invest in it.

American Barbell makes top notch equipment used by a variety of health clubs, gyms, teams and universities. Plus, these are the folks who funded the recent video shoot providing, if you’re going to buy steel from anywhere - go here; they make killer stuff at reasonable prices.

In general, look for used health club quality equipment. Most major urban areas have companies that refurbish and sell used fitness equipment, it’s a large market. You can also scour craigslist or facebook marketplace for studios going out of business selling equipment.

I used to work for Core Health & Fitness, the makers of Nautilus and StairMaster. Commercial equipment is engineered and manufactured to a high level of quality, it is designed to be used 20 hours per day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. You’ll pay more, but consider it an investment because you’ll keep it for years. Plus, you can have commercial quality equipment repaired. The same is not true for that treadmill you bought at Dick’s.

When it comes to investing in equipment for home use, you get what you pay for. Go cheap, get junk. It’s worth the time and expense to search for an invest in a good, used commercial quality piece. My kid’s mom has a Spinning cycling bike in her garage that we bought from Core in 2013 (the last year they co-branded with Spinning, it was a close-out, we got a great deal on a top-of-the-line commercial unit, $1100). We need to keep the belt lubricated otherwise there has been minimal maintenance in the 13 years we’ve owned it. Go commercial, it’s worth it.

Smarter Workouts - 2nd Edition

Oh yeah, this is how I’m going to announce the upcoming release of the 2nd edition of Smarter Workouts - now with a chapter on the health benefits of strength training along with a barbell strength training program you could do in your home gym.

Smarter Workouts teaches you how to design your own workout programs using only 1 piece of equipment at a time (it started as a series of blogs I wrote called, 1 weight workouts); if you’re buying equipment for home, Smarter Workouts will teach you how to use it.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Provide a gratuity (very greatly appreciated - if the info you read here is helping you to optimize your health, this is a great way to say thank you).

Gratuity

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

A Brief History

In 1998 I earned a personal training certification and started my career in the fitness industry. By 2008, I had earned a master’s of science in exercise science and went to work for the American Council on Exercise, the largest personal training certification group to create education content for personal trainers (in ‘98, I became certified by ACE; in 2008, I went to work for the organization to produce education content).

Over the years I have had the opportunity to travel the world to teach workshops for personal trainers in 16 different countries; to say I know a few things and am passionate about the trade is an understatement. Personal training has been my career since 1998; I have worked at the executive level, leading personal training programs and have helped write the 2 largest certification programs, so the following advice comes with a LOT of inside knowledge. Use it wisely.

Hiring a personal trainer is one of the most significant investments you can make in your long-term health. A good personal trainer can identify your specific fitness needs, design an exercise program and provide the coaching to significantly improve your life. But like all professions, there are really good practitioners, those who are new with limited experience and those who should be in another line of work completely.

The Barrier to Entry

And here’s a scary reality: the barrier to entry in the fitness industry is incredibly low. Virtually anyone can buy a t-shirt, watch a few social media feeds to learn some basic exercise terms, and call themselves a personal trainer because at this point, NO, 0, NADA, jurisdictions require a license for a personal trainer. Seriously.

Think about that, if you want your hair cut or nails done - you need to go to a person that has a state license, to work on DEAD TISSUE. Right now, in 2026, no state has a licensure requirement for personal trainers, and exercise CAN kill you. A scary thought, isn’t it?

So, yeah, you want to make sure you’re hiring someone who actually knows what they’re doing before you trust them with your body.

When the goal is longevity, you aren’t just looking for someone to make you sweat; you are looking for a professional who understands the physiological mechanisms of aging, the science of recovery, and the mechanics of injury prevention. Specifically, you’ll want to work with a strength coach who understands the science of muscle growth and metabolic conditioning so they’ll know how to design a proper strength training program.

If you want a fitness professional who can actually help you extend your healthspan, you need to look past the trainer’s appearance and look at the professional pedigree; specifically the education and experience; those who have been working in the industry for at least 3-5 years should have a decent working knowledge of how to design and coach exercise programs to stimulate muscle growth; here is how to vet a potential personal trainer:

The Professional Minimum: Education and Pedigree

Before looking at physique, personality or price, try to understand the ‘why,’ or scientific approach behind their methods. A fitness professional will be able to explain the science of their methodology, not just the fact that it will ‘shred your muscles.’

• Certification and Education: At a bare minimum, a trainer must hold a nationally accredited certification (such as ACE, NASM, or ACSM). However, for those of us focused on strength training for longevity, look for trainers who have gone a step further with a degree in exercise science or at the very least a certificate from a comprehensive trade school program (I taught in a Southern CA junior college program that was a 1 year trade school curricula designed for students to earn a certification upon completion - this type of program is preferred because spends time teaching the ‘hands-on’ skills for the trade). This formal education ensures they understand anatomy and kinesiology as well as how exercise affects the body.

• The Three-Year Rule: Look for a trainer with at least three years of full-time experience. Why three years? Most people who view training as simply a job or side hustle wash out within 18 months; someone who has hit the 3-year mark has made a conscious choice to approach personal training as a profession and have most likely adopted a system of programming that works (like the Functional Movement Screen, see below), or have developed a system of program design that delivers results that clients want. The point is that 3 years of being a personal trainer will provide enough experience with different body types and injury histories to have a relatively broad knowledge of how to work with a variety of individuals. Finally, most of the major certification organizations run the credentials on a 2-year renewal cycle; meaning that personal trainers have to perform a minimum of 20 hours of continuing education in 2 years to renew their certification. A personal trainer with at least 3 years of experience has gone through at least 1 renewal cycle, showing a commitment to the trade.

The Top 6 Things to Consider When Hiring a Personal Trainer

1. Evidence-Based Programming

Does the trainer use ‘challenge of the week’ exercises they saw on Instagram, or is their programming rooted in exercise physiology? Ask them how they plan to influence your VO2 max or promote muscle protein synthesis (the mechanism required for growth). The fitness professional that you want to work with will be able to explain the scientific validity behind every set and rep. Think of it this way, you want to work with an exercise-science nerd; one who will argue with his friends about obscure strength-training methodology (like me). How you determine your specific level of geekiness is up to you.

2. An Obsession with Assessment

If a trainer tries to put you under a barbell on day one without assessing your joint mobility or movement patterns, your only exercise is to walk away. To develop the muscles that are essential for longevity, you must first identify any muscle imbalances or movement compensations. If a trainer attempts to have you start a strength training program without first understanding how your body moves, it could result in an injury. A fitness professional starts with a movement assessment to observe how you move before they start putting external weight on your body. In my opinion, the gold standard of movement assessments is the Functional Movement Screen - read below for more details.

3. Focus on Recovery Science

As we age, the workout is only half the battle; the other half is how we recover. A fitness professional should not only be able to design a workout program to stimulate muscle growth, but can provide coaching on sleep, nutrition, and recovery modalities like infrared therapy or soft tissue work. How you recover after one workout will determine how you train for the next, a good personal trainer will provide an optimal recovery program for your goals.

4. Communication Style

Contrary to popular opinion, a good personal trainer does NOT have to be a drill sergeant; rather, you should look for a collaborative-style coach, someone who asks a lot of questions to help you identify the answers for yourself. Look for someone who listens more than they talk. The important thing is that on any given training session, a good fitness professional will be able to adjust the intensity of a session based on your needs and “readiness to train” on that specific day.

5. Specialization in Longevity

If you are over 40, you have different hormonal and metabolic needs than a 20-year-old. Make sure that your personal trainer understands the specific needs of the aging body, specifically how exercise like strength training and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can be used to maintain bone density and increase lean muscle mass without over-taxing the central nervous system.

6. Professional Liability and Ethics

This is the boring stuff that matters. A professional personal trainer carries liability insurance and follows a code of ethics. This demonstrates that they respect the trade and protect their clients.

7. Avoid Trainers from a Large Health Club Company

Once upon a time, health clubs budgeted approximately 40 hours per personal training new hire to provide hands-on, classroom instruction on how to deliver fitness services. At the same time, certification organizations were hosting 16-hour (2-day) seminars that would teach the minimal basics of how to be a personal trainer. This would end up providing a total of approximately 60 hours of live education to teach the basic skills of personal training (emphasis on basics).

In 2026, most personal trainer education programs are now hosted on online platforms. Keep in mind that many people drawn to the field are most likely ADHD and interested in being a trainer because it is a very kinetic job with minimal sitting involved (full disclosure - in 2024, I was diagnosed with ADHD and have spent a lot of time learning about it and it is obvious that many other personal trainers have similar traits).

All this to say, that at the present time, the way personal trainers are being developed is abysmal and is NOT providing a high quality of service provider. In fact, many personal trainers who take online courses may have a cursory knowledge of exercise programming, but have received minimal hands-on instruction, and guess who the large health club operators are hiring???

Finally, clubs simply do not pay personal trainers well. At one point, clubs would pay 60-70% of the session price to the trainer. In 2006, when I stopped training full-time in a health club, I was making $33/session with a $3/session bonus when I did more than 20/week (40 pay period; I averaged 25 sessions/week - making it $36/session (in 2005 - my last full year of training full-time, I made $78,000).

Now clubs are paying approx 35-50% of the session price to trainers; with many operators paying in the $22-28/session range, with some bonuses for hitting sales goals. Plus, it takes 3-6 months to build up a full book of business, so a new trainer in a club is making minimum wage until they develop a number of clients. Add to that, most fitness managers are compensated on how much personal training they can sell, NOT on how many members are getting results. So what ends up happening is that managers become more focused on selling to new clients than developing the personal trainers to service those clients. Which means that a new personal trainer hired by a large gym is often left to figure it out on their own, even after going through the in-house education program.

The fact is that young adults can make more money at a Starbucks or Target, so why go work at a large gym that requires specialized education and where there is very little guidance for how to be a professional trainer? Plus, it is not hard to develop online clients, so why should a personal trainer work at a gym where they make 40% of a session when they can start their own online business and make 100% of what they charge clients?

Join a large gym for the equipment, but NOT the personal training services, for those, you’ll want to find a local sports performance center or privately owned gym.

Find the Right 1 for Your Needs

That’s right, you most likely want to find a sports conditioning facility like either Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, outside of Boston; or Fitness Quest 10, run by Todd Durkin, just outside of San Diego, CA. Both facilities specialize in training high school, college and professional athletes, but at each location, approximately 30% of their business is “average joes” who want to train like the pros.

Working with a personal trainer can identify the right program for your specific needs, here is my recommendation for how to find one:

Look for a sports performance facility where a coach will put you through what is called the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). The FMS is used by professional sports teams, military special operators and first responders to identify any potential limitations to an exercise program. The FMS tells a coach what you are and are NOT able to do when it comes to exercise. A coach trained in the FMS protocol will NOT let you touch a weight or do a move that you are not prepared for.

Working with a sports performance center means that you’ll be working with a coach who uses the FMS or a similar screening tool to make sure that you are doing the right workout for your needs. Follow THIS LINK to a search tool to find a FMS professional near you.

There are other movement screens out there. When speaking with a potential personal trainer, your first question should be, “Do you do the Functional Movement Screen?”

If the answer is, “What?” or, “No.” then hang up. Seriously, it’s not worth any more of your time.

If the answers are either: “Yes”, or, “We don’t use the FMS, but here is how we screen new clients,” then have a conversation.

The Bottom Line

Your body is the only one you get. Don’t trust it to someone just learning the trade, look for a professional with at least 3 years of experience. When you hire a professional with the right education and a proven track record, you aren’t just paying for a workout, you’re hiring a consultant for your future self.

A big box gym can offer a great workout space with beneficial amenities like a recovery room, at very affordable prices, and I highly recommend joining one if you are already comfortable working out on your own. However, if you could benefit from working with a personal trainer, my recommendation is to go local and look for a sports performance facility that uses the Functional Movement Screen as an assessment tool. Large chains can offer lower prices, but those low-prices mean they are not properly investing in their personal training program, plus, wouldn’t you feel better knowing that your gym dues are supporting neighbors in your community as opposed to a PE partner in Boca?

Expect to pay between $85-200/hour for one-on-one personal training (NOTE: I charge $150 live / $125 remote) and $150-300+/month for a studio that features group coaching programs (think OrangeTheory Fitness, F45 or CrossFit).

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Provide a gratuity (very greatly appreciated - if the info you read here is helping you to optimize your health, this is a great way to say thank you).

Gratuity

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Gotta Have a Place to Sweat

In part 2 of this 4 part series (1: club or studio, 2: how to shop for a club, 3: how to hire a personal trainer and 4: how to equip a home gym), we’re taking a look at how to shop for a health club. Full disclosure: this was a piece that I wrote a number of years ago for the american council on exercise, but have updated it for this platform

Decisions, Decisions…

We all know that we need to exercise and that it is important to do it on a regular basis but one of the hardest decisions is choosing where to exercise. The last post covered consideration for choosing a place to sweat, in this one, the focus is on how to shop for a health club. Some people are perfectly motivated to exercise outdoors or in the comfort of their own homes. If that’s you, congratulations, you’re one of the rare few. However for many others having a dedicated place to go can make all the difference in making exercise a daily habit or something that occurs only during a full moon.

If you want to make exercise a regular habit then it might be a good idea to join a health club or gym. Yes, studios are an option, but those are much smaller and generally focus on only one format, so there is less to consider when shopping. As someone who has spent more than 12 years in club operations (from front desk to general manager to national director), I have some unique insights that can help you choose an option that is right for your needs.

7 things to consider when shopping for a health club:

1. No matter which option you choose, it HAS to be convenient to either your work or home or both. The best option is a facility located close to where you live or work so you can easily make it a part of your daily commute. It doesn’t matter how nice a facility is or how great the instructors are if you have to drive across town or fight traffic to make it to your workouts it can be easy to avoid the extra commute by not going. A better option is looking for a chain that has locations near both your home and work, that way you have an option on weekends and days that you might be toiling away from home.

2. Another critical consideration is budget, don’t be tempted to overspend on a ‘luxury’ fitness experience or a series of instructor-led workouts especially if you’re paying via a monthly credit card debit (the way that most clubs and studios require that you pay for membership or ongoing classes). Yes getting in shape is important and regular exercise can significantly improve your health but it’s simply not worth adding to your personal debt to meet this need. Identify what you can realistically afford based on your personal budget and use that to help guide your decision-making process.

On the other hand, you get what you pay for. If you join a gym simply because it is the cheapest then you will often have to pay extra for amenities like group classes or even towels. Over the past decade, a new model of low priced health clubs has taken over the industry. Called, High-value, low-price (HVLP), these club operators charge a low price for one location with no access to amenities like group classes or recovery rooms - expect to pay $12-20 for access to one location. Whereas the top-tier membership with all of the bells-and-whistles (including towels, child care, recovery center, access to classes and multiple location) will run around $75-90.

2 things about the HVLP model:

1. They are owned by private equity groups that are seeking to optimize EDBITDA and cash flow. PE sees monthly membership dues as ARR (annual recurring revenue) and over the past decade, ALL major brands have been purchased by PE groups that place profit over member outcomes. Yes, you can have a great workout at these locations, but understand that your $$$ is going to a PE partner lounging on his yacht in Naples, FL as opposed to a local business owner who is active in your community.

2. They operate on extremely thin margins and staff is frequently overworked and underpaid so there can be a lot of turnover - even at the regional manager level. If you are considering a low-cost club, ask the salesperson (or “membership consultant”) how long they have worked there and how long the management team (general manager, fitness manager and operations manager) has been in place. If the answer is “I don’t know” or less than six months then they location might experience frequent staff turnover which can have a significant effect on your membership experience.

As you can tell, I have a strong opinion about how PE has taken over our industry (one reason why I now work at a resort in Mexico); one benefit that PE has brought is the use of data to understand how to respond to members needs (and optimize profits). At the recent health club industry conference in San Diego, there was a major emphasis on tools for data collection and analysis as opposed to the exercise programs and equipment that actually makes members sweat. Improving management practices and enhancing how data is used to make decisions is a very good thing for the fitness industry and is the natural culmination of how regional clubs and family owned operations have been bought and consolidated over the past 10-15 years. Health clubs of the future will use AI and data to optimize profits, but will that actually help you to improve your health? That’s the known unknown (to borrow from Rummy).

Here’s another thought, paying for an upscale health club, think Life Time or Equinox, could be an awesome way to upgrade your real life social network because it’s a great opportunity to meet other people in the same demographic who take their fitness seriously (full disclosure, I used to be an instructor for Equinox).

3. Ask for a trial membership or the opportunity to do a series of ‘beginner’ classes before making a long-term commitment to a club or studio. Most facilities know the best way to sell themselves is to simply let people use them so many offer a reduced price for a series of beginner classes or even a free trial membership for a week so you can see if it meets your needs. Investing in a series of beginner classes is often required for yoga or CrossFit studios to teach you the basics of the exercise format. Take advantage of these classes to see if you like the instructors and the techniques they teach. If you don’t feel comfortable doing the exercises after the initial series of classes you will probably not enjoy the long-term exercise experience. If you do a trial membership at a health club, visit during the hours you will regularly attend so you can see how crowded it is and try a couple of group fitness classes to see if you like the formats and instructors.

4. When you are shopping a facility or doing a trial workout check equipment, both underneath and on top, and look in the corners for any significant collections of dust. A well-maintained facility will be clean and relatively dust-free, but if you see an accumulation of dust or dirt on equipment then that could also mean an accumulation of disease-causing germs. Another thing to look for is in the locker room or changing area, if it has a damp, musty or mildewy smell then regular cleaning is not the highest priority and nothing can ruin your fitness experience more than having to change or try to get clean in a disgusting locker room.

Again, this is where PE is having a positive effect on the industry, many are instituting the use of customer service satisfaction tools like Medallia to measure how members are liking the experience. And yes, managers are comped based on the Medallia scores for their clubs in order to encourage optimal service.

5. Check with your employer or health insurance to see if they offer any options like discounts or reimbursements for health club dues or fitness facility fees. The ACA healthcare law makes prevention a priority as a result both private employers and health-insurance companies have been given more leeway on the financial incentives they can provide for fitness because it is one of the best forms of prevention known. Many health clubs will offer a discounted membership fee if you belong to a specific health insurance plan but they will never tell you this during a tour and you often have to tell them that you qualify for the discount. If your employer has an education reimbursement they may allow you to pay for a fitness class as an education class. When I was personal training full-time I wrote a couple of letters for clients that I was providing “fitness education services” so they can use their companies education funds to pay for my fees.

6. Use the internet to see how customers and members rate their experience at a health club or studio. Doing a search on Google or Yelp or simply asking your Facebook network about their experience with a fitness provider can deliver a wealth of information that can help you make an informed decision. In addition check the website and social media channels of the club to see what type of information they are providing to their members. Many of the larger clubs have blogs, articles or videos to educate members on exercise, nutrition and lifestyle strategies that can be extremely useful and relevant for achieving fitness goals.

7. Before you make a commitment and invest your hard-earned money in a club, make sure the instructors employed by the club have the appropriate professional credentials, specifically a proper, accredited certification. Here is a startling fact: the fitness industry is self-regulating and when it comes to certification credentials, anyone can call themselves a ‘personal trainer’ or teach an exercise class without going through any formal education or licensing process. The American Council on Exercise is an accredited certification organization meaning that if an individual holds a Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, Health Coach or Advanced Health and Fitness Specialist credential from ACE he or she has undergone an education process that meets a stringent review by the Institute for Credentialing Excellence. You can use this search engine to find an ACE-certified professional in your area.

ACE has recently teamed with a number of other certification organizations to start the US Registry of Exercise Professionals (USREPS) which recognizes a number of established fitness certification organizations. For your protection and to ensure that you’re working with a properly qualified instructor, if they are not ACE-certified, they should at least be certified by an organization which belongs to USREPS.

Be an educated consumer. Set your budget, do your homework and visit the facility a few times before making a long-term financial commitment. Choosing a health club is a lot like finding a favorite restaurant or bar, it may take a while to find one that you enjoy going to regularly but once you do it becomes a part of your regular life. If a facility feels ‘right’ to go for it, you’ll enjoy the opportunity to exercise and meet new people. If a facility doesn’t feel right, not able to answer your questions, is too expensive (or cheap) or is simply dirty, skip it and keep looking for the right one, you’ll find it and once you do you’ll be glad you made the extra effort.

Next post: how to shop for a personal trainer!

Thank you for reading!

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• Provide a gratuity (very greatly appreciated - if the info you read here is helping you to optimize your health, this is a great way to say thank you).

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• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

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From the Back of the Rack

Ok, when I used to listen to terrestrial radio, I was a fan of classic rock stations which would run a feature called, ‘from the back of the rack’ to play a oldie but goodie. While perusing my hard drive, a couple of pieces I wrote a number of years ago caught my attention and I’m pulling them from the back of the rack: 1) How to identify the best workout facility for your needs, and 2) How to shop for a health club or fitness facility. I’ve updated them and am running them now so that you have general information on how to select the best facility for your needs.

Keep in mind that I’ve worked at the executive level for both premium and budget health club companies, and have worked with fitness facilities around the world
(and am currently working at and living on a 5 star resort), so I have a decent insight into what determines a well-run facility. As I’m putting this together I realize the need for 2 more pieces: how to shop for a personal trainer and how to equip a home gym, so that’s exactly what the next few posts will feature: how to pick a facility, how to show for a facility, how to shop for a trainer and how to equip a home gym.

Bad news / good news: After all of this info, there will be NO excuse for not having a place to move your body.

First, let’s establish a few definitions:

Health Club

A full service facility that offers a variety of amenities and programming. Operations can run from high-value, low price (HVLP) clubs like 24 Hour Fitness, which charges approximately $25/month (full disclosure - I’m a member and workout at the La Costa location, they tend to operate well-equipped and well-managed facilities) to premium clubs like Equinox or Life Time, which charge upwards of $175/month but provide all amenities including upscale locker rooms with high-end soap products. One thing to know about the modern fitness industry - ALL major health club and studio operators, including both corporate-run and franchise models, are owned by private equity groups. The PE firms see club membership dues as monthly recurring revenue. The new metric for success is NOT client outcomes, but EBITDA, free cash flow and net operating income. Look behind any national operator or regional franchise ownership group and you will find either a PE firm or family office (which can function as an equity group) providing capital for growth.

Gym

Offer primarily strength training and cardio exercise equipment; generally there is no group fitness programming. The locker rooms are sparse and provide the basics for lockers and showers. Gyms tend to not offer many bells and whistles other than the basic equipment for getting strong and elevating your heart-rate. Most gyms are locally owned and operated by individuals passionate about fitness.

Studio

Focus on delivering a specific format of fitness; think: yoga, barre, indoor cycling or CrossFit. Studios are great for being able to focus on a specific format of fitness, but the body needs variety and diversity in movement. Yes, pilates is a great format of exercise, but it is NOT the only mode someone should be doing (I’m not picking on pilates, just using it as an example). Which means that while studio workouts can be fun and deliver results, over time those results won’t be as significant because the body will adapt. If you’re a studio fan, a good option would be to join different ones for 4-6 months at a time to create your own method of periodization.

When it comes to exercise there are a wide variety of choices for where to go to get sweaty. If you make fitness a priority, you most likely already have a dedicated space for your workouts; but, what if you’re re-committing to a fitness program after focusing on other areas of life for a while? What is the best place for your fitness needs?

Considerations

The first, and most important consideration, is the type of experience that best suits your needs; ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you want to go to a studio that only offers one format of exercise?

• Are you interested in paying for an unlimited amount of instructor-led workouts?

• Do you live in an environment that supports exercising outdoors making bootcamp programs a realistic option all year-round?

• Do you want to pay the monthly fees and join a commercial health club that offers a variety of different fitness solutions?

• Do you need a location where you can shower and prepare for your day?

• When you exercise, do you enjoy being around other people, or, are you looking for some peace, quiet and solitude during your ‘you’ time?

• How far are you willing to travel for a workout?

Each of these questions can spawn numerous others. When it comes to making a decision about where to invest your fitness dollars, here are 7 things to consider.

1. Do you want to join a health club or take classes from a fitness studio? There is no right way to answer this question but you need to decide the type of fitness experience that will meet your needs, personality type and financial status. Many indoor cycling, yoga or Pilates studios charge a fee per class with the option to make reservations and pay through a mobile app making them convenient for people who live their lives through their phones. These studios offer a specific type of workout led by a dynamic instructor and are a great option for people who enjoy different workouts without the commitment of paying a monthly membership fee.

   While the studio option offers variety without commitment if you want amenities like locker rooms, showers and towels it’s important to note that many studios do not have the space to offer these conveniences while a number of health clubs do. Class pass is an app that allows users to select a variety of different fitness studios; however, it’s important to note that independent studio operators do not like class pass because it eats into their margins, minimizing profit. While class pass can be convenient, consider the needs of local business owners when thinking about using class pass. READ this objective review of class pass before making a decision. The bottom line is that friends who own studios (barre, pilates, yoga and crossfit) are NOT fans of class pass because it costs them money - hence the editorial.

2. How much do you want to spend per month? Most large health club chains offer month-to-month memberships that can be cancelled with 30 days notice that are more (sometimes significantly more) expensive than a membership that has an annual contract. Here’s a little secret: a club can only claim the revenue for the contracts on hand, so the more year-long membership contracts, the greater the revenue on the books. Therefore it’s in their best interest to have members on an annual contract since month-to-month members only provide thirty days of membership revenue.

   It might seem that a health club with monthly dues of $50 and up is expensive but compare that to fitness studios that often charge rates of $20 and up per class which can get expensive rather quickly. It’s important to know that most studios strictly enforce a 24-hour cancellation policy so if you make a reservation and pay for a Wednesday class on a Monday but get stuck working late you are also stuck paying for a class that you can’t attend.

   My advice is to identify how much you normally spend when going out with friends or on a date. If $50 is an average night out, then shop for a club in that price range. If you find yourself normally dropping $200 or so on a night out, then that’s your budget. Skip a night out, stay in and use that money to pay for your membership.

3. Studios offer unlimited, instructor-led workouts for a monthly fee. Many studios that offer a specific format of exercise like OrangeTheory Fitness, or other forms of instructor-led circuit training workouts charge fees of $150 and up per month but this is for an unlimited amount of classes led by an instructor trained on how to deliver that specific format. While the price point might seem expensive, the fact that you receive coached group workouts under the supervision of an instructor and you can attend as many workouts as you want in a month means the more you go the less you pay per visit. An additional benefit is that if you attend workouts at a consistent time you usually workout with the same people leading to new friendships helping you to expand your real-life social networks which can also help you stay committed to your goals.

4. Personal training studios are an option that allow you to work with a certified personal trainer in a 1-on-1 environment which can be an excellent way to provide the instruction and guidance required to meet your fitness goals. If you are the type of person who needs the accountability, guidance and structure of personalized workouts this can be the best option. The challenge is that this personalized service is expensive and personal training sessions can run from $50 per half-hour on up (note, I charge $150/hour). Some studios charge a monthly fee based on the number of sessions you attend per month and allow you the option to work with a number of different trainers which can help enhance the experience. Most health clubs offer personal training services, but trust me, this is not where you want to find a personal trainer, the upcoming post on how to hire a personal trainer will provide all the 411 on this topic.

5. If you live in a development with a workout room or have the space at your home for a workout room, these are excellent options. Most residential workout rooms have all the equipment needed to get results, plus, there is a major convenience factor. Investing in equipment to workout at home is always an option and can be the most convenient because of the lack of commute, but the major challenge of having a home gym is distractions from family; or, if you work from home, the office. Home workouts can be effective, but there is a certain energy that comes from exercising around others; plus, if you work from home, going to the gym is one way to get out, be social and make friend IRL. The upcoming post on how to equip a home gym will provide more details on this topic.

6. If you live in a climate that makes exercising outdoors possible most of the year than another option is joining a bootcamp-style fitness class. There are a variety of options in this category but before you invest your money in any of them check with your local park service to see if the class has the appropriate permission to be able to hold a class at the park.

   Many jurisdictions require fitness instructors to pay an annual license for the opportunity to conduct outdoor workouts at a specific park. If the class doesn’t have one then the best worst-case scenario is that an official from the park shows up and you can be escorted off of the property and lose your investment in the class. The worst worst-case scenario is that if a class does not have the required permit then it may not have any liability insurance to cover accidents. If a class does have the appropriate permit from the park service then in most cases they will also have the necessary insurance to compensate participants in the event any of them become injured from the workout. This is an extremely important consideration, given the level of difficulty for many bootcamp-style workouts you want to be sure they have the proper insurance to cover any situation.

7. Fitness studios provide a wide variety of format options, like Pilates or high-intensity conditioning, that have traditionally not been offered by commercial health clubs. In response, many health clubs are now offering fee-based small group training programs which can create a studio experience with the additional resources such as a variety of equipment and locker rooms with amenities like towel services, saunas, whirlpools and snack-bars that are simply not an option at most studios. If you’re shopping for a studio, make sure the format offers a wide variety of programming options so that your body is not always moving the same way.

   Doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results is the literal definition of insanity; yes, that indoor cycling studio can provide a good workout, but doing it more than 3-4 times per week could lead to pattern overload (doing the same movement repeatedly) which could result in injury-causing muscle imbalances. Variability of movement and exercise intensity is essential for achieving results, so it’s important to find a studio that offers workouts at different levels of intensity throughout the week. One studio format I highly recommend is Madabolic - this is a recent start-up out of Charlotte, NC and yes, it is backed by a PE group, BUT the programming is 100% legit - the workouts alternate between strength, power and endurance and are scheduled in 12 week blocks, followed by a week of low-intensity active recovery workouts. In other words, the programming is based on the science of progressive overload and adaptation. In full transparency, I am such a fan that I’ve been considering an investment in a Madabolic franchise. If you’re looking for a killer studio experience that is based on science and delivers results - search for a Madabolic in your area.

Into Action

Only you can decide which of these options will meet your needs. For example, if you enjoy a specific exercise format then by all means, go the studio route. However, if you prefer a variety of different classes or equipment and need a place where you can get ready for work, then look for a health club. If all you want to do is pick up heavy stuff, a gym might be for you.

As you start the shopping process, be honest about what you can afford and what you want to receive for your money. There is nothing wrong with each of these options, the purpose of this post is to raise some questions that you should address before deciding where to spend your money; as GI Joe used to say, “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.” (THAT is a killer 80s reference…)

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Provide a gratuity (very greatly appreciated - if the info you read here is helping you to optimize your health, this is a great way to say thank you).

Gratuity

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Recovery: The Hidden Engine of Longevity After 40

Back in 2010, when I was working at the American Council on Exercise creating education content for personal trainers, I looked around the fitness landscape and saw that the big trend was high-intensity exercise: CrossFit, Grit, Tough Mudder, there were a variety of different organizations promoting high-intensity exercise, but at the time, NO ONE was talking about recovery - or what to do after the training session.

Recovery for Rugby

When I was playing competitive rugby in my 30s in Boston (06-08, with the Boston Irish Wolfhounds), I took my recovery very seriously, because I knew that how I recovered would determine how I trained. In 2010, I realized that no one was teaching personal trainers about how to program recovery, so I created and started teaching a workshop at fitness conferences titled, Recovery, the Forgotten Training Variable.

Over the years, I’ve written a variety of articles on recovery (see HERE and HERE - TBH, part of what I’m doing by linking to those pieces is to show you I’ve been educating and creating content for top fitness organizations for years - so, you can trust what you’re learning here) and the following is one I wrote for fitness professionals and tasked Gemini with making it more readable for a consumer audience.

Training for Longevity REQUIRES A Smart Approach to Recovery

Here’s the bottom line, because of the numerous benefits for an aging body, I’m a fierce advocate for high-intensity training as the ultimate, however that approach to training MUST come with an equal approach to what we are doing AFTER the workout to optimize recovery. In short, recovery is a return to homeostasis - the state of rest; the faster we return to homeostasis, the more time we can let our body rest before the next training session.

In the world of professional sports, athletes spend as much time (and money) on recovery as they do on training. Why? Because they know a biological truth: You don’t get stronger during the workout; you get stronger while you recover from it.

For those of us using heavy lifting and HIIT to mitigate the effects of aging, recovery isn’t time off, it’s a physiological requirement to allow time for the results we want.

Why Recovery Matters More as We Age

Exercise is a form of controlled stress. When we perform high-intensity workouts, we create two types of overload on muscle tissue:

1. Metabolic Overload: We deplete the energy (ATP and glycogen) stored in our muscle cells.

2. Mechanical Overload: We create microscopic tears in individual muscle fibers and connective tissues.

As we age, our bodies will naturally take a bit longer to return to homeostasis. If we layer a new high-intensity workout on top of a body that hasn’t finished repairing the last one, we risk Overtraining Syndrome (OTS), which can weaken the immune system and lead to injury.

The Pro Athlete Recovery Toolkit (For Free)

You don’t need a cryogenic chamber or an expensive massage therapist to recover like an elite athlete. Some of the most effective strategies are built into how you live and move.

1. Master the Art of “Undulating Periodization”

The biggest mistake fitness enthusiasts make is trying to go “100%” every single day. Instead, use a “Non-linear” approach. This means alternating the stress you put on your body throughout the week.

• High Stress Days (RPE 7-10): Heavy lifting or sprints.

• Moderate Stress Days (RPE 4-7): Steady-state cardio or moderate resistance.

• Low Stress Days (RPE 3-5): “Active recovery” like yoga, walking, or mobility work.

Key Strategy: Follow every high-intensity day with a low-to-moderate stress day. This allows your heart rate to stay elevated enough to circulate oxygen and nutrients to damaged muscles without adding new mechanical stress.

2. Sleep: The Ultimate Anabolic Performance Enhancer

Sleep is the only time your body truly goes into “repair mode.” During Stage 3 NREM sleep, your body releases Growth Hormone, which is essential for regenerating the muscle and connective tissues damaged during training.

• The Math of Longevity: Adding just one extra hour of sleep per night gives you the equivalent of a full extra night of recovery every single week.

• Target: Aim for 7–9 hours of quality sleep to ensure your hormonal “repair crew” has enough time to finish the job.

3. Utilize “Active Recovery”

Instead of sitting on the couch on your off days, try light movement. This promotes blood circulation, which helps “flush” metabolic byproducts (like creatine kinase) out of your system and delivers the satellite cells needed for tissue repair.

Summary: The End is the Beginning

Bottom line is that I’m a complete nerd for recovery, because it goes hand-in-hand with training for recovery: if you want to keep training hard in your 50s, 60s, and beyond, you have to recover even harder.

During this phase of our life (after age 40) we should approach our exercise like an athlete - we want to train to move and be strong in our body. Meaning, we want to use strength training programs based on compound movement patterns. In addition, we need to be doing up to 3 really hard metabolic conditioning workouts per week. All this stress needs to be addressed with specific recovery strategies.

Here’s the simple formula from Smarter Recovery:

• Rehydrate - drink plenty of water

• Refuel - consume proper nutrition to repair muscle tissue, promote hormone production and fuel muscle contractions.

• Rest - get plenty of sleep; anabolic hormones like T and GH are produced during REM cycles

• Repair - use static stretch, myofascial release (foam rollers or sticks), massage guns, massage therapists, heat - sauna, hot tub or steam, or cold - cold plunge or or other cold immersion systems, to enhance the circulation that promotes tissue repair between hard workouts.

When training for longevity, establish the mindset that the end of one workout is simply the beginning of the next:

How you rehydrate, refuel, rest and repair will determine the success of your next training session. By prioritizing the 4 R’s, you can be assured that your time spent sweating will have the desired outcomes.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Provide a gratuity (very greatly appreciated

Gratuity

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Strongman Competitions - A Feature of Late Night Sports

We’ve all seen it while flipping through channels late at night: massive athletes lifting giant stones, pulling semi-trucks, and flipping tractor tires. It makes for great television, but for the average person over 40, it looks… well, impossible.

But here’s the secret: you don’t need to be a behemoth from Iceland or have a derivative of the name, Thor, to reap the rewards of strongman training. In fact, research shows that Strongman-style exercises are one of the most effective ways to bulletproof an aging body, improve balance, and make everyday life, like carrying groceries or playing with grandkids, feel effortless.

If you wonder why gyms have space for members to push sleds, flip tires and carry heavy things, it is thanks to a plethora of research published in the late 00s and early 10s that showed the benefits of a wide variety of variability in methods and styles of strength training. A few exercise science nerds decided to study why strongman athletes experience very few injuries and what they found was that lifting, carrying and throwing a variety of heavy objects makes the body strong in a way that other modes of training can’t touch.

If you are looking for a few creative ideas for changing your workout program, here is how you can bring the benefits of training like the World’s Strongest Man into your local health club.

The Fountain of Youth is Heavy (and Irregular)

Most gym workouts happen in a straight line: you sit on a machine and push or pull. But life doesn’t happen in a straight line. When it comes to picking up stuff, there is a lot of variability and, frankly, unpredictability whether it’s a squirming toddler, a heavy bag of mulch, or a lopsided suitcase.

Research by Dr. Stuart McGill, a leading expert in spine biomechanics, found that strongman exercises train the muscles surrounding your joints to co-contract - creating a natural brace for your spine and hips, protecting your back from the types of injuries that often plague us as we age.

Key Benefits for the 40+ Athlete:

• Real-World Core Strength: Moves your abdominal training beyond sit-ups and into functional stability.

• Grip Strength: A primary indicator of longevity and heart health.

• Hip Stability: Specifically targets the hip abductors, which prevents the knee pain common in runners and walkers.

How to “Strongman” in Your Local Gym

You don’t need a 500-pound tire to get started. Most modern health clubs already have the tools you need to replicate these movements safely.

1. The Farmer’s Walk (The King of Carries)

The Strongman Move: Carrying massive steel logs.

The Gym Version: Farmer’s Carries with a pair of heavy dumbbells or kettlebells. Stand tall, pull your shoulders back, and walk for 30–60 seconds.

Why it works: It builds incredible postural endurance. It’s the ultimate fix for the “hunched over” posture we develop from sitting at desks.

Funny, I originally wrote this piece in ‘14 or ‘15 (it was rerun recently HERE), and since then, Farmer’s Carries have become a ‘go-to’ longevity exercise because of numerous benefits like core strength, endurance of postural muscles and grip strength. If you’re NOT doing your Farmer’s Walks, you SHOULD be!

For longevity, your goal is to carry half of your bodyweight in both hands; I am 200 lbs., so I carry at least 50lbs in each hand.

2. The Suitcase Carry

The Strongman Move: The “Frame Carry.”

The Gym Version: Hold a heavy weight in only one hand and walk without letting your body tilt.

Why it works: This forces your oblique muscles and deep spinal stabilizers to work overtime to keep you upright. It’s the best way to prepare your body for carrying a heavy bag through an airport.

3. The “Tire Flip” Alternative

The Strongman Move: Flipping a tractor tire.

The Gym Version: Use a 45 lbs. plate, heavy sandbag or a ViPR (a weighted rubber tube). If your gym has a heavy boxing bag on the floor, you can flip that end-over-end. Since this article was written, there are now specially designed tire-like products to replicate the mechanics of the flip.

Why it works: It teaches you how to generate power from your hips, not your back, which is the #1 rule for preventing injury when lifting heavy things at home.

4. Sled Pushes and Pulls

The Strongman Move: Pulling a truck.

The Gym Version: Most gyms now have sleds and turf lanes. If yours doesn’t, you can place a weight plate on a towel (on a smooth floor) and push it. Again, this was a big change from when the article was originally written. The fact is that most larger gym chains now include open turf space with the room for sled pushes and pulls - we can thank CrossFit for forcing health clubs to change their floorplans to appeal to individuals wanting high-intensity workouts.

Why it works: Sled work is concentric-only, meaning it builds strength with very little muscle soreness the next day. It’s incredibly joint-friendly while providing a massive boost to your metabolism.

A Simple Strongman Circuit for Your Next Workout

Add this to the end of your regular routine twice a week:

Exercise Intensity Reps Rest

Farmer’s Walk Heavy 10 meters 1 min

Sled Push Heavy 10 meters 1 min

Romanian deadlifts Heavy 6 1 min

Medicine ball slams* Moderate 6-8 1 min

*when it comes to throwing medicine balls - using a lighter ball allows for faster acceleration, which is the goal. Use a lighter ball and focus on moving as fast as possible. You’re welcome.

Summary: Play the Long Game

Strength training isn’t just about how your muscles look in the mirror; it’s about how your body performs in the world. By incorporating strongman moves like carries, pushes and throws, you are conditioning your central nervous system to recruit the muscles that help you to remain coordinated and powerful throughout the aging process.

Not every workout needs to be a strongman-style one; but it could be a fun way to change your workouts up once or twice a month when you want to focus on having some fun while you’re sweating. Yes, we know that hard exercise can extend our lifespan, but we should also have fun while we’re doing it. Whether you’re 45 or 75, training like a strongman ensures that you remain the strongest version of yourself for the long haul.

Here’s the reality, the human body craves variability. Yes, we need to be consistent with exercise selection to see specific progress, however because your nervous system thrives on different stimuli, adding an occasional strongman workout is a way to stimulate your nervous system while ensuring that you have the strength to deal with any stuff that life might throw your way.

Again - this was a piece originally written for the American Council on Exercise - read the original HERE. Google Gemini helped me edit it for a consumer audience.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Provide a gratuity (very greatly appreciated - if the info you read here is helping you to optimize your health, this is a great way to say thank you).

Gratuity

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Constant Challenge

Think of your favorite movie. You might enjoy it every time you watch it, but once you’ve memorized every line, the viewing experience, while still providing some entertainment, loses that initial spark of excitement.

Your body operates in a very similar way. When you perform the same workout at the same intensity for months on end, your muscles become incredibly efficient at executing those specific movements. While efficiency sounds like a good thing, when it comes to strength training, it could result in a plateau. You burn fewer calories, and those positive physiological changes to your muscles and metabolism can grind to a halt.

To continue seeing results as we age, we need to introduce a new “script” to our routine. For active adults over 40, one of the most effective ways to do this is through Power Training.

How to Add Muscle

Making progress, whether it’s becoming stronger or adding muscle, is based on the Overload Principle. This simply means that to see progress, you must challenge your muscles to work harder than they are used to. While traditional strength training focuses on how much you can lift, power training focuses on how fast you can move a weight (or your own body).

As we age, our Type II muscle fibers, the fast-twitch fibers responsible for quick movements and metabolic health, will become smaller unless used regularly. On that note, EVERYTHING in the body is on a ‘use it lose it’ basis - if we don’t use explosive muscle power in our workouts, we’ll lose the ability to contract our muscles explosively. Power training targets the fast twitch fibers and improves the neural efficiency of muscle contractions by the communication between your brain and your muscles.

Why Power Matters for Longevity

You don’t need to be training for a sport to benefit from explosive movements. Power is a fundamental skill for the activities of daily living that keep us independent and active:

• Reaction Time: Catching yourself if you trip on a curb.

• Functional Strength: Quickly lifting a suitcase into an overhead bin or picking up a grandchild.

• Recreational Performance: Improving your golf swing, your tennis serve, or your stability on a ski slope; fast-acting fast twitch muscles can make a lot of activities a little easier.

• Carbohydrate metabolism: Explosive exercises are fueled through anaerobic energy pathways, this will enhance muscles ability to metabolize the carbohydrates we eat into the energy that moves our bodies.

• Anabolic hormones: Explosive exercises create both the metabolic and mechanic overload to promote muscle growth (the key for longevity) and those methods of overload elevate the hormones responsible for muscle growth.

For adults over 40, power is actually a better predictor of functional independence than raw strength alone.

Understanding The Stretch-Shorten Cycle

The secret to power lies in something called the Stretch-Shorten Cycle (SSC). Imagine a spring in a pinball machine; when you pull the spring back and hold it for 3 seconds, it loses some of its potential energy. But if you pull it back quickly and release it instantly, it launches the ball with explosive force.

Your muscles work in a very similar way; power exercises train your muscles and tendons to minimize the transition time between stretching (lowering a weight) and shortening (lifting the weight). By making this transition faster, you increase your power output and strengthen your connective tissues, which helps protect your joints from injury.

How to Safely Add Power to Your Routine

If you haven’t moved explosively in a while, the key is taking your time with increasing the level of intensity. You must earn the right to move explosively by first building a foundation of stability and proper movement patterns.

1. Build the Foundation (Weeks 1–4)

The foundation of training for explosive power is to make sure that you can perform basic movements, squats, lunges, pushes, and pulls, with good form. Focus on core stability and joint mobility to ensure your body can handle the upcoming overload.

2. Introduce Load (Weeks 5–11)

Use traditional strength training to increase muscle force output. This will prepare tendons and muscle fibers for the higher forces generated during power movements.

3. Add the Velocity (Weeks 12+)

Once you are moving well and feel strong, introduce power exercises at low volume. You don’t need much to see results. Examples include:

• Medicine Ball Throws: Great for upper-body power without the strain of heavy weights.

• Kettlebell Swings: Excellent for posterior chain muscles of glutes, adductors and hamstrings.

• Box Step-ups (Fast): Stepping up onto a bench with a quick, explosive drive.

• Plyometric Jumps: Low-impact jumping and landing to improve deceleration.

  • Note: jumps = take off and land with both feet; hops = take off and land on the same foot.

The Physics of a Better Body

It all comes down to a simple formula: Force = Mass x Acceleration. To get stronger, you can either lift a heavier weight (Mass) or move a lighter weight faster (Acceleration). Power training allows you to achieve high levels of muscle force without always needing to pile on the heavy plates, which can be easier on the joints while still delivering high calorie-burning results.

Summary

Adding power training to your life isn’t just about working out harder, it’s about working out smarter (a KILLER name for a book, BTW, and since Gemini edited this content, it’s impressive to see how it works in that reference). By conditioning your central nervous system to react faster and your muscles to fire more efficiently, you aren’t just building a stronger body; you’re building a more resilient, capable version of yourself for the decades to come.

The goal of power training is speed of movement, not the number of reps performed. Once you feel muscles slowing down - STOP the set. Strength coaches use accelerometers to measure the speed of an athlete’s movement - once speed drops by 10% (usually between reps 3-5), the set is done.

How would you describe your current activity level, are you currently following a consistent strength routine, or are you looking to start something new?

Once again, this piece was originally written for fitness professionals and published on the American Council on Exercise website - read it HERE. And it was edited by Google Gemini, with edits of the edits by me.

Back in 2015, I produced a series for ACE that featured power training exercises that you could be doing; here is that video. These are EXCELLENT options for pickle ball!!!

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Provide a gratuity (if so kind)

Gratuity

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Ageless Intensity will teach you what you need to know for how to use power training in your workout programs.

From Performance to Mainstream

Once upon a time, high-intensity exercise was used almost exclusively by athletes, however, because they can be a time-efficient way for burning a lot of calories and enhancing muscle definition, high-intensity workouts have made the transition from the world of performance to that of mainstream fitness. Not only can high-intensity exercise build an amazing body on the way to crushing that next Hyrox competition, but high intensity exercise is credited with many benefits like lowering cholesterol, reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes or maintaining a healthy bodyweight. In addition, high-intensity exercise could be the secret to strengthening the most important muscle in the body, the one between your ears.

Yes, high intensity exercise can not only increase muscular strength and help the cardiorespiratory system become more efficient at delivering oxygen and nutrients to working muscles but, according to a growing body of evidence, it could also provide many benefits for brain health. Hard exercise is… hard and even though it can provide many benefits, it can be challenging to build the motivation to do it. The next time you’re hedging on that hard workout, think of these 7 benefits of high-intensity exercise for improving cognitive function and know that that few minutes of physical discomfort could be the key to reducing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia:

Build More Brain Cells

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein that promotes the growth of new brain cells, the formation of neuronal circuits in the brain and is associated with both improved memory and learning ability; a review of the literature on high intensity interval training (HIIT) and BDNF found that HIIT can elevate levels of both immediately after exercise and while at rest (Jimenez-Maldonado et al. 2018). This means that the same workouts used to make clients fitter could help make their brains function better as well.

High-Intensity Exercise May Provide More Benefits

High-intensity exercise has been shown to produce a greater BDNF response than moderate intensity exercise. Schmolesky, Webb and Hansen compared the effects of the intensity and duration of exercise on BDNF levels and found that higher intensity protocols produced a greater response; “Vigorous conditions had the highest proportion of subjects that experienced a significant increase in BDNF levels” (Schmolesky, Webb &. Hansenn, 2013). Likewise, Marquez and colleagues compared continuous exercises at 70% of maximal work-rate to a HIIT protocol of 90% of maximal work-rate for work and recovery intervals of one minute each; both protocols were for twenty minutes in duration. Their observation was that, “Shorter bouts of high intensity exercise are slightly more effective than continuous high-intensity exercise for elevating BDNF” (Marquez et al. 2015).

Increase Blood Flow to the Brain

High intensity exercise not only improves blood flow to the working muscles, but it also increases blood flow to the brain which is important for delivering the oxygen and glucose needed for optimal performance. Plus, increasing oxygen flow to the brain can increase alertness while reducing the feelings of fatigue which could help enhance overall job performance. This means that that lunchtime HIIT workout could help a client be more productive when they return to work in the afternoon.

Strength Training Could Make You Smarter

There is the old stereotype of weightlifters being dumb meatheads, but there is evidence to suggest that is just that, a stereotype; it turns out that strength training could help to increase BDNF levels. Church and colleagues compared the effects of a high-intensity strength training program to one that focused on the volume of exercise and found that both protocols elevated BDNF. According to the study authors, “Results indicate that BDNF concentrations are increased after an acute bout of resistance exercise, regardless of training paradigm, and are further increased during a seven week program in experienced lifters (Church et al. 2016).”

Find Flow

A HIIT workout provides the right triggers: setting clear goals - completing a workout in a specific time period, challenging skills - working hard to complete an interval, unambiguous feedback like a heart-rate monitor or completing the workout provides insight on the change in your fitness levels. Knowing how to use exercise to initiate the flow state can help create a positive and focused mindset that carries over into all aspects of daily life.

Develop Confidence

Completing a challenging HIIT workout can help give clients the confidence to accomplish other daunting tasks. Once a client has completed a series of grueling high intensity exercises, giving that presentation or making that cold call to a potential client will seem like easy tasks. Additionally, completing a couple of HIIT workouts could help clients build the confidence that they can exercise successfully, an important component for establishing self-efficacy and long-term adherence to an exercise program.

Strengthen Your Brain During The Next WOD

Research published in 2015 suggests that CrossFit workouts could provide the stimulus necessary to increase levels of BDNF in the body, “After CrossFit training the resting BDNF levels increased significantly in all subjects” (Murawska-Cialowicz, Wojna & Zuwala-Jagiello, 2015).

The Good News

While it can be uncomfortable, the good news about high-intensity exercise is that it is great for your brain and it is over quickly. The recommendation is that we should be doing 2-3 high-intensity workouts per week, they do not need to be long, but they do need to be challenging enough to cause you to be out of breath and feel mild soreness in the working muscles. This mild soreness indicates an accumulation of metabolites (the waste product of anaerobic metabolism) which are responsible for elevating the hormones that promote muscle growth.

When training for longevity is the goal, high-intensity workouts are more than worth the effort.

Church, D., Hoffman, J., Mangine, G., Jajtner, A., Townsend, J., Beyer, K., Wang, R., La Monica, M., Fukuda, D. and Stout, J. (2016) Comparison of high-intensity vs. high-volume resistance training on the BDNF response to exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology. 121. 123-128.

Jimenez-Maldonado, A., Renteria, I., Garcia-Suarez, P., Moncada-Jimenez, J. and Freire-Royes, L. (2018) The impact of high-intensity interval training on brain-derived neurotrophic factor in brain: a mini-review. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 12. 1-6.

Marquez, C., Vanaudernaerde, B., Troosters, R. and Wenderoth, N. (2015) High-intensity interval training evokes larger serum BDNF levels compared with intense continuous exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology. 119. 1363-1373.

Murawaska-Cialowicz, E., Wojna, J. And Zuwala-Jagiello, J. (2015) CrossFit training changes brain-derived neurotrophic factor and irisin levels at rest, after Wingate and progressive tests, and improves aerobic capacity and body composition of young, physically active men and women. Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. 66(6). 811-821.

Thum, J., Parsons, G., Whittle, T. and Astorino, T. (2017) High-intensity interval training elicits higher enjoyment than moderate intensity continuous exercise. PLOS One. 12(1). Accessed March 21, 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226715/

Thank you for reading!

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Progressive overload is one of the foundational principles of exercise program design. Progressive overload states that in order for muscles to grow, they must be challenged to perform more work than they are capable of doing.

2 Ways to Apply Progressive Overload:

Metabolic

Performing repetitions to a point of fatigue.

Mechanical

Using a heavier load to damage the individual muscle fibers (the damage initiates muscle protein synthesis - the repair process that causes muscles to grow).

Formula for Muscle Growth:

1. Strength train to a point of fatigue.

2. Fuel properly with fat, carbs and protein.

3. Rest, repair and sleep - muscle building hormones are produced during REM cycles of sleep.

A big THANK YOU to American Barbell for providing the space for this shoot. I HIGHLY recommend them as a source of trusted, reliable strength training products.

https://americanbarbell.com/

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

It’s All About the Hormones

When first studying to become a personal trainer, most curricula teach anatomy and the exercises that can engage specific muscles most efficiently. Yes, understanding how to target specific muscles with exercises is important, however, as my career evolved and I learned a LOT more about how the human body responds to exercise, I realized that it’s our hormones that can have the greatest effects on the outcome of an exercise program.

The past few posts have focused on the anabolic hormones of testosterone (T), growth hormone (GH) and growth factor (GF) responsible for promoting muscle growth. One of the most important functions of strength training is to create mechanical damage to muscle fibers to initiate muscle protein synthesis (MPS), the repair process that builds stronger muscle tissue. MPS is responsible for growing new muscle with the support of both hormones like T and GH as well as new satellite cells used to repair damaged tissues.

These hormones support the post-exercise repair process which is necessary for growing muscle, but burning calories to reduce unnecessary energy is another important benefit of strength training and it is extremely effective for burning the calories to maintain a healthy body weight, especially when circuit training. Strength training has an important impact on the hormones that help regulate energy metabolism - how we turn the food we eat into the energy that fuels ALL cellular activity.

Behind the Scenes

When it comes to burning calories, more specifically creating and using the energy that fuels muscle contractions, the real magic happens without us even realizing it. The endocrine system produces hormones critical for controlling our metabolis; understanding how exercise changes levels of these chemicals provides guidance for how we should be exercising as we age; one purpose of strength training throughout the aging process is to ensure that we are capable of producing the hormones responsible for optimal health.

In this part of the series, we are transitioning from anabolic hormones that repair and build muscle to learn more about the hormones that control our hunger. The fact is that we can train hard, but if we don’t learn about our hunger hormones and how to manage them, it could be very easy to over-eat, one of the easiest ways to derail an exercise program.

The Power Players: Meet Your Metabolic Hormones

To optimize your health, you don’t need a PhD in biology, but you should know these key players that dictate how you feel, how you eat, and how you recover.

1. The Hunger Managers: Ghrelin and Leptin

• Ghrelin is your “Go” signal for hunger. It tells your brain it’s time to eat.

• Leptin is the “Stop” signal. Produced by fat cells, it tells your brain you have enough energy stored and can stop eating.

• Something to consider: As we age or carry excess weight, we can become “leptin resistant.” Your body sends the signal to stop eating, but your brain stops “hearing” it.

2. The Fuel Regulators: Insulin and Glucagon

• Insulin is the storage hormone. It moves sugar (glucose) from your blood into your muscles to be used as fuel.

• Glucagon is the retrieval hormone. When blood sugar is low (like during a workout), it taps into your energy reserves.

  • Note: glucagon is the ‘G’ in GLPs (glucagon-like peptides), aka Ozempic and similar drugs. Glucagon releases carbohydrate from muscle cells, not a good thing when the goal is to add muscle during the aging process. If you are taking GLPs, it is a really (REALLY) good idea to be on a strength training program to maintain your muscle mass (learn more about GLP1s - HERE).

• The Strength Advantage: Strength training makes your muscles “thirsty” for glucose, significantly improving insulin sensitivity. This is one of the most effective ways to prevent Type 2 diabetes as you age.

  • This is what makes strength training so critical - because it relies specifically on anaerobic metabolism (producing energy from carbohydrates withOUT oxygen) it promotes insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of developing type II diabetes during the aging process.

3. The Energy & Stress Trio: Cortisol and Adrenaline

• Cortisol helps break down energy for use, but it’s a double-edged sword. Too much of it (from overtraining or lack of sleep) can actually break down muscle tissue, the opposite of what we want after 40.

  • Think of cortisol as a ‘friend-enemy’ (shout out to Sex in the City), we need it to release free fatty acids into the bloodstream when we need energy for exercise; however, if we become overstressed, cortisol is released which can release free fatty acids - if no exercise happens, they will be redeposited in abdominal viscera. That’s how stress can help make us fat: stress increases cortisol, if cortisol elevates without physical activity, it can increase belly fat.

• Epinephrine (Adrenaline) provides the “spark” for your workout, increasing blood flow and heart rate.

  • FYI - if you’ve ever felt physically exhausted at night, but can’t sleep because you have an elevated heart-rate, that’s a sure-fire sign of elevated epinephrine levels, an indicator of over-training, more on that shortly…

Key Takeaways

If you are using strength training to optimize your health as you age, keep these three principles in mind:

• Muscle is a Metabolic Sink: The more lean muscle you have, the better your body manages insulin and blood sugar.

• Recovery is as Important as the Lift: High-intensity training is a stressor. If you don’t balance it with recovery, your cortisol levels stay high, which can lead to weight gain around the midsection and a weakened immune system.

• Sleep is a Hormonal Reset: Poor sleep spikes ghrelin (hunger) and crashes leptin (fullness). You cannot out-train a bad night’s sleep.

Actionable Strategies You Can Implement Today

1. Prioritize “Smarter” Recovery

After a tough strength session, your body needs to return to homeostasis.

• Strategy: Implement a “cool-down” period of deep breathing or light mobility work. This helps transition your nervous system from “fight or flight” (high cortisol/adrenaline) to “rest and digest,” allowing repair to begin immediately.

  • ‘Smarter Recovery’… hmm, that’s a good name for a book (follow the link for the one I wrote on the science of recovery from exercise). And yes, Gemini did add this header in the editing process, it knows me, it really-really knows me…

2. Practice “Slow Fueling”

• Strategy: It takes about 20 minutes for leptin to signal to your brain that you are full. Slow down your meals and chew thoroughly. This allows your hormonal “software” to catch up with your stomach, preventing accidental overeating.

3. Align with Your Circadian Rhythm

• Strategy: If you struggle with sleep, avoid high-intensity workouts late in the evening. The adrenaline spike can keep you awake. Also, dim the lights and ditch the screens 60 minutes before bed to allow melatonin to rise naturally.

4. Feed the Repair Process

Strategy: After strength training, consume a snack with both protein and carbohydrates. This triggers a controlled insulin response that “shuttles” nutrients into your muscles for repair rather than storing them as fat.

Hormones Control Everything

The bottom line is that if you really want to know how to change your body, understand the hormones that control functions like muscle growth and energy expenditure. More importantly, understand how exercise can stimulate more of the hormones we need to build muscle while understanding how to manage those responsible for energy metabolism.

Knowing how sleep, exercise and nutrition affects hormone levels gives you significant insights into designing exercise programs to achieve specific goals.For example, understanding the fact that ghrelin stimulates hunger and is elevated in response to a lack of sleep gives you the ability to use sleep to help manage hunger cravings. Learning how to use exercise, nutrition and sleep to optimize hormone production is the true secret to using exercise to extend longevity.

Here’s a video I shot to accompany the article I wrote for ACE:

Confession

Yet again, this article was originally written for fitness professionals and published in Certified, the online magazine of the American Council on Exercise (ACE - read the original HERE). Google gemini edited to be easier to understand if you don’t have a background in exercise science.

Here is the nitty-gritty truth: I’m a recycler. Lemme ‘splain… between 2010 and 2022, I did a LOT of writing for various fitness organizations including the American Council on Exercise, the National Academy of Sports Medicine, 24 Hour Fitness, Nautilus and a number of other groups. Those articles were used in my books; in fact (here’s a real confession), I would pitch articles knowing I would eventually use them in a book. That way, I’d get paid for the article and have content for a book.

Now as I’m writing this substack, I’m recycling those articles again but am editing them for a consumer audience (most were written for fitness professionals). In some cases I’m using AI to edit them for me, in other cases, I do my own editing. The thing is that if some of the largest fitness organizations trusted me to create evidence-based content for them, then you can trust that by reading this substack you are getting accurate, valid information on how strength training can control the aging process.

On that note, we’re now at 7,500 subscribers - thank you, I sincerely appreciate that you trust me to provide fitness advice. Feel free to share this or any of my posts with your network, let’s make the world a healthier place together!

BTW - I found the videos I shot for the articles on T and GH; here they are for your reference (say hello to 2021 me - when I shot the videos). NOTE they are shot for an audience of personal trainers, you will here me refer to “your clients”:

Growth Hormone and IGF:

Testosterone

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

•Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Strength: F = MA

Strength training is the functional application of Newton’s 2nd law of physics which defines force as the product of a mass and its acceleration (Force = MA). Generally speaking, strength is the ability to accelerate a mass from a state of rest as the result of muscle force. From a physiological perspective, strength is the ability to activate muscle motor neurons and their attached muscle fibers (together called a motor unit) to generate the force necessary to achieve a specific outcome. 

Not Yet Summer, but Here’s a Re-run

Originally this post ran in the fall of 2024, now that there are a lot more readers, I’m rerunning for 2 reasons: 1) have the cool video, thanks to American Barbell, and 2) you just learned about the anabolic hormones that promote muscle growth (Testosterone, GH and IGF-1) and ALL types of strength training mentioned below promote the production of those hormones.

To take it a step further, when designing a long-tern strength training program, for best results, rotate between each type of strength training - spending approximately 12-16 weeks focused on each type. Your muscles will adapt to a strength training program within about 3-4 months (12-16 weeks), so if you want to keep growing muscle then it’s necessary to change the workout intensity on a regular basis - it’s known as the science of periodization - read about it HERE.

Adding Muscle Requires the Optimal Ratio of Intensity to Reps

Intensity and reps have an inverse relationship: as intensity (amount of weight) increases, the amount of reps able to be performed decreases. For example: Lifting a heavy weight for only 4 reps to fatigue has a much different effect on muscle fibers than lifting a weight for 16 reps until fatigue; yet both can provide important benefits for adding muscle and becoming stronger. Obviously a heavier mass will cause fatigue quicker, but, as you learned in the previous blog, the heavier load could be more effective at stimulating muscle motor units than a lighter one. FYI - That is why your muscles shake when you lift a heavy weight: your nervous system is sending electrical signals to muscle fibers to contract whereas lifting with a lighter mass requires a muscle to work longer, so it creates more metabolic overload on the way to fatigue. Which is better for growing the precious muscle tissue that can extend your lifespan? 

Same-Same, but Different

Not one type of strength training is better than the other, they are just different and produce different outcomes. Conditioning muscle to lift heavy weights for a strongman competition requires a much different training program than shredding to compete in a figure contest on a stage. Again, one is not better, just different, and explains why it is essential to change your exercise programs on a regular basis; applying different types of strength training can be the most effective method for keeping muscles strong and active all year long.

Here’s the thing: IT ALL WORKS!

Heavy strength training stimulates muscle growth, but after a period of time, your physiology adapts and it will be necessary to apply a new stimulus to keep making the desired changes. Using a light weight can stimulate muscle growth, but requires performing reps to the point of fatigue which can cause discomfort as the result of an accumulation of metabolic by-product from muscle contractions. If your goal for strength training is to add the muscle that can extend your lifespan, then it’s a good idea to use different types of strength training so that your muscles are challenged to work differently. 

Resistance Training Guidelines for Older Adults 

The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Released Resistance Training Guidelines for Older Adults in 2019. The Guidelines suggest that to optimize health during the aging process, older adults should attempt to perform the following volume of strength training:  

• 2-3 days per week

• Using both compound, multi-joint movements, and isolation exercises for the larger muscle groups.

• Intensity of 70 - 85% 1RM

  • 70% 1RM =  approx. 12 reps

  • 85% 1RM = approx. 6 reps 

• Sets: 2-to-3 per exercise 

• Rest interval: 30-90 seconds between sets

Strength Training Strengthens ALL of Your Physiology

Strength training stimulates neuromuscular, neuroendocrine and hormonal adaptations to your body. Without strength training, these systems will not function as efficiently. Think of it this way, as we age, the purpose of strength training is to counteract the age-related changes in contractile function, atrophy and morphology of aging skeletal muscle. A properly designed strength training program can enhance the force output (strength), power and neuromuscular functioning of older adults. For optimal muscle growth, the intensity between heavy and light loads should fluctuate on consistent intervals so that muscles work to move heavy loads for a few reps for a period of time, then challenged to maintain the work-rate for a high number of reps at different times.

Ageless Intensity: High-intensity Workouts to Slow the Aging Process covers the science of all types of strength training, and helps you to identify the best for YOUR needs!

The magnitude and rate of force production are determined by the efficiency at which all of the involved muscle motor units are recruited. Both intra-muscular coordination, the ability to recruit all of the motor units within a specific muscle, and inter-muscular coordination, the ability to have a number of different muscles working together to generate a force are required to achieve optimal levels of strength.

Strength training has most often been used to change physical appearance, but the complete NSCA Position Statement offers strong evidence for significant health-promoting benefits from strength training throughout the aging process. All exercise provides health benefits, however, strength training is one of the quickest ways to add muscle to achieve numerous health benefits that will put you on the journey to your fountain of youth. 

Different Types of Strength Training 

Listed below are different types of strength training, each with a brief description of the workout program required to achieve that outcome. 

Strength Endurance

The ability to maintain muscular contractions or a consistent level of muscle force for extended periods of time. Relies upon aerobic efficiency to supply oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles while removing metabolic waste. Enhances work-capacity for endurance sports like cycling or running. Enhances the ability to perform many functional tasks and activities of daily living (ADLs). 

Examples: the ability of muscles to generate the force for an endurance event like a 10K, marathon or triathlon and doing yardwork or other vigorous household chores. High volume bodybuilding-type training.

Exercise selection:

Compound and single joint movements using a variety of equipment; bodyweight exercises

Intensity:

Low-to-moderate, approximately <60% of 1RM

Reps:

15+

Sets:

2-5+

Rest interval:

30-60 sec. 

Base strength

Applying Newton's 2nd law of physics, where force is the product of a mass and its acceleration (Force = MA), increasing the mass will lower the acceleration of the weight, but can increase force output. On the other hand, lowering mass and increasing acceleration for power exercises is the other way to increase muscle force output. One is not better, then just produce different outcomes. 

Base strength training will increase muscle motor unit and muscle fiber activation, the first step for increasing strength. The goal of base strength is to focus on the mass component of the equation and generate mechanical force from muscle tissue by using loads to increase muscle motor unit recruitment and type II muscle fiber activation.

Base strength training is used for General Physical Preparation (GPP), establishing a baseline level of muscle fitness that will be enhanced with specialized training.  

Exercise selection:

Compound and single joint movements using a variety of equipment, but primarily barbells, dumbbells and machines. 

Intensity:

Moderate-to-high, approximately 70-90% of 1RM

Reps:

4-12

Sets:

2-5+

Rest interval:

60-90 sec. (up to 3 min. for heavier lifts) 

Power Training for Explosive Strength

The goal of power training is to produce the greatest amount of force in the shortest period of time possible. Enhance muscle force output by increasing the elastic strength and resiliency of fascia and elastic connective tissues.

During power training, muscle fibers remain in an isometric contraction to play tension on the elastic fascia while it is rapidly lengthened by applied forces. Muscle fibers remain contracted while the fascia is rapidly lengthened; the force of the tissues returning to resting length helps increase force output. 

Explosive strength is based on the ability of the contractile element to rapidly generate tension while enhancing the ability of elastic tissue to minimize the transition time from lengthening to shortening during the stretch-shorten cycle; focus is on the speed of movement through a range-of-motion; emphasizing the acceleration component of the F = MA equation. 

Examples: throwing medicine balls, kettlebell swings, jumping to a box, the Olympic lifts of the snatch and clean-and-jerk or sprinting.

Exercise selection:

Compound movements using a variety of different freeweights and bodyweight movements 

Intensity:

40-75% 1RM

Reps:

1-6

Tempo:

Fast as possible

Sets:

2-5+

Rest Interval:

30-90 sec. +

Hypertrophy 

Not a specific type of strength, but instead describes how strength training changes the structure and architecture of muscle fibers. One long-term adaptation to strength training is an increase in muscle fiber cross-width, referred to as hypertrophy. 

As the cross-sectional area of muscle fibers increase in size, they have more surface tension and become capable of generating higher amounts of force. Muscles with a larger cross-sectional area of individual muscle fibers are capable of producing greater amounts of force. 

Myofibrillar hypertrophy refers to the increase in size or thickness of individual actin and myosin protein filaments, which can improve the force production capacity of the myofibrils. Myofibrillar hypertrophy does not lead to larger muscles; rather, it results in thicker muscle fibers capable of generating more force. 

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in the volume of the fluid containing proteins responsible for tissue repair in the intercellular space that surrounds an individual muscle fiber. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy can cause the cross-sectional area of muscle fibers to increase, but most of this growth is due to the volume of the sarcoplasm and non-contractile proteins not directly involved with force production. Despite a common misperception that lifting weights can lead to an immediate increase in muscle size, it can take eight weeks or longer, even in a well-designed program, for significant muscle growth to occur.

Fast twitch fibers rely on aerobic and anaerobic metabolism to produce energy for contractions. Type IIa fibers produce energy from glycogen in a process known as glycolysis which can take place both with (aerobically) and without (anaerobically) oxygen. Type IIb fibers are completely anaerobic because they use stored adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to provide the energy to produce a high amount of force in a short period of time. Fast twitch fibers have a greater diameter (cross-width) than slow twitch fibers and are responsible for the hypertrophy, or increased fiber size, of a particular muscle. When muscles work to the point of fatigue, they adapt by storing more glycogen to fuel contractions, glycogen holds onto water in muscle cells, increasing the overall size of muscle fibers.

Exercise Selection:

Compound and single-joint movements using barbells, dumbbells, resistance bands or selectorized machines

Intensity: 

65-85% 1RM

Reps: 5 - 15 

Rest Interval: 

30 to 60 seconds

Sets:

3-4+ 

Maximum Strength

Highest level of muscle force that can be produced; the ability of a muscle or specific group of muscles to recruit and engage all motor units to generate maximal tension against an external resistance. Requires high levels of neuromuscular efficiency to enhance both intra and inter-muscular coordination.

Examples include powerlifting: squat, deadlift and benchpress and strongman competitions.

Activate type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers capable of generating high levels of force.

Increase levels of muscle-building hormones.

Increase bone density and strength.

Improve performance in many sports and ADLs

Exercise Selection:

Compound and single-joint movements using freeweights or selectorized machines

Intensity: 

90-100% 1RM

Reps:

1-4

Rest Interval: 

2-4 minutes

Sets:

3-4+ 

Earn Your Gains

Improvements in muscle size and strength do not occur because of any one particular mode of strength training but instead are the result of a combination of methods. Endurance strength helps muscle cells become more efficient at producing energy. Explosive strength training conditions muscles to generate force in the shortest amount of time possible. Both are effective means of creating fatigue, a powerful stimulus for muscle growth. By transitioning through the different modes of strength training over the long-term of a program, you can be assured that your muscles are appropriately challenged to perform that work that produces the desired results.

Optimal health relies on healthy muscle tissue, the different types of strength training create different levels of metabolic demand, helping to improve overall metabolic flexibility, a key indicator of good health.

Muscle is an organ of our metabolism, the more of it we have and the healthier it is - by being able to produce the energy required for different types of strength training - the better our health. Strength training for better health - THAT really is a thing.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

• Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

O. M. G!!!!

No, my teen daughter is not taking over; this substack is now at 7000+ subscribers! Your time and attention means so much to me and I am grateful for the fact that you trust my insights into how we can use strength training to manage the aging process.

For new subscribers, I’m planning a reintroduction video soon - but know this about me, my definition of fitness is: having the ability to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. When you’re strong and fit you have the freedom to go out and live your best life. That’s why I’m doing this substack, I sincerely want to help each of you understand how strength training can help us to mitigate many of the effects of the normal aging process.

Now back to the regularly scheduled post…

No Time to Waste

Between careers, families, and maintaining some semblance of a social life, most of us over the age of 40 are over-scheduled and it can be a challenge to make time for effective workouts. We know strength training is the ultimate longevity drug, but no one has hours to waste in the gym guessing which movements provide the desired results. When it comes to the strength training workouts that could extend our lifespan, efficiency is key, time is our most precious resource and no one wants to waste it guessing what could work, we want to know what will work.

And when it comes to not wasting time while strength training, supplements can support the muscle repair and recovery process. The good news is that some supplements like creatine and protein can be effective for promoting muscle growth (read more about these supplements and how they could benefit you - HERE and HERE, respectively). However, over the past year or two there has been a major focus on peptides and it’s important to understand what they are so you can determine whether or not they belong in your longevity program.

You have no doubt heard peptides mentioned in podcasts or articles related to exercise for longevity. What are peptides and how can they help you add the muscle that could extend your lifespan?

All hormones interact and work with specific receptors. Peptides are a class of hormones, made up of amino acids, that interact with receptors on the membrane of a muscle cell (steroid hormones interact with receptors in the nucleus of a cell).

If you are interested in strength training to extend your health span and are wondering whether or not you should be taking peptides, the short answer is NO.

That’s because our body already produces the most powerful anti-aging peptides you need; specifically, Growth Hormone (GH) and Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1; growth factors are a class of peptides produced by muscle tissue to repair the muscle fibers damaged by exercise. IGF-1 is a growth factor that acts like insulin, it increases in response to carbohydrate which is why a post-training protein/carbohydrates drink can promote recovery - it can support the production of IGF-1).

That’s right, no need to spend money on unproved exogenous, unresearched, unproven peptides (to understand more, I highly recommend Super Agers by Dr. Eric Topol which provides an excellent breakdown of the dangers of using the peptides currently being promoted in the marketplace); the right strength training and high-intensity interval training program will stimulate the production of the peptides needed to repair damaged muscle and grow new tissues.

So that you can understand my point of view and why you should be skeptical of the current trend in exogenous peptides, let’s dive into the science of how these hormones work and how you can use strength training and high-intensity exercise to elevate your levels of peptides naturally.

The Dynamic Duo: GH and IGF-1

GH and IGF-1 work in tandem to promote tissue repair, fat metabolism, and muscle growth.

1. Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1)

IGF-1 gets its name because its molecular structure is remarkably similar to insulin. Your body produces it in both the liver and directly within the muscles you are loading during a workout. When you lift weights and create mechanical tension, IGF-1 jumps into action, promoting the production of satellite cells (muscle stem cells) that repair and build new tissue.

2. Growth Hormone (GH)

When you subject your body to high-intensity exercise, your pituitary gland releases GH. This hormone is a powerhouse. It doesn’t just increase protein synthesis to build muscle; it also increases bone mineralization, supports your immune system, and promotes lipolysis, which is a fancy way of saying it forces your body to burn fat for fuel (Haff & Triplett, 2016).

The Secret to Triggering the Release: “The Burn”

To get your body to produce GH, you have to create a specific environment in the gym. The amount of GH released is directly tied to exercise intensity, how much muscle you recruit, and whether or not you achieve acidosis.

Acidosis occurs when your muscles burn through carbohydrates to create energy without enough oxygen, leaving behind hydrogen ions and lactic acid. That deep “burn” you feel at the end of a hard set? That is the exact signal your pituitary gland needs to flood your system with growth hormone (Kraemer & Ratamess, 2005).

What the Science Says About Your Reps and Rest

• Shorten Your Rest: Research by Rahimi et al. (2010) discovered that resting for just 60 seconds between sets resulted in significantly higher GH concentrations than resting for 90 or 120 seconds.

• Embrace Higher Repetitions: A study by Smilios et al. (2003) showed that completing sets of 15 repetitions with shorter rest triggered a much larger GH response than lifting heavier weights for fewer reps with long rests.

• Combine Your Training: For those over 50, a combination of strength training and aerobic work produces a far superior GH response than doing cardio alone (Seo et al., 2010).

The Good News and the Bad News

Let’s start with the good news: It doesn’t take hours of training to spark these hormones. Short, focused sessions of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or strength circuits with short rest intervals will do the trick.

The bad news? To get this hormonal cascade, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable. Moving a muscle to the point of momentary fatigue requires grit. But when it comes to extending your healthspan, the effort is well worth it.

Why This Matters for Longevity

There are a growing number of “anti-aging” medical clinics offering expensive, exogenous GH injections to slow down the clock. But why spend thousands of dollars on synthetic hormones with potential side effects when you can produce them yourself for free?

By using exercise to naturally boost GH and IGF-1, you gain several massive longevity benefits:

• A Faster Resting Metabolism: Adding just 5 pounds of muscle through strength training can elevate your resting metabolism by 25 to 35 calories per day. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, it adds up to burning the equivalent of walking almost two miles every week without taking a single step.

• Youthful Skin and Fat Loss: For women over 40, GH and IGF-1 are particularly critical. Since women produce far less testosterone than men, GH does the heavy lifting for building lean muscle, burning stubborn fat, and repairing the collagen proteins that keep your skin appearing youthful.

• Deep Sleep Synergy: Exercise is only half the battle. GH is also heavily released during the REM cycles of your sleep. Training hard actually improves your sleep quality, creating a compounding positive feedback loop for your hormone health.

AI to the Assist

This piece was originally an extensive article on how strength training elevates GH and IGF-1, written for the American Council on Exercise - read the original HERE. Google Gemini did the original edits to make it more readable for a consumer audience and I added a few thoughts (NOTE: the full article in the link has the complete list of references). To ensure that you can trust the info you’re getting here, I’ll let you know when AI is used to create the content from scratch; however, at the moment, it’s only being used to edit articles I’ve already written for fitness professionals so they are easier to understand for a consumer audience.

Good News / Bad News

Bad: There is no magic pill for longevity. Good: strength training to a point of fatigue, combined with HIIT 2-3 times per week, can elevate levels of GH and IGF-1 naturally. According to the evidence, when it comes to strength training to maximize your peptide production: use compound movement patterns (squat, lunge, push, pull, carry), push your sets to that point where you can not do another rep. That uncomfortable “burn,” indicates you’re experiencing acidosis - an accumulation of lacate and hydrogen ions, and THAT, according to the evidence, is what elevates peptides like GH and growth factors. So, keep your rest periods strictly to one minute, and prioritize your sleep because GH is produced during REM cycles.

There you have it, no need to spend $$$ on exogenous peptides - pay for a subscription or buy one of my books instead - Ageless Intensity goes deeper into the science of how all of this works. Have to put in that pitch, whether or not you spend your $onme,Igreatlyappreciateyoutakingthetimetoreadthis,nowgotellyourfriendsnottowastetheirhard−earned$ on peptides.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

• Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

You made it this far

Here’s a bonus: a link to the spotify page for All About Fitness, the podcast I produced for 5 years, it covers the science of longevity through interviews with top researchers, authors, doctors and athletes. Each episode is the length of a workout, enjoy!

The Longevity Hormone: How to Boost Testosterone Naturally

As a long-time strength coach and exercise physiologist I take great offense at all of the stupid commercials for supplements claiming to elevate testosterone (T) levels. Now, there is a need for men to pay attention to their testosterone levels because it is a biological truth: after the age of 35, men experience a phase called andropause where their bodies produce roughly 1% to 3% less testosterone per year.

Unless, of course, stimulated to do otherwise - that’s where strength training comes in, and that’s why I take offense, read on…

Here’s another scary biological truth that men face during the aging process: excess belly fat (adipose tissue) produces an enzyme called aromatase which can convert free testosterone (circulating in the bloodstream) into estradiol, the primary female sex hormone that promotes the growth of breast tissue. And yes, this is why obese men have breasts, it’s a literal double whammy for men who don’t maintain their fitness and lean muscle mass during the aging process.

The good news is that the pharmaceutical industry is eager to sell you a quick fix, at a cost. But you don’t need a prescription to mess with Mother Nature because strength training, high-intensity interval training, nutrition and sleep are among the most effective, natural interventions we have to elevate testosterone and increase lean muscle mass during the aging process. And from what the data is showing, increasing lean muscle mass is one way to optimize our healthspan.

Let’s look at the science of how exercise influences testosterone and how you can structure your workouts to optimize your T levels.

Why Testosterone is a Longevity Asset

To understand how to boost it, we need to know what it does. Hormones are chemical messengers; some break things down (catabolic, like cortisol), while others build things up (anabolic). T is the king of the anabolic hormones.

When you lift weights and create mechanical overload in your muscle fibers, your body needs to repair them - this is what T is for, it stimulates muscle protein synthesis, the repair process.

Because T is fat-soluble, it can cross right through the cell membrane and attach to androgen receptors directly in the nucleus of your muscle cells. Once there, it acts as a construction foreman, besides muscle protein synthesis, T activates satellite cells (muscle stem cells) to repair the tissue. This process is essential for maintaining the lean muscle mass that keeps our body moving and metabolism firing as the years pass.

How Exercise Flips the Switch

High-intensity exercise essentially shocks your system, stimulating the brain to signal your body to produce more testosterone. This creates two distinct types of adaptations:

1. The Acute Spike

Immediately after a heavy or intense workout, your circulating testosterone levels shoot up for about 30 minutes. This provides a rich environment for post-exercise recovery.

2. The Long-Term Upgrade

More importantly, consistent strength training increases the actual number of receptor sites and binding proteins in your muscle cells. Think of it like adding more doors to a building; you are making your body much more efficient at utilizing whatever free testosterone is already circulating in your bloodstream.

(Side note for women reading this: Don’t fear heavy lifting! Women produce about 10 to 20 times less testosterone than men. Strength training will boost your health, but it will not make you “bulky”).

The T-Boosting Workout Blueprint

If you want to maximize your natural testosterone production, your workouts need to apply the variables of program design in very specific ways; here is what the research tells us works best:

Go Heavy and Target Big Muscles First

Focus on multi-joint, compound movements that recruit the largest amount of muscle mass possible: think squats, deadlifts, chest presses, and rows. Research shows that performing these large movements early in your workout creates a systemic surge in testosterone that can even help smaller muscle groups grow later in the session.

Embrace High Volume and Short Rest

To trigger the ideal neuroendocrine response, focus on multiple sets of moderate-to-heavy loads (around 80% of your max) performed to the point of momentary muscular fatigue. Keep your rest intervals relatively short, ideally 60 seconds or less. This compression of work creates the metabolic stress required to spike anabolic hormones.

Don’t Forget HIIT

Strength training isn’t the only tool in the box. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is also incredibly potent. One study looked at sedentary men with an average age of 62. After performing just nine HIIT cycling workouts (brief 30-second sprints followed by recovery), their free testosterone levels increased by an average of 17%.

The Ultimate Growth Variable: Sleep

You can crush yourself in the gym all you want, but you do not actually build muscle or optimize hormones while lifting. You do it while you sleep.

Deep sleep cycles are when your body releases the peak amounts of growth hormone and testosterone needed to heal the damage you did during the day. If you are skimping on rest, your body will instead produce catabolic stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine, which actively eat away at your muscle tissue. Aim for 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep, especially on heavy training days.

Summary Checklist

• Keep sessions short: 45 minutes or less to prevent cortisol from taking over.

• Prioritize compound lifts: Squats and deadlifts over bicep curls.

• Shorten your rest: Aim for 60 seconds between sets to maximize metabolic stress.

• Sprinkle in HIIT: Great for a quick hormonal hit when you are short on time.

Confession

This is originally from an article I wrote for the American Council on Exercise on exercise program design to boost T. I tasked Google Gemini with editing the article and making it more readable for a consumer audience. I did review, edit and add to the AI work product to make sure it represented my point of view. If interested, you can read the original article HERE. You can be rest assured that when AI is used to create content, I will call it out.

BTW - here is a blog post I wrote for ACE on T-boosting workouts (although I’m not sure about the title and the total number of workouts, but I’ll leave that to the editors). Those workouts are based on the research showing the benefits of high-intensity strength training on the endocrine system.

Think of it this way:

Strength training damages your muscle tissue and depletes energy in muscle cells. The recovery process is the time muscle tissue is repaired and energy is replaced - this process trains your body how to continually produce new tissues and replace energy stores. This is the basic science behind why strength training really is the fountain of youth - it is constantly stimulating the process of new cells and metabolizing energy. Someone who is 60 and has been strength training for 40+ years consistently throughout their aging process most likely has a cellular age approximately 20 years younger than their chronological age thanks to this feature of our biology (note - there is no way to really calculate that, it is a guess, an educated guess and probably pretty accurate, but still a guess).

That is why we need to be strength training throughout the aging process: we will making muscles continue to work to metabolize energy and produce the hormones to build more muscle, and from what the data is showing, the more muscle we have, the healthier we are and the more likely we are to live a long, healthy life.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

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A Dirty Little Secret…

Circuit strength was popularized in the early 1970s by Arthur Jones, the creator of Nautilus strength training equipment. Nautilus is designed to place the greatest amount of load where the muscle is the strongest and, when it was introduced, made strength training safer and more accessible to the average person. As Jones was introducing his equipment to the first generation of gyms and health clubs he realized something: by promoting circuit training, he could sell more equipment.

That’s the truth and the origin story behind machine circuit strength training; it wasn’t originally designed for the health benefits, but in an attempt to sell more equipment to facility operators - no need to sell only 1 or 2 machines when you can create a need for gyms to buy 10-12 units to create a complete circuit.

That’s right, circuit strength training exploded onto the fitness scene NOT because of the health benefits, but because equipment makers wanted to sell more products. Thankfully, a plethora of research has demonstrated numerous health benefits from circuit strength training, making it an excellent option at any phase of the lifespan, but especially for those of us who were born in the 70s or before.

What it is: Circuit Strength Training

If you are not familiar with the term ‘circuit training,’ it refers to performing a series of exercises with minimal rest between each one, typically moving from one exercise station to the next. Once all exercises in the circuit are completed, a longer rest period may be taken before repeating the circuit. Key characteristics of circuit training include:

• Exercise Selection: Circuits typically include a variety of exercises targeting different movement patterns or muscle groups (squats, push-ups, rows, lunges). Circuits can be based on: free weights, machines, kettlebells, medicine balls, bands or bodyweight exercises; or a combination of any types of equipment.

• Repetitions and Sets: The number of repetitions per exercise can vary depending on the training goal (higher reps, 15-20, for endurance, moderate reps, 6-10, for strength). A circuit usually consists of 1-3 rounds.

• Minimal Rest Intervals: This is the defining characteristic of circuit training. Rest between exercises typically ranges from 15-60 seconds, or just long enough to transition to the next station. Rest between full circuits may be longer (1-3 minutes).

• Continuous Movement: The emphasis is on keeping the heart rate elevated throughout the circuit, blurring the lines between strength and cardiovascular training.

Features of Circuit Strength Training:

• Time-Efficient: Combines strength and aerobic benefits in one session.

• High Metabolic Demand: Short rest intervals elevate heart rate and energy expenditure.

• Customizable: Can be adapted for general fitness, fat loss, or muscular endurance.

• Variety: May include bodyweight, free weights, resistance machines, or functional equipment.

Specific Advantages Include:

• Increased metabolic stress that elevates both growth hormone and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels.

• Greater time under tension, resulting in muscle protein synthesis to promote muscle growth.

• Enhanced caloric expenditure per session.

• Increase VO₂ max over time

• Increasing lean muscle mass while expending the energy to burn unwanted fat.

I love circuit training. Circuit training provides many solutions that address both my clients and my own, personal needs - because it is a time efficient way to strengthen the muscles AND heart, it is a staple of how I approach exercise program design.

Health Benefits of Circuit Strength Training

Cardiorespiratory Health

CST elevates the heart rate similarly to moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, improving cardiorespiratory fitness, strengthening cardiac muscle, increasing the volume of the left ventricle responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to muscles and reducing blood pressure, all important for delivering positive health outcomes. For example, evidence shows that CST is effective in reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure in individuals with hypertension.

Metabolic Health and Fat Loss

The elevated intensity and shortened rest periods increase caloric burn and excess-post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), the period of time after exercise when the body is burning more calories while returning to homeostasis. EPOC can increase resting caloric burn for a period of 24-36 hours, but it does not have a significant impact on overall calorie-burning for fat loss.

Muscular Strength and Endurance

By incorporating resistance exercises with moderate loads and high volume, circuit training improves both muscular endurance and strength. This dual adaptation is particularly beneficial for older adults and those with limited training time - this is one reason why I’m a major proponent of CST, it’s a time-efficient method for achieving both strength and low-intensity cardio.

Hormonal and Metabolic Adaptations

Circuit strength training promotes an anabolic hormonal response, including increased growth hormone and testosterone levels, which supports muscle hypertrophy and fat oxidation. This is especially significant for an aging population dealing with sarcopenia or metabolic dysfunction. The research is pretty overwhelming that working to a point of fatigue combined with shorter rest intervals is an effective means of increasing levels of the hormones responsible for growing more muscle tissue - exactly what an aging body needs.

Mental Health and Cognitive Function

The continuous movement and elevated intensity in circuit training contribute to reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms. Research shows that strength training improves mood and may enhance executive function, particularly in older adults.

Functional Movement and Aging

Circuit training enhances balance, coordination, and movement quality, which are critical for maintaining independence in aging populations. Studies have found improvements in mobility, fall prevention, and quality of life after consistent circuit-based strength training.

Into Action

Let me be 100% honest about something, if the goal is to become incredibly strong or increase muscle mass then CST is not the best tool in the fitness toolbox. CST is optimal for those of you interested in becoming healthier by adding more muscle, or who want to save time by combining strength and cardio training.

CST is a highly effective and efficient mode of exercise that delivers an array of health benefits which are essential for extending our health span. Combining the muscle-building and metabolic advantages of traditional strength training with the cardiorespiratory and endurance benefits of continuous exercise, is the most time-efficient solution for optimizing your health and extending your longevity. The use of minimal rest intervals amplifies these benefits; integrating CST into your fitness program allows you to achieve essential benefits of exercise in an extremely efficient amount of time.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Smarter Workouts will teach you what you need to know to create your own circuit training workouts using almost any piece of equipment!

Senior Moments

How many of you can relate? Walk into a room to grab something and forget what that’s supposed to be, or, and this is super annoying, hopping online and completely forgetting what you had wanted to look up. Yes, these little memory lapses seem to happen more frequently as time passes, but the good news is that your strength training program could be what reduces the frequency of these so-called, ‘senior moments.’

In the longevity space there is a lot of emphasis on strength training for preventing age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia), but the fact that strength training can enhance cognitive function is often overlooked. Dr. John Ratey’s book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, describes brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as ‘Miracle Gro’ for the brain because of its role in promoting the growth of new brain cells. Want some killer news? Strength training happens to be one of the most effective ways to increase BDNF production in our bodies.

There’s a very cool feature of our brain, it has its own built-in repair system and this is where BDNF works to support optimal cognitive function. In this part of the physiology of longevity series we are taking a look at BDNF, what it does and how we can use exercise to produce more of it.

What is BDNF and Why Does it Matter?

BDNF is a protein and a member of the “neurotrophin” family of growth factors. Think of it as a fertilizer for your brain cells; it plays a critical role in the survival of existing neurons and promotes neurogenesis - the growth of new neurons and strengthening connections between neurons.

BDNF is most active in the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for long-term memory, learning, and emotional regulation. As we age, BDNF levels naturally begin to dip. This decline is associated with age-related cognitive impairment and, in more severe cases, the onset of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, the hippocampus tends to shrink as we age, which is a primary driver of cognitive decline. BDNF is the primary biological defense against this shrinkage. By stimulating BDNF, you aren’t just remembering why you logged on; you are literally rewiring your brain to be more adaptable, faster at processing information, and more resistant to stress.

The Muscle-Brain Axis: How Lifting Builds a Better Brain

We used to think the brain and body functioned as separate, discrete entities. We now know better, specifically that they are in constant conversation via the ‘muscle-brain axis.’ In addition, scientists have observed that the muscle-brain axis functions as a high-speed communication highway. When your muscles contract, they release ‘myokines,’ signaling molecules that travel through the bloodstream, cross the blood-brain barrier, and trigger the production of BDNF.

Three key players link your strength workout to your cognitive health:

1. Lactate: When you train with high intensity and feel “the burn,” your muscles produce lactate. This isn’t a waste product; it’s a fuel. Lactate crosses the blood-brain barrier and triggers the production of BDNF in the hippocampus.

2. Irisin: This “exercise hormone” is released during muscle contraction. It travels to the brain and turns on the genes responsible for BDNF production.

3. IGF-1: Resistance training spikes Insulin-like Growth Factor 1, which works synergistically with BDNF to improve the “plumbing” of your brain, enhancing blood flow and nutrient delivery.

While almost any movement is better than none, certain modes of exercise act as a cheat code for your brain health.

1. High-Intensity Aerobic Exercise

For years, steady-state cardio was the gold standard for BDNF. Research shows that vigorous aerobic activity (reaching roughly 70–80% of your max heart rate) creates a significant “spike” in circulating BDNF. This is largely due to the release of a protein called FNDC5, which is converted into Irisin. Irisin travels to the brain and tells the hippocampus to start the BDNF assembly line.

2. Coordination and Skill-Based Movement

Learning a new complex movement, like a Turkish Get-Up, a new yoga flow, or even a sport like pickleball, requires “cognitive demand.” Combining physical exertion with mental focus provides a synergistic effect on neuroplasticity.

The Power of the Pump: How Strength Training Stimulates BDNF

For those of you who love strength training, the good news is that your sessions in the squat rack are doing more than just building quads. While aerobic exercise provides an immediate spike in BDNF, strength training offers a unique, long-term neuroprotective effect.

The Lactate Connection

When you perform strength training to a point of fatigue, your muscles produce lactate (think of it as exhaust from the energy used for muscle contractions). Because it is produced as the result of metabolizing glycogen (carbohydrates) into energy for muscle contractions, lactate has long been considered a waste product. The cool thing about science is that the more something is studied, the more we learn about it. For example, what was once thought of as a benign ‘waste product,’ lactate is now recognized as a vital fuel source and signaling molecule. Lactate can cross the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the expression of BDNF by activating specific signaling pathways (like the SIRT1 pathway) in the brain.

The Growth Factor Cascade

Strength training also increases levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), an important peptide hormone that promotes muscle growth (as a function of repairing fibers and other tissues damaged by muscle contractions). IGF-1 works in tandem with BDNF to improve vascular health in the brain and support the survival of new neurons. Essentially, strength training builds the “plumbing” (blood flow) that allows the “fertilizer” (BDNF) to work effectively.

Optimizing Your Protocol for Brain Health

If you are interested in using exercise to maximize your cognitive performance, your program should be a strategic blend of intensity and resistance.

• Prioritize Compound Lifts: Movements like deadlifts, squats, and presses involve more muscle mass, which leads to higher lactate production and a greater systemic signaling response.

• Embrace the “Burn”: To trigger the lactate-BDNF pathway, you need to occasionally train with higher repetitions (12–15) or shorter rest periods to create metabolic stress.

• Intermittent Sprints: Consider adding 10-15 minutes of “finisher” intervals at the end of your lift. This combines the strength-based IGF-1 response with the aerobic Irisin-BDNF response.

• Sleep and Recovery: BDNF levels are significantly influenced by sleep quality. Chronic sleep deprivation “mutes” the BDNF response to exercise, so ensure you are getting 7–9 hours of quality rest.

BDNF-Boosting Workouts: Intensity is Key

To maximize BDNF, “just showing up” isn’t enough. The research suggests that the intensity of the effort is the primary driver of the neurotrophic response; the goal is to create enough metabolic stress to flood the system with lactate and myokines.

Here are two science-backed protocols for your next training session:

1. The “Lactate Threshold” Circuit

This protocol focuses on Metabolic Stress. By keeping rest periods short and repetitions moderate-to-high, you maximize the lactate signal to the brain.

• Exercises: Squats, Push-Ups, Dumbbell Rows, Kettlebell Swings.

• Protocol: Perform 12–15 reps of each exercise back-to-back with no rest.

• Rest: 60 seconds at the end of the circuit.

• Rounds: 4 total.

• Why it works: The constant tension and short rest periods maximize the production of lactate and Irisin.

2. High-Intensity Interval Resistance (HIIRT)

This focuses on Mechanical Tension and systemic demand.

• Movements: Large, compound movements: Deadlifts, Barbell Squats, or Overhead Presses.

• Protocol: Use a weight that is roughly 75–80% of your maximum. Perform 6–8 reps, focusing on an explosive upward phase.

• Finish with a “Burn”: After your heavy sets, finish the workout with one high-rep set (20+ reps) of a leg press or rowing machine to ensure a systemic “metabolic spike.”

Confession

In my teens (in the 80s) I raced BMX bikes; over the course of a 5 year career careening around dirt tracks I had 2-3 crashes where I sustained bad concussions (one where I woke up in an ambulance). As a 20 and 30-something, I played men’s club rugby at the highest level of competition where I experienced about 6 really hard concussions (it was the 90s, if a bone wasn’t sticking out of the skin, you stayed in the match) including one where I woke up in an ambulance. All of that to say, my gray matter has taken a beating and I can honestly say now that I’m in my 50s, I feel it. That is the primary reason why I exercise so much, understanding the research connecting strength training and high intensity exercise to brain health, I know the fitter I stay, the better it is for my brain.

This doesn’t mean ‘do the same thing as me,’ instead, I am using it as an example of how to apply the science; if the evidence is showing that hard exercise is good for the brain, as someone who has beat the heck out of theirs, I am going to apply the science. It’s hard to imagine the brain fog I would experience if I weren’t working out. If anyone reading this has experienced any concussions, hard exercise has helped my brain, it could do the same for yours.

Conclusion

We’ve all felt brain fog after a poor night’s sleep or the frustration of a misplaced name. While we often chalk this up to just getting older, the reality is that our brain, much like our muscles, is subject to the use it or lose it rule. The most powerful tool we have to fight this decline isn’t a crossword puzzle or a “brain game” app, it’s picking up something heavy and repping to a point of mild fatigue to promote BDNF production. Take it from someone who knows, strength training has helped my cognitive health tremendously.

If you’re a regular reader of Strength Training for Longevity, you already know that muscle is essential for your metabolic system and overall health: it protects your joints, regulates your blood sugar, supports production of the hormones that promote muscle growth and keeps your heart pumping. Now you know another important role for muscle: supporting cognitive health through strength training. Exercise is the most effective, non-pharmacological tool we have for maintaining a sharp mind into our 60s, 70s, and beyond. By understanding the role of BDNF, you can approach your training not just as a way to maintain your body, but as a mandatory maintenance program for your most important asset: your brain.

The next time you grip a bar you can be confident that in addition to your muscles, you’ll be strengthening your brain!

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together!

Over the course of my career, I’ve been teaching the science of exercise to personal trainers and hypertrophy is the sciencey term for muscle growth and is the reason why many people start strength training in the first place. But how does it actually happen? It isn’t just about moving a weight; it involves complex biological communication between your nervous system, your muscle fibers, and your hormones.

Let’s dive into the science of how you can stimulate muscle growth to stay healthy, resilient and fit for decades to come.

Strength vs. Size: What’s the Difference?

You can get stronger without getting bigger, and you can get bigger without necessarily becoming stronger.

• Strength training focuses on maximum force output, teaching your nervous system to recruit every available muscle fiber at once.

• Hypertrophy training is different in that it focuses specifically on increasing the physical size of the muscle without a concern about force output.

To grow muscle, it is necessary to follow the Overload Principle. Your body is an efficiency machine; it won’t change unless you give it a reason to. This means you have to apply a stimulus, which can be achieved either by loading with intensity or performing a high volume of reps, that is greater than what your body is used to. Crucially, you have to train to a point of fatigue. If muscles aren’t fatigued by the end of your set, there will be no need for your body to stimulate the repair process.

Two Paths to Growth: Mechanical and Metabolic Stress

Science (and specifically the work of researchers like Brad Schoenfeld) tells us that there are two primary mechanisms for muscle growth which often happen at the same time, so it’s hard to determine which has the greater effect. Understanding both of them, and, more importantly, how to apply them, helps you fine-tune your workouts.

1. Mechanical Stress (The Structural Path)

This is the physical tension placed on your muscle fibers. When you lift a challenging weight, it causes “micro-trauma” to the tissue. This sounds scary, but it’s actually the goal. This damage signals your body to activate satellite cells, which are then used to repair the tissue and build new muscle proteins.

2. Metabolic Stress (The Pump Path)

Have you ever felt that “burn” and “tightness” in your muscles during a high-rep set? That’s metabolic stress. As your muscles work, they burn glycogen and produce by-products like lactic acid. This buildup changes the acidity in your blood (acidosis), which triggers a surge in Growth Hormone (GH) and Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1). These hormones are the construction workers of the body, telling your system to synthesize new protein and grow.

Understanding Your “Internal Hardware”

To grow muscle as you age, you should know about your muscle fibers; first, there are two main types:

• Type I (Slow-Twitch): These are your endurance fibers. They metabolize oxygen and fat into energy and can go all day, but they don’t grow much.

• Type II (Fast-Twitch): These are your strength and power fibers. They are larger, stronger, and have the most potential for growth. They metabolize carbohydrates for energy and can increase in size as cells adapt to store more carbohydrates.

As we age, we tend to lose our Type II fibers first. This is why strength training is so vital, it forces these high-threshold fibers to stay engaged and active.

The Repeated Effort Method: Necessary for Growth

There are several methods of lifting weights; authors Zatsiorsky and Kraemer have identified: the Maximal Effort Method, lifting the heaviest possible, and the Dynamic Effort Method, moving a light weight at a very fast speed and the Repeated Effort Method.

When it comes to strength training for longevity and muscle size, the Repeated Effort Method appears to have the greatest influence because it involves using a moderate-to-heavy load and performing repetitions until you reach momentary muscle failure, the point where you literally can’t do another clean rep.

By pushing toward failure, you force your body to recruit those elusive Type II fast-twitch fibers once the smaller fibers get tired. In short, repping to fatigue creates both the mechanical damage and the metabolic stimulus needed for growth.

The Two Types of Hypertrophy

Not all muscle growth looks the same; depending on how you train, your body adapts in two ways:

1. Myofibrillar Hypertrophy: This is an increase in the actual protein filaments (actin and myosin) that do the pulling. This makes the fibers thicker and much stronger. Myofibrillar hypertrophy is the outcome of the Maximum Effort Method of strength training.

2. Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy: This is an increase in the fluid (sarcoplasm) and energy stores (glycogen) surrounding the fibers. This makes the muscle look larger and fuller, often referred to as the ‘pump.’ Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is the outcome of the Repeated Effort Method of strength training.

Recovery: Where the Growth Actually Happens

One important note: you don’t actually grow muscle in the gym; your muscle tissue grows while you sleep.

Training is the stimulus, but recovery is the response. As we age, our ability to recover quickly after a hard workout is often a bit slower than it was in our 20s.

• Sleep: Testosterone and Growth Hormone are primarily produced during REM cycles. If you’re skimping on sleep, you’re literally sabotaging your muscle-building efforts.

• The 48-Hour Rule: Your muscles generally need 48–72 hours of rest before you hit the same group again.

• “Under-Recovered” vs. Overtrained: Most people aren’t truly “overtrained,” but they are often “under-recovered.” If you’re feeling a loss of appetite, lingering illness, or a plateau in the gym, it’s time to take an “off-loading” week (active rest).

A Practical Blueprint for Growth

If you want to maximize your results, here is a science-backed starting point:

• Reps: 8 to 12 repetitions per set.

• Intensity: use a weight heavy enough to achieve fatigue in 8-12 reps

• Sets: 3 to 4 sets per exercise.

• Tempo: Control the weight. Take 1–2 seconds to lift (concentric) and a controlled 2–4 seconds to lower (eccentric). The lowering phase is actually where most of the muscle growth signaling happens!

• Rest: no more than 60 to 90 seconds; long enough to recover strength but short enough to keep that metabolic stress high.

• The “Finisher”: Try ending your workout with a Drop Set on a machine. Perform as many reps as you can, drop the weight by 20%, and immediately go again. This is a massive trigger for metabolic stress and hormone production.

The Bottom Line

Muscle growth is a complicated dance between tension, metabolic byproduct, and hormonal signaling. While the science can get technical, the message is simple: lift with intention, push yourself to real fatigue, and prioritize your recovery.

As we age, gaining muscle is much more than strength or appearance, it is the means by which we control how we age.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Being a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

• Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together.

Flashback to 1988

Admittedly, just reading the word, ‘mitochondria’ brings back dreadful memories of Ms. Brown and 10th grade biology; however, all of these years later it’s a good thing that she was so tough (shout-out to high school teachers everywhere) because I know what mitochondria are and why they are so good for the aging body. No one has ever walked into a gym thinking, ‘Today is mitochondrial day,’ but the reality is that both strength and cardio training have a positive effect on our mitochondria and their function. Mitochondria are essentially the engines for cellular energy - the more we have and the better they function, the better it is for our long-term health.

As time passes exercise no longer is just about developing the muscles we see in the mirror, it becomes the means for managing how we age. Admittedly, when I was starting my personal training career waaaay back in my 20s (when the years began with 1 and 9), I was more focused on helping clients improve the circumference of their biceps or how much they could bench; however, as I have learned a LOT more about the body, and, more specifically the effects of exercise on an aging body, the priority for working with clients now focuses on exercise solely for the goal of improving “healthspan,” the period of life spent in good health - and the whole point of this substack is to share those strategies with you, so we can all age the way we want to.

At the heart of healthspan is the mitochondria; a microscopic organelle that dictates your energy, metabolism, and perhaps even your expiration date. Our mitochondria power every heartbeat, thought, and deadlift. To maintain high energy levels and metabolic resilience, we must prioritize mitochondrial biogenesis, the process of creating new, healthy mitochondria. And yes, we can most definitely do that through exercise.

What are Mitochondria? More Than Just a “Powerhouse”

I honestly remember Ms. Brown hammering this concept in biology, ‘the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.’ My 15 year-old self didn’t appreciate why that was so important, but that is only the beginning of their function. Mitochondria are double-membraned organelles found in nearly every cell in the human body, with the highest concentrations in energy-demanding tissues like the heart, brain, and skeletal muscle.

Their primary role is to convert the energy from the food we eat (macronutrients) into a chemical currency the body can actually use: Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). This process, known as cellular respiration, is the literal spark of life.

Beyond energy production, mitochondria perform several critical secondary functions:

• Apoptosis Regulation: They help manage programmed cell death, ensuring that damaged cells are removed before they become cancerous or inflammatory.

• Calcium Homeostasis: They regulate calcium levels, which is essential for proper muscle signaling and bone health.

• Heat Production: They play a role in thermogenesis, helping maintain body temperature.

The Longevity Connection: Why Density Matters

As we age, we often face a double-edged sword: Mitochondrial Dysfunction (the engines become “leaky” and less efficient) and a decrease in Mitochondrial Density (we have fewer engines overall).

Research suggests that mitochondrial decline is a primary driver of aging. Low mitochondrial density is strongly correlated with insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative conditions. Conversely, high mitochondrial density in skeletal muscle acts as a massive metabolic sink, clearing blood glucose and burning fat more efficiently even at rest. In short: more mitochondria equals a more resilient, youthful metabolic profile.

Stimulating Mitochondrial Biogenesis

As we age, our mitochondrial efficiency tends to decline, a phenomenon known as mitochondrial dysfunction. This decline is linked to insulin resistance, decreased VO2 max, and the general fatigue often associated with middle age. However, research shows that exercise is the most potent “anti-aging” drug available to reverse this trend.

The process of creating new mitochondria is called mitochondrial biogenesis. This is regulated primarily by a “master switch” protein called PGC-1alpha (Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator 1-alpha). When we subject our cells to energy stress, meaning we use up ATP faster than we can produce it, PGC-1alpha signals the cell to build more “hardware” to handle the demand.

How Exercise Stimulates Mitochondrial Growth

When we exercise, we create an immediate and massive demand for ATP. This “energy stress” acts as a signal to the cell. One of the most important signaling molecules in this process is an enzyme called AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase).

When ATP is used up, it turns into AMP. A high ratio of AMP to ATP signals to the cell that energy is low. This activates a master regulator protein called PGC-1alpha. Think of PGC-1alpha as the general contractor for cellular renovation; it initiates mitochondrial biogenesis, telling the cell to build more mitochondria and repair existing ones to handle future stress more efficiently.

The Most Effective Modes of Exercise

To maximize biogenesis, a two-phase approach to metabolic conditioning (cardio) can engage different metabolic pathways for optimal metabolic efficiency:

1. Zone 2 (Low-Intensity Steady State): Training at a pace where you can still hold a conversation (60–70% of Max HR). This targets Type I slow-twitch fibers, which are dense in mitochondria. It improves mitochondrial efficiency and the ability to oxidize fat.

   1. Why it works: Zone 2 specifically targets type I (slow-twitch) muscle fibers, which are densest in mitochondria.

   2. The Result: It improves mitochondrial efficiency and the ability to utilize fat as a fuel source (fat oxidation); essential for our longevity.

2. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training): Short bursts of maximal effort. This creates a massive spike in PGC-1alpha activation, leading to rapid increases in mitochondrial density and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max).

   1. Why it works: The extreme energy demand of HIIT creates a massive spike in PGC-1alpha activation.

   2. The Result: While Zone 2 improves efficiency, HIIT is superior for increasing mitochondrial density and maximal oxidative capacity. Studies have shown that HIIT can significantly reverse age-related declines in mitochondrial protein synthesis in older adults.

The Role of Strength Training in Mitochondrial Health

A common misconception is that strength training is purely “anaerobic” and therefore doesn’t affect mitochondria. This is far from the truth. While aerobic training increases the number of mitochondria per unit of muscle, strength training increases the volume of muscle available to house those mitochondria.

While often categorized as “anaerobic,” strength training is a vital piece of the mitochondrial puzzle. Muscle tissue is the primary “home” for mitochondria. By maintaining or increasing muscle mass through resistance training, you are essentially increasing the “real estate” available for mitochondria to occupy. Strength training improves insulin sensitivity, which, over time, reduces damage and supports optimal mitochondrial health.

Researchers have identified that strength training improves mitochondrial quality, the ability of these organelles to produce energy without creating excessive oxidative stress (leaking reactive oxygen species). By preserving muscle mass (combating sarcopenia), strength training ensures your body maintains its primary site for metabolic activity.

The Optimal Loading Scheme for Biogenesis

While heavy, low-rep training (1–5 reps) is excellent for neurological strength, it may not be the most efficient stimulus for mitochondrial growth. For mitochondrial biogenesis, we want to maximize metabolic stress and time under tension.

• Rep Range: 12 to 20 repetitions per set.

• Intensity: 60–70% of your 1-Rep Max (1RM).

• Rest Intervals: Short rest periods (45–75 seconds).

• The Goal: Training to the point of a significant “pump” or localized muscle burn.

This “hypertrophy-endurance” style of lifting increases the demand for local ATP and triggers the PGC-1alpha pathway similarly to aerobic exercise, while still providing the mechanical.

Summary for the 40+ Athlete

Thank you, Ms. Brown for drilling the role of mitochondria into my brain many years ago, now that I’m in this phase of my career it turns out that mitochondrial health is the secret sauce to aging well. By combining steady-state aerobic work with purposeful high-intensity intervals and a foundation of strength training, you aren’t just burning calories; you are upgrading your cellular hardware.

Key Action Steps, EVERY Week:

• Try to achieve 150–200 minutes of Zone 2 cardio per week: walking, cycling, or light jogging at an intensity where your breathing is fast, but under control and you can speak in complete sentences (but are not able to have a conversation without taking deep breathes of air).

• Incorporate 2-3 HIIT sessions of HIIT into workouts; start with 4 minute Tabata intervals after a strength training session and progress from there.

• Prioritize strength training 2–3 times a week to maintain the muscle mass that houses these powerhouses.

  • NOTE: The year-long workout program provided to subscribers of the Strength Training to Longevity subscribers hits ALL of these goals.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Being a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

• Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together.

At one point in my career I was 1K on United and Premium Platinum with Marriott Bonvoy; I travelled. A Lot. From the early 2010s to 2020, I had a business providing content production services to some of the top brands in the industry. I would be hired to create education content to teach fitness professional how to write exercise programs using certain products.

Part of my services were to travel to fitness industry trade shows around the globe to rep the companies I worked with; I would work with potential buyers and existing customers to develop group workout program formats that could deliver results while keeping members engaged. In addition to the US, I had the honor of attending trade shows in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Shanghai, Beijing (I had a Chinese work visa for years) and Dubai.

No matter where they are, part of the fun of traveling to trade shows is seeing the new products that will be driving the industry in the coming year. This year at the HFA convention and trade show the big trends were strength training, pilates and private equity.

The Evolution of a New Model of Health Club

Since the ‘08-’09 recession, a new health club business model has emerged that has been adopted by private equity groups looking to collect recurring revenue from gym dues. (This article from industry pub Athletech has a great summary of the PE interest in the fitness industry: READ IT HERE.) All of the major chains and studio groups are now owned by a PE group; which has fundamentally changed the industry.

Capital demands data to know how it’s resources are being allocated and the return being generated (my undergrad is in economics), which means that all of the major gym chains now collect as much data as possible from check-ins, app usage, class logins, check-ins to recovery rooms, etc to understand how members are using the club and where opportunities lie.

From its inception, the health club industry was primarily regional, family owned health clubs. Once Mark Mastrov sold 24 Hour Fitness, he formed a group that started franchising Crunch clubs. At the same time, in the early 2010s, a number of owners of Gold’s Gym franchisees broke from the company to start their own clubs (spawning the chains EoS Fitness and VASA). This growth was funded, in part by former executives from companies like Town Sports International, that had gone public in the mid 2000s. It’s this group of early club operators who teamed with capital resources to create the modern health club operating model.

Planet Fitness, introduced in the early 2000s, was created specifically for these new equity investors. To reduce head count and management expenses, PF does NOT offer group fitness or private training services, limits weights to 50 pounds and uses the colors purple and yellow specifically because they lower aggression and testosterone. At a price point of less than $12, PF was marketed to people who wanted to join a gym, but didn’t necessarily want to use it. And it worked, the average unit has 10,000+ members paying $12-30/month (roughly 800k in profit per month)

Prior to 2010, health clubs were primarily full service - members paid one rate to receive all of the amenities. The new model, known as High-value, low price (HVLP), allowed members to pay for only the services they wanted; join for $12 at one location, using only the weight room - pay extra for services like group fitness classes, towels, recovery rooms, baby-sitting, etc with the final bill ending up around $60-80/month for all of the bells and whistles.

All of this background to say, the big new revealings at the convention were NOT necessarily the programs or equipment that will make members sweat, but how to collect and optimize data so PE groups can achieve the greatest ROI.

The truly ironic thing is the fitness industry is one that could truly run in an analog environment. Weights do not need AI to become heavier. Punch cards and bar codes can still work for check-ins. And annual member surveys can provide necessary feedback as opposed to tracking behavior through an app.

The big reveal from this year’s industry was that capital is full steam ahead with using technology to maximize the return on its investment, whether that will result in higher member satisfaction, engagement and, the Holy Grail, retention, has yet to be seen.

Invest Your Sweat $$$ Locally

Big box gyms owned by PE groups are able to offer a great value for a fair price, but understand that comes at the expense of your data being mined and your money going into the pockets of equity partners lounging in Naples, FL or Laguna, CA.

When you have the opportunity, please use a locally owned gym or training studio. Invest your hard-earned fitness dollars in locally owned facilities run by members of the community. Yes, some franchises are run by independent owners, but many franchises are actually owned by regional PE groups or family offices looking for a consistent return from membership revenue.

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Become a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

• Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together.

This is from a series on functional anatomy that was originally written for personal trainers; however, it’s been updated and is being posted to help you, the educated fitness consumer, understand how your core muscles function. For the better part of 2 decades my career has focused on educating personal trainers; one goal of the Strength Training for Longevity ‘stack is to educate you, the reader, on how to use strength training to extend your health span which means empowering you to be able to design your own workout programs. Knowing how your muscles work to move your body is essential for identifying the best exercises for your goals. This series will teach you how specific muscles function, as well as the best exercises for those muscles. This article will help you understand how your abdominal muscles function as an integrated system and identify exercises to achieve optimal function.

Much More Than Just Crunches

Now let’s get into learning about how your abdominals function to move your body. Muscles generate force for movement.; in addition, muscle cells are responsible for metabolizing fat and carbohydrates into energy to fuel that movement. Knowing how your muscles actually function to produce movement can help you to identify the best exercises for your specific fitness goals.

The abdominal muscles, specifically the rectus abdominus, are often trained in an inefficient manner that may not actually improve their mechanical ability to help you move. In an attempt to ‘sculpt a six-pack,’ many individuals, including possibly yourself, do crunches, however the only time the rectus actually abdominus flexes the spine is when the body is lying on the ground which begs the question - is this the most effective way to strengthen this muscle?

If we take a look at how the abdominal muscles are designed to function during upright movement patterns we will soon realize that a number of traditional exercises such as crunches should NOT be the foundation of an exercise program for the muscles responsible for controlling our body’s center of gravity.

Understanding Movement

Creating an exercise program first requires an understanding of how the body is designed to move. Movement in general, and exercise in particular, is a function of many muscles working together simultaneously, not a series of separate, discrete muscle actions.

Proper exercise selection for workout programs requires understanding how muscles function as an integrated system in order to train them to produce the right amount of force at the right time. The human body is designed to move and the foundational pattern of human movement is the gait cycle (walking and running); therefore the musculoskeletal structures of the human body work most efficiently when standing upright on the ground, not lying on the floor.

The skeletal and muscle structures in our bodies create kinetic energy from gravity and ground reaction forces in order to conserve metabolic energy meaning that as a mechanical structure the human body functions most efficiently when walking or running across the ground.

The traditional approach of understanding human anatomy for the purpose of designing exercise programs is based on the assumption that muscles function independently to perform separate, isolated actions. A more appropriate way to describe anatomy as it relates to human movement is that all muscles work together to accomplish a specific task.

Controlling Movement at the Center of Gravity

In the case of the abdominal muscles the word ‘core’ is commonly used to describe the muscles that control motion at the pelvis, femurs, rib cage or lumbar spine. This is an incomplete understanding because a number of muscles can influence motion at these structures which are not traditionally considered part of the body’s ‘core.’

For example the long head of the biceps attaches to the supraglenoid tubercle and the short head attaches to the coracoid process of the scapula which sits on the thoracic rib cage. If the biceps remain in a state of contraction it could pull the scapula out of position which then changes the position of the thoracic spine.

Another example is the superior attachments of the gastrocnemius on both the medial and lateral condyles of the femur. If the gastrocnemius remains in a state of contraction it can influence movement of the femur joint mechanics at the hip.

Researcher Dr. Stuart McGill describes the core as being “composed of the lumbar spine, the muscles of the abdominal wall, the back extensors and quadratus lomborum. Also included are the multi-joint muscles, namely, latissimus dorsi and psoas that pass through the core linking it to the pelvis, legs, shoulders and arms” (McGill, 2010). A separate model describes the abdominal muscles as being organized into layers: superficial, intermediate and deep. (Neumann, 2010) Regardless of the specific model, the muscles of the core region, around your body’s center of mass, function as the transmission of the body because they transfer forces generated from the ground, through the legs and trunk and ultimately out through the upper extremities.

Layers of Muscles

The external and internal obliques, rectus abdominus (RA) and transverse abdominus (TVA) are all considered part of the deep layer in Neumann’s model and the abdominal wall as described by McGill. The muscles of the abdominal wall are layered against one another like the individual layers of a sheet of plywood. Because of the way the muscles are structured they are not capable of working in isolation and will instead contract together as one unit during upright movement. These deep muscles work together to control motion of the spine, rib cage and pelvis.

Effective training for abdominal muscles requires using movements that integrate the hips, trunk and shoulders in order to efficiently distribute the forces created by gravity, ground reaction and momentum during upright movements. Dr. Gary Gray, a physical therapist and founder of the Gray Institute, teaches education courses on anatomy, biomechanics and how to improve physiological function.

Dr. Gray describes how the abdominals are designed to function, ”The abdominals can be controlled by the brain to flex the spine when you’re lying on the ground but this is not how they actually work. The multiple layers of the abdominals are lengthened in all three planes as the rib cage and pelvis rotate opposite one another during upright movement in gait; this lengthening motion turns the muscles on reflexively which is their natural way of functioning.”

All You Ever Needed to Know About Your Core You Learned Before You Could Walk

Every time an individual takes a step he or she is accelerated into the ground by the force of gravity, at the same time the ground exerts an equal and opposite force upwards into the body. The summation of these two forces: gravity and ground reaction results in competing forces intersecting around the body’s center of gravity which describes what happens during the human gait cycle.

We also have to consider the neurodevelopment of how we learn to control our bodies as we progress from newborns to infants to childhood. Humans are one of the only mammals born not knowing how to walk. When you see a four-legged mammal depart from its mother it only takes a few minutes for it to learn how to stand on its feet.

The difference is that quadrupeds have four legs to support the mass of the body with a spine parallel to the ground while bipeds have a spine that is perpendicular to the ground and only two legs to support the weight of the body. This difference means that it can take a human approximately 10-to-14 months or longer to learn how to sequence and coordinate the muscle actions responsible for walking because the muscles and skeletal structures have to become strong enough to maintain a vertical position that resists the downward pull of gravity. (Enoka, 2002)

The natural stages of development are extending the spine, rolling over, sitting up, belly crawling, crawling, cruising (which is standing and walking while holding on to stable objects) and finally walking. During the stages of development the muscles are developing the timing, strength and coordination to integrate movements of the hips, pelvis, spine and shoulders; at NO POINT during the natural progression of walking does a baby lie on its back and flex his or her spine to perform a crunch. (Abernathy, 2005)

Put it this way, lying on your back to do three sets of abdominal and oblique crunches is actually working against the inherent neurophysiology of the involved muscles. Attempting to isolate specific muscles with traditional ‘core’ exercises will not train the tissues and skeletal structures to accommodate the multi-planar forces a client might experience when lifting a young child from a car-seat or crib.

How the Body is Designed to Function

When walking or running during the gait cycle the body has to move in all three planes to create forward movement in the sagittal plane. The thoracic spine will counter-rotate relative to the pelvis in reaction to the momentum created by the arms and legs moving opposite of one another. During gait as the right leg swings forward the left arm is swinging forward and this counter-rotation of the torso and hips eccentrically lengthens all layers of the abdominal muscles. The layers of the abdominal muscles are designed to facilitate this multi-planar action to make it smooth and efficient.

In the gait cycle as the right leg transitions from mid-stance to heel-off (passing under the center of gravity) the right side RA and external oblique (EO) are working eccentrically to decelerate the anterior tilting of the pelvis caused by extension of the right femur while the left side RA and EO are working eccentrically to decelerate thoracic extension and rotation created by extension of the left shoulder.

This means that when we are moving in an upright position the RA is working in all three planes; now does the crunch look like the most effective exercise to train the tri-planar nature of this muscle?

Role of Muscle

Exercise is a function of movement. Movement is a function of the nervous system regulating forces throughout the structures of muscle, fascia and elastic connective tissue. Traditional exercise selection focuses on contracting a muscle to generate a shortening force, however during upright, functional movement like walking through the gait cycle it is the elastic fascia and connective tissue responsible for generating the forces producing and controlling movement.

During many upright movement patterns a muscle can maintain an isometric contraction to create tension in the elastic component allowing it to store potential energy during lengthening which is then released as mechanical energy when the tissue returns to normal resting length.

Muscles are designed to contract as a reflex to an applied stimulus. Besides storing potential energy when a muscle is lengthened, proprioceptors like the muscle spindles sense the length change and communicate with the motor units to create the necessary contractions. This occurs at the subconscious level as a reflex leaving our brain to focus its energy on more important matters like avoiding walking into traffic. If we want to maximize the efficiency of our workouts we need to consider program design strategies that train muscles how to react reflexively as opposed to cuing our clients how to consciously isolate and shorten a muscle.

According to Dr. Gray, “If we are training the abdominals to help us with function, to help with back pain, to allow us to run faster and throw better, and to just reach them to be a good part of the family of our body, we have to facilitate motion that turns on the proprioceptors that activates them.”

Exercise Strategies for the Muscles that Control the Center of Gravity

A muscle in a constant state of tension will not be able to shorten effectively to produce a force nor will it be able to lengthen to allow motion to occur, therefore effective exercise strategies for the abdominal muscles should include movements that eccentrically lengthen the tissue. Exercise programs need to follow an appropriate progression of first creating stability and proper sequencing of muscle contractions before progressing to complex, dynamic movements that involve all three planes of motion. Using stability exercises during a warm-up such as the plank, side plank and quadruped bird dog can allow the central nervous system (CNS) to develop efficient timing of muscle contractions before progressing to three dimensional movement patterns that lengthen the tissues in all three planes.

Dr. McGill has found that using ground-based, vertical exercises to train and strengthen the core is extremely effective in that spinal “stability is a ‘moving target’ which changes as a function of the three dimensional torques needed to support various postures and unexpected loads.”

McGill provides the following model of progressing core-strengthening exercises:

1. Corrective and therapeutic exercise to enhance stability and mobility.

2. Groove appropriate motor patterns.

3. Build whole-body and joint stability.

4. Increase strength-endurance.

5. Build strength.

6. Develop speed, power and agility.

NOTE: the year-long workout program all subscribers have been receiving, Strength Training for Longevity, applies this model of progression. Check the workouts to see how they flow from one level of progression to the next.

According to the principle of specificity, to ensure the highest level of success from a training program the exercises should replicate the movements an individual is required to perform on a daily basis. “Most training can be considered ‘core training’...With respect to program design, basic core strength and endurance will be realized through performance of most non-machine-based exercises such as during squats, deadlifts, chin-ups and push-ups’” (Contreras & Scheonfeld, 2011).

A strength-training program for the body’s center of gravity should perform most exercises in a standing position to properly prepare the body to produce and control forces experienced in activities of daily living.The program can start with exercises in the prone and supine positions to train optimal motor sequencing and muscle recruitment patterns during the initial phases of McGill’s progression. However, once an individual demonstrates the ability to properly brace the spine while moving the hips (step 3 above), the exercises should be progressed to a standing position to develop the specific strength required for a client’s goals.

The first two steps identified by McGill for training the abdominals will teach you how to maintain stability of the spine and train efficient movement patterns. Once you can maintain stability of your spine, start exercising from a standing position. Single leg balance exercises can be important for helping integrate abdominal function with the lower extremities and is one example of a training strategy. Another strategy for designing abdominal exercises is to recreate the movements of gait and have the rib cage and pelvis rotate over one another. A third strategy is to have the spine remain in a lengthened position as one leg moves into extension. Yet another strategy is to maintain stability of the spine while the arms and legs move.

Strength Training IS Core Training

The abdominal muscles contain a combination of type I and type II fibers; low-intensity, long duration stabilization exercises can be used one day to activate the type I’s while heavy resistance strength or power exercises can be used the next day to stimulate the type II fibers. Because they are performed from a standing position on the ground, using ground force to activate muscles, strength training exercises like the barbell deadlift, Romanian deadlift and Turkish get-up can be extremely effective for enhancing strength of all layers of abdominal muscles.

This is the formula for develop core strength, now go apply it!

Thank you for reading!

To support the Strength Training for Longevity substack:

• Subscribe (for free)

• Being a paying supporter (only $8/month - same as a magazine), or

• Buy one of my books: Amazon Author Page

Or, just keep reading, apply what you learn and share with your community - let’s make the world a healthier place together.