The most important video we've posted in a very long time.

[Dkrad1935]

Mark,
My mother-in-law lives with us since her husband passed away. She is 81. She has had both knees replaced and one of her shoulders rebuilt ( the ball and socket changed out). She has very limited mobility. I would love to figure out how to get her doing something like this to see if she could join us more in daily life.

Is this something you could help with via online consult? This could hopefully be something that was life changing for her. But she has some complications obviously.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'd be glad to talk to you. Call me.

[tertius]

I'm curious about something, Rip.

It seems pretty obvious at this point that barbell training is probably going to prove to be a powerful force in improving quality of life in the Elder population, and that the SSCA is going to be a big and important part of that. Which is awesome, and no small feat, given the attitude of defeatism and acceptance of decrepitude in the aged that we've got going. And it's something you've been thinking about and doing for a while at WFAC, clearly.

But did you anticipate that you would or could play a sizable role in altering how people age? Were you trying to do so?
Or did the combination of talent and knowledge that the SSCA gathered mean that things just came together organically and it was obvious and with too much upside for everyone involved that it would be foolish not to pursue it?

[gadders]

My 97-year old Nan had a fall this weekend and lay there overnight as she couldn't get up (her emergency bleeper failed as well).

She normally uses a walker to get around.

[Mark Rippetoe]

But did you anticipate that you would or could play a sizable role in altering how people age? Were you trying to do so?

I think this is a rather premature assumption. This is still the norm: http://startingstrength.com/resource...98#post1059298

My 97-year old Nan had a fall this weekend and lay there overnight as she couldn't get up (her emergency bleeper failed as well).

She normally uses a walker to get around.

Sorry to hear about this. We all hope she'll be okay.

[mike]

I think this is a rather premature assumption. This is still the norm: http://startingstrength.com/resource...98#post1059298

did you see time mag beating the drum about a life expectancy of 142?
http://time.com/magazine/

unless real strength training (rather than the "norm") becomes an integral part of that century and a half, there's going to be a lot of drain circling...since i missed the boat on 1st edition spiral bound SSBBTs, am throwing my investment dollars into walkers, wheel chairs, air concentrators, nebulizers, and nursing registry start-ups

we need to make gus the "home coming queen" for our aging pop! and mark's next land-cruise speaking engagement needs to be "bullets, bourbon, and age-defiance"

btw, love that title: "bullets and bourbon" - the only other welcomed recognition of that glorious combination was in the form of helo-drops (beer and bullets)

[tertius]

I think this is a rather premature assumption. This is still the norm: http://startingstrength.com/resource...98#post1059298

Maybe. I don't think it is, though. I'm not saying it's going to be some quick revolution, where next year doctors are all prescribing barbells.
But 10 or 15 years from now I think the landscape is going to look different, and I think a significant seed of that change is germinating in the SSCA.

What's going to be the driver is that some older people are going to start seeing their peers radically alter their lives for the better, and want to do that for themselves.
The failure of gerontology research world to use better methods and produce research that supports the experiences of those individuals won't matter much compared to those experiences, I reckon.