Starting Strength and longevity.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Spend 5 seconds in a nursing home and you will NEVER ask these stupid-ass questions again.

Also google "survivorship bias" and "Immortal-time bias" to understand why "the oldest people you encounter" is a meaningless nonce.

Or do neither, and try it yourself. Sit on the couch and occasionally do some light resistance band workouts or "therapy" with 5 pound dumbbells and come back when you are 85 to report your results.

All of this.

All we need now is an Iron Haiku, and we can put this thread to bed.

[Brodie Butland]

All of this.

All we need now is an Iron Haiku, and we can put this thread to bed.

If I make ninety,
I want to poop on my own
and not be a blob.

If I don't make it,
if I can poop on my own,
seventies are fine.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

If I make ninety,
I want to poop on my own
and not be a blob.

If I don't make it,
if I can poop on my own,
seventies are fine.

Double Iron-Haiku Bingo!

[Jeff Munn]

If I make ninety,
I want to poop on my own
and not be a blob.

If I don't make it,
if I can poop on my own,
seventies are fine.

Brought a tear to my eye.

[Kiril]

My father in law is 88, and while he never (to my knowledge) lifted weights, he did a lot of gymnastics/calisthenics and was strong. When he was in his well into 70s he could still do a hand-stand for instance, I don't think I've known anyone else that age who could do so. Now he's fairly well advanced in Alzheimer's Disease, is confined to wheelchair (hip problems that can't be addressed because Alzheimer's patients often don't bounce back from anesthesia, so a few years ago his family decided to let him keep what lucidity he had and manage pain as they could).

Which is to say, some things can't be made better by being stronger. If your roll of the dice says Alzheimer's, or cancer, or getting hit by a truck it won't matter how much you can lift. I DO know that until he was pretty far along my FIL led an active, interesting and enjoyable life, largely because he COULD actually do things like play with his grand children, go white-water rafting, hike in the Grand Canyon, etc.

So while a double-body-weight squat is no guarantee you're going to celebrate a triple-digit birthday, sitting on your butt is pretty much a guarantee if you DO someone is going to have to wheel you up to the cake and blow out the candles for you.

Strong. That's it. Some people are strong naturally, even without lifting 200 pounds, some will do gymnastics/calisthenics, and walking a lot. If it makes the old guy feeling better, and his quality of life - which is a pretty subjective thing - is good, than I see no need for him to do any other training. It's just not worth it.


Philbert, I agree with you: "The answer is as strong as is possible without compromising other aspects of health or performance, injuring ourselves, or taking up so much time strength training for life we have no time left to live it."


Chris Lippke,

It comes off like you're presenting {being strong} and {no heart disease} as being mutually exclusive. Is that your intention?

No. No exclusive these two. But I like being hyperbolic. I like pizza with a lot of cheese and olives. No mushrooms or corn. Thank you!

What issue? Who's making this an issue?

Me. Want to know, how far the strength training contributes for living longer than the average, at least for 90 years, in a good condition. No doubt, physical activity is very important thing, but what more vital: doing 3 - 4 hours per week weight lifting(not the 10 pounds dumbbell, but something more serious), or walking for 150 - 200 minutes a week, like the doctor said? My guess: doing both, with some well established proportion.

If the answer was zero, would you take this as evidence that barbell training negatively affects longevity?

Of course not. Barbell training, being done in an appropriate way, can only contribute for staying longer(and stronger) on this planet.

I'm not interested in (what I can only assume is your definition for...) "general health" because that shit is fucking played and boring.

It's your personal decision.

Wait, how did I get clogged arteries on the path to stronger bones and all that other stuff?

Could be. As I've already said: if you get stronger by eating a lot of shit, except the healthy food, than you may develop some heart disease in the future.

At first you just asked about a long life. You've thrown in the "happy" qualifier. I don't know about longevity, but, by and large, people's happiness goes up with their squat numbers.

Oh yes, I've mixed those two... Now, are you sure, people are more happy with increasing numbers of squat? Maybe until some age, but at 70? 80? Who knows, maybe most of those geezers just want their daily Cuban cigar with a nice cup of dry red, and 150 - 250 grams of juicy steak? Then they go for a long walk, talk with their "colleagues", play some chess, and go home for a nap, until the early evening.

By the way, I like your sense of homour.


greywar,

Spend 5 seconds in a nursing home and you will NEVER ask these stupid-ass questions again.

Spend 5 seconds in our(and I believe not only ours) international airport, and you' ll see so much old people flaying abroad, most of them on their feet. In nursing home you'll probably don't find too much young and healthy persons either.

Or do neither, and try it yourself. Sit on the couch and occasionally do some light resistance band workouts or "therapy" with 5 pound dumbbells and come back when you are 85 to report your results.

That optimistic? I'll not reach 85, I'm afraid. Anyway, for now I use barbell(not the professional one, but the one I can place on my room), and my target is to increase DL and squat to 1.5 BW, with HP near 75%. And from then on trying to maintain those modest results. Do I contradict myself? Not at all, my friend.


David Clark,

Running marathons make you immortal.

I almost laughed. By the way, who can argue, that "Medical opinion continues to uphold the link between moderate exercise and longevity.[7]" ?

[Chris Lippke]

My transhumanist leanings would offer that the surgery for cybernetic implants will undoubtedly be a bitch, so you'll want your fleshy body to be as strong as possible to handle all the trauma and recovery. Nanobots will handle all the arterial repairs.

Sully, I guess the twins in your book should have been triplets with the third phenotype being an endurancephile vegan who gets a flat tire during a century ride and dies of hypothermia in 60-degree weather because his bodyfat is so low; or gets eaten by wolves and in his dying breath exclaims, "BUT, I DIDN'T CONSIDER YOU A COMMODITY!"

unless we catch you raping dead cats. Then we'll put you in jail you sick fuck.

I'd say those dead cats deserved it, but that might hurt my insanity plea.