Tom Bailey: The Most Important Lift of My Life

[Josh Adkins]

Excellent article, Tom. Thanks for sharing it!

[FatButWeak]

Thanks. You treated a serious subject with both grace and humor. Well done.

[danomite!]

Tom (to be specific- the younger, less handsome Tom Bailey)- This is one of my favorite articles to date. I read this to my wife last night and she was in tears (I choked up a bit here & there). I watched my maternal grandmother 'live' with Alzheimer’s for many years until she passed. I'll be sharing this article with my parents (in their late 60's). Maybe it will finally get dad under the bar. This is an excellent, well written article that you should be very proud of. Thank you for sharing your story.

[Brodie Butland]

This is my first article for Starting Strength, actually the first time I wrote anything for a public forum.
I am nervous but excited to see the comments. The story is a little personal, but it shows how important strength is. What’s great about Starting Strength is that none of us train for vanity, only to get stronger. But why do we want to get stronger? We all have our reasons. This article was my attempt to explain why strength is so important in my daily life. And I wanted to contribute to Starting Strength, there have been so many exceptionally well written articles by some very smart writers that I have learned from. The least I can do is try to give back.

It was beautiful. And perfectly captures my sentiment...my strength isn't ultimately for me (though I benefit immensely from it), it's really for others. And unfortunately with my own aging parents, I know that at some point I'll need to use it--though hopefully that's still a ways off.

Definitely not as poignant as your story, but my best rep was carrying my wife into the reception room when we got married. Turns out it actually is quite difficult to front squat a person of normal weight wearing a heavy dress with a train, and it was a task that the pre-SS me would not have been able to do. My best high-rep work was probably unloading and spreading 2,600 lbs of topsoil around the foundation of my house (let's say the prior owners weren't the best keepers of the property) in 95 degree Cleveland heat. I don't think Home Depot is used to people buying half a ton of topsoil at once, and then taking it to their car and loading it by themselves.

[Sparky]

Outstanding article Tom. The thing that really stood out to me was when you wrote: “Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not.” It really drives home how important it is to train for strength. Sure doing something in many cases is better than doing nothing at all but if your going to do something, do something that counts, that will make a difference in your life and more importantly in the lives of others such as strength training.
Simply stated: The truth is a truth even if no one believes it and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. Many do not want to believe that they have to put in some work (yes work) and get some strength. And most people think all they need strength for is for surviving the zombie apocalypse (which it will help).

I think this is why I was drawn more to Starting Strength than anything else out there. Rip and company basically say "Look, when your done playing games, and your tired of B.S. and want to train for the real world and for life i.e. get off the toilet yourself, help your older Parents out, and be more useful in general here is what you do."

Tom it takes courage to write an article like this, a courage no doubt you have also attained through strength training as well.
Well done!

Sparky

[agingbones]

I am 73--about 20 years older than Tom Bailey. Fortunately, I haven't yet had to lift a family member from the floor, but I often support and sometimes lift my 98 year old Mother. I agree with the introduction to the Training Log Article........Everyone should read this article from Tom Bailey at least twice and then share it widely
Tom--Thanks for your GREAT ARTICLE

[wal]

Great piece Tom. Good to see you looking after Dad. I don't think that many folk realise how important strength is, it certainly maintains a high level of quality of life. As we age and retire from full time work it is important to keep motivated and not end up sitting in front of the TV. Being able to rescue folk in trouble requires strength. Back when I was employed, I had to in my training was to rescue the "dummy" off the power pole and 80Kgs was heavy at 30 feet in the air.

My sister in law is a district nurse, she goes and checks on old folk living on their own, her back is stuffed through lifting patients, she could have benefited greatly from a course in strength training, however like most places of employment there is little or no programs and if there it is often provided only after an accident has happened, such as myself after lifting an object wrongly and in my case having rotator cuff problems, which meant the employer case managed my injury and I ended up at the pyhsio pulling rubber bands off the door handle. It would have far better to have been given strength training beforehand and direction on how to lift a load correctly, thank God I found out now before I got too old.

Thanks Tom.