Raging Against Aging

    In light of the How Hard  Did Aging Hit You challenge currently making the rounds of social media, a great opportunity to sing the praises of weight training has arisen. And thank goodness it has! We, who have benefited from years of heavy, or more appealingly, challenging weight training can happily testify to its life enhancing dividends.

    Our notion of aging is typically a wearing down, and a wearing out of our bodies. A hunched back, stiff-jointed, slow moving body is what we are told awaits us all as we age. But this ain’t necessarily so!

    A regular and sensible weight training program can not only stave off the deliterious effects of aging, it can even reverse them. And the granddaddy of all exercises is the Squat.    

     If you could only do one thing to fight the bodies aging process, barbell squatting would be an excellent choice. The squat allows the trainee to move the most amount of weight with the most amount of muscle over the greatest range of motion. Squatting is a fundamental movement to human activity. Whether it’s working, eating, talking, elimination, or giving birth, humans were built to squat. The ability to squat below parallel and stand back up is a fundamental everyday human activity. And the inability to squat should NOT be inherent with aging. Squatting is safe and builds overall strength, including back and knee strength. 

    As Jonathan M. Sullivan points out in his highly recommended book, The Barbell Prescription, squats profoundly stress metabolism, skeletal and neuromuscular systems and forces an equally profound adaptation to stress. Sullivan goes on to say that “glucose flux, insulin sensitivity, muscle mass, strength, bone density, mobility, balance and function are all favorably implicated “ in progressively training the squat. 

    So squat! And squat regularly. If you don’t know how, find an experienced trainer (like those at IronWill!) and learn!

And, in time, instead of asking “How Hard Did Aging Hit You?”, you’ll be able to demonstrate how hard YOU HIT aging!