I was just doing one of our Wednesday podcasts with my friend and business partner Andy Schreiber, in which we read a letter from a new fan who found me on the Dr. Drew podcast. Drew had asked me about a back problem he had been having, which stemmed from him doing squats at the gym. Knowing that he’s a lifetime weightlifter, I was wondering if this was an old injury, or if it had happened some other way. It didn’t take long before Drew mentioned that he had been going very heavy, like he did when he was younger. We had a quick conversation about not wanting to go lighter, or do less, because we felt like we were becoming “old men.” And I told Drew that, unfortunately, we would have to go lighter at some point, or at the very least, take longer breaks and do more warm-up sets. Not to mention warming up with some aerobics, and doing a nice stretching routine before we even get to the squat rack.
Old Type A’s Don’t Wanna Do More Warm-Up
What the audience couldn’t see was that Drew was literally rolling his eyes at me. Not that he didn’t believe me, but that he knew I was telling the truth, and he knew that he would have to add all of this to his routine, just so that he could stay in the same place. The truth be told, Dr. Drew is a major “Type A” personality. And to be perfectly honest, I deal a lot with the Dr. Drews of the world – people who don’t WANT to have to do less in order to get more. The fact is, if any of us want to continue into old age, there are certain sacrifices that have to be made. But let’s face it, the payoff is huge.
Getting Older and Going Lighter
Does that mean we have to just “give it up,” and sit on the couch once we hit a certain age? Not at all. It just means that as we get older, exercise becomes even MORE important, but we have to make certain changes in how we approach it. Number one, we have to become more consistent, and not just have some hit or miss approach, whenever it’s “convenient.” Number two, we have to heed the signs our bodies are giving us. If you’re feeling particularly sore, it might mean you need to take an extra day off. That doesn’t mean you’re sloughing off, it just means your body is telling you it needs some extra rest, and you’re listening.
Old Type A’s Still Have to Sleep
And number three, speaking of rest, getting a good 7 – 8 hours of sleep every night is more important now than ever. A lot of you hear me banging on about aerobic activity, and focusing on your Zone 2 training (70 – 79% of your maximum aerobic capacity). That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to your anaerobic workouts (weight training) as well.
All this talk about exercise is making me hungry, so now I’ll turn this over to Anna Vocino for one of her great recipes.
Eat Happy & Baba Ganouj
I am thrilled to report that my cookbook “Eat Happy” is up for sale at Amazon—please please please pick up a copy! Podcast listeners have pushed the book into a great Amazon ranking, as far up as #312 of ALL the books for sale, so THANK YOU! If you buy the book now, you can forward your receipt to eathappycookbook@gmail.com to qualify for the bonuses—15 Additional Eat Happy Recipes (pdf), 4 Weeks of Dinners (pdf), and an Eat Happy Teleseminar I’m doing JUST for our podcast listeners!
