My cardio fitness needs work. I’ve lost 135lbs in the past two years and I’ve done great in adding strength and muscle. But my cardio is lacking. I found a fun class with interval running that is challenging but not soul crushing. I LOVE farmer carries and do them as much as I can.
Mike, yeah, farmer carries are easy to do in a few minutes, if you have a couple dumbbells. For people who aren’t exceptionally strong, I recommend trying to carry ¼ of body weight in each hand for as long as you can do it safely. For instance, I’m 200 lbs, so I walk a circuit arond the house with 50-lb dumbbells in each hand. (At the gym, I use 70-lb dumbbells, just to push it a bit.) Great fast way to elevate your heart rate and introduce your body to heavier weights, which aren’t always the right choice but can be in this format.
This is completely anecdotal but I’m almost 71, been a swimmer and walker all my life. I had been losing grip strength in both hands throughout my late 60’s. I started using free weights 6 months ago and my grip strength has dramatically improved! I’m very happy about that!
"...for greater lifespan and healthspan." Healthspan sure. Absurd to think improving grip strength will lengthen life. You know: correlation, causation.
Bob, your are correct. I also point out in the piece, "That said, it’s not grip strength per se that helps you live longer and healthier but what the presence of grip strength signifies in a person: A habit of resistance training and/or regularly carrying heavy things."
Extremely good advice! At 74 doing what you prescribe 6 days a week plus running. Maintaining and improving these skills is a must to increase health and life span!!
Annie, appreciate your comment about stairs. They are an underrated anywhere/everywhere workout especially at airports while carrying luggage. Question: do you have an opinion on how accurate the iOS health tracker VO2 max reading is? I'm not sure I trust it entirely. I sometimes go cycling with a hard-core cyclist of a age close to mine whose VO2 max is about the same to mine, which doesn't make sense.
Paula, that's interesting and helpful to know, because I'm going to do the same thing, in a lab early next year, and I'll see how accurate my Apple Watch is to that reading. Thanks for posting your note.
j j, yes. Habit acquisition is hard, but easier if you break it down into its component parts and do whatever it takes – sticky notes on the mirror, digital calendar reminders, telling your friends to ask if you did it, etc. – to be consistent during the first week or 14 days of your new habit.
More seriously: I train it because it helps with all kinds of functional parts of life, and it's a natural benefit of working with dumbbells. But I don't understand the point you're making. Can you explain, pls?
😂 oh I love it too, I do tons of hangs and I think it helps my tennis a lot. My point is more just that I think the correlation goes the other way (people in very poor physical health lose their grip strength), it’s not that a strong grip makes you live longer per se.
I believe my strings are poly, yes. Strung at 50 pounds. I'm totally out of my depth, and it sounds like you know absolutely what you're talking about.
Sadly I’ve had to learn about it, haha, wish I could just ignore and focus on the game. Everyone’s different so you never know what will work for you, but I’d say worth a shot to see if you like playing with a multi filament string, it’s much softer on the arm. Technifibre X One Biphase or Head Velocity MLT are both ones that I think keep good control and feel on the ball. At least for me, softer setup combined with arm and shoulder work really helped.
Hmmm, do you play with all poly strings? The pure drive is very stiff, which is ok but a lot of people find it helps to play w a multi filament or sub gut cross string, or at least looser tensions.
You're totally right. I got it backward in the post, have corrected it and thank you for pointing it out.
Also, yeah, as a leftie, my left forwarm is in much better shape than my right, b/c of tennis (and, previous to that, squash, back when I had abundant menisci.)
btw, before I improved my tennis forehand mechanics, I had low-grade tennis elbow for a few months and I found that the only thing, and I mean the only thing, that alleviated the discomfort was bar hanging. Wonder if you ever experienced that. Not an urgent question, but don't mind me asking, pls.
Leftie, nice! I absolutely struggled with tennis elbow as I got older, super frustrating. Ended up taking a month off, and yea 100% that’s when I started doing grip and forearm stuff. I ended up having to quit my old Babolat Pure Aero bc it was quite stiff; now I play with a Yonex and that seemed to help a lot too. And yea my arm is super unbalanced too haha, perils of the game.
I appreciate this straightforward/no-bs list.
I love love love when people think my writing is no-bs!
This post is a keeper! Thanks Paul🙏🏻
Lauren, I'm glad it's helpful to you. Keep it but also please pass it on!
My cardio fitness needs work. I’ve lost 135lbs in the past two years and I’ve done great in adding strength and muscle. But my cardio is lacking. I found a fun class with interval running that is challenging but not soul crushing. I LOVE farmer carries and do them as much as I can.
Mike, yeah, farmer carries are easy to do in a few minutes, if you have a couple dumbbells. For people who aren’t exceptionally strong, I recommend trying to carry ¼ of body weight in each hand for as long as you can do it safely. For instance, I’m 200 lbs, so I walk a circuit arond the house with 50-lb dumbbells in each hand. (At the gym, I use 70-lb dumbbells, just to push it a bit.) Great fast way to elevate your heart rate and introduce your body to heavier weights, which aren’t always the right choice but can be in this format.
This is completely anecdotal but I’m almost 71, been a swimmer and walker all my life. I had been losing grip strength in both hands throughout my late 60’s. I started using free weights 6 months ago and my grip strength has dramatically improved! I’m very happy about that!
Karen, terrific point: carrying heavy things, even if they are only a little bit heavy, has some big benefits.
"...for greater lifespan and healthspan." Healthspan sure. Absurd to think improving grip strength will lengthen life. You know: correlation, causation.
Bob, your are correct. I also point out in the piece, "That said, it’s not grip strength per se that helps you live longer and healthier but what the presence of grip strength signifies in a person: A habit of resistance training and/or regularly carrying heavy things."
I am 76. And work on all this stuff! Good advice.
for greater lifespan and healthspan.
So helpful!
I'm so gratified to know this is useful to you. Keep going.
So practical, so helpful!
Karen, i'm so glad you find this useful. Keep going.
Extremely good advice! At 74 doing what you prescribe 6 days a week plus running. Maintaining and improving these skills is a must to increase health and life span!!
Joe you're a machine. Keep going.
Simple, solid advice as always. Well done Paul
Alfie, i'm glad this works for you! Keep going.
Great list. I’m a big believer in taking the stairs as a Vo2 max boost and noticed that my Apple health app now tracks this.
Annie, appreciate your comment about stairs. They are an underrated anywhere/everywhere workout especially at airports while carrying luggage. Question: do you have an opinion on how accurate the iOS health tracker VO2 max reading is? I'm not sure I trust it entirely. I sometimes go cycling with a hard-core cyclist of a age close to mine whose VO2 max is about the same to mine, which doesn't make sense.
Not very accurate is my impression. I'd love to see you write about how the different wearable fitness devices stack up.
I just had my VO2 max tested in a lab and it was within one point of my Apple Watch estimate which surprised me.
Paula, that's interesting and helpful to know, because I'm going to do the same thing, in a lab early next year, and I'll see how accurate my Apple Watch is to that reading. Thanks for posting your note.
Great great idea, Annie. Stay tuned!
It's a great reminder to maintain and stick to certain habits!
j j, yes. Habit acquisition is hard, but easier if you break it down into its component parts and do whatever it takes – sticky notes on the mirror, digital calendar reminders, telling your friends to ask if you did it, etc. – to be consistent during the first week or 14 days of your new habit.
I love grip strength, but if you’re training it bc of a correlation w mortality, you’ve gotten the wrong end of the stick
Yonatan, you mean the wrong end of the wet towel?
More seriously: I train it because it helps with all kinds of functional parts of life, and it's a natural benefit of working with dumbbells. But I don't understand the point you're making. Can you explain, pls?
😂 oh I love it too, I do tons of hangs and I think it helps my tennis a lot. My point is more just that I think the correlation goes the other way (people in very poor physical health lose their grip strength), it’s not that a strong grip makes you live longer per se.
I believe my strings are poly, yes. Strung at 50 pounds. I'm totally out of my depth, and it sounds like you know absolutely what you're talking about.
Sadly I’ve had to learn about it, haha, wish I could just ignore and focus on the game. Everyone’s different so you never know what will work for you, but I’d say worth a shot to see if you like playing with a multi filament string, it’s much softer on the arm. Technifibre X One Biphase or Head Velocity MLT are both ones that I think keep good control and feel on the ball. At least for me, softer setup combined with arm and shoulder work really helped.
I will experiment. Thank you, Yonatan.
Good luck! Let me know how it goes!
I swing a Babolat Pure Drive.
Nice! I love serving with the Pure Drive
It's a good reliable raquet for a combination of power and control, I think, but I'm certainly not an expert in that field.
My biggest issue with my serve is the resulting achy biceps tendon in my left shoulder. Not sure bar hangs help that.
Hmmm, do you play with all poly strings? The pure drive is very stiff, which is ok but a lot of people find it helps to play w a multi filament or sub gut cross string, or at least looser tensions.
You're totally right. I got it backward in the post, have corrected it and thank you for pointing it out.
Also, yeah, as a leftie, my left forwarm is in much better shape than my right, b/c of tennis (and, previous to that, squash, back when I had abundant menisci.)
btw, before I improved my tennis forehand mechanics, I had low-grade tennis elbow for a few months and I found that the only thing, and I mean the only thing, that alleviated the discomfort was bar hanging. Wonder if you ever experienced that. Not an urgent question, but don't mind me asking, pls.
Leftie, nice! I absolutely struggled with tennis elbow as I got older, super frustrating. Ended up taking a month off, and yea 100% that’s when I started doing grip and forearm stuff. I ended up having to quit my old Babolat Pure Aero bc it was quite stiff; now I play with a Yonex and that seemed to help a lot too. And yea my arm is super unbalanced too haha, perils of the game.
Thank you for sharing these great tips!
I'm glad it's helpful to you. Keep going.