04/15/2026
Happy Birthday, Papa Jo's!
Today is both my Grandpa's birthdays. RIP to both of them. They would of been 103 today.
They were born same day same year. On two different continents. About 7000 miles away
How's that for a sign?
Unfortunately, they passed due to the typical diseases of aging. One with heart problems. The other fell in the bathtub and passed soon after. We were actually on the 1st leg of our vacation in Hawaii and the second leg was to visit him in California, but it turned out to be for his funeral.
Falls are the leading accident cause of death and/or entry into a care facility for people over 65.
I had never seen either of them do much of any physical activity besides walking.
You can see how gaunt my one grandpa was in the picture below.
They say after the age of 40 you lose about 1% of muscle mass due to sarcopenia. But the more important thing is you lose about 3% power.
Power is defined as the ability to generate as much force as fast as possible.
They say the most powerful/explosive movement in all sports is the Olympic Weightlifting Snatch.....but only when an actual Olympian is performing it.
Definitly not when I'm doing it 😉 Which is why I stopped doing Olympic Lifting last year. It's just not conducive for injury free performance. Plenty of other ways to develop power.
And today I'm all about developing my fascia which is key to that elastic power.
Other super powerful examples are a baseball pitcher throwing a fastball, a Mike Tyson uppercut, a 100-yard sprint, a shotput throw, a volleyball spike, and on and on.
Losing power is the more important factor for why people who are older start moving more slowly.
Losing both power and strength will also greatly affect coordination and balance.
I remember one time my Ohio Grandpa when I was probably early 20's or late teens, we are on a hill and he had lost his balance and was forced to run down the hill but couldn't stop and crash landed hard. Ambulance had to be called in. And he was most worried about his toupee ;)
Some tests you can do on yourself to check for power/strength/mobility are:
1. Get up off the floor test- lie on back then get up to a standing position as fast as can. The repeat lying on chest. Should take less than :03
2. 1-leg stand- just stand on one leg for as long as you can. If under :10 you've got some major problems coming. Both legs should be relatively the same too. Asymetries lead to major problems as well.
3. In-Line Lunge- This one comes from the Functional movement screen. Kneel down with 1-foot in front and the back leg knee about 1-2" right behind your ankle. Both feet should be in-line with each other. Now lunge up and back down. There should not be any excessive wobbling, feet movement, etc... everything nice and sturdy. Repeat on other side. Check out this tutorial for the exact how to and scoring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAwynuSAcv4 if you have a pipe you can do it but not needed for a quick assessment.
Getting old sucks.
But like Les Brown says "We can't help getting older, but we don't have to get old!"
So true
So are you getting old?
At 48 I'm the strongest pound for pound I've ever been. The 222 pound me beats me in absolute strength, but the 175 pound me crushes him in relative strength. And I am the healthiest I've ever been.
My plantar fasciitis has come back in my left foot. I pushed the barefoot sprinting on the track too quickly. It will be gone soon ;). Pain is an indication something should be done ASAP....masking it will only make it worse later.
The 4th-6th decades of life for most inactive people is really where things start to take a huge decline.
UNLESS YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Strength training, IN A FUNCTIONAL WAY, is your friend, but remember our 4 basic human patterns are standing, walking, sprinting and throwing. Lose any of those and the decline will happen faster.
We do not get old overnight. It's our habits that we engage in for decades that either take us to Health or take us to Disease. There is no in between. NONE!
At the bus stop yesterday, now 95% of parents are walking their kids to the bus stop, but 2 dads talking about why they don't walk when it is cold......
TLDR- I'm just too cold and I live too far away.
I live the same distance away from the one dad. I walk in short shorts and no shirt.
Cold resliance is just like a muscle, if you don't train it, it gets weaker.
Habits of disease or health.
Oh, and BTW, both were wearing sunglasses.
That makes cold adaption and life in general much much harder.
Become harder to kill.
