Muscle Building Inspiration: Matt Parisi

Need a little inspiration? Check out Matt.

He’s the guy pictured on deck this past summer, fishing for tuna off Gloucester, Ma. He’s got a great build. Check out those traps, delts and arms.

Would you believe he’s 68 years old and has only been training for a couple years? There’s even more to Matt’s story.

Matt Parisi last summer fishing tuna off Gloucester, MA

Three years ago, Matt had to undergo emergency surgery for internal bleeding. Wound up taking 2 operations and he was unable to eat solid food for 6 months, relying on a tube for survival. His weight dropped to 129 pounds.

But he recovered. As soon as he was able and on his feet again, he started working out and re-building muscle. Today, he’s 170 pounds and looking great.

Matt visits BoomerMuscle for ideas and inspiration. I think his story is very inspirational and wanted to share it with everybody.

Matt is living proof you can build muscle over adversity — at any age.

Stay strong, Matt!

Don’t Give Up on Yourself

Don’t give up on yourself. Easy to say, but how?

They say that mid January is the most depressing time of the year. Holiday fun was over, the bills started coming due and all the talk about looking back on life got us all a little down-hearted.

Those things are especially true for people our age, right? I mean, we really are older now — with a finite amount of shelf-life left. So, screw the past, let’s focus on how we’re going to spend our future.We have a future ahead of us and it can be what we want it to be.

To own it, one of the most important steps is to take charge of our own health. Proper diet and rest are essential. Most importantly, exercise — specifically building back the muscle that aging is robbing from us — is critically important.While our generation started off physically fit and active, we’ve slowed way down and gotten fat. In fact, we’re in much worse shape than our parents’ generation.

About 13 percent of Baby Boomers — the generation born in the two decades after World War Two — reported being in “excellent” health in middle age, compared to 32 percent of the previous generation who said the same thing at the same stage of life.

Overall, about 39 percent of Boomers were obese, compared to about 29 percent of the previous generation. Baby Boomers were also less likely to get regular exercise. – Journal of the American Medical Association – Internal Medicine.The Health Care industry is not going to ride to our rescue.

In my opinion, doctors today seem to work more like quick oil-change technicians than caring coaches. They seem to mainly prescribe drugs for just about everything. It’s not helping us. It may keep us around longer but it is not making us healthier.If you want to hear more on this subject, I wrote a rant in recent times that blows it all out. You can check it out here: They’re Keeping You Fat and Weak.

Strength training can work miracles for your health and well-being:- Regain lost muscle and bone density- Reverse Type2 Diabetes and reduce fat- Reverse aging at the genetic level. And contrary to the pain and suffering stereotype, the process of strength training actually releases dopamine and endorphins into your blood stream. These are nature’s feel-great hormones.

Also, as a result of working out, your body shape will improve. You will look and feel better. You’ll walk taller and be able to do simple tasks, like hauling groceries, with greater ease.Most importantly, you will safeguard yourself against the negative effects of aging and ensure that your remaining years are as health and happy as they can be.

If you haven’t already, please start working out. If you can’t afford a gym membership and don’t own equipment, you can do it with a simple set of inexpensive resistance bands. Check them out by reading this post.Make the comittment to a schedule and do that first rep each workout day.

The hardest part of this is just doing it.

What Holds Us Back?

What holds people back from working out?

Let’s talk about ourselves for a minute. Baby Boomers. It’s pretty well known that our generation went from the fittest ever to the flabbiest. We’re in worse shape now than our parents were at this age, and our parents didn’t often leave the couch.

Only 35% of us exercise on a regular basis. Check out this article from AARP for more on where we were back in the day and how we got where we are now.

The goal of BoomerMuscle is to help Baby Boomers build muscle in a way they can feel right away. Anyone who goes down the Boomer path can and should expect a transformation: from whatever state your muscles are in now to bigger and stronger than before. That goes for beginners and advanced. Whether you just want to be stronger and fitter or if you want to build up serious muscle, this program will help you get there.

So what holds you back?

There are plenty of academic studies out there that point to reasons why. Psychology Today once said the biggest reason was fear of discomfort. The idea that people naturally avoid anything that might cause discomfort, like: feeling sore, getting sweaty, breathing hard, etc.

That’s probably at the core of why most people avoid working out, especially muscle-building workouts. The BoomerMuscle Method is designed to make you feel a pump (some call it soreness). So if you’re super sensitive to something like and think of it as discomfort, you’d naturally struggle with a muscle-building workout.

Allow me to flesh out some other reasons. I’ve been at this for nearly 50 years now, and I still battle my own demons to stay on track. These are ones I struggle through each day.

It’s Boring

Ok. The idea of doing repetitions is the definition of repetitive. Got it. Think of it more like meditation that will literally give you a feel-good high as you go. Focus on the Mind/Muscle Connection.

Crank up music that lifts you up and takes your mind to a different place. Learn to love the muscle pump as you dig into those reps. Feel those endorphins kick in and enjoy the natural high.

It’s only boring if you fail to get into it. If you’re thinking about it being boring, you’re not grooving into the Mind/Muscle Connection.

Stop thinking.  Focus on the feeling.

I Don’t Have Time

We’re all too busy nowadays. And even when we’re idle, we’re staring at video screens large and small, occupying ourselves with Facebook and so on. It makes it seem like we’re on 24/7.

To fight this one, I’ve always relied on a realistic workout schedule and try to:

1. Limit each workout to 35 – 50 minutes.
2. Keep it to 4 Days per week

I’m Too Tired Today

This is a tough one. It’s very easy to convince yourself you need a break, so you grab a glass of wine on the couch with your spouse. Very easy at our house.

With this one, I remind myself that I will feel differently just a few minutes into the first set of exercises.

Working out causes you to breath harder, and the extra oxygen helps wake you up. And I will sometimes have a glass of iced coffee before I start for a little jolt of caffeine.

As you progress, your body releases feel good hormones, like endorphins, that literally make you feel good.

All of a sudden, you will realize you weren’t so tired in the first place.

Find Passion

It’s a choice, really. Do you want the idea of working out to feel like drudgery? Or do you want to feel a sense of passion about it?

Sounds like a dumb question. But think about it. 99% of your success at this or anything else is all in your head and heart. You can do anything you really desire to do.

And frankly, if you can’t get into a positive, passionate state of mind, you’re going to struggle.

Researchers have shown that passion is a core element for success in working out, especially for us Baby Boomers. Think about the great thing you are doing for yourself. Get jealous about giving yourself the time to do it. You are becoming stronger, better looking, happier and more confident. Those are things worth feeling passionate about.

What’s the Point?

This one comes up when you’re down on yourself, noticing all your physical flaws vs. the progress you’ve made. In my case, I’ve always had to battle the bulge. My body was designed to store stuff, not burn it up. So, if I’m down, I can easily start listing all my less than perfect parts.

Well, this a time to be tough on your whiny self. Time to Shut-up and just do it. Failing to workout will only make your flaws worse. Working out will only increase your strong points.

So just do it

For more: There are additional articles on this site about motivation. Check out the posts directly below.

How to Get Motivated to Workout and Stay Motivated

Feelings, not hard facts, are the key to getting motivated to workout – and even more importantly, they are the key to stay motivated.

Knowing how to get motivated to workout is probably more important than the nature of the actual workout. Without motivation, people never start in the first place and without the ability to stay motivated, many will tend to simply give up at some point. 

A workout program provides a gradual return. Without motivation and the ability to sustain it, there’s little chance for success. It’s why lots of home gym gear ends up as a coat rack or just gathers dust.

Motivation sounds simple. But emotions and feelings are not simple things, especially for guys. It’s typically not our strong suit.

Getting motivated to workout and staying motivated is all about positive emotion. This article will give you some practical tips on how to generate those feelings and keep them going over the long term.

First The Facts

I could tsunami you with study after academic study proving the benefits of exercise, especially for people like Baby Boomers. In fact, recent studies have shown that resistance training in particular can:

• Actually reverse aging at the genetic level
• Halt and reverse osteoporosis, sarcopenia (muscle wasting), shrinking in height
• Reduce obesity and manage weight (muscle burns calories even at rest)
• Prevent Type 2 Diabetes and better mange it for those who already have it
• Reduce anxiety and depression and more

In addition, the American Heart Association recently found that those who adopt heart healthy habits, like regular exercise and weight control, can dramatically reduce the risk of heart attack and trim the risk of cancer by 38%. And another study found that regular exercise can take decades of aging off our skin.

If you want to see more information on recent studies, please see my menu category Reverse Aging. There’s several articles there with links to reports and studies.

And I’ve included a variety of them at the bottom of this post, as well.

It’s powerful information! And those facts might motivate you to make a plan to exercise, but they’re not going to motivate you while you’re actually sweating it out in the gym. Right?

It’s hard to get pumped up with a mental mantra in your head about mortality stats.

Think about it fellas… right before the big game, does the coach have the team quietly study the chalkboard and stare at facts? Or does he try to whip up their emotions for God, country and good ol’ Wossamotta U?

The Mystery

I used to think that facts alone could and should motivate people, but it’s obvious that they don’t. Us Baby Boomers have gone from the healthiest generation to the least healthy in history. We are breaking records for obesity and heading for a health disaster as we age.

People are not stupid. They can read the facts here or anywhere else and understand what’s at stake. So, what is holding them back from taking action?

Why doesn’t everyone just grab a workout guide and hit the gym?

After all, us Boomers invented working out. The first gym chains, like Golds and L.A. Fitness, opened for us in the 70’s and 80’s. We jogged. Played racquet ball. Shot hoops. Softball Beer Leagues. Aerobicized with Jane and Jazzercized with Julie. We were all over it.

Then… middle age, kids, careers. What happened? We just kind of lost it. Got fat and gave up.

Here’s where feelings come in

James Gavin, a professor at  Concordia University in Montreal, investigated our emotional motivations for exercise, from looking good to having fun. He found that for the Baby Boom generation, passion is most important when it comes to staying motivated to exercise.

Gavin says a person will be more motivated to put in time on the treadmill if he or she knows it will help have more fun skiing in winter, versus viewing it as a tedious punishment.

But he says Baby Boomers are not feeling the joy in our workouts. He says we need to find “deep personal meaning in the physical activity” and thinks the answer lies in getting the fitness industry to make their gyms more fun and engaging.

Makes sense. But hold on, professor…

There is also a growing body of research that says most people prefer a workout routine done solo versus a group or class setting. 

In an online survey conducted by Reuters, 77% of the 1,200 respondents said they prefer working out alone. Running and Resistance Training were their top two workout choices.

And there’s the rub

Let’s assume professor Gavin is absolutely correct about passion, but let’s also recognize that things like resistance training and running do not typically engage people in a ‘fun’ team activity.

How do those of us who choose resistance training as our focus, and prefer to workout alone, manage our motivations and emotions? It might be easy if we’re talking about joining a beach volley ball league, but what about the weight room?

Science has has thoroughly researched motivation in the work environment and other places. The general consensus is that we are human and it is all about how we feel regardless of the activity. So, I figure that applies to us in the workout room, as well.

We think to build a plan

But we rely on feelings to make it work

Guidelines to motivate ourselves

So what do we do? Can we get motivated outside of fun team sports?

Yes. Here’s the proven formula for how motivation works on our feelings. And how we can apply that to our workouts.

Stay Positive

Sounds trite. But hear me out.

Many of us are overweight or obese. So, we’re starting off in a tough spot. You may be unhappy with yourself and how you look and feel.

The little devil that lives on your shoulder may be sabotaging you with negative thoughts. “This won’t work, why bother, I always give up…”

You’re not going to get anywhere with negative thoughts about yourself. Monitor your self talk and catch yourself going negative. Be your own cheerleader. Replace those with positive reviews of your goals:

• Your health and longevity are the most valuable things you have, you’re workouts will pay huge dividends for you and those you love
• If weight loss is also a goal, remind yourself how much better you will look and feel over time. Think about a new pair of jeans and looking great in them.
• If it’s about muscle, think about how great it will feel to be stronger
• Be realistic as you move toward your goals. This is a gradual process, take stock of the small wins as you head toward the big goals. You’re not striving to be Mr. or Ms. Universe, just a better looking and feeling version of you.
• Use tools like Google to find inspirational stories about people like yourself. There are tons out there. Here’s a nice one about a mom who used resistance training to drop 6 dress sizes while losing only 2 pounds of bodyweight (muscle weighs more than fat). She looks great. Not perfect, but great. 

Reward Yourself

For the same reason the Dog Whisperer gives his charges love and treats, we humans also respond to rewards for a job well done.

If we were at work, praise from the boss can make us feel great and want to go the extra mile, so can special recognition among our peers or a raise in pay.

Rewards work. In this case, you’re the boss of you. So, be a good boss…

• A good workout will actually make you feel high. Naturally. Endorphins and other feel good chemicals are released in your body. It’s real and it feels great. Enjoy it.
• Find some ways to give yourself a reward for completing a workout week. In this case, you might want to avoid the chocolate cake and a 12 pack, but maybe a full week of good workouts earns you a nice treat on the weekend: A reasonable slice of that cake, or a couple lite beers or glasses of healthy red wine.
• You could consider setting up a challenge with another person. $100 for whomever accomplishes a set goal first or best. Depending on how competitive you are, you can make it so there are no losers because you’re both going to win in terms of health. Maybe winner buys a healthy lunch or dinner.
• It can simply be continuously reminding yourself you’re doing something very positive. Take stock of those small wins each day/week and allow yourself to feel good about it.

Don’t go it alone

We humans are social beings, even, if like me, you prefer to workout alone with the headphones on. I still get a lot of emotional support from my wife.

Luckily for me, she also works out and we occasionally even share our home gym space.

But more importantly, I have someone to talk to about what I’m doing and how it’s going. She gets it and gives me a pat on the back or a kick in the ass when I need it.

• Keep your spouse or a friend aware of your efforts and ask them to help you stay on track, even if that’s just listening to your latest status. 
• You can hire a trainer if that works for you.
• Look for support, like a class or a workout partner, in your gym if you belong to one.
• If you can’t find somebody, email me. I will try to help and offer encouragement. Brian@BoomerMuscle.com

Be Passionate 

This is about you. For you. Get fired up about yourself. This can change your life in so many ways, physically and mentally.

Care enough about yourself and those you love to really want this. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how experienced. You can realize tremendous benefits at any age or level.

To feel good. Look good. Live longer and better.

• Strive for a Mind/Muscle Connection as you train. It’s almost like a form of meditation. You’re focusing on the feeling that the exercise creates in the muscle you are working. Tune into it and make it your focus.
• Resistance training in particular can create a pumped up feeling in your muscles. A bit of soreness. It’s not pain. It’s blood flowing into the muscle fibers to repair and build them up. It’s a good thing.
• Try not to think of the workout as tedious drudgery. Instead, tune into that Connection, get lost in the music you love and feel the endorphin high.
• Stop thinking while you’re working out: Feel

The Thinking Part

Before you start, make a plan: 4 – 5 days per week, 30 – 40 minutes per workout

1. Establish short term goals (simply doing the workouts on a regular basis at first)
2. Long term goals — muscle gain and fat loss targets. Don’t go by pounds. Muscle weighs more than fat, go by sizes, inches and feelings.
3. Start slowly at first and work your way up gradually
   • Check with your doctor if you have a current condition or concern

It’s not easy, but it is worth the effort

I’ve been working out for nearly 50 years now. I confess that nearly every time, I still have to battle the devil on my left shoulder who tries to talk me out of it.

In my case, I focus on knowing that I’m going to feel better during and after the workout. The endorphins will flow and I’ll get that natural high.

I’ll feel good about myself for conquering the left-shoulder devil. I’ll feel good knowing that I’m burning calories and building muscle.

And every single time, I do feel good.

Some days, it’s a struggle to get started. It’s us vs the negative devils.

But we can win.

The key is, just get in the gym and do that first rep. Then the second and so on. Before you know it, you will be in the groove. Focus on the Mind/Muscle Connection and rock a great workout.

I have a ritual:

1. Two pieces of sugarless bubble gum, one for each side of my mouth. I’m one of those teeth grinders, so the gum helps me out
2. Music! I love classic rock like Van Halen or modern bouncy pop. Have some fun building your own playlist or pick a station with upbeat tunes

You can do it, with or without the gum. But definitely use music.

If you’re not sure how to start…

Start slowly at first. Your first goal is simply to follow through on showing up for each workout day. Don’t get hung up if you’re not killing it in the first couple of weeks. It’s gradual. Ramp up.  You’ll get there soon enough.

You can do this!

What are your feelings about motivation?

Do you have tips and tricks you use to get in the groove?

I’d love to hear them. Please share in Comments below or drop me a line: Brian@BoomerMuscle.com

Why I Hate Baby Boomers

“Why I hate baby boomers” is a declaration found frequently in blogs and other online essays these days, most of them written by our own kids — the dread and much maligned Millenials.

There are 75.4 million Millenials in the U.S., aged 19 – 35. And they have reasons to be angry at us.

According to Forbes, “The data is actually pretty scary: 44% of college grads in their 20s are stuck in low-wage, dead-end jobs, the highest rate in decades, and the number of young people making less than $25,000 has also spiked to the highest level since the 1990s.”

One of the big reasons given for this backup? Baby Boomers are not retiring but hanging onto to their jobs due to economic uncertainty. So, the millenials are pissed off and see us as the problem. Of course, we are also blamed for the way we raised them. They are the everybody-gets-a-trophy generation. They may indeed feel entitled, but we did raise them that way.

I am a Boomer

For the record, I don’t hate Baby Boomers. I am one. But I do find it alarming that so many millenials hate our generation. So, while this site is devoted to helping Baby Boomers build muscle as we age, I wanted to take a time out to try and understand this phenomenon.

We of the Baby Boom were born in the years following World War II and are now between the ages of 53 and 71 years old. Because we’re starting to die off, Millenials recently passed us as the largest generation in terms of sheer population.

Wikipedia sums us up this way: 

In Europe and North America, boomers are widely associated with privilege, as many grew up in a time of widespread government subsidies in post-war housing and education, and increasing affluence.^[3]

As a group, baby boomers were the wealthiest, most active, and most physically fit generation up to the era in which they arrived, and were amongst the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time.^[4] They were also the generation that received peak levels of income; they could therefore reap the benefits of abundant levels of food, apparel, retirement programs, and sometimes even “midlife crisis” products. The increased consumerism for this generation has been regularly criticized as excessive.

Meanwhile, our kids, the Millenials face pretty much the opposite scenario. Many of them are choked with college debt they may never get rid of. They can’t purchase cars or houses and struggle to get by as the world around them changes dramatically.

In addition to political upheaval, technology relentlessly searches for ways to eliminate low-paying human jobs with alternatives, like drones delivering packages.

Many Millenials see little hope in their futures. And they’re really ticked off at us. One blogger stated they were waiting for us to start dying off and as we do: “Good luck changing your own f**ing bedpans.”

It all seems so strange

Our parents — The Greatest Generation — could do no wrong in some ways. You have to give them props for saving all of  humanity in World War II and all the selfless sacrifices they made doing it. 

Of course, like any crop of spoiled kids, we didn’t give them a pass. They were also extremely lame in many ways. They could not begin to grasp the expanding consciousness and enlightened genius of our generation. They were an army of Archie Bunkers, hopelessly out of it: Vietnam. Women’s Rights. Civil Rights.

Many of them went to college nearly free on the G.I. Bill and bought inexpensive houses with government aid. Jobs were plentiful as the world rebuilt and the rise of unions made it so even manual labor paid well enough that an uneducated person could own a home and raise a family.

We were the kids who reaped the benefits of all that. The world would be our oyster. We have enjoyed the highest levels of success and peak incomes. We were the most physically fit generation in history, at least at one time. We believe there are no limits that can hold us back.

And perhaps we’ve taken all those things for granted. Our kids desire the same things but apparently cannot get there in many cases regardless of how much education they finance or how hard they work.

So, it’s no surprise really when our own kids look at us and see our glaring flaws and get ticked off.  We at least had the advantage of opportunity and optimistic futures. The classic American Dream was attainable for us. We would be angry, too, if Hard Work and Education failed to realize opportunity.

I have no idea what to do about any of it. Except, perhaps to be a little more empathetic the next time an obviously over-qualified young person takes my order at a fast food place. They could have an advanced degree and a ton of ambition with nowhere to go.

What are your thoughts on this Generation Gap? Please leave a comment below or drop me a line: Brian@BoomerMuscle.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Health Benefits of Weight Lifting

The health benefits of weight training have been proven in study after study, yet people, especially Baby Boomers, continue to remain largely inactive and susceptible to a host of preventable diseases and conditions.

Before we get to the list of great benefits you will receive if you do it, we need to address the question of why you aren’t already.

Why?

Obesity has been at epidemic proportions for some time and is getting worse.  Overall, 38 percent of Americans are now obese — 40% among women — and the crisis is growing among our children. Plus, another third of US adults are considered overweight. That’s the majority of the population.

Doctors don’t fare tons better than the rest of us. According to the Physicians Health Study (2007), 40% of doctors were overweight and 23% were obese. A majority.

Global Advances in Health and Medicine points out:

“While physicians are less likely than average Americans to be overweight or obese, they are not immune to our national obesogenic tendencies. Indeed, as a medical oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Edward Creagan, MD, so aptly put it, ‘More of us commit suicide with a fork than any other instrument.’ Physician obesity rates likely have radically important implications.”

Doctors are not prepared to help

Doctors are not properly trained in exercise or nutrition. Our medical system is built around a “fix it with a pill” approach that relies on medicating us when a health issue arises.

So our exercise health is pretty much left up to us to figure out. You can change your body and dramatically improve your health, but don’t expect your doctor to lead this effort for you.

And the fitness industry is filled with tons of conflicting information and baffle-gab sales pitches. It’s enough to discourage anyone.

We need to own this

It’s clear the problem stems from us eating too much and exercising too little. Genetics is often used as an easy excuse, but researchers say the fact that each new generation has become progressively fatter than the last for the past 30 years rules out genetics as the cause.

It’s on us and how we live: staring into video screens all day, texting, gaming and posting as we eat too many of the wrong foods while sitting on the couch.

Heart disease, diabetes and cancer are among the diseases associated with obesity. Obesity-related diabetes alone “will break the bank of our healthcare system,” according to Dr. James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, as quoted by WebMD.

Clearly this battle is being lost

What could turn the tide?

Weight lifting. Strength training. Call it resistance training if you prefer. It’s all the same thing: using resistance against your muscles to make them stronger. It can be done with body weight, inexpensive resistance bands, free weights or machines, at home or in a gym.

Here are the benefits. This can change your life:

• Reduce obesity and manage your weight. Strength training is better than cardio at burning calories. While cardio burns slightly more while you’re doing it, strength training burns calories for hours after you’ve finished. Plus, muscle burns calories even while you’re resting.

Building muscle and reducing fat will help protect you from these diseases and conditions:

• Sarcopenia – the age-related loss of muscle that rob you of half your muscle mass over time and leave you frail and weak
• Diabetes – recent studies show strength training can actually prevent Type 2 diabetes and can better manage the disease for those who already have it, according to Web MD
• Heart Disease – the American Heart Association recommends strength training at least 2 days per week
• Arthritis – the Arthritis Foundation recommends circuit strength training
• Back Pain – can be reduced by strengthening core muscles, like the glutes, according to Web MD
• Anxiety and Depression – studies have shown strength training reduces both

On that last point, it’s worth noting that many people are coping with anxiety and depression. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America says 40 million people suffer from Anxiety and more than 15 people will experience clinical Depression annually.

Being overweight is no fun. Feeling strong and in better shape feels good. I realize that’s oversimplification, but honestly, if you are fighting those things, strength training can be an avenue to a happier outlook. The goal isn’t to be perfect but to feel better about your health and appearance.

 Consider these points from the Mayo Clinic:

Regular exercise probably helps ease depression in a number of ways, which may include:

• Releasing feel-good brain chemicals that may ease depression (neurotransmitters, endorphins and endocannabinoids)
• Reducing immune system chemicals that can worsen depression
• Increasing body temperature, which may have calming effects

Regular exercise has many psychological and emotional benefits, too. It can help you:

• Gain confidence. Meeting exercise goals or challenges, even small ones, can boost your self-confidence. Getting in shape can also make you feel better about your appearance.
• Take your mind off worries. Exercise is a distraction that can get you away from the cycle of negative thoughts that feed anxiety and depression.
• Get more social interaction. Exercise and physical activity may give you the chance to meet or socialize with others. Just exchanging a friendly smile or greeting as you walk around your neighborhood can help your mood.
• Cope in a healthy way. Doing something positive to manage anxiety or depression is a healthy coping strategy. Trying to feel better by drinking alcohol, dwelling on how badly you feel, or hoping anxiety or depression will go away on its own can lead to worsening symptoms.

We can win this fight!

Clearly, there are overwhelmingly positive reasons to take up strength training.

But studies have shown that some people are intimidated to join a gym, or can’t afford it. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend trying one of these gyms out. 

If you can’t join a gym, here’s a post I wrote on how you can get started with a Simple Workouts at home using inexpensive Resistance Bands as your gym gear. The article also shows dumbbells and and a bench, but those aren’t necessary to get you started. You could follow this workout plan at the gym, too.

I hope, especially if you are dealing with overweight or obesity, that you will give this a try. It really can change your life.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, or drop me a line: Brian@BoomerMuscle.com. I’d like to help you get started!