March 2025

Few seniors meet the guidelines for protein in their daily menus. We love this recipe for a healthy protein smoothie because it is easy to make and packs a powerful punch with proteins. Currently the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 gram per… Extended sitting is really bad for your health. I’m not only talking about the sitting we do in front of the TV but the combined sitting we do while dining, reading newspapers, magazines and books, plus all the time we spend in front of our computers. The Mayo Clinic…

Here in our village of Ajijic,in Mexico, falls and fractures are quite common: cobblestone streets, narrow sidewalks and tourists craning their necks are a recipe for disaster. One misstep off a curb and toodle-doo, off to the hospital we go. Add to that an abundance… Have you achieved Senior Fitness for Life status? It’s never too late to start—even for Super Seniors like me (persons over 70 years.) As a Super Senior, I know what that requires: commitment, time, and certainly dedication. The results are measurable, but not… I think we can all agree: our environment is much worse than it was in the mid 20th century, and it’s not getting any better. Our air, water, food, and ecosystem are overloaded with toxins and pollutants. This overworks cells in organisms, animals and humans alike…. In the past 100 years, science has managed to extend our lifespan from the early 40s to our late 70s and early 80s. In Japan, life expectancy is already well into the 80s. That’s amazing. But who wants to live longer in poor health? What is encouraging is that… Rob and I encourage all seniors to do physical exercise every day. But what happens when the following day you are really sore and exhausted? Today, for example, I ache all over from playing Pickle Ball and from a body-building session with my trainer. Here’s…

I need to stop back pain. They say that growing older is a privilege and while I understand that, when I wake in the morning it can feel more like a curse. In truth, I may look younger than my age, but my back acts like it belongs to a crotchety old hunchback who eats… As a senior, you know you “should” exercise more—and yet, somehow when you’re 60, 70, 80 or beyond—the excuses to not exercise seem very BIG and REAL! Exercise reluctance happens at any age, but when it’s compounded by aging body parts,… Growing older—and doing it well—requires outsmarting some of your old habits and adopting new ways of exercise, nutrition, sleep, and play. We seniors may be “old dogs” but most of us can easily adopt new tricks. Some friends of ours tell us… My body aches.Yet my mantra seems to be “do it anyway.” When it comes to senior fitness, it’s not easy. Here’s why I spend time exercising and suggest all old folks do too. First, here’s my BMW (bitching, moaning, and whining). Often…

I didn’t think I could do it: 24 hours of fasting. No food. Only water. I wouldn’t be credible if I suggested to healthy seniors that intermittent fasting was good for anti-aging and health if I didn’t walk my talk. First off, I have to confess that… In the War on Aging, one of the big battles is fighting back pain. When is it necessary to opt for surgery? Just about everyone of our senior friends is facing either hip, knee, or back surgery these days. If Rob’s tennis buddies aren’t bragging about the… Patsi and Rob, I am one who received a free SeniorFitness4Life book after your Open Circle talk. You did a great job speaking about senior fitness and motivating seniors to challenge themselves to exercise far more vigorously than we ever dreamed we needed to. You’ve… You can avoid surgery by doing squats, using body-weight exercise to strengthen knees. After more years than I would like to admit, my knees suffer from osteoarthritis, when the protective cartilage on the ends of your bones wears down over time. Trust me; I am not… What can we do to avoid aging badly? Here’s what one friend shared with us about what it used to be like for her, before she ran out of excuses. Linda’s Story Linda wakes up from six hours of restless sleep. She is stiff, sore and more tired than when she…

When Rob and I started writing the War on Aging, about how to age well and achieve senior fitness for life, we never knew how important exercise and diet would become as we approached our 80″s. Life tends to teach us what we need to learn, right? Here’s… Fortunately it is now easier to get a COVID test. Unfortunately, many people are positive for the virus but without fevers or other symptoms. People with asymptomatic-COVID-19 don’t go in for testing and can unknowingly infect others. I could have been one of… December 29, 2020 my husband was hospitalized with kidney malfunction. Even though he wasn’t on the same floor as the COVID patients, he got infected with the virus. Now they’ve sent him home and I’m learning how to care for a COVID spouse at home. It was six… When it comes to “eating your fruits and veggies,” one fruit or vegetable doesn’t protect you anymore than one vitamin supplement does. In our senior War on Aging, we need to eat a variety of foods containing antioxidants that control the free… Ever since turning sixty, my husband Rob and I have been taking better care of ourselves. It pays off, even as we still have to deal with the inevitability of growing older. The big goal—as we now see it—is to extend our “joie de vivre” as long as we can…. How are you? Really? How sure are you that you’re aging well? Stop guessing and start aging well with biotrackers. One of the things that super seniors excel at is using biotrackers. Like many seniors, you may wake up with sore joints, an upset stomach, or skin…

What are your smart goals for this next year? Healthy seniors like to stretch themselves by stating out loud what they intend to do. At our house, we like to go around the Christmas dinner table and share with friends and family our goals for the New Year. When I make… When we wrote our book, The War on Aging, we reported that the average life expectancy for American males was 78.8 years. In fact, our life expectancy has more than doubled from what it was 150 years ago simply because we have better hygiene, antibiotics, and medical… I didn’t think I could do it: 24 hours of fasting. No food. Only water. I wouldn’t be credible if I suggested to healthy seniors that intermittent fasting was good for anti-aging and health if I didn’t walk my talk. First off, I have to confess that… Healthy seniors are trying intermittent fasting and not just to lose weight. Fasting has long been known to boost longevity and health. Although still being researched, going 12 to 16 hours without eating, as in intermittent fasting, stimulates autophagy, the cellular… I admit it: I am a coffee lover. Okay, I’m a coffee addict, according to the man I live with. When I read about all the benefits of caffeine to my aging body and brain, I justify my three to four cups a day. I ignore things like poor sleep, discolored teeth, and…

We are designed to be smart people our entire lives. The brain is supposed to work well until our last breath. ~  David Perlmutter, M.D., author of Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers . When I… Do you know what really works for getting fit as a senior? Find an exercise buddy who will workout with you! For many of us, being too busy is a big obstacle. Yes, it’s true: some of us are even more busy than we were working because we have new activities,… Several years ago, we were with some friends and one guy bragged his dad was still golfing at 98. Another said he didn’t worry about exercise or diet because his parents lived to 99. He announced, “How long you live is up to your genes.” I was shocked! You see, my… A couple of weeks ago, Rob and I were invited to speak at a conference sponsored by People Unlimited in Scottsdale, AZ. We focused on key topics from our book War on Aging, the six pillars of aging well. The conference theme was “Aliveness Loves Company,”… How are you doing with your fitness goals that you set at the beginning of the year? Oh! Well, that’s okay. If you’re like many seniors, your best intentions may have been way-layed by life events. Not to worry, there are plenty of ways to get back on…

My perspective on strength training for seniors changes each year. Over the last sixteen years I’ve been a senior I’ve learned something new about exercise and fitness everyday. Admittedly, when I started prioritizing strength training, my motivation was… What would you do if you only had a few minutes and wanted bare minimum exercises to do right away? Can you get healthy by exercising less? When you’re in a hurry, you may have a book of excuses to use, mostly valid like sore joints, injuries, and lack of time…. Ask anyone who regularly works out or plays sports and they’ll tell you how wonderful exercise is. On the other hand, if the mere suggestion of walking or going to the gym makes you cringe, read on to find out how you can overcome exercise reluctance and acquire… If you think it’s too late to do something about your memory, you are wrong. You can improve your brain health and build new neurons as you age. What’s the secret? Exercise and good diet, of course. To me, that’s a small price to pay to keep your… How fit is your core section? Core fitness is especially important for seniors who want to live longer and stay disease free. Even more so than your BMI, doctors say the most important indicator of health is your ratio of waist to hip. Having a fit midsection—besides… As an older person, do you have trouble motivating yourself to exercise? Everyone’s different, but here are a few tips on how to motivate, mold and manage your muscles, especially for seniors who want to keep fit. If you’re anything like me, motivation is…

Senior stress wreaks havoc on our health, whether it’s fear- or reality-based. Right now, with the spread of corona virus disease, seniors need to protect themselves even more from excess stress. We need to preserve our immune system and stay as healthy as possible…. Do you wish you could boost energy? Like many seniors, in the last few years I’ve experienced a loss of energy. Where’s my mojo? Where are the moments of child-like wonder and unbridled enthusiasm? What I didn’t know was that a lot of energy drain is due to our… One of the things I noticed after turning 65 was a noticeable drop in energy. Have you noticed senior energy loss? I used to be a whirling dervish in the mornings especially after a couple of mugs of coffee. Coupled with an ambitious, competitive drive, I prided… Diets? So much information, so little time. And so much misinformation! What stands out above all the other eating regimes is the KetoFLEX 12/3 protocol for brain health. When it comes to your brain, don’t be misled by dieting hype on the Internet. Along with…

My perspective on strength training for seniors changes each year. Over the last sixteen years I’ve been a senior I’ve learned something new about exercise and fitness everyday. Admittedly, when I started prioritizing strength training, my motivation was to keep a trim body to not look so old. Now I strength train for health reasons. I don’t want to lose anymore muscle than is inevitable.

But as any aging senior will tell you, the challenges to maintain levels of everything shift with each year! Sure, it would be nice to lose fat and gain the trim muscular shapes of youth. But the biological realities are that we lose muscle with each year of aging even when we’re active. In spite of this, it pays off to work at strength training to minimize this muscle loss, no matter what.

Strength Training When Weak or Ill

For my husband, who’s been an athlete all his life, his motivation was to keep up his strength, and to maintain his competitiveness in sports, especially compared to others his age. Today, he exercises gently to minimize the loss of strength from chemotherapy. A different goal for sure, but one that will pay off when he finally achieves remission.

We wrote about our fitness journeys in our book War on Aging a few years ago, proclaiming that when seniors make fitness a priority, they don’t look look anything like their ages, nor do they experience a lot of chronic degenerative illnesses that are common to aging. Fortunately, being fit and healthy when one does come down with a serious illness plays a large part in how severely the disease strikes and contributes to quicker recovery or remission. This has played a key part in Rob’s treatment for multiple myeloma. His cancer numbers are descending into the normal ranges, and we hope to achieve remission.

Back to Basics Strength Training

This week I stated rereading a book published in 2006 called Strength Training for Seniors: How to Rewind Your Biological Clock, by Canadian fitness trainer and physical therapist, Micheal Fekete. This expert has included all the reasons exercise is important for aging well, but also a lot about lifestyle factors, motivation and examples of how to go from a beginner to competently fit. I’ll repeat the book blurb here and then I want to highlight why I found his fourteen-year-old book relevant for all seniors at any age today. It’s been helpful to me.

Regular exercise can reduce a person’s biological age by 10 to 20 years, and the key to exercising effectively is maintaining and increasing strength. A higher level of strength also improves immune systems, helps prevent age-related diseases such as diabetes and osteoporosis, lowers stress, and increases mental acuity. Written by a master athlete over 50, this accessible book offers specific exercises for improving health and fitness, tips on maintaining and increasing mobility and motor skills, nutritional advice, strategies for stress management, and worksheets for personal strength training schedules.

Now 2006 isn’t that long ago, but in a world of social media full of trending diet and exercise fads, it seems ages ago. It’s not at all out of date, it’s back-to-basics information for people of all ages. It isn’t wrapped up in any current jargon, just scientific evidence, stories of successful aging seniors, and photos and drawings that do a good job of entry-level positions and forms for total fitness.

New Thoughts on Strength Training 

What I’ve learned about strength training for seniors is that it isn’t a straight line curve going from beginning levels of fitness to more advanced. If you were to trace a line from where I started working out as a senior and where I am today, you’d find a line that looks more like shark’s teeth. It’s up and down. The line would reflect periods of surgeries, recuperation and rehab, illnesses and recovery, pandemic restrictions, travel and moving dates, and hospitalizations of one treasured husband. Sometimes shark’s teeth, sometimes roller coaster.

The line representing senior fitness levels doesn’t always achieve an ever-increasing peak of strength. It varies for body parts. But like everything in a senior’s world and time-line, it doesn’t ever stop. It’s either climbing, staying the same, or going downward. We know there’s an end point even though most of us manage with a smile, humor and denial.

That’s what authors of fitness books forget when they inspire seniors with things like: “You will build muscle quickly and be healthier and stronger. Set your goals, check them off, just do it.”

Strength Redefined

While I agree, they aren’t aging seniors. Things (life!) become more challenging and complicated. One word can save us from excuses: persistence. No matter what, do what you can. There’s always a way to exercise your body to minimize loss of strength. Not easy but possible. Don’t let the realities of aging let you fall into the trap of using age as an excuse.

Maybe we need to look at “strength” and be more realistic. If you’ve fallen out of the habit, it’s okay. Start back with the basics and do what you can. Do something everyday until you get back your enthusiasm. Stay in the game, even if you change the rules to suit your current situation. You are worth it!