🦅 It's never too late to start

Good morning. It’s October and there is no time to waste! I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter. It’s a more personal one. I hope it gives you whatever you need today. 💙 

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My Grandad, Jack, passed away last week at the age of 82. “I don’t look a day over 90!” he’d joke. Ask him how he was doing, and you’d probably get back, “Awh, pretty good for the shape I’m in!” He loved to use that line when he was especially beat up, like after his four wheeler wreck 6 years ago. 🙄 

Grandad lived a beautiful, loving, meaningful, quiet life. He enlisted in the Army as a young man, weighing just 120 pounds. I picture him looking a bit like young Steve Rogers, pre-super soldier serum. But it was one of his greatest honors to serve his country.

After a stint in printing and newspaper businesses, he got into chicken and some cattle farming. Growing up on a farm in the post-WWII era, he was no stranger to hard manual labor. He proudly did this work for decades until he retired sometime in his 60s. Like any farmer, he spent hours and hours every day tending to both regular and unexpected needs. He kept all his equipment—from tractors to lightbulbs—in pristine shape, so it all worked and looked as good as new many years later. He may not have been a big sunscreen wearer, but his arms and hands displayed a life of hard work, meticulous attention to detail, and a toughness and grit that I may never fully know firsthand.

When he sold the chicken houses and land, he couldn’t just sit idle, of course. Our precious Grandma passed away in 2010, much too early. A couple years prior, probably in his late 60s, Grandad took up exercising at the town’s Community Center. At least once a day, he’d head up there to spend time on the cardio equipment and weight machines. I suspect some days he did more chit chatting than exercising, but who’s to say that wasn’t just as good for him?

• Outside of basic training 50 years earlier, Grandad probably hadn’t seen a gym or weights for most of his life. He didn’t really need to, out on the farm. Now he was riding ellipticals and leg pressing major lbs.

It wasn’t long until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease—a chronic neurodegenerative disease characterized in later stages by shuffling steps, slow movement, impaired posture and balance, hand tremors, and some speech and writing difficulties. It can become pretty debilitating pretty quickly if allowed to progress. But he sure didn’t let that slow him down.

Grandad stayed consistent at the gym. Then, in the 2017–2019 range, when my dad and I were getting into running again, he decided to enter our town’s Ice Cream Social 5k for himself. I’m not sure the exact number, but he completed the race at least a few different years, in his mid-to-late 70s. (He may have popped a few nitroglycerin tablets to get him through the last race he did, but that’s neither here nor there. 🤪)

• Our family all attribute Grandad’s dedication to exercise in his final couple decades to the degree and length of time which he was able to stave off the worst effects of Parkinson’s disease, along with the other health problems he’d started to develop. That’s not just a hunch; exercise is truly one of the best medicines for delaying disease progression and abating severity.

Grandad was nearly in his 70s when he first set foot in anything resembling a modern gym (other than basketball gyms, where he loved to cheer on the Bobcats). He started competing in 5ks at the age of the average American male’s life expectancy. It’s never too late to start.

And…

An active life sure does help. It’s very likely because of his decades of manual labor that he already had the muscle mass, strength, and endurance to take on these endeavors in his final decade. Staying physically active throughout adulthood is without a doubt one of the most powerful things we can do to not just live longer, but to remain robust and active in our golden years. If that means more time for memories with loved ones, I’m sold like a cow he sent to auction.

That’s why they say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

This one’s for you, Grandad. Fly high 🦅💙🇺🇸

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Get outside and move your body.

Level 2: Lift something heavy today.

Level 3: Assess what you want to be able to do in your 80s. Now backtrack and increase that by 10% or so for every decade until you reach your current age (e.g. six +10%s if you’re in your 20s). Can you do that much today? If not, better get started. There’s a grandpa about to lap you 😉

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

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✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Read: Routines.club is an awesome website that shows you the complete routines of big names in health, wellness, and productivity. You can copy the greats!

• Participate: “The All of Us Research Program is inviting one million people across the U.S. to help build one of the most diverse health databases in history. We welcome participants from all backgrounds. Researchers will use the data to learn how our biology, lifestyle, and environment affect health. This may one day help them find ways to treat and prevent disease.” I just signed up and you should too! (Free data on your health + a FitBit if you qualify!)

See ya ‘round if ya don’t turn square!

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).