Working out keeps him feeling young

 

WORKING OUT KEEPS JEROME GRAHAM IN YOUTHFUL SHAPE

 60 is the new 40

“I do pray that I continue to feel as young as I do,” says Jerome Graham in between sets of 10 reps of 25 lb barbell curls. The 61-year-old works out four or more days every week so he can represent the meaning of a common meme in today’s world,  “60 is the new 40.” 

During his workouts he stays focused moving consistently and quickly among his various exercises efficiently getting in as much of a workout he can in his limited time in the gym.  While Jerome is retired from a 30-year military that combined active duty, National Guard and Army Reserves, he will be celebrating a 40-year anniversary with UPS next June. So he schedules most of his Hartsville YMCA workouts in between his overnight driving as a UPS feeder driver inside South Carolina with his daytime sleep and all the others jobs of regular living

Life-long fitness focus

Jerome has been staying physically active in sports and recreational activities for pretty much his entire life – at least since he first went out for the Rosenwald High School (Society Hill) junior varsity team when he was in the seventh grade back in the mid-1970s.  While he has crossed the 60-year mark his workouts will challenge the majority of thirty, forty and fifth year olds.  “My goal is to stay fit so that I can stay healthy,” says Jerome. And, his philosophy and his work has been paying off as he follows some personal rules about seeing his doctors regularly, watching his diet, getting plenty of exercise and trying to get plenty of sleep.  “My health is one of my top priorities because it helps me ensure I can take care of those other priorities like my family,” he says.

So, where is the motivation coming from?

It also does not take too long into a conversation about lifting and working out before it is obvious that even though his competition may be mostly with himself, Jerome is competitive. “One of my early motivations for getting and staying in shape was so that I would score 300 on the Army PFT. The 300 is the top score and was always his goal. One of the few times in his life when he was not working out as often as he wanted has been the most recent pandemic, which closed the Y and other workout opportunities. 

Bench pressing is probably Jerome’s favorite heavy weight exercise. “I am now trying to get back where I was and it taking longer than I might like,” he notes.  Before the pandemic we was benching 205 in three sets of five. Being away from the regular lifting for several works he is now working back toward 205 by benching 185 in two sets of ten. If your watch him work you would know it will not be much longer before he is back.  “For me, weight lifting is about as much psychological as it is physical,” observes Jerome. He says there is a great deal of personal satisfaction and personal comfort in knowing that he is doing his part to take care of his body and his health.

He is long-term YMCA member

Jerome has a family membership at the Hartsville Y and he has been a member since the Y moved into its present location in the former Coker Department Store in downtown Hartsville. And one of the benefits he enjoys about this membership is getting to know and make connections with people from all over the community.

 He is a self-proclaimed sports fanatic and can often be heard discussing the merits  of professional, college and high school teams and athletes. He is a long-time Pittsburgh Steeler fan in the NFL and he may run into a little problem with who to cheer for with Clemson and Carolina as his son  Desmond is getting ready to graduate from USC and he just took his daughter Alyiah to Clemson a few days ago.  His oldest daughter, Lenesha earned her medical coding  Associates Degree at Florence-Darlington Tech.  He and his wife Jenelle and their family live in the Dovesville Community of Darlington County.

He is inspiring and also a mentor

In addition to talking sports, Jerome can often be heard answering questions from younger guys who are interested in his time in the Military or sharing stories with other veterans. While he did not serve overseas, he was mobilized as an Army Reserve training evaluator for an extended period of service in January 2003 as part of “Iraqi-Freedom.”

So, while Jerome says it is in his DNA to work out and stay in physical shape he also takes advantage of the social connection that can also become part of the overall YMCA experience and fitness experience.  “It is important to me to be in the gym because working out keeps me physically strong and mentally strong.”

Bootfit Inspiration Up and Down the Climbing Rope With Magic 74

 

 

Bruce Hoffman had a birthday the other day (9/14/20) and to celebrate Robbie McLendon came up with a special “74” workout for the day’s YMCA Bootfit Class. And as those who know Bruce for his physical abilities, they will not be surprised at the way he inspired others in these for time reps.  And, you might also not be surprised to note that he went up the 20 footrope three times to warm up for the “74”, which no one else doing this workout did that day.  In fact, a couple of days before turning 74 Bruce set sort of a PR by during 20 trips up and down the rope in about thirty minutes. Try that some time – no matter your age or physical prowess.

FITNESS JOURNEY

For lots of people who are involved in their physical journey at the Hartsville YMCA and particularly in Robbie’s Bootfit, Bruce is a daily role model for what you can do well beyond things you ever thought your body could do.  And, Bruce has been making a life of being physically fit since he was about 15 when he started running in his hometown of New York City. He learned to swim around the age of six at Camp Chipinaw in the Catskills of New York.  And he can still be seen doing swimming in the Hartsville YMCA pool these days as part of his multi-pronged, multi-activity approach to his life-long fitness regime.

20 MARATHONS - STILL RUNNING AND BIKING

Bruce enjoyed those early years of running and became very involved in the sport helping him accumulate more than 20 marathons at the peak of his running career between 1977 and 1992. His best time was 3:30 at one of his two marathons in Baltimore, Maryland. Those marathons include an unofficial run in Boston in 1977, four NYC Marathons, seven in Charlotte and others in Frederick, MD, Columbia, SC, Long Island, Hinsdale, Illinois. And to demonstrate that his versatility has been pretty much a career he remembers a 70 mile bike ride from Bayside Queens to East Hampton, Long Island when he was about 20.  He thinks he might have gotten in shape for that as he was doing 30-mile training runs with a buddy of his, Larry Cunningham.

REMEMBERING DENNIS 

It was a little later in life, however, that he adopted a working out for life practice to honor Dennis, his brother,  who  died from diabetes at the age of 42 in 1982. Dennis, who was four years older than Bruce, had a serious fall from a horse at the same summer camp that severely injured his pancreas and caused the diabetes that required daily insulin. But, persistence in a Hoffman characteristic and Dennis was an all-around athlete playing baseball, basketball and running.  Bruce adopted his “working out thing” as a way to keep his brother’s memory alive. 

Bruce had another reason for staying at the physical activity to keep himself healthy because in 1985 he was diagnosed with celiac disease that altered his eating habits.

START NOW - START SLOWLY

While he is not one to offer un-asked for advice you will find that if you do ask how you or someone else might get into this lifestyle he will first tell you to “start slowly.” His reason for that being number one on the list is because he says the most important thing for all of us is “to keep at it no matter how you fee. You will feel better after the workout.  He will tell you not to worry about seeing someone do things you cannot now do – like scamper up a climbing rope, but to concentrate on what you might do and Start now!  Another thing he will probably mention is that he finds himself a creature of habit and the habit of the YMCA Bootfit classes with the camaraderie of working out with others and basking “Robbie Motivation” make it easier to keep it going day by day. Bruce is a veteran of the United States Army having served from 1969 to 1971 as a medic.  He is retired and during his career he was working for ESAB Welding in Connecticut  and they offered him a transfer to their Florence, SC plant in 1989. He lived in Florence for about 10 years and then after marrying his wife Bonnie,  he moved to her hometown of McBee where they now reside. And just so you know he has lot more to do than just work out, he was a couple of minutes late for this birthday workout because he had to get their lawn mowed before heading into town.  In addition to the YMCA workouts, Bruce can be found splitting wood and doing pull-ups on his McBee property; daily home exercising that keeps him primed for the rope climbing.

BRUISER 74

Now, back to that Birthday workout designed by Robbie to celebrate Bruce’s 74^th birthday, "Bruiser 74"
Let's celebrate the birthday of a humble but tough as nails 74 year old that we all love and respect!!!! Bruce "The Bruiser " Hoffman!!!!
Reps can be broken up as needed!!!

For time
74 box jumps (step ups)
74 jumping pull ups(bent rows)
74 kb swings
74 walking lunges (el)
74 knees to elbows (toes to box)
74 push presses
74 back ext
74 wall ball
74 burpees
74 double unders
Or
222 singles

Cash out (optional)
74 ft of rope climbs

 Bruce had an elapsed time of just over 50 minutes for the birthday Bruiser bash.

WORK AND WORKING OUT

Bruce Hoffman has been a long-term YMCA member, having joined first in 1974 at the Vanderbilt YMCA in New York City and then having memberships in Chicago, Connecticut and Florence. He joined the Hartsville Y in 2010. And, not many remember that YMCA’s used to offer affordable short-term rooms in many cities and Bruce even lived at the Y in Hollywood for a time in 1971. 

He spent a 26-year career primarily in credit and collections with Union Carbide in NYC, Cherry Hill NJ, Chicago Illinois Danbury Ct and Florence SC. He then spent seven more years from 2007 to 2014 with Sonoco in Hartsville.

Bruce will tell you that Bonnie is his biggest fan but if you visit the Y when he there you will find there a lot of other hard-working athletes of ages hoping that someday they can be in the shape that Bruce is at the young age of 74.

 

 

Never too late...

It is never too late to start something new ...

This past week I had two books that had an 85-year-old as the protagonist. Now, this would have been great if I had planned it that way but it just "so happened" that I chose these books. And both offered some insights into the process some call aging and others realize is just living at a different age. And then, today, I was looking at the titles on my MEDIUM feed and found an article covering the longest running research on aging being done out of Baltimore. So I decided to use this post to further the conversation.

Motion is Lotion

The research finding the author of that essay picked out focused on the idea that YOU control much of the way you age. The findings say your attitude toward aging and your behavior toward your own body make a big difference. So, when I continue to borrow the meme from others that "Motion is Lotion," I see my observations are on the right track. This article also noted that the Baltimore Study the are discussing notes --"And better yet, it’s never too early or too late to start to improve these. Both are accessible and don’t require any financial investment."

An idea coming from the study is that we should align ourselves with others who believe they have control of how they get older and share the secrets of that lifestyle. So, it may be a really good idea for you to get that membership to the YMCA or in Hartsville SC to the Thomas Center  or another gym and then USE membership. 

Former Secretary of State became weight lifter in her sixties (example)

So, this past week I read (listened to) a book called ONCE MORE WITH FEELING by an Australian writer. In the novel she happened to mention that the former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright began lifting weights in her sixties. I had never heard that before and there more on her feelings about lifting in this article from the HUFFPOST.  So while you may not want to choose heavy lifting as a goal, you can find lots of examples of people who started working out and found that rather than it being a chore it became a lifestyle.

THINK ABOUT WORKING OUT AS YOUR NEW LIFE STYLE

So, no matter what your age starting to make your body work harder than you think it can is a good way to begin enjoying more of today.  Besides getting into better physical shape, your working out gives you more things to talk about.

are you on workout quarantine or on workout overdrive in this enforced downtime?

This morning I did get the 100 push ups out of the way early and so continued meeting the F3Hartsville 100 per day push up challenge.  But, the really important question is what will I do the rest of the day to add to the workout regimen.  And based on the history of the past few weeks the answer is probably going to be not very much.  Robbie McLendon, whose Bootfit classes at the UpperPeeDeeYMCA in Hartsville, has been amazingly still posting daily workouts.  He has several from the class who are working the program. And then, there are others who are perfecting excuses instead of squats.

As a reminder how my current strategy of working out is very likely the wrong strategy there was this article this morning in MEDIUM -- https://medium.com/swlh/when-do-you-begin-to-get-old-the-day-you-skip-the-gym-b28660f70e35 .     The title of the article was when do you start getting old -- the answer was the first time you miss your day at the gym.  Okay - so no gym -- the point is there is also NO EXCUSE.

                                                                Move Today like right now!

Not good at pull ups but I am going to try again to see I can add this exercise

One of the toughest things I had to do when going through Officer Candidate School with the Marine Corps was to get strong enough to crank out some pull ups to pass the fitness test.  I was not good at them and remember not being able to do many -- if I was even able to do one.  I did eventually get the minimum but the skill has gone into hiding many times over the years.

Get into your HEAD that YOU can do pull ups - then train to do them!

Then, today, I came upon an article in Medium that goes into specific details about the fact that we can learn to do pull ups.  In our Hartsville YMCA Bootfit Class the pull up is often on the agenda but many of us use bent row dumb bell exercises in place of the pull up.  Maybe this will move some of us to begin using the jump pull up to us moving in a stronger direction.

The article -- It is all in your head makes a covincing case.https://elemental.medium.com/your-inability-to-do-pullups-is-all-in-your-head-191278c2f5aa

One time when exercising with an F3 Durham group the guys used assisted pull ups and it was really the first time I had seen them work.  We did not do them in Hartsville.  I am thinking maybe F3 Nation might begin to recommend for those who have not yet achieve their pull-up potential.

And, I have already posted a link to the article on Robbie McLendon's Hartsville YMCA Boofit page because if anyone can motivate people to try to achieve new milestones, it is the OG>

In it together...

One of the interesting dynamics of working out with others instead of by yourself in the gym is the energy that seems to generate and be there for the taking.  I know that is voodoo sounding but today was a case in point.

Bootfit is a class that has been devised by Robbie McLendon at the Hartsville YMCA and it has the benefit of a substantial history of helping people develop successful workout habits.  It is also tough so it has a history of people who found their bodies might not be equipped for the constant mixing and matching of muscle groups. That disclaimer now in writing this is another suggestion for those who have not tried working out with others, or high intensity work outs to sample a few of the Bootfit classes.  They work.

Back to today, Thursday, and the noon class. We start at 12:15. My goal was to start and hope to finish but with no certainty at the beginning. The challenge was a 20 minute AMRAP (as many reps as possible) and the individual exercises were designed to move the heart rate and stress a couple of different muscle groups.  30 side straddle hops; 20 back extensions; 10 v-ups; 5 clapping push ups.

Back to today -- some kind of ear problem is giving me a struggle and after the first two reps I was not sure if I would keep going. But a glance at others made my self talk urge another try. I as the breaths came harder I felt energy from somewhere and moved through the air sucking to rep after rep exercise after exercise.  Had I been on my own it likely would have been an abbreviated attempt. Having the virtual push from the others helped me log a work out that kept the heart rate up, and the muscles stressed. When my energy seemed gone there was energy in the field to keep me going. The ages in these bootfit workout are wide ranging and that mix of ages is another selling point for those wanting to add some diversity, complexity and challenge to the workout regime.

If you find yourself doing the same thing day by day you might reward yourself with a three to five day commitment to try Hartsville Y Bootfit and see if you might move from your current plateau.

I think there were six of us in th noon class and the number of reps ranged from about 15 to eight.

The Lunges kill my knees (so if I want, I modify)

There are people at the Hartsville YMCA who sometimes cringe when I saunter over to talk because they know I am about to proselytize for the #Bootfit class organized and taught by Robbie McLendon.  

 leg lifts times ten, push ups times ten, lunges times ten and 100 meters backward run in a 20 minute AMRAP

Bootfit works.

It is high intensity with barely time to breathe.

Bootfit works everything nearly every day -- but in a wide variety of ways.

Bootfit is for the fit and flat and Bootfit is for the new-gym type who may be rounder.

What makes Bootfit work? The bootfitter.  Bootfit does not work for those not there.

Bootfit does not work for those looking to check a box but not stress, strain or sweat. Bootfit works for those who work Bootfit.

As a person who is striving for more connection among and between individuals of all demographics Bootfit works because a seventy year old can move and a 20 year old can move -- maybe not with the same speed or grace or force but each can make it work for them. And, for example, at Bootfit most of us could learn a great deal about form from April whose lunges touched the floor, whose leg lifts were vertical and whose movements kept flowing not stopping and starting. A beauty of Bootfit that we have a lot to learn and adapt from each other.

Robbie, who is no spring chicken himself, works hard to come up with interesting workouts that give you a daily challenge that will often have you question his ongoing mantra - "We can do this." But you can do it -- if not the first day, the second or the third or... Give yourself a 2020 present now and be amazed at the difference you see in 2021.  A mantra for those of us over the 60 or higher mark is 'motion is lotion' and Bootfit helps us provide some structure motion to the workout day.

Don't miss this

An 81 year old sets a record for the plank at ten minutes and he lost some of his power lifting records to an 84 year old. Goals are not just for the young.  This Medium article is lot of fun and I encourage any relating to older people to read this article and share some of that motivation.  I think it is knowing that it can be done by hearing other people are doing it that can sometimes make us get out of the chair and head to the Y for the hardest of the exercises - opening the door and walking to the weight room

Some days a little goes a long way...

Robbie McLendon has been running what he calls the Bootfit class at the Hartsville YMCA for a lot of years and those who like to jump-start their fitness routine - at any age- would benefit from this High Intensity Training.

The Friday classes are generally a little shorter than other days but the intensity is high. For example, today Robbie had devised three sets of exercises that you did as many reps as possible of the set for five minutes. Then a 30 - second break got you ready for the next set, which was followed by a third.

I did have to modify a bit (honesty) but I think I still made the most of sets.
Set One was a 50 meter backward run ( my balance isnt what it was so mostly I went forward)
Followed by 10 knees to bench.  Second set was 30 jump rope singles (I am not good so many of those jumps were simulated) followed by 15 dips. Third was 100 meter run followed by 20 squats. There was a lot of shortness of breath when the workout was finished. A little goes a long way.

And for a few weeks now Robbie has been adding a core workout to the end of the classes -- because everyone has five more minutes.  I do a lot of core work on my own but these five minute back to back exercises challenge each time we do do them.

And it helps to have other in the class to push you -- even when they generally outperform you. It does not matter what they others - it only matters what you do. And, it matters that you do something no matter what your age.

Let's see if I can add some photos he took today.

always trying to revitalize this blog and not often succeeding BUT

I wanted to find a way to get a bit more exposure for this article by Julia Hubel, who is a sixty-something, a veteran, and successful writer and speaker and entrepreneur.

Earlier this morning as I was leaving the Rooster (Hartsville,SC Coffee Shop)
WALL-E was just arriving extolling the great F3 morning workout. I had slept in today.
And, then, as I opened my email there was this article on Medium:  https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/superbly-fit-after-sixty-seven-strategies-for-aging-well-69ab1ac0a908

Decided that meant I should get a post about out and staying in shape after sixty, or in my case and others after seventy. If you have suggestions on information that might motivate you to move your sixty or seventy something body for better health, a more open exposure to life, or any other benefits, please let me know.  I will try to find some ways to share.

Here are a couple of shots from Bootfit Hartsville at the HartsvilleYMCA. 

There are three or four seventy somethings moving with those thirty and forty somethings and younger to get and stay in shape with Robbie McLendon leading those classes.