Are you becoming increasingly despondent because your 50th birthday is coming up?
It’s one thing to hear people tell you things like, “Some people never make it to 50,” or, “Pretend a decade is 12 years; you’ll be forty-ten!”
The reason many people dread the big 5-0 is because they associate this milestone number with getting old.
Somehow, 50 is far more older to 49 than 49 is to 48.
Maybe that’s because 50 is exactly half a century. Maybe 50 symbolizes the entrance into old age because it’s a common age that doctors say is the age you should start getting mammograms and colonoscopies.
It doesn’t help that 50 is the age for when, after which, the incidence of many cancers steeply rises.
Quite frankly, to many people in their late 40s, 50 stinks.
I could always tell you to hang out with people 60-70 to recharge your perspective (you can bet most of them would LOVE to be 50 again).
But I have a better idea. There’s a way to celebrate being 50 that will make you feel young.
It works as follows: It is impossible to feel old when you can lift heavy things off the floor.
Okay, I know the model is young, but I can’t help it if photographers use only young models. That said, there are more and more 50-something women taking charge of their lives by taking charge of heavy weights in the gym. Source: Freepik.com
These two concepts — feeling old and lifting heavy things — cannot coexist in the same body.
It’s logical to assume that people in their late 40s who feel old and who are dreading turning 50 are not very much into strength training. Or if they do it, they’re doing it too lightly.
If your 50th birthday is many months off yet, you have time to start seriously deadlifting.
If your 50th birthday is around the corner, well, you won’t advance much in the deadlift by the time your birthday comes, but I still recommend it — because it will be your start to feeling younger and turning back the clock—literally.
How much do you think you’ll be deadlifting on your 50th birthday if you begin training TODAY?
As a former personal trainer, I cannot predict how much any given individual will deadlift at any given point in time.
All I can do is recommend this fabulous, whole-body exercise as a means to feeling younger than you ever have.
You need only train twice a week. If the big 5-0 is, say, six months away, your deadlift THEN can be significantly more than what it is today—even if you’ve never done this fat-crushing exercise.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, because it can never be said enough: It’s impossible to feel old when you can lift heavy things.
And don’t just stop with the deadlift. Incorporate other classic strength moves in your regimen: bench press, dumbbell press, overhead press, kettlebell swing, squat, leg press and pushup.
Dread turning 50? Want to feel younger? The Fountain of Youth is your neighborhood gym.
But you’re not going to turn back the hands of time by doing rinky-dinky things like holding onto a treadmill and doing a hundred tiny crunches or endless inner-outer thigh machine reps.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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