Learn the Cheat Code For A Long Life From A 94-Year-Old Rowing Champ
Housekeeping
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"It`s never to late to start exercising"
Let me introduce you to Richard Morgan.
He`s 94 years old, and a four-time world champion in indoor rowing.
They tested him in the lab:
His heart showed the performance of a person aged 40 while he carried a body fat percentage unusual for his age.
His physiological characteristics are so exceptional that they became the focus of a study.1
But it`s not just the astounding numbers, it´s also the late age when he started.
He was already in his 70s, when he felt how much fun indoor rowing is to him.
Once he got hooked, he never stopped.
In total, he rowed the equivalent of almost 10 times around the world.
What can we learn from him?
What Is Your Retirement Plan?
Retirement might be decades away, but most of us have an idea of what it could look like.
What pictures do you have in mind thinking about that phase?
Time freedom might be the biggest factor that causes people to leave their jobs earlier.
So you can...
travel
enjoy their hobbies
meet your friends more often
spend time with your grandchildren
The last thing old age is associated with is physical fitness.
However research has proven that an old body is capable of much more than formerly believed.
Which means?
Regardless of age, once you get into a regular exercise routine, your life quality and quantity increase.
"Retirement is the worst thing you can do."
Don`t take it from me, but Eugen Auster.
He is another Uber-athlete, who holds different world records ranging from 60 to 400 meters.2
He and many other fit 90-year-olds have one thing in common.
They avoid a sedentary lifestyle at all costs.
Sedentary means sitting too much.
How It All Began For Richard
When others wind down from life and spend more time sipping tea and eating cake (cliche), some people are still up for physical challenges.
Believe it or not, he credits his vanity as being the reason to start weightlifting at the age of 87.
Losing too much muscle wasn`t something he could accept as get older.
So he got to work.
For Richard Morgan it wasn´t vanity, but a sense of restlessness or purposelessness after retiring.
Up until his 70s, Richard lived a normal life. He worked both as a baker and battery maker.
As the years went by, he felt his age catching up. His knees and back started to hurt. Retirement was not for him, he got bored.
The idea of his grandson, a competitive collegiate rower, came at the right time.
Together they attended a rowing practice.
From then onwards, he couldn`t stop.
He developed an exercise routine, that made conventional wisdom seem false.
Getting older is associated with
Loss of muscle mass
Loss of bone density
Loss of heart function
Loss of Lung function
He proved that you can have the same "aerobic engine of a healthy 30-40 year-old and the body fat of a whippet".3
Impressive, right?
This is what I want as I get older instead of severe limitations to my physical and mental abilities.
Is It Never Too Late To Exercise?
Who would you think has a better chance of building muscle mass
People who have been active throughout their whole life and are still competing in their 70s
People getting a regular exercise routine for the first time during that age
Must be group A, right?
No, this is not the case.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham compared groups a and b.
They believed that group A would have an increased ability to build muscle.
Why?
Because of a lifetime history of Fitness. They were wrong.
Both groups were able to build muscle in the same way.
"Our study clearly shows that it doesn't matter if you haven't been a regular exerciser throughout your life, you can still derive benefit from exercise whenever you start."4
Cool, so you might as well start exercising when you are retired and not before.
Please no, that is the wrong conclusion.
You need exercise at any age for overall health, but "even starting later on in life will help delay age-relates frailty and muscle weakness."
My suggestion is you build a solid base of Fitness
1-2 cardio per week
Walk at least 7k steps every day
By 2-3 strength sessions per week
If all of that is too time-consuming, even 20-minute exercise sessions can have tremendous value and improve your physique.
Once you`re retired and have more time, your inner Richard can come to life by this protocol.
Richard`s Exercise Protocol
“I started from nowhere and I suddenly realized there was a lot of pleasure in doing this.”
Consistency: 30 kilometers per week (about 18.5 miles), averaging around 40 minutes a day.
A mix of easy, moderate and intense training: About 70 percent of these workouts are at a low intensity. Another 20 percent are higher intensity but tolerable pace, and the final 10 at an all-out with your heartrate neax max.
Weight training: Two or three times a week, he also weight-trains, using adjustable dumbbells to complete about three sets of lunges and curls, repeating each move until his muscles are too tired to continue.
A high-protein diet: He eats plenty of protein. His daily consumption regularly exceeding the usual dietary recommendation of about 60 grams of protein for someone of his weight.5
Because he had fun in rowing, he kept going.
Because he enjoyed competitions, he entered more of them.
Because his mental and emotional well-being improved, he never stopped.
Indeed it is never too late to start exercising, but the sooner you do, the more fun you will have and the more sustainable the results will be.
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/japplphysiol.00698.2023?journalCode=jappl
https://www.today.com/today/amp/tdna87956
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/01/16/fitness-aging-richard-morgan/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190830082621.htm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/01/16/fitness-aging-richard-morgan/
While Richard's got some years on me, I too am flourishing within the fitness community at a point in time that most people consider "middle age." I'll be forty in eleven days, and my body feels like it did when I was wrestling in high school...Maybe even better because I've got a more focused approach to my training. While there's a lot of inspirational stories like this, I know that life is unpredictable. Even more so in our current climate. I can only hope to enjoy the fruits of my labor for many years to come. I plan to continue as long as I can. Like my therapist told me during a session, "Enjoy the good moment, before it leaves and comes back again."
Do you think it’s too late? That you’re too old to start exercising?
It isn’t.
This guy started in his late 80s! Start now and you can improve in every area of your health.
I love reading stories like this. It’s these unsung hero’s that affect lives all around them. Imagine the inspiration everyone at this guy’s gym are getting every week.