FINALLY… 

More than 30 years ago, when I started making my lifelong hobby an actual business, my first brochure (this was before our ubiquitous home computers with online websites, so we still had brochures and the “yellow pages” to promote our businesses) stated something that was not yet recognized by our medical community. 

Let me be clear: this is not criticism. Western medicine (thankfully) requires factual proof of the efficacy before endorsing, well, anything. Even if something has been effective for decades (say, home remedies), unless it can be proven by scientific method (a systematic approach consisting of testing a hypothesis through experimentation, analyzing results and then drawing conclusions), it reassuringly will not be recommended. 

A side note: while this is essential in many situations, there are pros and cons. Much of Eastern medicine, for instance, is more holistic, involving mind, body and spirit — not just addressing symptoms. This is attractive on many levels and may even be more effective in treating some chronic (persisting over time) conditions like heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, arthritis, asthma and others. 

For those of you feeling all warm and fuzzy about this remedial approach, know this: if you fall and break a bone, you want Western stuff like X-rays, a cast to stabilize and monitoring the progress during recovery. Herbs and Ayurveda ain’t gonna fix it. My point being one approach is NOT, as it is popularly known, alternative medicine. Complementary is a more accurate description because as is so often the truth on many levels of human interaction, it’s not about right/wrong, either/or but IS about accepting varying viewpoints and working together to solve problems. The problems here are ones of human health so they’re unquestionably relevant. 

All that writing and I still haven’t wandered into my point. So, back to my introductory brochure. It wasn’t “the dark ages,” but at that time, for instance, many in the medical community were still recommending bed rest for low back pain which, like sit-ups and other previous gym class basics, has now clearly been proven (by the aforementioned scientific method) not to be beneficial for the long-term health of the upright human body. 

My brochure stated something that was neither generally accepted in the science-based medical community nor in the holistic world. Western medicine now agrees: Building muscular strength as a lifetime pursuit is the first step toward more years of healthy living. That is THE FOUNDATION for all other healthy approaches. It is more important than weight loss/fat loss or cardiovascular exercise or cardiorespiratory work or flexibility or joint range of motion or posture or balance training or anything else because without it, all those things cannot be improved as effectively. It is THE FOUNDATION. 

I’m not writing this to brag about being ahead of the times (well, kind of, I guess) but I am definitely trying to bring to your attention the now proven fact that increasing your muscular strength is your primary path to improved health. Am I saying this is true, even at an advanced age? Yes. Am I saying everyone should do this? Yes. For how long? Until you’re dead. And if you’re reading this, you’re probably not.