2 days ago
Pumping Iron Is Their Secret to Aging Well
The clang of weights rang out through Greysteel Strength and Conditioning on a recent Friday morning. Over the pumping music came chirps of instruction and affirmation: You got this, push!
Ann Buszard, 84, strapped on a thick leather belt before stepping up to the barbell she had loaded to 170 pounds. She exhaled and hinged, lifting roughly the weight of a medium-size refrigerator fluidly off the ground, then reversed the move to gently set it down, safely completing a deadlift.
Ms. Buszard, a retired nurse, had never so much as touched a weight until she was 74, when she found herself struggling to stand up after kneeling down. She wanted to get stronger, and her son had heard of a local doctor who was moonlighting as a weight lifting coach.
She wound up at Greysteel, a no-nonsense gym in Farmington, Michigan, outside Detroit. While many gyms around the country offer programs for older people, Greysteel distinguishes itself by focusing on old-school barbell lifting.
The logic behind Greysteel is straightforward: Stronger muscles and bones are associated with longer life and better health. And heavy barbell lifting programs are proven to build strength. If you combine those two ideas, the inevitable decline that comes with aging is perhaps not quite so inevitable.
Ms. Buszard said that as a widow living alone, building strength has helped her stay independent and do the things that matter to her, like taking cross-country trips to visit her grandsons.
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