The Case for Lifting Heavy After Fifty

Low-intensity, sustainable cardio — the pace at which you can still hold a conversation — builds the aerobic base that everything else rests on. It is unglamorous and slow to show results, which is precisely why it is under-practiced, and why the people who stick with it quietly outperform the ones chasing intensity.

Grip strength and the ability to rise from the floor unaided are among the most predictive and least measured indicators of how the coming decades will go. They are, in effect, vital signs we have simply chosen not to take — and, unlike most vital signs, they are trainable.