Asked roughly nine year old me of my then sixty-something year old grandmother out of nowhere as children are wont to do.
She responded curtly in the negative, so knowing better than to pry I toddled off to grab my Gameboy Colour and continue stomping through Pokemon Blue with my overleveled Blastoise.
I concede that there is nothing especially unusual about a pensioner being unable to run.
Moreover, my grandmother lived a long life free from major illness right up until the end insofar as I am aware, so today’s message isn’t about reminding you that the Grim Reaper probably has you marked for an early visit if you don’t train to get strong and in shape.
Instead, it’s about quality of life – specifically, lack thereof.
Truly, I cannot imagine anything worse than being physically incapable of running at ANY point I am still breathing.
Scratch that, I don’t need to imagine it at all because this was the way things were for me right up until a handful of years ago.
Sure, I could “run” in that I could physically perform the movement – but keeping at it for even half a mile would leave my throat tight and burning as I gasped for air in a manner consistent with someone having an asthma attack.
Yet I had convinced myself I was fit because I was respectably strong for a drug-free lifter and could diet down to having a six pack (that I struggled to maintain for more than a handful of weeks ‘cuz not running meant I had to eat less food than your typical anorexic).
This is a situation I know full well traps a lot of otherwise disciplined and hardworking lifters.
Just the other day I was discussing this with a friend of mine who is an ex-paratrooper and easily the strongest and most in shape guy I have ever met (the man eats marathons and 120kg+ bench presses for reps like they are nothing and, yes, he is a lifetime drug-free trainee).
His thesis is that running builds a foundation of athleticism without which you will never reach your potential in any other arena (strength, endurance, aesthetics, sporting prowess, etc).
A view I happen to share.
More:
Neither of us think much about what we eat or when we eat it. (A stark contrast to how things once were in my world when I had to be extremely careful otherwise I would pile on unsightly body fat very quickly.)
This is a pattern I’ve noticed among lifters who do a lot of running. Seldom do I see them obsessing over calories, weighing their food, or endlessly debating dietary minutiae with strangers on social media as lifters who don’t run so often do.
Anyway.
I hope I have “sold” to you the idea of running as a vehicle to greatly improve your quality of life.
And if you’re looking for a caveman-simple approach to slot as good as seamlessly around pretty much any sensible training regime, I heartily recommend you subscribe to “The Phil Tyreman Letter” before the 28/2 deadline.
My recommendation is biased, of course.
That is why you must read all of the information (both the sales and terms and conditions pages) before subscribing, to make sure a subscription is right for you.
The fee is £120/month, which I have been told is less than a large bag of whey protein from some brands.
I will leave it to you to determine if unfettered access to my large and shapely brain will get you to your goals faster and with fewer headaches along the way.
All right, enough.
Here are the details:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/information/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman