Maintaining muscle mass, strength, and function as we age... becomes critical to our independence and quality of life. Three terms often come up in this discussion: sarcopenia, dynapenia, and powerpenia. Understanding these concepts and their implications can reshape how we think about aging and exercise. Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of muscle mass and function. It is defined by smaller muscles and a diminished ability to perform physical tasks. Sarcopenia is linked to frailty, mobility issues, and an increased risk of falls. However, muscle mass alone is not the most reliable indicator of functional ability. Dynapenia focuses on the loss of muscle strength, independent of muscle size. Strength is essential for tasks like lifting objects or climbing stairs. While strength is a critical component of function, it doesn’t account for the speed or explosiveness required in many real-world activities. Powerpenia is the age-related decline in muscle power, which is strength applied with speed. Power is often overlooked, yet it’s crucial for activities like rising from a chair, catching yourself from a fall, or navigating uneven terrain. Power combines strength with speed, making it the most functionally relevant metric for daily life and mobility. A recent article in Frontiers in Physiology (PMID: 10961295) highlights the critical role of muscle power in preserving functional independence. Research shows that power is more predictive of mobility, balance, and fall prevention than strength or muscle size alone. This finding shifts the focus from simply building muscle to enhancing the quality and speed of movement. Training to improve power—such as explosive movements, plyometric exercises, or lifting lighter weights quickly—can profoundly affect aging populations. The ability to generate force rapidly can mean the difference between a fall and staying upright or between dependence and independence. Sarcopenia, dynapenia, and powerpenia represent interconnected challenges of aging. However, prioritizing muscle power offers a unique opportunity to address the most functionally relevant decline. While maintaining muscle mass and strength is important, integrating power-focused training into your routine may yield the greatest benefits for preserving mobility and preventing disability.show more

Normalise RDL as a main movement. The Romanian Deadlift... (RDL) or Heavy Barbell Hip Hinge is a powerhouse exercise that has gained a lot of popularity among strength and conditioning coaches, powerlifters, and bodybuilders alike. This movement is often called an “athlete maker" in my mind due to its ability to build strength, muscle mass, and athleticism in both men and women. One of the primary reasons why the RDL is so effective for athletes is because it is triphasic, for the uninitiated meaning it involves three distinct phases of muscle action: eccentric, isometric, and concentric. During the eccentric phase, the lifter is lowering the weight, which creates tension and stress on the muscles, leading to greater muscle damage and adaptation. The isometric phase occurs when the lifter pauses at the bottom of the lift, holding the weight in a static position, which increases the time under tension and helps to build strength and stability. Finally, during the concentric phase, the lifter raises the weight, activating the muscles in a way that promotes greater hypertrophy. Compared to a traditional deadlift off the floor, the RDL places a greater emphasis on the posterior chain, specifically the proximal hamstring, glutes, and erector spinae muscles. The lift also engages the distal hamstring muscles in a nearly fully extended position, promoting greater muscle activation and strengthening. The RDL is an excellent way to develop strength and hypertrophy in these muscle groups, leading to improved overall athletic performance, including greater power, speed, and explosiveness. Given the numerous benefits of the RDL, it should be a main movement in any training program that aims to improve strength, muscle mass, and overall athletic performance. Incorporating heavy barbell hip hinge movements, such as the RDL, into your training regimen can help to promote better posture, improved mobility, and greater overall strength and athleticism. So, whether you are a powerlifter, bodybuilder, or athlete, consider adding the RDL to your training program to take your strength and athleticism to the next level.show more

My grandfather Dr. GS Kulkarni is 93 years old... (will turn 94 soon) he still works, studies and researches and he exercises for 45 mins to 1 hour everyday. It’s a common myth that strength training is unsafe or unnecessary for older adults. In reality, it’s one of the most powerful tools for healthy aging. Prevents muscle and bone loss Reduces fall and fracture risk Enhances brain and metabolic health Improves quality of life and autonomyshow more

Your investment portfolio needs muscle I used to think... strength peaks around age 30. For 99.9999% of people, that’s nonsense. The only strength that truly peaks early is for world champions. Everyone below that level can keep getting stronger for their entire life. Between 40 and 60, you lose about 1% muscle mass and 1% strength per year if you do nothing. But if you train, you can more than make up for that 1%. After 60, the decline accelerates. That does not mean you cannot train it back. Just look at the 70 plus world records. Those athletes are all far stronger than me. I’m 44 now and I just set a new PR: 3 sets of 6 reps strict press at 80 kg (176 lbs), with two minutes of rest between sets. This helps my investing more than you’d think. Muscle absorbs glucose. More muscle means lower blood sugar. Aging without training slowly pushes blood sugar up, which increases the risk of all kinds of diseases. A fit body is a fit mind.show more

Orthopedic surgeons' work involves a lot of load in... rotation. Rotational and lateral training is often absent except for athletes. Aside from the benefits to all adults in terms of protecting ourselves from the balance issues and falls accompanying aging, working on lateral movement alone or in combination with rotation is vital to building our resilience for a long day in the OR.show more

Dry Needling: Ultrasound Diagnosis A patient presents with pain... along the semitendinosus muscle and a suspected muscle fiber tear. A thigh ultrasound is ordered. Ultrasound reveals multiple linear tracts of increased echogenicity in the proximal third of the semitendinosus muscle, which correlate with a history of dry needling performed 3 days before the radiological study. Dry needling is an invasive technique used in physiotherapy to eliminate painful muscle points (or trigger points) that can develop due to overuse. It is essential not to perform this treatment within 5 days of a diagnostic ultrasound or MRI, as it can hinder or prevent the diagnosis of a muscle injury, especially a grade I injury.show more

Love this from Rory McIlroy 💯🙌 Reducing injury risk,... increasing availability to play/ practice, and feeling good both on + off the course are great benefits of fitness training for golf 🏋️‍♂️ Not everything training wise needs to be swing speed related, although Rory has defo added speed over the last few years! 🚀 2-3 strength + power sessions a week, a few mins daily mobility, and getting plenty of steps in on the golf course itself, is a pretty decent + sustainable way of training for many golfers 😁show more

The Anti-Aging Exercise No One Over 40 Is Doing... Most people over 40 train strength to maintain their physical youth, but almost no one trains for power. As we age, we lose power 3x faster than strength. There is one exercise that rebuilds it, but most adults over 40 stopped doing it decades ago. In tomorrow's newsletter, I break down what this exercise is and reveal a simple five-minute protocol to get it back at any age. Click below to join 545,000+ high performers and get it first 👇show more

A lot of elderly people and their caregivers worry... about falls. Falls kill thousands of elderly people each year. So it’s easy to tell grandma to stay in her bed or chair so they never fall. This is a terrible idea IMO. Lack of movement guarantees poor health and decline among the elderly. Instead we take a different approach. We reduce fall risk by strength training and balance exercises We want our residents to be too strong and fit to fall!show more

A recent post circulating from Andrew Huberman claims that... low reps don’t build muscle and that high reps are necessary for muscle growth. However, this doesn’t align with the data I’ve studied. At the core of muscle building is the principle of overload and pushing your muscles close to failure. It’s often said you should leave about one rep “in the tank” — though this can be tricky to gauge. In my training routine, I start with warm-ups, then perform 1-2 intense sets before moving on. Each muscle group is worked 2-3 times per week. Now, consider this: can doing 12-20 half-hearted reps truly build more muscle than a few well-executed, heavy sets? The answer is clear—quality and intensity triumph over mere quantity. Support this page by shopping at Tiger Fitness !show more

"Heavy lifting is dangerous at your age" is the... most harmful sentence in the field, and a doctor, a physio or a well-meaning relative hands it out every day. Follow it and watch what it does. From your forties you lose muscle every year unless you fight for it. That decline is the whole game: the difference between carrying your own shopping at 80 and waiting for someone to carry it for you. Muscle you don't load shrinks. Bone no longer pulled on turns brittle. Balance you never challenge drains away. Two years of "taking it easy" and you have built the exact frail body everyone feared. The advice didn't prevent the fall. It built the person who couldn't survive one. And here is the lie inside it. Supervised resistance training has one of the lowest injury rates of anything an older adult does. Lower than gardening. Lower than a wet pavement. Lower than the stairs you climb without thinking. So instead they steer you to pilates, aqua aerobics, a gentle tai chi class. Pleasant, sociable, and none of it loads a muscle hard enough to stop it wasting. You feel active while the decline rolls on regardless. Strength is not vanity at this age. It is the garden you kneel in, the stairs you keep, the grandchild you lift. Independence with the years added on. Frightened of a barbell? Fine. You don't need one. Machines are built for exactly this. Fixed path, nothing to wobble sideways. You sit, you're supported, you push. When a set gets hard you stop, and the machine holds the weight, not your spine. A leg press loads your legs as heavy as you'll ever need with almost no way to hurt yourself. Same with a chest press, a row, a pulldown. The decline is coming for everyone. You train against it or you hand years of your life away. The safest tool for the job sits unused in every gym, while the people who need it most get a rubber band and a spot in the church hall. Careful is what's killing them.show more

The Biceps and Brachialis are strong decelerators of the... elbow extension component of throwing which is why it is a common location for day 1 soreness ❤️Give yourself some soft tissue love with these Biceps Tack and Pump techniques + The Throwing Arm Myofascial Stretch 🔑Pin down the Biceps in a shortened position (bent elbow) and lengthen/glide it by maintaining pressure and extending the elbow. Work up and down the belly of the muscle 🔥 You can make this a little more specific to the biceps by adding in pronation with will elongate the biceps even further If the biceps shortens over time, there are two common outcomes: ⚾️ Loss of Elbow Extension Range of Motion ⚾️ Forward tipping of the throwing shoulder Neither are Ideal ** This needs to be done combined with a holistic approach of an S&C program and proper workload management as some common causes of this can be poor workload dosing or simply lack of strengthshow more

Want to jump higher? Unpopular truth: fat don’t fly.... Before you start crying about body shaming or act like this is skinnytok, let's get into our DeLoreans and revisit physics class!! Newton's 2nd Law a=F/m Same force with more mass = less acceleration which in this case = less height. Want to increase acceleration (and its byproduct jump height)? Either going to have to increase the numerator (force) or decrease the denominator (mass). That's not an opinion, it's math and science. And that math/science is on display here as you have two medballs acted upon by the same force traveling different distances due to differing mass. Now let's walk across the hall to anatomy and physiology class...yes, you need body fat. It's critical to be healthy and function. This isn't advocating for just losing weight or being "thin" or whatever. It's for optimizing body composition to where you perform at your best. With that, you need muscle mass to produce FORCE. And many younger volleyball players will benefit tremendously from an increase in muscle mass. This increase in muscle mass stands to increase force production, improve body composition, and create a net positive effect on performance (within reason we all know we're not training linebackers). But an increase in unnecessary fat mass typically has the opposite effect. Hence the statement: fat don't fly. Every athlete has an optimal body composition. Find yours through consistent strength training, adequate fueling, proper hydration and sleep and...planned recovery days.show more

Today, I visited one of our combat brigades at... the Zaporizhzhia frontline, which uses American High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. Our guys are very open about these systems, and they are extremely grateful to the United States for providing them. HIMARS are a prime example of superior, highly precise, effective, and dependable American weapons. Without such long-range missiles, Russia would have killed hundreds of thousands more Ukrainians. Having the means to protect themselves from Russian terror is a matter of life and death for the Ukrainian people. HIMARS were critical in defending the Kherson region against the Russians. They also helped to thwart the Russian offensive on Sumy earlier this year. They are now assisting in the defense of the most difficult areas of the Donetsk frontline against Russian assaults. If we had not had these and other powerful long-range weapons, the Russians would have captured and destroyed many more Ukrainian cities and villages. Long-range capabilities prevent loss of life. It is one thing to lose munitions and missiles in order to stop the occupiers, but it is another to lose lives as a result of a lack of such defense capabilities. We are grateful to the United States for its assistance in reducing our loss of life. Strengthening positions is key to guaranteed peace. Russian bullies can only be deterred and forced to accept peace through strength. And such peace through strength is attainable.show more

Grip a club in your lead hand. Observe how... twisting your forearm changes the angle of the face. This is largely what controls where your ball flies. Small differences in this angle lead to huge changes in shot direction. This precision is not being trained in the gym with “golf exercises”. Poor control of this face angle is what leads to a whole host of swing issues. More so than physical limitations. For example, it is far more likely you come over the top in an effort to stop the ball going right because your face is wide open and you’ve seen the ball go right the last 5000 times than it is you lack hip or shoulder mobility. It would be beneficial for me as a trainer to say otherwise, but I just don’t believe it to be true. Use the gym to work on your physical capabilities. Improve your mobility, strength, and power. These are the things you are losing as you age. Leave the swing mechanics for your practice and golf lessons. If you try to “fix your swing in the gym” you will likely do a poor job of training your swing and your body.show more

“Block 2 of Hypertrophy Clusters 10x4 on the main... lifts in addition to approach jumps and sprints. By replacing traditional sets (4x10 for example) with cluster sets (10x4), strength and power have been demonstrated to increase significantly. By cutting reps and increasing sets, there is less of a velocity drop off and power output can be maintained. Rest time is also decreased, improving repeated power overtime. Additionally, better fatigue management allows for the accumulation of more volume, which is contributes to greater hypertrophy without as much soreness.”show more

Starting your leg workout with leg curls is a... great idea. Research suggests it may help better activate the hamstrings. If you're choosing between seated and lying leg curls, it seems the seated version has a slight edge for muscle growth because it trains the hamstrings at a longer muscle length. That said, both variations work well—pick the one you enjoy most or simply alternate between them. And if you're staring at “motivational pictures” like the ones in front of my machine... your competitive spirit is guaranteed to kick in 😅💪show more

I’m insanely proud of this piece and the collection.... This is edition #2 of Left Alone and whomever collects the digital version of it, can claim this if they want it. Description ⬇️: Left Alone by Archie Shepp (1978) is one of the most beautiful pieces of instrumental music I know. A saxophone, accompanied by a piano, plays notes that resonate with my heart. In my mind, this photograph moves with an impossible slowness to an undefinable silence between notes in jazz riff. The duality in this Aria, Left Alone, is nihilism and conflagration. I posed the model and the fabric in the Japanese character for fire. She models the pose of power in the fluidity of dance. A flame, alone, is a powerful and fragile life force that is on the brink of greatness, and the precipice of darkness; life extinguished. The red is her power extending from heart center and the white is the searing flame. The art is laden with abstractions. Broken pieces of the self that seem grotesque but to the observer, are beautiful. To illustrate how these glitches are manifest in ourselves, I’ve placed each on a Fibonacci curve that spirals from the heart, representing our repeating thought patterns. In Left Alone, I chose to hide the Fibonacci curve. In the latter Arias, I chose to reveal them. You can find the Aria collection on Foundation 🌐 This is Left Alone, the second of nine pieces.show more

🕊️ The Faravahar: An Ancient Persian Symbol with a... Powerful Meaning High on the stone walls of Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia, you can see a mysterious winged symbol carved into the rock. This symbol is called the Faravahar (or Farohar), and it is one of the most important signs of Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest religions. At first look, the Faravahar may seem like a royal emblem or a symbol of power. But its meaning goes much deeper than that. The design comes from very old Middle Eastern traditions. Long before Persia, kings used winged sun symbols on seals to show divine protection and authority. Over time, the Persians gave this image a new meaning. In Zoroastrian belief, the Faravahar came to represent the human soul, its choices, and its journey through life. Every part of the symbol has a message: 🪽 The wings stand for growth, progress, and rising toward good thoughts and actions. 🧍 The human figure in the center reminds us that humans have free will and must choose between right and wrong. 🔄 The circular shape shows the ongoing journey of life and the balance between the spiritual and the physical world. In ancient Persia, the Faravahar was not just art on a wall. It showed faith, identity, and legitimacy. It reminded rulers and people alike that power should be guided by wisdom, truth, and moral responsibility. Even today, the Faravahar invites curiosity. Is it a symbol of God? A guide for the soul? Or a sign of royal authority? Perhaps it is all of these at once. What is clear is this: the Faravahar is a timeless symbol that shows how deeply spiritual belief and leadership were connected in ancient Persia—and how those ideas still speak to us today. ✨show more

The gym is where I learned discipline. But the... farm is where I learned reality. You can bench three plates and still not be strong enough to dig a trench, haul water, or stack hay in 100-degree heat. Gym strength doesn’t always translate to the real world. But farm strength? That translates everywhere. Out on the property, there’s no perfect form, no mirrors, no “three sets and done.” There’s just work that has to be done, or nature wins. You learn to move better, breathe deeper, and respect the kind of strength that keeps the world alive. I still love the gym. But I train differently now. Because freedom demands more than muscle… it demands endurance, humility, and grit. #health #FitnessMotivationshow more

Once again, the Islamic Republic is not about one... man or one family. Acting as if the entire regime will collapse with the death or exile of the Ayatollah Khamenei is foolish and not rooted in the reality of the situation. The Islamic Republic is a deeply embedded system which includes many people and factions who control vast swaths of the economy. These men have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and preserving their influence. I want nothing more than for the Islamic Republic to collapse, but too many people continue to speak and act as if they are unaware of how the regime actually operates, how it is structured, how power is distributed, and how its survival depends on a network far larger than any one person.show more