Get Healthy and Strong by NOT going to the Gym!

For many, many years I went to gyms.  I lifted weights at the YMCA, and ran on the streets.  I also did some stretching, but it was kind of hit and miss.  Those were my younger days…

Now, I am in my 66th year, and I have learned a lot since I started seriously working out in my 20’s!  In the beginning, I followed the bodybuilding advice of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Frank Zane.  Actually, Frank Zane still had what I consider the ideal physique- not huge, buy very symmetrical.  Even today, in his 70’s, he looks great!  Arnold, well, not so much…

Frank now works out in his own home gym, which is what I have done for the past 30 some years or so.  I found that my workouts were much more intense when done on my own, in my basement- there were no distractions, and I could do them before work in the early AM.  But my physique, while quite strong, had some shortcomings that just got more and more evident over time:

My butt and gut, from heavy squatting, got big- too big!  Sure, my thighs got bigger too, but they were overshadowed by my butt.  And, despite endless leg raises from a bar, along with other resisted ab exercises, my gut stuck out.  In addition, heavy benching actually made my chest too prominent.  I switched to incline presses, which helped that a lot, but my shoulders hurt most of the time, and so did my knees (from the squatting).  Also, the running took a toll on my body as well, with knees, feet, and hips taking a pounding on a regular basis.

I gradually started to transition in my 50’s to what I practice today, and now have learned how to exercise in what I have found to be a very productive, satisfying, and above all a completely home-based manner!  I read about body weight exercise, both calisthenics and self-resisted types of exercises, and started to substitute them in more and more.  And I read on a web page called www.transformetrics.com by a fellow named John Peterson about what he called the ‘Tiger Moves’, which I prefer to call Virtual Resistance Exercise, since the resistance is generated from within the muscle itself, as it moves through a full range of motion.  This last was the key to mastering the bodily physique and to maximize health in an efficient, and very safe manner.

Not only that, but I can do the majority of the work in my living room, with a minimum of equipment, while I watch television! 

Think about that: instead of going downstairs to my dingy basement, which while it has a power rack and lots of equipment and weights, is still- a dingy, concrete and part dirt floor basement!  Now, I watch Netflix programs while I methodically work through my whole body.  And, while I certainly push hard, doing high volumes of leg-elevated pushups

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