OnFitness Magazine - July/August 2014 - 57

MYTHS

Fortunately, the effects of stress are temporary. Think again. Your body automatically goes into
a three-stage physical response to stress: alarm, resistance, exhaustion. You have no control over
this once it kicks in, and going there too often will deplete the body's nutrients, especially vitamin
C, B6, zinc and magnesium. Common warning signs that you're living with too much stress are
irritability, poor sleep and fatigue. Try to reduce the opportunity for the stress response by
making time for relaxing activities like listening to soothing music or playing more with your dog.

SMART
TRAINING

"I may lack the ﬁtness and endurance I
had as a young guy, but my experience
in big waves plays a big factor. In
addition, my body is very conditioned,
using what I call all the surﬁng muscles,
since I still surf almost every day - for
the last 52 years. Plus, my workouts
in the gym are tantamount."
- Sunset Beach, Hawaii

WHAT DO
DRAGONS HAVE
TO DO WITH
TRAINING?

________
Many centuries ago
there was a man who
loved dragons. He had
dragon paintings, dragon
statues, etc.
One day, a dragon that
lived in the hills heard of
this man and decided to
pay him a friendly visit,
ﬁguring he'd be happy
to ﬁnally meet a live
dragon.
So the animal stuck his
head in the man's bedroom window one
evening and introduced
itself. The man freaked
out and bolted from his
home screaming.

The capability these individuals have shown is raising
the bar and the expectations of what the body can really
do and for how long it can be done.
Accomplishments like these and others (such as
Diana Nyad's epic swimming) give new hope to everyone
and especially the older athlete. It now turns out that perceived limits can be broken.
What these older athletes are accomplishing needs to
be noted in the personal training community both as an
inspiration and as a wake-up call: The possibility that
older athletes can go longer, harder and faster than what
has been traditionally expected.
So what can a trainer learn from the accomplished
seasoned athlete?
Smart training
To keep on trucking at a high level as the body gets
older requires smart training. Experience plays an everincreasingly large role in how you handle the training,
competition and related activities.
Joseph Grassadonia, editor-in-chief of OnFitness Magazine,
who is still surﬁng the big waves of Hawaii at age 62, provides insight on how he does it:
"I may lack the ﬁtness and endurance I had as a young
guy, but my experience in big waves plays a big factor. In
addition, my body is very conditioned, using what I call
all the surﬁng muscles, since I still surf almost every day
- for the last 52 years. Plus, my workouts in the gym are
tantamount.
"The biggest challenge for me is injuries and injury
prevention. A wipeout on a big wave for me now is
very painful and can put me out for days and even
weeks. If I am lucky, I will come home and simply nap
and that will fix things.

"My knowledge and skill level allow me to rarely
wipe out. I also minimize my risk taking, unlike when
I was a young man."
In addition to experience, consistent training keeps
the body in play as it ages. Research indicates that 70
year olds who lift weights are as strong as 20 year olds
who do not. The combination of experience and consistent training is a winning hand.
Keflezighi also aims at keeping his body healthy
and makes it one of his main goals. That attitude is
not always shared by the younger athletes, who
assume they will be around forever. That's not necessarily true, as one sharp turn of the knee can end a
career. And when risks are taken, sometimes there is a
price to pay.
Another common denominator among older athletes is adherence to a tough routine. For Hopkins, that
includes running in the early morning and hitting the
gym hard. He drinks beet juice and eats raw beets,
alongside his intake of bison meat, chicken, oatmeal
and organic raw vegetables, and avoids sweets, alcohol
and any form of drugs.
Keﬂezighi keeps up with quite a challenging training routine, including high altitude running. He eats a
lot of himbasha bread for its carb value. His diet
includes egg whites, brown chicken, shrimp, rice and
plenty of produce. Sweets are rare.
Successful older athletes take pains to never let their
body get de-conditioned. They work on being ﬁt yearround. The older you get, the harder it is to rebound if
you let your body decline. This is why it's critical to
keep your body in cutting-edge condition so that you'll
never have to face that huge hurdle of getting it back in
prime shape after letting it go to pot. Z

So how does this relate
to training? The man
loved the concept of
dragons, but when faced
with the reality of one,
caved. This is the
approach that many
people have to training.
They want that glorious
physique; they want to
lose 100 pounds - whatever the big goal - but
they're afraid of the
reality of the hard work
it takes to get there.
So instead of only
wishing you had a body
like the ones you see in
magazines, go to work at
making it a reality.

5 7 W W W. O N F I T N E S S M A G . C O M | V O L 1 5 N O 1 | 2 0 1 4

Joseph Grassadonia, editor-in-chief of
OnFitness Magazine, who is still surﬁng
the big waves of Hawaii at age 62,
provides insight on how he does it:

http://WWW.ONFITNESSMAG.COM

OnFitness Magazine - July/August 2014

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