What started as a necessity six years ago (the Doctors told me I needed to lose some weight for surgery, so I started to run five days a week), has become a lifestyle.
Once I lost the first 20 pounds, I thought. Lets see if I can lose 30.
Now, 60+ pounds later, and at 70 years old, running has become a part of my life.
After completing my hormone replacement injections, I wanted to build some muscle and lose the retained body fat from the three years of hormones that had been injected into my body. Yim suggested that besides my running, I should consider doing some strength training and I joined MVMT Gym and met Joe Clark on my first day.
At this point, Yim and I were quite far along in our Plant Based Diet transition and had been reading about how we should supplement our fitness lifestyles with protein and I began to track everything we ate. We knew that to gain muscle, we needed to maintain or increase our protein intake so tracking our meals really helped me understand where our protein was coming from and how to balance the mostly vegetarian meals we were preparing.
After MVMT closed, I decided that I would invest some money and build myself a gym in the basement level of our house, which was already Yim’s dance room and had a nice floorspace we could share. Joe and his wife Gillian, launched Thrive Protein, and beginning in September 2024, Joe worked with me at home to develop my strength training routines as my Personal Trailer. Over a four month period, he provided all the necessary direction required to start training by myself. Now it was up to me to have the discipline of doing each routine properly and consistently.
So, progress tracking from January 1, 2025.
Weight: 140 Pounds. Pretty lightweight. I had certainly burned off all the weight I wanted to by running but was too thin. I needed a little muscle mass and we calculated that I should eat somewhere around 90 grams of protein daily. Once again, I tracked my food and weight daily for the entire year.
After my morning routines, Yim and I have lunch together and mine is pretty much always the same: A Blueberry Banana Smoothie, which includes spinach, arugula or kale, a banana, a scoop of Thrive vanilla protein powder (which provides 30 grams of protein), creatine, collagen, flaxseed, turmeric and black pepper, a teaspoon of spirulina and as many blueberries as I can fit inside my 24 ounce container, which I then fill with Soy Milk and blend. That provides me with 44 grams of protein. If I add a tablespoon of peanut butter, it hits 48 grams, so getting our protein wasn’t that difficult. It was understanding which vegetables provided us with the best percentages and then developing meals we loved so we could maintain our muscles.
MOST days we eat in the 90+ gram range for our protein.
Our Home Gym
Here’s my Workout Schedule:
Monday, Wednesday & Friday
– 10 to 12.5 K Run
– 3 sets of 10 shoulder, arms and upper body exercises
– 1.5 hours cycling – March to November. From December to March, it becomes snow shovelling 🙁
Tuesday & Thursday
– 10 to 12.5 K Run
– 3 sets of 10 core exercises
– 1.5 hours cycling – March to November.
Saturday
– 12.5 K run
– 1.5 hours cycling – March to November.
I find this fairly easy to maintain now. I find 90+ minutes of running goes by quickly. For me, it’s meditative. My routine is certainly not for everybody but it works for me as I consider the two most important elements of aging well to be cardiorespiratory fitness and strength so the workout schedule balances both for me.
So here’s my development this year.
Overall, I gained 7 pounds, which was a 5% increase to total body weight – which I believe was mostly muscle.
One fairly big adjustment I did make this year was to reduce my running from 16 K daily to between 10 and 12.5 K five days a week and integrated new exercises into my strength and core sessions for better balance. I was feeling the impact of the extra mileage on my knees so I reduced the running and upped the strength training.
Here’s the progress I tracked;
April 2025
– Increased weight on lateral curls from 6 pounds to 8 pounds.
– Increased weight on pec curls from 12 pounds to 15 pounds.
– Increased weight on skull crushers from 6 pounds to 7 pounds.
May 2025
– Increased weight on bench press lifts from 20 pounds to 25 pounds.
July 1, 2025 / BMI Check
Based on my age – 70, my height – 68″ and my current weight – 147 pounds, my body mass index – BMI is 22, which falls within the optimum range for my height and my daily caloric intake should be right around 2,425 calories.
August 2025
– Increased weight on skull crushers from 7 pounds to 8 pounds.
– Increased weight on pec curls from 15 pounds to 20 pounds
September 2025
– Increased weight on bicep curls from 12 pounds to 15 pounds.
– Weight as of September 7, 2025: 147.0 pounds. A 5% increase to total body weight.
October 2025
– Increased weight on lateral curls weight from 8 pounds to 10 pounds.
November 2025
– Increased weight on skull crushers from 8 pounds to 10 pounds.
– Added Glute Bridges & Half Wipers to Core routine
– Added Dumbbell Squats to Strength Training routine
– Added Fire Hydrants to Strength Training routine
– Added Crab Crunches to Core Training routine
– Increased weight of Scapula Lifts and Single Arm Rows from 20 – 25 pounds
– Added Suspension Rows to my Strength Training routine
One Full Year.
So, one full year into strength training seriously, Yim looked at me the other day before guests arrived for dinner and said: “You look good Steve. Real Good.” So that’s reason enough to keep going right there.
I feel the increased strength in my arms and core and my ability to progressively add more exercises and more weight to my routines shows me that my body is responding. It’s called Progressive Overload. I see muscle development overall and during the year, managed to extend my left shoulder at a complete 90 degree angle onto the floor during some weighted stretch exercises – something I haven’t been able to do in 45 years.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve had a few surgeries on my left shoulder after multiple dislocations in my late teens and early twenties. It’s a constant focus to maintain the strength in my left arm because it is filled with severe arthritis. Keeping myself fit means having less pain – If I allow my shoulder to atrophy, I won’t be happy when we are hiking The Alps in our 90’s.
So what’s next?
Now that I’ve set my training and seen some good progress, my focus for the next year remains my left shoulder, pecs and core. I’d like to see more muscle on and over my left shoulder and continued overall development of my upper body in general so I have asked for some heavier weights for Christmas. I may add some leg exercises such as hamstrings, quads and lower leg muscles and I’d also like to rid myself of a little bit of stomach fat, which is probably just excess skin ’cause I’m getting old, which is why I like the endurance side of my training. Maybe I can burn it away… 🙂
On our upcoming trip to Costa Rica, I have a membership at a local gym and intend to work with trainers there to keep on track and maybe fine tune things – it’s always good to have a second opinion and I am looking forward to working out in the heat.
Overall, I’m in a good place. Yim likes the way I look and I like the way I look and feel so I will continue with these routines in 2026, taking all of the progress I made this year and using it to gauge future gains.
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