2013 to 2023

Ten years ago this month I walked into Balance Gym in Washington, DC., and asked to be paired with a personal trainer. I had helped the owner with his business plan years before and was offered a discount on services. But I’d never used it. Now, after many stutter-starts, I was finally ready to get back in shape. Or so I thought. The picture above is of the actual aspirin packets I carried every day in my pocket along with my car keys. I was afraid of a heart attack. The aspirin was there to save my life in the event it happened. Overweight, drinking and eating too much, stressed - unhealthy and unhappy. About to turn 52, the warranty was running out, and my system was no longer able to bounce back. I was headed in the wrong direction. Sadly, at the time, my answer was to carry a packet of aspirin. But by November of 2013, I was committed to getting healthy. And I would start with getting fit again. I was incredibly fortunate to be matched with a personal trainer named Kevin. Kevin was 30 years old, had recently moved to the area, and was building his client base. He was enthusiastic and personable and, as I would come to find out, expert at his craft.  I confidently announced my desire to train three times a week. Now that I was ready to go, I wanted to get started! Kevin put me through a few assessments, testing my flexibility (poor), whether I could do a push-up and a pull-up (barely), and measuring my body fat composition (right around 30% - clinically obese). 

The long-suffering Kevin!

We set our schedule, and I showed up at the gym. By the end of the first week, I had reignited a back injury. I could barely walk. Fortunately, the gym had a physical therapist on staff. She gave me remedial exercises, and for the next five weeks Kevin and I got to know each other while I gingerly executed the basic movements I would need to begin putting my body under stress. And boy did I tax my body in the months to come!

Once I was able to move again, Kevin set to work on me. I had told him I wanted to do this right. No shortcuts. No chit-chat and sitting around. I told him I would give 100% and I wanted the same from him. Kevin delivered! After several training sessions, I realized there was no way I could get through the one-hour torture if I had consumed even a glass or two of wine the night before. So, alcohol was out. It just wasn’t worth the misery on the training floor. I also came to realize that instead of running the stairs twenty times until I felt faint, I could probably just avoid those calories in the first place by not eating a pint of ice cream after dinner! So, my diet improved. The workouts were just too grueling to accommodate excess food or drink.

The early days of getting back into shape were not pretty!

One day, Kevin announced we were going to begin doing interval training on the elliptical machine. That was a new one for me, but why not? I was to go all out for 30 seconds, then rest for 30. We would repeat this ten times. I think I got through my fifth round before I started feeling funny. A wave of nausea came over me, and a sense of dread and intense discomfort. Was I going to faint? I couldn’t really see. Black stars filled my vision. I was hot and cold, trembling, cold sweat. I lurched to the men’s room and prepared to be sick. I really thought I was going to die, and I felt so awful I kind of wanted to…But I didn’t. I recovered after fifteen minutes and limped back to the gym floor. I was ashen. Kevin was concerned. We were both relieved. At least the training session ended early that day!

Over the next seven years Kevin and I trained twice, often three times a week. At first, I don’t think he knew what to do with me. I was very willing and focused, but I was physically limited. I was 52 years old and out of shape. But I refused to let age be a limiter. I didn’t want my age to be an excuse. It was Kevin’s job to push me past where I thought I could go, but not to the point where I got hurt. Not easy, and probably not fair to him, as my enthusiasm and expectations far exceeded my ability.

Training regimens that worked for a younger body didn’t always work for me. Over the next year there were a few more incidents like the elliptical. Pushing the “sled” (see pic below) one evening for a circuit exercise, I got that flushed feeling again. This time I slumped down in the hallway to recover and waited for it to pass… I distinctly remember seeing the legs of the young gym-goers walking by, stepping over the older gentleman on the floor – Kevin standing next to me, phone in hand ready to call 911. I survived that one too. We laugh about it now. But it was scary at the time.

The Sled is a diabolical contraption one loads up with weight and either pushes or pulls from one end of the gym to the other. It can be used for strength or cardio training. Initially I pushed just the sled frame with no weight. I came to love the sled. In this pic I'm moving over 600 pounds 30 yards, a personal best!

One day I left the gym, flushed with heart racing, and drove straight to Georgetown University Hospital. I idled in my car for thirty minutes outside the emergency entrance, figuring I would be that much closer to the medicos if my heart gave out. It didn’t.

So, Kevin and I learned together how to train older “athletes”. He taught me technique and form – Kevin was a stickler for correct form, and I showed him the subtleties of training older adults. (Lesson Number One: invest in a heart rate monitor and use it! That way, you don’t go to exhaustion and collapse.)

It took me 12 months to get back into shape. I cut my body fat in half (15%) and felt great. Once I’d built a base of fitness and lost weight, I started to add muscle. I began more serious strength training. I experimented with different exercise modalities and equipment. I got really interested in mobility and stretching. I learned everything I could about health and fitness. For my 55th birthday, I did three pull-ups and three dips with a 55 pound weight around my waist; a goal we had set and a feat I could not have imagined a few years before!

I loved those seven years. I loved the gym, the energy and the sounds, the camaraderie of working with the trainers, and getting to know the other gym-goers who trained at the same time as me. I took pride in my commitment to the work and my physical ability to keep pace with younger folks. I loved learning about the exercises, the physiology, and the way the body worked. It felt almost spiritual, a way of honoring whatever force created this amazing body we often take for granted. I was hooked. I may have been a little overzealous and pushed too hard, sometimes to the point of injury. But I was figuring it all out, and I was getting fit again!

I developed a deep bond with Kevin. I credit him with my health transformation. He changed my life. I could not have done it without his guidance, expertise, patience, and good humor. Kevin helped me regain my life force. I don’t think any other trainer would have provided the combination of tough love and support that he gave me.

In March of 2020, Balance Gym closed due to COVID-19. Kevin transitioned from personal training to a career in real estate, and I had to learn to create my own workouts and motivate myself without his energy or the gym. I outfitted a small home gym, and even after Balance reopened, I continued to work out primarily from home. Over the last several years I earned my own certification as a personal trainer and became certified as a stretching and mobility therapist. I launched SecondFifty to share what I've learned on my journey back to health.

I tell you my ten-year story to impress upon you that if I can do it, you can do it! That’s my message. And your experience need not be as extreme as mine. We tend to start too aggressively when first getting back into exercise, but we also accept erroneous limitations on what we can do in the long run. Today I have added in tennis and a lot more mobility and cardio - a more nuanced and balanced routine.

So much is being written lately about healthy aging. The media has twigged onto the fact that ten thousand baby boomers turn sixty-five every day, and there are another sixty-five million Gen-Xers right behind them. But there still isn’t enough nuts and bolts advice about

how

to exercise. Where to start, literally what exercises to do, when, and for how long. How can you realistically implement a workout plan from a newspaper article? I find it challenging to put together my own training plans, and I live and breathe this stuff!

That’s where SecondFifty comes in. Not everyone has a Kevin or access to a gym, or a desire to spend the time to learn what works, and what to avoid. It is my hope that SecondFifty can provide the play-by-play blueprint for you to get, and stay, in shape. Clear exercises and workouts that are safe and simple to follow. Nothing crazy, just the “minimum effective dose” to support longevity and vital aging. It’s not as much as you might think once you get in the habit of regular exercise and know what to focus on.

More to come. Thank you for being part of the community.

Stay Strong. Age Well.

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Who sent this letter:

I'm George Harrop, founder of

SecondFifty.Blog

—an online resource for people who want to prioritize their health and wellbeing by taking a common-sense approach to nutrition and fitness. Many modern middle-aged people have spent the previous decades building careers and raising families. 

Now we're committed to getting and staying fit during the second half of our lives. We're on a mission to age with more agility and ease! Join us →