HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODD!

Todd, in green, turned 50 a couple of weeks ago, making him living proof that we can turn back the clock. This is the blog theme this week. Again. Happy Birthday, Todd! Keep crushing it.

Message from TJ:

Tom Cruise has got himself a monster hit on his hands. Mission Impossible 6 is going to break some serious records, and it currently has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I've got another piece of information for you: Tom Cruise is 56 years old. I need you to click on your memory banks and transport yourself back to 1980. I know, some of you weren't even born till decades later, but hang in there. Remember the movie Cocoon? Adorable movie about senior citizens who come into contact with alien life forms that give them the energy and vitality they had in their 20's, as well as the power of immortality. Here's a quick piece of trivia for you.

Tom Cruise is SEVEN years OLDER now than Wilford Brimley was when Brimley starred in Cocoon at the age of 49.

I will wait while your cynical brain Googles this. Be careful, you will stumble upon a huge wormhole of celebrities of different ages compared to their contemporaries from previous eras.

So what do we know about aging? I'm not talking about our years on Earth. I'm talking about the process that causes our quality of life to deteriorate. I often hear the same comments from folks when we sit together during my intros:

"I don't have the same energy I use to."

" I don't sleep as well as I use to."

"My body doesn't have the same tone it use to."

"I'm not as strong as I use to be."

"I'm not as happy."

Ouch, that last one always gets me.

You see, all of the comments above have a causes. When your hormones decrease, you suffer consequences. Your skin, outlook, and health all change negatively. When you increase your hormonal value, you reap the benefits.

We have removed the crystal ball to predict the future, and we have replaced it with data and science. Poor nutrition choices and lack of intentional activity lead to preventable, chronic disease. They also lead to unnecessary long-term suffering if you happen to be in an unfortunate genetic category. A tiny percentage might not be able to prevent some diseases, but the effects of them can be easily managed when you're healthy.

Mr. Brimley is currently 83 years old. He has been acting for almost 50 years and has had Type 2 Diabetes since 1979.

Tom Cruise was last seen jumping from one 50-story building to another, and according to my friend who use to train him, is "strong as hell." Sure he may have some personality quirks and believe in things I don't, but the guy is faring pretty darn well when it comes to the physiological aging process.

Notice my trainer friend didn't say "fit." My friend and I had a long discussion about being fit vs. functional. Fit to us means being able to run long distances slowly. Functional means carrying a body out of a burning building. Fit means hiking for three hours. Functional means digging 50 post holes in a day. Remember, functional training increases fitness, but it doesn't work the other way around.

I'm telling you right now that without training ALL of it, you're not doing it right. By all of it, I mean moving large loads, long distances quickly. That's how you nudge the hormonal needle, and no amount of riding a bike in a dark room or using a "theory" of moving your bodyweight quickly to get Splat points is going to do it, either. That's just science, not opinion.

Sorry, I had to go there.

Commit to the whole package, use your options, get your facts straight by talking through it. Then go do some Tom Cruise shit.

~TJ