Legendary golfer Ben Hogan once said that if he missed a day of practice he felt he was falling a week behind.

This is how a Champion of Aging feels when they miss a training session.

This is also the mindset an aspiring Champion of Aging must adapt early on as they strive to make a lasting, positive change in lifestyle.

Within the Vital Health Pyramid, Mindset is the foundation.

Without the proper mindset, it is difficult to achieve goals, no matter what they may be.

However, the proper mindset doesn’t just appear overnight.  It develops over time as you take small steps toward building positive change.

Step 1 – Self-Examination

The first step in the process involves a self-examination/personality purification.

To make significant changes and improvements to your health and fitness, you need to “get real with yourself” as they say.

These days, so many excuses are made for people who struggle with their health and fitness… work, stress, genetics, etc.

Most adults, particularly those who’ve raised a family, must deal with work and stress related issues.  That’s just life.

You can let those issues control you and use them as excuses for being obese, or you can take control of your own situation.

Genetics are also being thrown around as an excuse for some people who struggle with their weight.

In Shaolin practice, this concept of self-examination/personality purification is a component of their training.

The process of self-examination involves monitoring yourself for rationalizations, denials, delusions, etc., so that you can eliminate them.

You must eliminate your fears, narcissistic tendencies, ignorance and hatred.

You must examine all of your thoughts to identify your biases and predominant thoughts to determine those that are appropriate, and those that hinder personal development.

When you identify an inappropriate thought or bias, you must work to eliminate it.

All of your previously held beliefs must be examined for validity, and re-examined when you encounter new information.

The goal here is to identify your limitations through the constant monitoring of your thoughts and behaviors so you can make positive changes.

Here are a few other personality traits that will impede progress…

  • Bias
  • Impatience
  • Ignorance
  • Fear
  • Lack of discipline
  • Impulsiveness
  • Lack of accountability
  • Greed

I would argue that one of the biggest impediments to personal growth is bias.

Unfortunately, the way most of us perceive things is through our own biases.  We tend to gravitate toward information that confirms these biases.

You simply can’t make progress without stepping outside of your biases to look at information that may be contrary to what you believe.

Test principles on your own

This is a major principle in Shaolin training.  Basic principles are presented in training, but it is up to the monks to test those principles for themselves.

This should be the case with you as well.

Truth and reality can only be discovered through direct experience.

Figure out what works best for you and then put together your own training program.

In the meantime, you should never stop learning.  There will always be new information forthcoming that can help you improve.

Work to improve your personality

It’s one thing to identify the personality faults that may be holding you back.

However, you’ll also need to make improvement in other areas.

Here are a few virtues to cultivate to experience personal growth more efficiently…

Concentration – the ability to focus the mind and to eliminate extraneous thoughts

Objectivity – the ability to think logically and eliminate rationalization, projection, denial, etc.

Discipline – the ability to pursue correct thoughts and behaviors even when not feeling your best

Patience – with yourself and others

Faith – in your own abilities and behave accordingly in spite of social pressures or other influences

Courage – the ability to take risk and to behave according to your set of values

I could elaborate on each of these virtues in more detail, but I’ll take the time to do that with another post.

However, I will see that the practice of meditation can be useful toward developing at least a few of these virtues, particularly Concentration.

That is an exercise I will discuss further down the road as well.

Prioritize your fitness training

Champions of Aging treat their fitness training as the most important part of their day.

prescription for sarcopeniaMost people don’t do this.

They will let everything else dictate their priorities, whether it is work related, family, etc.

Consider this though… how useful will you be to your work colleagues, family and friends if you are physically unable to perform?

If you allow your own health and fitness to suffer, you aren’t going to be very useful, and it is possible you actually become a burden yourself.

Take the time to figure out the best time for you to train each day.

Note that this has nothing to do with when you have time.

If you are over 50, it is more likely that you have greater ability to dictate your schedule than you did ten or twenty years ago.

Therefore, figure out the time when you know you will have the most energy to train so you can put in a solid effort each session.

For me personally, this is late morning and about mid-afternoon.  At each of these times, I am already fueled up with either breakfast or lunch, so my body is ready to train.

Mid-afternoon tends to be when I train most often because I recognize that my mind is sharpest in late morning, so I tend to want to focus on business at that time.

I’ve never been an early riser, so that has never been a great time for me to train.

Evenings are when I do the majority of my reflection and contemplation, and I am most relaxed.  Therefore, training then is not great for me either.

Everyone is different.

Again, the point here is that you need to make your training a priority rather than just an afterthought, or a necessary evil.

Champions look forward to their training, rather than dread it, or simply check it off their list of things to do.

One common complaint I here is “I hate going to the gym.”

Well, so do I, so I train in my garage.  And my garage is detached from the house, has no heat and no air conditioning.

In the middle of summer, it’s usually over 90 degrees, and sometimes it is 100 degrees.  Naturally, I have to adjust accordingly.

In the winter, it may be as low as 35 degrees out there, even with my space heaters running full blast for a couple hours before I get out there.

But I personally love the solitude of training in my own space.

If you are over 50 it is likely you have enough space to at least train with some minimal equipment (I recognize that not everyone does, I am simply considering probabilities).

If you don’t have the space or the equipment at home, then you’ll need to go to a gym.

Champions do what they have to do.

Piling up small wins will lead to bigger wins and a stronger mind

best exercises for building strength after 50The biggest mistake people make is thinking they can turn themselves into a Navy SEAL in 90 days.

As a result, they start the year out heading into the gym with big expectations, workout until exhausted three or four times per week for a few weeks and then quit due to burnout.

This is why I love the Starting Strength method.

You train a simple program consisting of four lifts, three days per week (3 lifts per session), start with conservative weight, and add weight to the bar each session.

After about three months you are lifting heavier weight than you ever thought possible.

But all you did was show up each session and add a little weight to the bar each session.

Think about this… most 50 year old men can squat 75 pounds for five reps without much trouble.

So say you start at that weight and then add 5 pounds to the bar for three sets of five reps each workout over the next three months (13 weeks).

How much are you squatting now?  Well, that is 39 sessions.  39 x 5 = 195 pounds.  Your squat is now up to 270 pounds.

Is that doable?

For some people yes.  Most others will likely start adding weight at smaller increments when the weight gets up to 200 pounds or so.

Let’s just say you add 2.5 pounds each session.  You’ve still added nearly 100 pounds to your squat.

Those small gains are what keep your mind in the game.

At some point as the weight gets really heavy, your mindset changes from looking forward to adding weight during the next session to feeling a bit anxious because you know you are getting close to failing a rep.

And then when you do get through those three sets of five reps, you not only feel a sense of relief, but also a sense of accomplishment.

That is when the training program gets to be a little more complex, and you will need to develop patience because those strength gains will now come less frequently.

With that said, imagine how good you will feel by becoming that much stronger, both in body and mind?

This is why strength training is the core focus of most Champions of Aging when it comes to their fitness.

Final thoughts

You should now have a pretty good idea how important the proper mindset is to the improvement of your overall health and fitness.

Without a strong mindset, you’ll have trouble reaching your goals, let alone become a Champion of Aging.

However, as I suggested, that mindset does not just turn on like a light switch.

It takes work, both physically and mentally.

But you now have a process to work with to make those improvements.

When you are ready to start down the path of becoming a Champion of Aging, be sure to check out our flagship program.

Now, get to work!