50 Years Strong and Beyond

This past year I decided to stop growing older. I used to have the mindset that as the years roll by my physicality would begin to diminish and by my 50s would be completely inactive in all things physical. What low expectations I had. Back in August I stumbled upon a video on Youtube of Doc Horton himself (Tony Horton, creator of P90X) proving just what a 52 year old can do. The ridiculous shape Tony was in really drove home how young I actually am and gave me the belief that your abilities as you age are not determined by some number but by the choices you make. Here is a guy who set his own bar for what he would and would not be able to do regardless of his age. I now view every year going forward as year of improvement rather than a year of fading. Here is Tony at Venice beach August 2010: 

 

And if you think that is impressive look up Jack Lalanne's(Yes the kitchen power juicer guy) birthday challenges. I believe he is 96 now and still going strong. What is a birthday challenge? It is something to you do to push yourself to the limit on your birthday; A sort of personal milestone. For me I believe my 28th Birthday Challenge will be to run 28 miles. Should be fun considering the farthest I have run before that was 12 miles during the Tough Mudder Tristate and before that 4 miles one time during training lol. Man do I hate to run lol. If you can't wrap your head around Jack Lalanne doing any challenges, remember before he was the old man pushing his Power Juicer on infomercials he was this guy and a fitness revolutionary ----->

Oh and here are some examples of his ridiculous Birthday Challenges:

• 1954 (age 40): swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds (64 kg; 10 st) of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
• 1955 (age 41): swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to Star Jump significantly.
• 1956 (age 42): set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
• 1957 (age 43): swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound (1,100 kg; 180 st) cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile (1.6 km) swim into a swimming distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km).
• 1958 (age 44): maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The 30-mile (48 km) trip took 9.5 hours.
• 1959 (age 45): did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes and The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
• 1974 (age 60): For the second time, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
• 1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, he again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
• 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the "Spirit of '76", United States Bicentennial, he swam one mile (1.6 km) in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
• 1979 (age 65): towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds (2,900 kg; 460 st) of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.^[19]
• 1980 (age 66): towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile (1.6 km) in less than one hour.
• 1994 (age 80): Once again handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles (2.4 km) while towing 80 boats with 80 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.