Books |
Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart — Until You’re 80 and Beyond
Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge, M.D.
By
Published: Apr 25, 2021
Category:
Health and Fitness
Back in the day when there was life in offices and at social occasions, you may remember how it felt when a kid passed you in the hall without greeting you. Really, he didn’t see you. The EJECT button had been pushed but you didn’t know it. Or maybe it was someone attractive at a party. It happens a thousand different ways, and all lead you to one gloomy understanding: You’re old.
But that’s absurd. "Old" is what your parents were at your age. Hell, at your age minus 10. You? You’re okay. Could weigh less. Could be more buffed. Could eat better. But no real complaints.
Great. Will that last?
With COVID, the question changes. Ok, I’m old. But am I strong enough to resist the virus? Yes, I’ve been vaccinated. But what about the variant? How many times can I dodge this bullet?
Some questions for you:
1) Do you do aerobics for 45 minutes four days a week?
2) Do you lift weights two other days each week?
3) Have you stopped eating crap?
4) Outside of your work, is there something you deeply care about?
5) Do you have a life partner who really cares about you — or a bunch of good friends?
If you can say yes to those questions, you have no need for "Younger Next Year." But if you can’t, please read on, because if Lodge (a doctor) and Crowley (his 70-odd-year-old patient) are right, they can help you live to a ripe old age, with your wits intact and your body ready to romp. [To buy the paperback for men from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] There is also a book for women. [To buy the paperback of "Younger Next Year for Women" from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition for women, click here.]
Live long and well, then die fast — that’s your goal. No lingering disease. No chronic conditions. You run the machine at a fairly high speed for eight or nine decades and then make a quick trip to the junk heap. To die in your own bed at 90 — sweet.
Lodge and Crowley bluntly tell you that the final third of your life can be satisfying — that, if you do what they tell you, you can be 60 years old and "be functionally younger every year for the next five or even ten years." Why? Because "70 percent of what you feel as aging is optional. You don’t have to go there."
How do you stop aging? You suspect the answer is "a lifestyle change," and it is. Lodge and Crowley believe that "50 percent of all illnesses and injuries in the last third of your life can be eliminated by changing your lifestyle in the way we suggest." Which is a euphemism. "The way we suggest" is almost certainly a total change for nearly everyone.
One criticism: There’s any updated edition of the book, but if you’re looking for wisdom about nutrition, vitamins and supplements, you won’t find much here. And there are exceptions. Dr. Lodge, sadly, died at 58 of prostate cancer. Some bullets can’t be dodged.
When I was a Good Person, I worked out three or four days a week. I thought I was in damned good cardio shape. But I was nowhere near what these guys call fit. What they want from us is nothing less than a second job: six days of hard work, without fail, each and every week. They don’t apologize for this. Or sugarcoat it. They say: " Suck it up….six days, serious exercise, until you die."
Until you’re 50, you may be too busy for a six-day commitment; they’ll consider four or five for you. But "after 50, six is mandatory." They explain why. Our bodies are gifts from our ancestors, they say; we’re hard-wired to run all day to find our food. Our bodies don’t know that we sit at computers 60 to 90 hours a week; they want to move. And they want to be fed as if we were still roaming the Savannah.
So have one more Big Mac with fries, and then cherish the memory — that part of your life is over. Ditto more than two glasses of wine a night. Ditto… but you get the idea.
Two million people have bought this book. It’s published in 23 languages. Clearly, there are more than slogans here, more than products the authors want to sell you. There’s this: practical hope. For every negative, Lodge and Crowley offer a positive. You will feel great. You will look better. You may even lose weight. And, the ultimate — you’ll be alive.
