Stronger After 40

By Lionel Bloom

In the increasingly crowded field of health and fitness literature, a recently published book stands out. Stronger After 40 by Dr. Josef Arnould is not another How-You-Can-Get-Into-Great-Shape-In-Only-12-Weeks manual for those of us who are overweight and out of condition. Yes, this large book does contain more than 400 pages of exercises which are pictured and described in vivid detail and organized into easy-to-follow workout plans. However, the contents of the other 200 non-exercise pages are what make this work truly exceptional. Here the author challenges us with an new ideas and fresh perspectives with which to reconsider exercise, our health, and contemporary civilization. As we read these pages, we are informed, inspired, and convinced that we really can become stronger after age forty and that developing our strength as we age is vital to achieving good health and enjoying our lives to the fullest.

On first glancing at its front cover, we know that Stronger After 40 is an unusual book. A slender white-haired woman and an even younger, vigorously smiling man raise dumbbells overhead against the background of a rocky mountain cliff and a clear blue sky. We sense that these characters and the author intend to fight valiantly against any potential oppression by the forces of gravity and time. The implicit hypothesis, that our health and our enjoyment of life are primarily matters of self-determination, is not a new one. However, after opening the cover and reading just the first ten pages of text, we know that this theme will be developed with great intensity and originality. Even in these first few pages Arnould’s powerful writing style compels us to strive not merely for fitness and youthful appearance but, more importantly, for lifelong vitality and health excellence.

The first four chapters of Stronger After 40 provide the background information necessary to understand the human quality of strength and why it is an important element of good health, particularly as we reach age 40 and beyond. Establishing a common ground for understanding the strength-health relationship is essential because this book is written for a wide audience—for all adults interested in their health, for therapists and doctors who advise their patients to exercise, for students in the healing professions, as well as for exercise specialists such as personal trainers and coaches. Arnould convinces us that, rather than continuing to hold onto our separate, half-baked, provincial views of exercise and health, we must all start from a position of shared information. He offers clear definitions of strength, muscle mass, strength training, and other concepts most of us have thought about but never put into precise words. He also exposes us to less familiar terms, such as sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass that tends to occur in all of us, not primarily from aging but from decreased physical activity. Armed with this information, we all understand how inactivity causes our muscle mass to shrivel prematurely and that this, in turn, is a major cause of obesity and the degenerative conditions it precipitates, such as diabetes, heart disease, and strokes. But Arnould does not dwell upon these negative health conditions. Instead, he encourages us to regain and increase our strength and muscle mass as we age, so that we can continue to do the physical activities we enjoy the most and maintain personal physical independence for as long in life as possible.

By the end of the first four short introductory chapters, we are eager to start training. But Arnould leads us again up to new vantage point from which to view exercise, strength, and health. In Chapter Five, “How Strength Training Becomes Healthcare,” he lays out a blueprint that shows us just how easily and effectively an exercise program can be coordinated with the rest of one’s personal healthcare plan. He does this by presenting the forms and procedures he and his staff have used during the past two decades in the Strength for Life® Health and Fitness Center in Northampton, Massachusetts. These include questionnaires and evaluation forms to facilitate record keeping and communication between ourselves, our doctors, and those who directly supervise our training. While an entire chapter devoted to explaining such procedures and forms could have been dull, it is not. Arnould brings these forms to life by presenting them as completed by Bob Roberts, a fictitiously named, 53-year old, obese teacher with elevated cholesterol and borderline hypertension. We see Bob as he goes through all of the initial stages of evaluation and we follow the trail of communication between him, his physical therapist, and his doctors. Later in the book we see Bob undergo a re-evaluation after three months of training and another after one year.

After approximately 120 pages of lively introductory material—which is spiced with humor, quotations from Shakespeare and James Joyce, and with photographs of mountains—we are well-prepared and eager to begin exercising. We now understand very clearly why we are doing strength training and how this activity can help us reach for our personal goals. Once again, however, Arnould surprises us. As we are introduced to the Strength for Life® exercise program in Chapter Six, we realize immediately that, in several specific ways, Arnould’s approach is very different from those in other health and fitness books. First, the beginning workouts of the Strength for Life® program can be performed by adults who are highly unfit, even those of us who are 50 or more pounds overweight and cannot climb a flight of stairs without breathing heavily. Most other exercise strength programs ignore the needs of individuals who are in such poor physical condition. Patiently, Arnould explains in great detail and with precision how each exercise can and should be performed safely and effectively. Only someone who has trained hundreds of people at very low levels of fitness could offer explanations that are so clear and encouraging.

A second way in which we know immediately that the Strength for Life® program is unique is that the photographs used to illustrate each exercise are of ordinary people rather than of models already in super shape. By featuring a cross-section of 40 to 82 year-old trainees in his own clinic, Dr. Arnould reinforces that nearly every adult, regardless of age or initial physical condition, can perform strength-building exercises and can receive significant health benefits from doing these exercises well.
A third unique feature of the exercise program presented in Stronger after 40 is the careful and systematic way in which each successive stage of training gradually becomes more challenging. A trainee’s progress is carefully monitored by periodic re-examinations and follow-up reports to his or her personal physician. As improvements in strength, cardiovascular fitness, and body composition are measured, we are encouraged to exercise just a little more vigorously. Arnould makes this seem very realistic because we see our fictional hero Bob Roberts go through this continuing re-evaluation and progressive exercise process.

After learning about four distinct stages of training—beginning, progressive, intermediate, and advanced—each of us feels as though the Strength for Life® system offers us a safe stage at which to begin training and, gradually, more challenging stages to achieve our personal goals. Thus, Stronger After 40 presents exercise programs which are appropriate for those of us who are really out of shape right up to the level of those of us geezers who still want to be highly conditioned athletes. There are no gaps in this system. Arnould shows how each of us can advance step-by-step to a level of training intensity that is right for us personally. Few if any other books offer such a smoothly progressive, highly coordinated system of strength training.
Two other elements of the Strength for Life® approach distinguish it from other strength programs. First, although more than twenty specific workouts are described in detail, Arnould prods us continually to think for ourselves rather than blindly follow a workout plan designed by someone else. Again and again he encourages us to listen to our bodies as we exercise and to modify our workouts accordingly. By the end of the book, we have learned how to develop our own workout plans.

Another outstanding aspect of Arnould’s approach is that he addresses head-on a serious problem in adult strength training—most adults who start eventually quit. Many people start and stop several times, thus losing some or most of the benefits of strength exercise. Arnould shows us how we can and why we must change our workout programs every one to two months so that we never become bored, complacent, or stuck in a rut—the primary factors that cause so many adults to stop training and thus lose their strength and vitality prematurely.
Following the 400 pages which picture and describe the Strength for Life® exercise program are four chapters in which the author further integrates strength training with other elements of good health. These include chapters on eating healthfully, engaging ourselves in other forms of physical exertion, and formulating yearly health and fitness plans. Once again, by observing Bob Roberts as he goes through these procedures, we see in human terms how positively strength training can impact the other important aspects of our lives.

In the final five-page chapter of Stronger After 40, Arnould leads us further up the metaphorical mountain of health. He challenges some accepted contemporary living customs. He asks, for instance, whether it is beneficial for citizens of advanced age to live in segregated communities, walled off from all other age groups. He proposes new models for living and interaction among people of all ages. This finale is stunning. We see that engaging in vigorous exercise and striving for excellent health are not merely individual quests. By developing one’s strength and health throughout a lifetime, each of us has the potential to help the world become a more stable and more friendly place. Exercising to build our strength and health has taken us far beyond the gym and far above personal fitness; we are realizing our potentials as individuals and as members of our world civilization.

In summary, Stronger After 40 is a strongly bound, 3 ½ pound book with contents that are provocative and informative for all of us approaching 40, 60, 80, or 90 years of age. It challenges us to think in ways that no other book in the health and fitness field does. Do not wait for a cheaper paperback edition. Purchase the hardcover textbook-quality edition now because you will refer to this inspiring and informative book again and again for many years to come.