Strong People Are Hard To Kill

Or Why Am I Killing Myself In The Gym Every Day?

A post about nutrition, fitness, health, longevity and the title is 110% true. We learn this lesson dramatically from someone like Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of a fight between hundreds of Taliban and a 4 man SEAL team on a mountainside in Afghanistan. And we should learn it in daily, normal fashion all the time from observing the elderly and infirm around us. Not to mention what we learned in COVID, where those impacted were, by a ridiculously large number, people who were obese, diabetic, and otherwise weak and infirm.

For much of my life, I was strong and lean. I spent my childhood playing outside, roaming the woods and fields near my house, and playing sports. I joined the Army at 18 and spent over a decade doing hard, heavy things. The life of a tank crewman is very physical on a daily basis.

The author, in 1991, working on broken track on his tank

After my Army career, I stayed active for a long time. But over the last decade, roughly, I have let myself become pretty sedentary while simultaneously traveling for work and indulging in too much good food and wine. The result is someone that is no longer lean or strong.

In March, I decided to change that. I put together a basic plan of eat less, cut way back on wine and whiskey, and get myself into the gym to get strong again. I plan to write more about all of this, but right now my goal is just to put down in words the beginnings of the journey and a few of my thoughts on it. I’m now nearing the end of 12 weeks and feel that I’ve rebuilt the right habits.

That’s a big deal, recreating those habits that make a human what a human should be. Lean, strong, fast, healthy …. When you couple those things with human intelligence, we are the ultimate apex predator and have been for 100,000 years. We are also able to protect ourselves, our families, friends, communities, and nations against those who wish to do us evil. These are things that every human should aspire to be able to do and be.

In 12 weeks, I have lost 5% of my body weight, and that has been 80% fat loss. I have increased my basic compound weight lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press) from basic Starting Strength (essentially bare bar) numbers to reasonable numbers for a 57 year old office worker. This is the beginning, not the end, of the journey. Now that I’ve built the habits, I need to make them permanent for the rest of my life.

I’ll write some detailed thoughts, learnings, and progress as I go along. Meanwhile, here are the core tenets of what I’ve learned from Mark Rippetoe and Dr. Mike Israetel, who are the key people I’ve learned from. I’ll also point out that Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, is one of my inspirations. If a law professor can be lean and strong, so can I, darnit!

Oh yeah, those basic tenets that I learned and that are guiding me.

1. Nutrition, not exercise, is the key to being lean. It also has the benefit of maintaining health.

2. Exercise is for mental, emotional, and physical health. Humans are meant to move and do strong things.

3. Lifting heavy things makes you strong. And strong people are hard to kill.

4. Walking, running, bicycling, playing with the dog, swimming, etc. are fun and make you fit. Have fun. Be fit.

Look for more on this topic as well as cigars, culture, bbq, Israel, America, western civilization ….. and lest I forget, thoughts on Rome and our modern world.