Life Extension

Way Ahead of the Times

There's a book titled Life Extension that I bought in the early '90s. It's a huge - 858 pages! - report on how to combat the effects of aging. The authors are Sandy Shaw (a biochemist from UCLA) and Durk Pearson (a physicist from MIT). Although they offer the disclaimer that they're research scientists, not doctors, they disclose unbiased research findings that's way ahead of their time.

By "their time" I'm referring to 1982. That's when their book was published, around the time the rest of us were into our headbands-and-high tube socks, leotards-and-legwarmers, trendy fitness club frenzy. Jim Fixx (bless his soul) was in, as were countless hours on the treadmill.

I hang my head in shame and admit that I, too, signed up for membership at one of those trendy clubs. This involved sitting with a sales rep for two hours while he conned me into paying extra for a life membership with extra perks. No car salesman has come even remotely close to what this piranha did to my wallet.

Anyway, it was around this time I got my hands on a copy of Life Extension. There was some cool research in there, but I was too naive to digest it. Pearson and Shaw looked like a couple of hippy researchers who spent way too much time in the lab.

You had to tip your hat to their conditioning, though. They backed up their research with photos of themselves in skimpy clothing. Pearson, in fact, is wearing nothing more than a jock strap. Ick. But... he's ripped. He looks like Howard Stern on HGH. He strikes me as a modest guy in spite of the jockstrap. It looks like he doesn't really feel comfortable in front of a camera.

But like I said, he's ripped. Not overly muscle-bound, but with great muscle definition and an obviously low body-fat percentage. Ditto for Sandy, who's both svelte and muscular.

It was only last week when I found this book gathering dust in the basement. I thumbed through the pages and after getting the Howard Stern lookalike chuckle out of the way, I was intrigued to find out how these two got in such great shape. I wanted to see how their workout plan from the '80s differed from the top-notch training methods we have now.

It doesn't. These guys were not dancing to a Jane Fonda workout tape, believe me.

In fact, here's what they said in Chapter 8:

...the exercise which causes the most rapid cardiovascular conditioning effects, as well as the greatest release of growth hormone in younger people, is peak effort expended over a short period of time rather than a less-than-peak effort over a longer time period. Regularly running full tilt up a hill for several minutes conditions the cardiovascular system and, in younger people, causes the release of growth hormone. Jogging for a few miles, unless there is peak effort, releases little or none, and is not very efficient for cardiovascular conditioning.

In other words: More than 20 years ago, these guys validated all of the main points that are now emphasized in cutting-edge fitness programs such as Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training and Dr. Al Sears' PACE program.

Pearson and Shaw definitely knew what they were talking about. If you want to go back in the past and read a book by people who were living in the future, I highly recommend getting a copy of Life Extension.

Exit Life Extension and return to UniqueFitnessTips.com