No Offseason

Back in the Pleistocene epoch, when I went to school, we'd train for a sport during the season and then go back to being sofa slugs. We'd have a few weeks of sweaty daily doubles in football, for example, and then launch into the games. After the season, we'd go back to watching "Gilligan's Island" and eating Twinkies and Ding-Dongs.

In the Younger Next Year program, however, there is no offseason. You need to send springtime signals to your body, to grow and not decay, each day. Day after day, week after week, year after year you build incrementally on your fitness foundation.

Because of this discipline, I feel at age 54 I am in the best shape of my life. I am stabilized at 178 pounds, down from a high of 240. I feel great and have lots of energy. That's amazing considering I am now going through manopause and all the typical bodily challenges that occur in the AARP years.