I just read The Barbell Prescription by Dr. Jonathan Sullivan and Coach Andy Baker. Dr. Sullivan is a “double doctor”, with a PhD in neurophysiology in addition to an MD. I found out about his work by seeing the video “Up-Lift-ing: Strong at Any Age” about John Claassen, who did his first powerlifting competition at age 92, deadlifting 235 lbs! Dr. Sullivan was his coach, and John trains at Dr. Sullivan’s Greysteel facility in Michigan (I love that name). After seeing this inspirational video I found out Dr. Sullivan had written a book and had to check it out.
The first part of the book is the why of strength training, the remainder is exactly what movements are recommended, and detailed instructions on performing them. The first part argues strongly and convincingly that strength training should be central to any anti-aging exercise prescription. There is a lot of emphasis on cardio training as we age, and strength training is often an afterthought. Dr. Sullivan thinks that should be turned around. The two most important aspects of training for healthy aging are often referred to as “strength and conditioning”, and strength training provides the strength part and also a good bit of the conditioning. Cardio’s contribution is more to the conditioning, so he recommends it as a supplement to strength training. If you already have some kind of hobby or sport that emphasizes cardio (tennis, swimming, walking, running, cycling), etc, he recommends continuing to do that. But it you don’t and are starting from scratch, he recommends high intensity interval training which is a powerful time-efficient conditioning method. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this first part.
From the title of the book, it should be no surprise that Dr. Sullivan recommends strength training with barbells as the cornerstone of his exercise prescription. His key movements are the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press. He also talks about supplementing these with power clean movements. This is pretty much the same as Mark Rippletoe’s “starting strength” routine (the author’s are both also Starting Strength Coaches). The powerclean is definitely a movement that should be learned with an experienced coach or trainer. Otherwise we can substitute the barbell row. Either of the row or clean or equivalent should be part of a complete program, in my opinion, because they provide a “pull” motion to complement the “push” of the presses. This barbell prescription is the strength part of the program, and there is also instruction in high intensity interval training to help with conditioning.
My only criticism of the book is that Dr. Sullivan is somewhat disparaging of alternatives to barbell training, such as resistance bands. The light resistance bands one sees in sporting goods stores are admittedly inadequate for proper strength training, but so are the little two-pound weights in those stores. Just as you can get as strong as you want by using heavy enough weights, you can use bands with heavy resistance. I have stations with groups of bands in my garage that can give my strength a good challenge, and these take up a lot less room than barbells and a rack. But if you are going to a gym, by all means barbells are a great way to go for lifting heavy. A major advantage of weight training is that you can precisely monitor your progress, like you know you deadlifted 200 lbs last week and can now do 205. With bands, you know you’ve progressed by adding an extra band, but it’s hard to tell how much. That’s enough for me, I only care that I’m getting stronger or at least staying the same as my age, rather than getting weaker.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Part 1 is very inspirational, and is good motivation to give strength training its proper emphasis. Even for people who have a sport or active hobby that provides cardio benefits, it needs to be supplemented with strength training for healthy aging. I have some hiking and biking friends who don’t do this, and are in danger of getting more frail as they age. This book has inspired me to take my strength training more seriously instead of just treating it like a “chore”.
