Sunday With Blackthorn - Adapt To Your Situation

 The short piece below comes from a fitness/strength instructor in New Zealand who runs a gym only for over 40 adults. I paid for a program what included a PDF and links to numerous videos. Nothing unusual, but solid material. One of the things he stresses in the weekly emails is that even if you have old chronic injuries, you can still maintain your strength and fitness. 

You just have to be smarter about it.

 

 Let me tell you the thing I am quietly best at, and it is probably not what you would guess.  It is not fancy programming. It is not clever workouts. It is modifications.

A modification is simply a standard exercise done slightly differently, so it fits the body you have today instead of the body you had at 25.

Here is what I mean. A younger person drops into a deep squat and thinks nothing of it. You go to do the same and your knees or hips say no. Most people take that as a signal to stop. I take it as a signal to adjust. We turn the toes out a touch, we raise the depth, we sit down to a chair and stand back up, and suddenly you are squatting again, building real strength, with zero pain.

That is the whole game after 40. Not gritting your teeth and pushing through pain, and not sitting on the sidelines either. It is finding the version of the movement that works for your body right now.

And I mean anybody. In my gym I have people training strong around knee replacements, spinal fusions, frozen shoulders, and hips that have seen better days. It genuinely does not matter what has happened to you. There is almost always a way to keep building strength with the ability you have, and finding that way is exactly what I do.

Three things I want you to take from this:

1. A modification is not the lesser version. It is the right version for your body today. Done well it builds the exact same strength, just without the pain tax.

2. Pain is information, not a stop sign. When something hurts, that is your body asking for a small adjustment, not telling you to quit. Adjust, and keep the strength coming.

3. You do not need a perfect, pain-free body to start. You need the right tweak. I have never met a body I could not work with, and yours is no different.


Keep moving,
Gavyn

Another Entertaining Piece For The Older Guys Here At The Blog

Apparently concert venues are having a hard
 time getting Generation X to fill the seats.
Well, hello. Generation X here. I think I can help. You're welcome.
(This also applies to the Baby Boomer generation)

DEAR CONCERT VENUES:
Decent ticket prices. I should not have to sell blood, the blood of my children, and take out a small personal loan to see someone I listened to on a cassette t

Earlier shows. No more 8 PM start times. Give me 6:30. I don’t like driving home in the dark anymore and by 10 PM my body has begun shutting down nonessential systems.

Comfortable seats. Yeah, I said it. And while we’re at it, STOP PACKING US IN LIKE SARDINES. I would like to sit down without becoming intimately acquainted with the stranger beside me.

 CUP HOLDERS. We have the technology. Please use it.

No general admission. I’m not standing for four hours protecting my spot like it’s beachfront property. Give me a seat with a number on it.

 Reasonable parking. Preferably somewhere in the same zip code as the venue.

Clean bathrooms. Enough of them. With toilet paper. We’re not asking for a spa. We’re asking for basic civilization.

Turn it down just a smidge. We still want it loud. We just don’t want our ears ringing for the next three business days.

DEAR ARTISTS:

Go on stage ON TIME. If you say 7:30, we have planned our entire evening around 7:30. Respect the schedule. We have dogs to let out.

 I came to hear YOU sing. I know the audience knows all the words. That’s wonderful. Let us have a chorus here and there. But please stop holding the microphone toward the audience for half the performance. I did not pay $200 to hear Brenda from Row G sing your greatest hits.

We get it. You’re proud of your new album and you’re probably bored to death with the old stuff. Sing a couple of your new favorites. We will listen. We will support you. We may even like them. But then go back to the oldies. That’s why we’re here.

Because every time you play something nobody knows, Bob decides that’s his opportunity to get another beer. Then Bob has to pee four times because he drank the beer. And every single time Bob leaves and comes back, the entire row has to stand up.
My knees cannot handle this much up and down. Please. For the sake of our joints. Play the hits.

And you know what? Throw in an intermission. We can pee, stretch our backs, check the dog camera and regroup.

We aren’t done going to concerts.

We’re just at an age where the experience has to be worth leaving the house.
You want Generation X back in those seats? We just no longer have the desire to suffer unnecessarily.
 

Training Workout Wednesday - From Urban Combatives

 This video from Lee Morrison is about using a less than lethal tool, such an all metal or hard plastic Pen, or possibly  a small handheld pocket flashlight in conjunction with a defensive posture when  a sudden assault presents itself. In the video he also demos the technique briefly with a knife but makes it clear that  using a knife is going to be problematic in a great many jurisdictions from a legal standpoint. Especially if your assailant is himself unarmed.

 

Sunday With Blackthorn - And.......Yet Another Milestone For The Blog

It took me from 2008 until the summer of 2022 (14 years) to get to 100,000 Pageviews. As of today, the Blog has hit the 800,000 Pageview mark. Once again, all I can do is say thank you to you guys for your support.

Dec 4th 2025      The Blog Hits 400,000 Pageviews

May 3rd 2026     The Blog Hits 500,000 Pageviews

June 20th 2026    The Blog Hits 600,000 Pageviews

Aug 2th 2026    The Blog Hits 700,000 Pageviews

 Aug 16th 2026    The Blog Hits 800,000 Pageviews

Deep Purple And.............Ritchie Blackmore

 After 33 years, Ritchie Blackmore returns. Just for the encore, but.....who know?

 

Sunday With Blackthorn - Have I Ever Mentioned How Much I Liked The Show "Mr. Inbetween"?

 Let's just say, a lot!

The show ran for 3 seasons from Oct 2018 to July 2021, and I never missed an episode. 

 

 

Blackthorn Blog for 8-4-26 Part 2 (Just A Little Humor)

 

You're At A Gas Station Filling Up When Things Start To Go South

 

So, You're Over 40 And You Think You Can Still.......

Guys, nobody is getting younger. A simple fact of life. You will slow down, your knees won't move quite the way they used to. If you're not doing some sort of resistance training you will slowly lose your muscle mass to sarcopenia (look it up). 

Time to get real about how well you can defend yourself against  a younger, faster, assailant.

 

Sunday With Blackthorn Part 2 8-2-26

 This video is being put up for Comic Relief only Gentlemen. It is an excellent video on how NOT to use the Fairbairn WW2 Smatchet! Please do not watch it while attempting to drink anything. I will not be responsible for any fluid damage to your Keyboards!