100 push-ups, day 3. I’ve been running steadily on my treadmill 5 days per week for the past month. To be honest, I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. But even after all this cardio, push-ups gave me more immediate results as far as being more functional throughout the day.

I’m not 60 years old yet until this June, but at this age one can become a bit disillusioned at the prospect of getting one’s youth back. Your body is literally on strike against optimal health, bacteria is more aggressive, things like toxins and mucous build up aggressively in the body. You wake up in pain and go to bed in pain, often for no apparent reason. And this can be very discouraging.

As a friend said to me many moons ago. “It’s time to hang up the running shoes.” Now that I’ve thoroughly depressed you, it’s time to reveal the honest truth: you’re in a boxing ring through no choice of your own and your opponent is your terminal life span. It’s either fight back or get knocked out early. Enjoy infusing life in your years versus life slowly ebbing out of you.

Anyway, once you stop resisting, the aging process accelerates. But paradoxically, when you become assertive and push back despite feeling miserable, exercising becomes an energy return system. You literally get back more energy than you expend from exercising– I guess it’s because exercise exorcises toxins/ waste from the body, and you become more efficient. I’m fortunate not to have any major ailments or injuries. Getting a good night’s sleep and healthy eating play a major role. Being vegetarian helps a lot to retard the visible effects of aging because meat being the hardest food to digest, along with sugar and processed foods wear the body down from inside out.

If I could only choose between resistance training and cardio workouts to stay healthy, I would choose resistance training. Ideally, the best exercise program combines the two, but for me, weight training/ resistance training/ even calisthenics like push-ups gives me the most immediate health results. In fact, I would venture that most runners as they age must include resistance training of some sort to continue running at an above sluggish pace.

Which brings me to push-ups, doing 100 push-ups daily. I told my brother, Curtis, do what you can in sets. If you can only comfortably do two push-ups at a time, then do sets of two push-ups and work your weigh up to what your goal is. Hey, this morning I didn’t feel like doing push-ups. I started out with 5 push-ups at a time and then ventured into 10 push-ups at a time until I reached 100 push-ups.

You know yourself. Don’t let people intimate you with talk of doing 100 push-ups daily. Set your goals and work towards them. And always remember resistance training is key to staying young and healthy longer.