Age is just a number when it comes to fitness

By Lethbridge Herald on July 11, 2025.

LEAVE IT TO BEEBER
Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

Back in 2002 on the May long weekend, I had life-changing spinal surgery at Foothills Hospital in Calgary where a neurosurgeon named Dr. Rick Hu and his team removed four bulging discs from my neck and replaced the space between the vertebrae with bone from my left hip.

Until I suddenly one afternoon in the summer of 2000 couldn’t lift 150 pounds of weight on a barbell because my right arm went essentially dead, I lifted hard and heavy for decades. Since 1981 in Ontario when some friends convinced me to hit the gym with them, I worked out at least five days a week most weeks, lifting weights and doing cardio on top of the sports I was involved with and the nightly two-mile runs my roommates and I would do from our house to the shores of Rainy Lake and back.

I kept up the routine when I moved to Lethbridge and discovered that school chum Tom Brooks was co-owner of Gold’s Gym on 2 Ave. S. Until that fateful day when life changed in 2000 at the gym which was now called Lethbridge Fitness Club and located where the shelter now sits. 

I’d woken up with neck pain that morning and had no idea of the cause but as weeks progressed and a couple of trips to emergency were made when my right arm went numb, it was clear something bad was going on.

When that cause was determined, because of the risks associated then with spinal surgery, doctors had me wait until they felt my ability to function was at peril to operate.

When that day came following eight hours of surgery after intense pain had me visiting Dr. Peter Griedanus at the spur of the moment two weeks before, I actually helped lift myself off the operating room table onto a bed before being whisked to recovery.

For five years, I wasn’t allowed to lift weights or run which meant hockey and other sports were out of the question and I never did regain my full interest in hitting the gym, going only sporadically until COVID hit. After the pandemic ended, I barely ventured inside more than two or three times a year.

But when I left my the office on Dec. 27 at noon, I headed straight to the gym to make up for lost time since I’d kept my membership. 

What a wakeup call that was. I didn’t realize how much strength I’d lost over the years until that afternoon. But being a firm believer that age is just a number, I figured I could still pack on a bit of muscle like the old days – even without the creatine and supplements that were part of every day life in my 20s and 30s.

Since late December, still being an early riser, I’ve endeavoured to get to the gym before 5:30 a.m. several days a week before taking the dogs for their daily romp around Nicholas Sheran Lake. 

Not being one to go slow, I’ve been trying my best to make up for the lost years by lifting as much as I can every day. 

And so far, so good. No injuries, no pain, no frustration and no lack of ambition. Except for the occasional days I look at Diana’s little chiweenie eyes and feel guilty walking out the door without her. 

When she starts stretching out on the bed and looks at me with those round brown orbs, then flicks her long tongue at my face, the gym can wait another day. She’s got me wrapped around her pint-sized paws.

Long gone are the days when I could bench 300 lbs. and do 90 lb. dumbbell curls or stack the entire rack on a cable setup for tricep pulls although for the latter, I have gotten close. And will yet succeed.

The bench pressing days are over, though. As much as I loved that exercise when I was young, it definitely is not my thing anymore. Maybe it’s a memory of the day my arm gave out or I’m adverse to pain but there are other ways to work the chest without suffering. And being 66, not 26 or 36, I feel no guilt in taking a hard pass on suffering. I do that enough every season when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Bears start their seasons.

After all, I’ve got a chiweenie who needs me to carry her around the lake when she gets scared of magpies or loud noises and I need all the strength I have for her. Diana is a princess, after all. And that little princess makes clear to dada when she wants to walk and when she prefers to be carried by her servant. 

And trust me, if you want a good workout, carry a dog around a lake while being dragged by another one. Best exercise ever!