General Interest – Tom's Blog on Life

New Route To The Loft

In 1885, a farmer in Norway came up with a very different way to get heavy loads of hay into the second floor of his barn. The farmer was Lars Petter Olsen Valldal, and the problem was getting heavy loads of hay into the loft without making horses and wagons climb a steep hill to get there. His answer was to build this massive stone ramp that curves around the barn, slowly climbing until it reaches the second floor.

Coming up with the idea was probably the easy part. Building the stone ramp would take seven years. Most of the stone came right off the hillside around the farm, but somehow he still had to get all of it moved and into place. For the biggest pieces, Valldal built his own crane, and he even made a special sled to haul the stone across the farm.

Getting all that stone into place was only part of what he had to figure out. An access road to other farms in the area already crossed the property, so he couldn’t just block it with the ramp. That’s why he built the huge stone archway you see in the photo. The road could still pass underneath, while horses and loaded wagons made their way around the ramp and right into the hayloft.

He built the ramp to make one job on the farm easier. More than a century later, it’s still doing what it was built to do. The barn is standing, the stonework remains, and that long curved ramp leads all the way up to the hayloft, making it one of the most distinctive farm buildings in Norway.

As I write this it it is September 2026. I am 74 years old and I am really embarrased to admit how much I am still learning about diet, exercise and living as healthy a life as possible.

Especially considering how I have been studying it since 2008 and have written a 2,300 page book on it! https://howtolivethehealthiestlife.com/

As an example, just in the last month I learned about the muscle gain benefit of 30 grams of protein immediately before bed: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NeJFGBuBxJI

And how older bodies need the Leucine equivalent of over 5 eggs first thing in the morning to kick start muscle growth: https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=66880

And how just 4 minutes a day can measurably reduce your fall risk as you age: https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=67211

I find it remarkable how much there is to know and how much we are still learning about how a body works.

So what follows is not “science is settled” dogma but a progress report on where I am up to on my learning journey. If it inspires or encourages you, mission accomplished.

What I have at present is an exercise regime I have built progressively over the last twenty years. It suits me and my purposes for exercise. It may or may not suit you. That is your call.

One cautionary note before we begin. IMHO the most important single word regarding exercise is gradient. After an incident I will shortly share with you, I rarely feel any muscle strain because I start low and progress very gradually. This works well for me. It may or may not suit you.

The major purpose of my routine is to maintain functional longevity, to keep my body capable, mobile, and resilient into older age, rather than to improve specialised athletic performance.

WHY EXERCISE?
If you haven’t arrived yet at your personal reason for exercising then that is the first place to start.

The reason you do something and the product of doing it is best determined prior to taking action. Any action. If you get nothing else from this whole presentation, make note of that as a solid gold principle.

I have a few reasons I work out. One is to ensure that I am able to play hard (tennis, cricket, Frisbee, touch football etc.) with the kids and grand kids for 3-6 hours on family picnics without feeling like a cripple for three days while my muscles recover.

Another is to ensure that I age as gracefully as possible, retaining my flexibility, strength and balance, hopefully until the day the body expires.

It may be of some small interest to you to know how I arrived at these purposes.

Until my 40s my weight was steady at 64 kilos. In the early 1990s my late wife took a picture of me at the family Christmas cricket match bowling without my shirt on.

A sizeable belly had crept up (out) on me without me noticing. When my wife showed me the picture, she said. “You’re going on a diet, now!”

So I did. Got my weight down from 82 kilos to 66. Never got washboard abs but was a lot better for it.

So my question to you is:

Where do you draw your line in the sand?
What does it take for you to make up your mind to get moving in a more optimum direction?
What has to happen before you make the resolute decision to fix a problem or achieve your goal?

The decision point for me regarding maintaining a regular exercise regime was when I did my back.

One Saturday morning when I was in my mid 50s I bowled 10 overs to my son Jarrod in the cricket nets. Then I batted while he bowled 10 overs to me.

On the way back home there was a guy playing soccer on his own in the park. Well, you can’t leave a guy playing soccer on his own in the park on a Saturday morning, so we played with him for half an hour then went home for a drink.

30 minutes later we were back in the park for some touch football.

That night my wife and I went to the movies.

I woke up the next morning feeling like overnight I had been hit in the middle of the back with a baseball bat. My lower back was in severe pain.

As I hobbled around I joked, “It must have been the movies!”

It did not improve. A month later I grimaced and groaned as I got out of a chair at a prospective client’s place and she insisted I go see her chiropractic sister there and then.

Three visits and a bunch of exercises later the chiropractor had me back in shape.

I asked her what had happened. She said, “Too much too quickly after too little for too long.” Over exertion will sometimes cause the muscles to spasm or lock up like what had happened to me.

She also told me that as you age flexibility is the most important thing to maintain. Make a note of that.

(Other studies link improved longevity with the ability to balance, to get up easily and to grip strength but the best single determinant of longevity is apparently lung capacity as measured by VO2 Max.)

So the stretching exercises the chiropractor gave me I have done nearly every day since.

If you want a list and diagram of the best 15 stretches I do each day you can download it free of charge from https://www.healthelicious.com.au/Stretching.pdf

A side note, I do several of the horizontal stretches and 100 crunches even before I get out of bed of a morning. Makes me feel like I have cheated and gotten a head start on the day. 🙂

Since then I have been actively looking for exercises that have a proven ability to attain and maintain into old age a level of functionality I find desirable.

At one point in my 60s I was doing 100 pushups and 100 dips each night as part of my routine. After doing it for a while it felt a bit flat, a tad boring. I wondered, “What would make it exciting? – 1,000 pushups, THAT would be a challenge!”

So I started building up. There are 21 park benches around this end of the park where I walked my dogs. First night I did 10 dips and 10 pushups at each park bench then each day built up the number. Never overdoing it but I got to 50 dips and 50 pushups at each park bench.

I had never intended to maintain that level so I dropped back to 100 a night for a while.

Several months later a friend posted on Facebook that his personal best was 1,500. “Challenge accepted!” I thought.

So again I started building up. I eventually did 100 dips and 100 pushups at each of 21 park benches, 2,100 in all.

The interesting datum in the story for me is that the next day after there was no pain in my muscles. If I pressed hard I could feel they had been used but without that pressing I did not notice them.

Hence my strong belief that gradient is the most important word on the subject of exercise.

Since then I have listened to podcasts from Dr Rhonda Patrick on the Norwegian 4 X 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzsADi0wPjg

the amount of Leucine needed in your pre-exercise protein hit to eliminate anabolic resistance to muscle growth as you age https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDt9-pS7rI0

and the various reasons why eating within a 6 hour window between midday and 6 pm daily is desirable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSBqXf_4dXg

TIMING
I am told that for men, exercising just prior to our first meal of the day at midday is optimal.

AN OVERVIEW OF MY REGIME
Daily Stretches
Daily Miscellaneous
Endurance or Resistance Routine on alternate days

My Stretches
I do my horizontal lying down stretches in bed of a morning.

-Lying on my back, hands over head and toes extended, full body stretch-hold for 30 sec.
-Lying on my back, pull left arm across top of chest and hold with right hand as tight as possible hold for 30 seconds. Then right arm.
-Lying on my back, pull right thigh to chest and hold with right hand for 30 sec while rotating right foot at ankle 30 times. Then left leg/foot.
-Lying on my back, pull my right thigh to my chest then rotate my hips to the left as far as I can while keeping shoulder blades on bed/floor and hold for 30 sec. Then left thigh.
-Lying on my left side, hold my right ankle and pull the leg as far back as I can for 30 secs. Then reverse for left leg.
-Lying on my back, lift my right leg into the air and rotate the foot in a 12 cm circle to the left 15 times then to the right 15 times. Then left leg.
-Lying on my back, hands flat on bed/floor bring feet to buttocks then lift hips towards ceiling and hold for 30 seconds. (Glute Bridge)
-Lying on my back, hands flat on bed/floor bring left foot and right hand to perpendicular then return them to horizontal. Then do right foot and left hand. 15 of each. (Dead Bug)
-Lying on my back, arms crossed, fingertips to neck, 100 crunches.
-Sitting on floor, left leg flat on floor, fully extended, right foot pulled tight to crutch. Reach hands down left leg towards toes as far as possible. Repeat for other leg.
-Sit on floor, back to wall, both feet pulled as tight to crutch as possible, press knees to floor-hold for 30 sec.

I miss doing this maybe one day a month, if that.

Here is a link to the pdf with diagrams of my stretches: https://www.healthelicious.com.au/Stretching.pdf

My Miscellaneous
1 set 15 Zottman Curls with 15 kg dumbbells
50 bounces on a rebounder
10 minutes on a vibrating plate
2 sets of 15 slow lowers w/2 kg dumbbells
Red light therapy

Endurance Training
Three times a week I aim to do a an endurance set of exercises.

This is my endurance set:
On the way to the park:
100 arm and leg raises
100 arm circles and lunges
100 with right arm raised vertical walking on toes then
100 with the left arm raised vertical walking on toes
30 Carioca each side.

Then at the park, 3 sets of:
5 pull-ups with 13 kg load
30 second sprint
30 Good Mornings
30 squats
30 star jumps
30 second wall sit with flying angels
30 mountain climbers
30 shoulder taps plank
30 side kicks from plank
5 burpees

100 steps walking backwards

Resistance Training
On alternate days I aim to do a resistance set of exercises. The resistance set I am currently doing with a 33 kilo weight load. (Except the pullups. Not up to that level yet. Back in August I dropped back from 20 kilos after not exercising for three weeks when I had the flu. Currently doing my pullups with a 13 kilo load.)

This is my resistance set:
Exercise Sets × Reps / Time Load
240 sec jog w/33 kg load
Two-arm Inverted Row 3 × 12 w/33 kg load
30 sec sprint w/33 kg load
Pushups 3 × 15 w/33 kg load
30 sec sprint w/33 kg load
Dips 3 × 20 w/33 kg load
30 sec sprint w/33 kg load
Pull-ups 3 × 5 w/13 kg load
Dead Hang 1 × 90 sec
240 sec jog w/33 kg load

An External Review
A reviewer wrote:
“Looking at the whole picture rather than any single workout, you’ve built something that covers most of the fundamental movement patterns and physical capacities:

Capacity:
Mobility

Where You’re Training It:
Morning stretching routine

Capacity:
Core endurance

Where You’re Training It:
Crunches, hand-to-foot raises, planks, mountain climbers

Capacity:
Pulling strength

Where You’re Training It:
Weighted pull-ups, inverted rows

Capacity:
Pushing strength

Where You’re Training It:
Weighted push-ups, dips

Capacity:
Leg endurance

Where You’re Training It:
Squats, wall sits, jogging

Capacity:
Anaerobic conditioning

Where You’re Training It:
Sprints, burpees, star jumps

Capacity:
Grip strength

Where You’re Training It:
Dead hangs, pull-ups

Capacity:
Cardiovascular fitness

Where You’re Training It:
Jogging, circuit work, repeated sprints

Capacity:
Balance & coordination

Where You’re Training It:
Toe walking, cross-body raises, shoulder taps

A few things I particularly like:

Weighted Pull-Ups and Rows

Many home fitness routines become push-dominant. Your inclusion of weighted pull-ups and rows helps maintain shoulder health and posture.

Dead Hangs

These are underrated. They:

* Build grip endurance.
* Maintain shoulder range of motion.
* Provide some spinal decompression after loaded work.

Loaded Jogs Between Strength Movements

The jogging and sprint intervals keep your heart rate elevated throughout the resistance session. That creates a hybrid strength-conditioning workout rather than pure strength training.

Toe Walking

This is one of those things physiotherapists and ageing researchers often mention but few people actually do. It challenges:

* Calves
* Feet
* Ankles
* Balance systems

All of which become increasingly important with age.

—

At age 74, the most remarkable parts of your routine aren’t the stretches or the conditioning circuit—they’re the numbers.

Those are metrics many people in their 30s and 40s would struggle to match.

What’s particularly encouraging is that you’ve maintained all three of the attributes that tend to decline most rapidly with age:

1. Strength (weighted calisthenics)
2. Power (sprinting, burpees)
3. Mobility (daily stretching)

Most older exercisers keep one or two. Very few keep all three.”

From an ageing-well perspective, the program closely aligns with what exercise researchers increasingly recommend:

1. Strength work.
2. Aerobic work.
3. High-intensity efforts.
4. Balance training.
5. Mobility work.
6. Hanging, climbing, carrying, and other “human movement” tasks.”

—

I hope this helps.

To your health, fitness and happiness.

Tom Grimshaw
tom@tomgrimshaw.com

Further ‘Living Your Best Life’ resources:

How To Work Out Your Basic Purpose In Life:
https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=37862

Boosting Your Confidence:
https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=67246

On Bringing Order:
https://www.bringorder.info/English.html

Cultivating Life: Growing Food Sustainably:
https://www.seedtotable.com.au

How To Handle Depression – 7 Step Mini Program And Additional Steps
https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=14412

My book ‘How To Live The Healthiest Life’:
https://howtolivethehealthiestlife.com/

Patience & Compassion:
https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=67462