I’ve never been much of a cook. No interest in learning either. Luckily my wife is an excellent cook! With my medical condition I’ve further restricted my diet and started preparing some of my own meals. The meals were pretty routine and became boring. So I started trying out and adding seasonings to the meats and vegetables. Now I have choices and the meals are pretty tasty. Two things to try out on your garden salads: 1. Nutritional yeast. Just sprinkle a small amount on and stir in. I never heard of this before and now use it every day on salads. 2. Tarragon: this is a fresh herb. Our friend grows it. The best thing I’ve found for added flavor to salads. It’s hard to find fresh. My wife started growing it. The dried herb is available but not as great tasting as fresh. -Keep lifting! Keep healthy!

I want to talk about something most men in this community skip. Legs. And I get it. You can't see your legs in the mirror the same way you see your chest or your arms. Nobody's impressed by your squat at 50 the way they were at 25. And if you've got bad knees or a history of lower back issues, the idea of leg day can feel more like punishment than training. But here's what I've learned, the men who neglect legs are leaving serious results on the table. Not just in how they look. In how they function. How they move. How they feel at 60, 70, and beyond. Your legs are the foundation of everything. Longevity, stability, energy, metabolism, it all connects back to having strong legs that work properly. A man who can't carry himself well as he gets older loses independence before he loses anything else. Now I'm not talking about loading up a barbell and squatting heavy until your knees give out. That's not what this community is about. I'm talking about controlled, intentional leg training that builds real functional strength without destroying your joints. Bulgarian split squats. Leg press with a full range of motion and controlled tempo. Romanian deadlifts at a weight you can actually feel. High reps, full control, no ego. Your legs deserve the same discipline you bring to every other session. What does your leg training look like right now, and is it something you prioritise or something you find yourself skipping? Drop it below. 👇

Here is a DYI project for those who need to protect your lower back when lifting. While doing deadlifts in college years ago, I pinched a nerve in my spine. The pain was debilitating, but a chiropractor snapped my spine back into position and it instantly relieved the pain. Ever since then I have been extra careful when lifting heavy items off the floor. I built this dumbbell cradle for the heavier weights (up to 50 lbs). It makes it easier to lift the weights from a seated position for dumbbell bench press and bicep curls. Instructions for building two: Use 2 sturdy milk crates. Cut 3/8 inch particle board or plywood to fit the bottom. Use 3 bolts with washers to bolt the wood to the bottom of the crate. This now becomes the top. Cut heavy vinyl or rubber for a top covering . (I used a large truck mud flap cut to size.) Screw two metal side rails on top to prevent weights from rolling off. (Wooden side guards could be bolted to each side if you don’t use metal rails. Add a slat under the center of the vinyl pad, on top of the board. (I used paint stir sticks). This keeps the dumbbells away from each other and against the side rails. I sprayed the cradle flat black. Later added Velcro strips to protect the wood edge. I built this about 12 years ago and use it very often. It is still holding up well.

Let me talk to you guys about something I call walking the rack. Most men in the gym have one setting, heavy as possible. They walk up to the dumbbells, grab the biggest pair they think they can handle, and fight their way through it. Grinding. Squirming. Using everything but the muscle they're actually supposed to be training. That's not progressive overload. That's ego. Walking the rack is different. You start lighter than you think you need to. You get the blood flowing, you get the mind-muscle connection firing, you get locked in. Then, and only if you can still hit 12 to 16 clean reps with full control, you move up. You're not chasing a number. You're chasing the feeling. The pump. The connection. That zone where your brain and the muscle you're training are completely dialled in to each other. Some days I stay light the whole session because that's what my body needs. Other days I walk up the rack and find a weight that really challenges me within that rep range. Both are right. What's never right is grabbing a weight so heavy you can't feel the muscle working. I could do 50s or 60s on a shoulder press. I choose not to. Not because I can't, because it doesn't serve what I'm actually trying to build. That's the difference between training with ego and training with intelligence. Do you walk the rack, or do you go straight to the heaviest weight you can handle? Drop it below. 👇

Hi Keith and Everyone. New here. Just got back into weight training after 13 years off. Due to a bad back with degenative disc disease, and arthitis. Pretty much staying away from lower back training. However, I picked up some dumbells bout 4 months ago, took it slow, and am seeing results I didn't know possible. I won't ever be massive, but the strength gains after 13 years is something I thought I could never do again. Do quite a bit of following Keith's recommendations on slow and steady. God is good!