06/11/2026
🏈 A British guy who emigrated to Canada to coach football. I'm basically the reverse Ted Lasso. Just not as good (and less facial hair)!
We're recruiting for the new football season at Rothesay High, and here's the first thing I tell every athlete who shows up and honestly, what I'd tell almost anyone, at any age:
Lift heavy things. Regularly.
Strength training isn't just about getting bigger. It's one of the most evidence-backed health interventions we have and it changes the game for three very different groups of people:
🏈 ATHLETES. Want to play better and get hurt less? A meta-analysis of randomized trials found strength training cut sports injuries to about a THIRD of what they'd otherwise be and the more strength work athletes did, the fewer injuries they got. No brace or tape comes close.
💉 ANYONE ON A WEIGHT-LOSS MEDICATION (Mounjaro, Ozempic, Zepbound). These drugs work ; 15–24% body-weight loss in trials. But up to ~6 kg of what you lose can be muscle which is comparable to a decade or more of normal aging, packed into a few months. Resistance training is how you keep the fat loss and protect the muscle. (I'm on tirzepatide myself. I lift for exactly this reason, and to keep up with my kids!)
👵 ANYONE GETTING OLDER. From your 30s on, you lose muscle every decade — and it speeds up later in life. That's sarcopenia: a direct line to falls, frailty, and losing your independence. The global expert consensus calls progressive resistance training "indispensable" for staying strong as you age. And it's never too late — people in their 70s build real strength.
Same simple intervention. Three completely different people. All backed by strong evidence.
At White Pine Medical we actually measure this — grip strength, muscle mass, how you move — because what gets measured gets managed.
New to it and not sure where to start? Dr. Mike Israetel's Renaissance Periodization has some of the best free, science-based training education out there. Why refer you to a body builder? Because they train nearly every day, want the best effect for time spent, fatigue with the least injury risk.
🏈 Athletes (and parents of young athletes) → "Simple Guidelines on Children in Weight Training"
💉 Losing fat, keeping muscle → "Stop Rushing Your Weight Loss"
👵 Brand new to lifting → "Common Newbie Mistakes in Weight Training"
Whether you're 16 and trying to make the team, 45 and on a GLP-1, or 70 and just want to keep gardening start lifting. Your future self will thank you. 👇
Links to paste beneath the post / in IG bio:
🏈 https://rpstrength.com/simple-guidelines-on-children-involved-in-weight-training/
💉 https://rpstrength.com/expert-advice/slow-losses
👵 https://rpstrength.com/expert-advice/common-newbie-mistakes-lifting
There are a few mistakes beginners tend to make when doing the squat, bench and deadlift. This doesn't mean everyone has these issues, but just they seem to be the most common based on my experiences. This is obviously a bit biased and may be specific to the population I work with. Also in this cont...
