Speaking of resistance, there's the RBG Workout

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, aka the Notorious RBG, a tshirt she wears in the gym, is old, tiny, brilliant, and as strong as wire.

So, since her personal workout is in a small book form now, written by her trainer, very wittily, I think she helped with that, and with a foreword from her endorsing it, I thought it was worth a try.

I now do my RBG workout twice a week. It's on the calendar, to make it more likely I keep it up.

I've been doing weight training at home since I turned 60 and gave myself a birthday present of Strong Women Stay Young and a complete set of weights.  They've been in use ever since.  

I have a feeling that resistance is my middle name, what with one thing and another.  I use all the exercises from Strong Women, and add in a few things from RBG.  Next year will be the twentieth year I've been doing this.  I still remember my excitement when I first did overhead lifts with three, then five, then eight, then......ten pound weights!  I am Woman, I am Invincible!

RBG has a lengthier workout than I usually do, and it adds in a series of stretches, incorporating yoga and other traditions, so they are well worth doing.  I adapted it to my own current strength, and since I don't do gyms, I use my free weights rather than machines.

I originally started because I was doing collaborative art with another artist and when we worked on big pieces, I had to rest my arms much more than she did.  She's younger, but I still thought I should work on that.  Needed more strength.  And now I can paint my house, the biggest thing I paint, only stopping when I get bored, not because my arms are too tired to go on. 
 

The box of weights -- pairs of 10,8, 5, and I think 3(given away years ago, too light) pound dumbbells, and leg weights with pockets each of which takes a one pound weight, 20 lbs each leg, you do the math. Anyway, I lived up a flight then, and the woman from UPS delivered this payload in ONE large box, trotting up the stairs and kindly putting it inside my front door.  Slender young woman, not big beefy man. That convinced me I'd better do some weight training.  I had to empty the box in order to move the weights to where I wanted them, bit by bit.

I like very much the very limber feeling you get after working out with resistance weights.  No, it's not exhausting.  And no, I'm not stiff and achy the next day.  I use the max weight for the legs, women have strong legs, no problem there.  And I mix the 8 and 5 for the lifting. I may reintroduce the 10s, used to use them regularly, but I like to be sure I don't compress my spine in my enthusiasm, so I retired them a few years ago when my life was already strenuous. I don't do all the reps that RBG does, but I do at least one set, 12 reps, of everything.  Suits me.  Takes maybe a steady 35 to 40 minutes.

Found I can no longer do pushups, a couple of years ago I could, so I'm working back to them, from easiest at the moment, off a wall. 

The clunky shoes you see in the pic are useful for leg weights, since they keep the weights from pressing on my footbones, not a good idea.

Anyway, this is what keeps me feeling resistant, and generally up for anything. It also improves your energy level quite a bit, always a Good Thing.  And when you have a wildly successful resistance evening on the political front, like last evening, well, resistance works, is all I can say.

And I'd say this is a nice favor to do for yourself.  You stay capable a lot longer if you have strength to get up and around, and you just feel better more of the time.

Now that I've bored you to a frazzle, I'll leave you!  This is a firmly held belief, that the weights are a great part of my life, that and walking daily outside, in all weathers except ice.  Okay, I'm stopping now.