MSI Press Blog

  Some people plan their workouts. I plan my emergencies. I live with a medically fragile family member who can collapse without warning. He’s on oxygen 24/7. He has episodes where he stops breathing. I am the one who brings him back. This means I don’t get uninterrupted time. I don’t get predictable days. I don’t get to say, “I’ll be at the gym at 10.” I get windows. Moments. Opportunities. And I’ve learned to train inside those. Here’s what that looks like: 1. I take the cardio when I can get it If I can drop into Nena’s class, I do. If I can’t, I don’t punish myself. I do incline walking instead — even 10 minutes counts. 2. I shrink the expectation A gym visit doesn’t have to be an hour. It can be 12 minutes. It can be one machine. It can be “I showed up.” 3. I train at home when the world won’t cooperate Weights, calisthenics, marching in place, simple cardio — whatever fits the moment. 4. I don’t wait for perfect conditions Perfect doesn’t exist in my life. Possible does. 5. I...

  People love to say, “After 50, getting up from a chair gets harder every year.” That’s the hook for every joint supplement ad on the internet. But here’s the truth: It only gets harder if you stop doing the things that make it easy. I’m 76, and I get up from chairs, floors, ladders, and the ground without thinking. Not because I’m lucky. Not because of supplements. Because of how I live. 🧠 Why Most People Struggle — The Real Physiology Standing up from a chair requires: Strong quads Strong glutes Good balance Good proprioception Confidence Most people lose these because they stop using them. I never stopped. 🥋 What I Do Right (The Grandma Ninja Method) 🟣 1. I live on the floor — literally I’m on the floor multiple times a day: Retrieving my son’s shoes (he can’t bend safely) Doing glute bridges, Russian twists, and other calisthenics Playing with ten cats (they are much shorter than I am) Cleaning floors the old Maine way — on hands and knees Cleanin...

  Most people think a “chair sit against the wall” is a cute little exercise. Let them think that. Meanwhile, I drop into a 90–120 second wall sit like I’m settling into a meditation retreat. My thighs shake, my core locks in, and my brain says, “We’re doing this.” At 76, that’s not just good — that’s ninja‑level stubbornness. But the point isn’t the time. The point is why I do it. I do wall sits because they train the exact muscles that keep me living on my own terms. They’re the quiet guardians of independence: quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, core. The whole lower half learns to hold me steady, lift me up, and keep me moving. Every year, people say it gets harder to rise from a chair. Harder to get out of a car. Harder to get up off the floor. Harder to trust their legs. Not for this grandma. Every wall sit is a message to my future self: “You’re going to stand up strong. You’re going to get off the floor. You’re going to keep moving through the world like it still b...

Today would have been our 56th anniversary. We never got to celebrate our 50th — COVID locked the world down, and then 2021 took Carl with it. The grand plans we had for that golden milestone evaporated into hospital protocols and masked goodbyes. Life doesn’t always give you the ceremony you earned. But ninjas adapt. Ninjas restructure, reorganize, recalibrate. Ninjas keep moving. And this anniversary belongs in the Grandma Ninja series because Carl was part of the training long before I ever called myself a ninja. He went to every single one of my sessions with trainer Brittany. Every one. He’d sit there like my personal cheering section, amused, supportive, and absolutely determined not to be recruited into anything that looked like effort. If Brittany tried to rope him in, he’d grin and say, “You must stay up late at night thinking up the next marvelous torture.” Meanwhile, I was sweating through hours of drills — because it does take hours to go from flabby government wor...