KABOOMER: Thriving and Striving into your 90s by David Emerson Frost
Does poor physical fitness, flagging sexual health, fatigue, brain fog or a life-sapping disease make you feel like you’ve lost it? For seniors who have invested fiscally for a secure retirement, how about their physical well-being?
Master fitness trainer, life coach and rowing champion David Frost’s new book, Kaboomer: Thriving and Striving into Your Nineties, is filled with lasting lessons for longevity. It’s a science-driven and sweat-proven manual that will coach you toward a happy, healthy lifestyle.
In this recent interview, the author offered more insight into his book and his philosophy.
Q: You’ve written two books to help mature adults take care of themselves to live life to the fullest. Did some experience in your own life prompt you to change your own living habits?
A: I had my epiphany in September 2001. Our country was knocked down, and so was I. As a suffering nation, America was recovering from cowardly attacks in New York City and Washington, DC. As a forty-something athlete, I faced an arduous recovery from a herniated L5-S1 spinal disc. Out of necessity, our country rose like a phoenix. Out of necessity, I also rose from physical ashes with pre-habilitation and post-habilitation. My lessons learned were experiential enablers for my third act as an elite rower, master fitness trainer, coach, and author.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge seniors have for taking care of themselves?
A: A salient self-care challenge for seniors is shaped by this dilemma: I don’t know how to start.
Important things are simple, yet simple things are hard. Simple! It is never, never too late to start life-enhancing and life-extending habits. Yet habit-forming can be admittedly hard. Reasons could be few or many why those first steps are so hard.
I challenge third-act folks to enjoy very long health spans, then pass into the night 7-10 years after many of their peers. Doing simple things each day can promote 7-10 extra vital years. I call that down-aging. Unfortunately, millions of third-act Americans don’t start and tragically finish their lifespans too early.
Spoiler alert — start with a water bottle, a towel, and then move. Nothing fancy is needed, honest! It is better to move heavy stuff, yet at the simplest level, movement is mandatory for down-aging and building a robust physical bank.
Q: How is your book structured to help them “get with the program?”
A: As Francis Bacon offered, some books are meant to be chewed and digested … to be read wholly with diligence and attention. I structured Kaboomer for a diligent reader’s healthy digestion and attention. I expect Kaboomer pages to be dog-eared and its key passages to be highlighted.
Committed seniors can readily find and digest action steps in Kaboomer‘s seven major chapters. Seniors, repeat these program elements after me:
- Strength
- Stability
- Stamina
- Stretching
- Sustenance
- Sleep and
- Stress NOT.
Unique assets and liabilities are present in every senior’s physical bank. Your Koach shows you what he did to build his assets and offset his liabilities so that you can too. Assets of this physical bank are just as vital as a fiscal bank’s for senior life savings and longevity.
Q: You offer a number of “mantras” in the book to provide inspiration and keep people on course. What are a couple of your favorites?
Yes, I do. Shy away from cliches and platitudes while I promote mantras that stick with someone in good times and bad.
Example: Kaboomer‘s introduction starts with a Knock-knock Who’s There?
Who’s There? A Baby Boomer with a Baby Kaboomer Who? A Baby Boomer who takes two prescription pills at a time, and a Kaboomer who takes two steps at a time.
As Boomers and Kaboomers grew up with Star Wars, Yoda’s challenge to “Do or Do Not. There is No Try” is a second mantra with staying power.
“Motion is lotion” is a third instance. We were born to run and to support our mobile skeletons with enduring skeletal muscles.
For #4, the path to great abdominal muscles is through your refrigerator door. You must fuel your healthy, down-aged body as if your life depended on it. It does!
And for #5 as a classic closer, fitness legend Jack Lalanne convinced me that “it is better to wear out than rust out.” Yet wait, a reader will find more maxims to chew and digest.
Q: How is your book different from many other self-help books out there designed to inspire people?
A: Both Kaboomer and its sequel for Generation X, titled Strong to Save, are practical fitness guides. Each is science-backed and sweat-based. I offer credible facts and specific reliable results from my own experiences. The practical guidance in each has sprinkles of humor, curated images, and user-friendly flex alerts.
These books acknowledge and address hurdles for those from Venus and Mars — from menopause and manopause to senescence and sarcopenia.
Experiential is the leading descriptor for differences between my fitness guides from other books in a crowded genre. As my forbear, Ralph Waldo Emerson penned eloquently, “Our glory is in rising up when we fall.” My phoenix rise can help others begin anew with proven and practical habits to get up and go. Kaboom.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you can give people so that they can “party into their 90s”?
A: Why not answer with a mantra? Whether you think you can or cannot — you are right. A positive, action-oriented thought can start to build a stronger physical bank at any age. KABOOM.
RELATED POSTS:
Motivational Guide Helps Seniors Live Happier, Healthier, Longer Life
David E. Frost is a NFPT-certified Master Fitness Trainer, a rowing coach, champion competitor and award-winning adjunct professor. After decorated careers in the US Navy and business world, he founded Well Past Forty LLC to promote wellness and longevity. He specializes in nutrition, endurance and strength training; adapting sessions for people dealing with cancer, MS, PD, CP, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. He is a volunteer coach for veterans in Wounded Warrior & Freedom Rows projects.
David earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the US Naval Academy, and his Master of Systems Management degree from University of Southern California with a focus on human factors. He also gained post-graduate education at the Naval War College and the National Defense University. He is a national and world champion Master’s rower, which directly aligns with his fitness training. With his professional NFPT certifications, Koach Dave provides certified group, one-on-one online training sessions for athletes of all ages to add life in their years and years to their lives.
His accolades include: an Eagle Scout badge, a Technology Achievement award from Lockheed Martin Corporation, an Outstanding College Athlete of America (1975) award, Naval officer medals and commendations from our Cold War days, USNA’s Rusty Callow award, and a 2016 Distinguished Faculty award from the University of Phoenix. Hailing from Vermont, David lives in San Diego with his wife of over 40 years, Mary. He home-brews IPAs and Irish stouts, often donates blood and writes academic articles. He is the father of two and a proud grandfather. Learn more about David and his KABOOMER life’s work at https://wellpastforty.com.
