Living Longer Stronger: The 6-Week Plan to Enhance and Extend Your Years Over 40

I have found the high intensity strength training sessions not only have made me stronger, and increased my muscle mass, but they have also helped me to transition to other physical activities that I am beginning to enjoy again, e.g. hiking and cycling for pleasure.

The exercises Dr. Darden suggests can be used with a variety of "machines", Nautilus, Soloflex, Bowflex, etc. or freeweights.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve his/her overall fitness.


Program Balances Diet with Strength Training   July 9, 2002
 29 out of 30 found this review helpful

Months ago, a close friend, who had recently put on some muscle and lost a bit of weight, after hearing Ellington Darden speak at a business seminar, gave me a copy of Ellington Darden's Living Longer Stronger. I read the book and put it aside. A few weeks later, I talked with a favorite university professor who had always been plagued with weight problems, and the subject came up again. He mentioned the success he had using Darden's program.

Over the years, I tried lots of popular diets, aerobic exercises, and strength training in various combinations and taken to various extremes. They all worked to one degree or another, sometimes for only a while, but ultimately fatigue and a back injury from overdoing them had left me resigned to being grossly out of shape. A trip to the emergency room and surgery shook me up and I decided, once again, to shape up.

I hoped Darden's program, which claimed it was possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, would work for me. I was skeptical, but desperate to try. I did have the assurance that both a scientific friend and a former college professor found this program truly helpful.

The program in Living Longer Stronger relies on moderation of all things, except drinking icy cold water: a gallon and a half a day. Calorie intake is reduced over six weeks, gradually but never drops below 1300 per day to prevent the body from conserving fat. Strength training increases gradually from 6 to 10 exercises every three days. Darden explains that two days of rest in between is necessary for muscles to go beyond recovery and increase in strength. He also recommends getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night.

I just completed six weeks of the Living Longer Stronger program, and will begin the cycle of calorie cutting again in a week or two. I followed Darden's nutrition guidelines, but ignored the specific foods listed in his meal plans. (I like cooking and couldn't bring myself to eat canned potatoes, bottled low-cal salad dressing, margarine or Sarah Lee's so-called bagels, but that wouldn't be a problem for a lot of guys.) I walked for half an hour after dinner, when I could. I trained on a friend's Bowflex every three days without exception. I drank ice water all day. A new body fat sensing electronic scale - a tool that wasn't available when Darden wrote this book-- made it easy to chart fat loss. In six weeks, I lost 45 pounds of fat, and put on 5 pounds of muscle. My waste is 5 inches smaller. I can even see some muscle definition on my shoulders. There are no stretch marks anywhere. After a week or two continuing to training and to drink lots and lots of ice water, I will ready to do another six week cycle of stress free weight loss.

The program is written for men over 40, but the book features at least one example of a man in his 20s who used the program with great success.


pretty good   August 1, 2001
 7 out of 13 found this review helpful

The diet and weight training information in this book are well explained and pretty solid. People will see results following this program. My only gripe is the authors vehement opposition to aerobic excercise. A complete fitness program should include both resistance training and aerobic activity.