How Ringo Stays Fit At 86

Ringo Starr turned 86 this past July, and he is still climbing up behind a drum kit and playing full shows. Not sitting in for a song. Not waving from a stool. Playing.

I keep coming back to that, because most of us know what our knees have to say about a flight of stairs. So when a guy who has been on the road since the Cavern Club is still out there swinging, it's worth asking what he's doing differently.

The Routine

Ringo works with a personal trainer three days a week. That's the anchor. On top of that, he has a gym in the house, and he'll head over on his own another day or two when the trainer isn't around. Add it up and he's training as many as five days a week.

What's he actually doing in there? Nothing exotic. Get the heart rate up. Time on the treadmill. A little running. Some weights. Cardio and resistance, the two things every doctor on earth has been telling us to do since the Carter administration.

There's no supplement stack. No cryo chamber. No cold plunge in the backyard. He's joked before that the secret is blueberries and broccoli, which sounds like a punchline until you realize he's basically describing a produce aisle and a treadmill.

The Part That Actually Matters

Here's the line that got me. Ringo said, "You've got to get out of bed and do it."

That's it. That's the whole program.

He's not selling anything. He's pointing out the thing nobody wants to hear, which is that there's no shortcut and nobody can do the work on your behalf. He's been at it so long that going to the gym isn't a decision anymore. It's not a goal, it's not a resolution, it's not something he psychs himself up for on Sunday night. It's just Tuesday.

That's the difference between a guy who's in shape at 86 and a guy with a gym membership he's paying for out of guilt. One of them made it a habit forty years ago. The other one keeps making it a project.

And Ringo will happily let you use him as an excuse. His advice for anyone thinking about starting: get in the gym, loosen up, and blame him if anybody asks why you're there.

The McCartney Factor

There is also, I suspect, a little competitive fire keeping the burners lit. Ringo's got more shows on the books, and when somebody asked him whether he and Paul have a running contest over who stays on the road longer, he allowed that it might look that way, and then said he'd be the one who lasts.

Two Beatles, both in their eighties, quietly racing each other into the next decade. If that doesn't make you want to go for a walk, I don't know what will.

What I Take From It

I'm not going to pretend a treadmill is going to make any of us Ringo Starr. But the shape of what he's doing is available to everybody reading this. Show up a few times a week. Move enough to get the heart working. Pick up something heavy. Keep the joints loose. Do it long enough that it stops being a thing you decided to do and starts being a thing you just do.

Talk to your doctor first, obviously. Then start smaller than you think you should, because the version of this that works is the version you don't quit in March.

The man is 86 and still hitting the two and the four. Peace and love, and go for a walk.