Fountain of youth: Gordon Borges is old enough to be your grandfather. He's also in better shape than most guys half his age - Cooldown

Men's Fitness, Nov, 2002

Work out long enough and you'll find your training schedule takes one on the chin every now and then. Whether because of boredom, injuries or a lack of motivation, keeping to a consistent routine over a long period of time is tough. Just ask Gordon Borges.

The 75-year-old Borges has worked out consistently for 58 years, through seven children and two years of Naval service during World War II. Today he's reaping the benefits of his lifelong commitment to fitness. Check his stats. It's clear that Borges has found a successful formula: 209 pounds, 14 percent body fat, 18 1/2-inch arms and a 47 1/2-inch chest. And while he'd be the first to tell you that what works for one person may not work for another, some of the most important ingredients in his particular fitness recipe are universal.

1 Stretch before you train. This has been essential to keeping me healthy. I spend three to five minutes on the exercise bike and three to five minutes stretching before every workout.

2 Weight training is indispensable to the way I feel today. What I enjoy most is having good health: being able to get out of a chair without being stiff, being able to carry groceries. Those are basic abilities we take for granted, but they eventually leave us with the passing of time.

3 Train in moderation. Most beginners go into the gym wanting to see how much they can lift, and end up hurting themselves as a result. With me, weight training was primarily a way to maintain good health and a decent appearance over the years. I've never been a competitive weightlifter. I've never been a legitimate bodybuilder. But I have been conscious of my development.

4 Don't hesitate to switch up your workouts. If the body isn't aware of what's coming, the surprise tends to help the muscle grow.

5 Allow your instincts to dictate what you do within the framework of your workouts. In the past, I would log everything, and religiously adhere to a program. Now it's a seat-of-my-pants kind of thing. Reacting instinctively helps keep me engaged.

6 Keep the length of your workouts to between 40 minutes and one hour. The key is to make sure that you don't overdue it in the interest of sustaining your fitness over a long period of time. It's okay to be gung-ho if there is a specific goal ahead, say, a bodybuilding competition. But if you go all out all the time, you're going to burn out.

7 Take one or two days off a week. It helps to rejuvenate me mentally and physically.

8 I weight-train three or four days a week, allowing 48-hour breaks to give my body recovery time.

9 Use free weights. That isn't to say I haven't used machines. But you can get better angles developing various muscle groups using free weights than you can with machines.

10 Proper form on all lifts is essential. It seems to me to be one of the most important aspects of working out. Reach a full contraction and go through a full range of motion on all movements.

11 If you're not motivated, you're not going to train. I've been training for 58 years, and it's not the easiest thing to do for that length of time. You have to have enthusiasm for what you want to accomplish.

12 You're never too old to start.