The most pervasive myth about aging in our culture is that your body is winding down and the best you can do is manage the decline with grace. People love to say you should slow down, take it easy, and swallow the bitter pill of mortality without a lot of fuss. And by people, I mean the wellness-industrial complex and their cadre of barely postpubescent personal trainers who lower the weights if you tell them you’re over 30.
They mean well.
Meanwhile, at Tone House gym in New York City, Mickey Crawford, a 61-year-old substance abuse counselor, is dragging a 115-pound weighted sled across the floor while his coach, Alonzo, secretly covertly sandbags. Afroditi Lishman, a 52-year-old New Yorker, is sprinting and bear crawling her way past 20- and 30-somethings.
And this is just the warm up.
Tone House, a sports-performance studio in New York’s NoMad district, is infamous for its brutal conditioning workouts. Think pro football training meets bootcamp with a “You can do it!” ethos. Founder Alonzo Wilson built it to make elite training accessible. It’s become a kind of accidental laboratory for debunking bullshit ideas about aging and what older people can do, physically and mentally.
