• light-filled gym

Body for the Ages Heart Wellness Program

Upon hearing the words ‘Body for the Ages,’ most people instinctively think of a beautiful, athletic body. I would like to suggest that Body for the Ages also be interpreted as a body meant to last, i.e., a body built for longevity.

— Pax Beale

The Body for the Ages Heart Wellness Program is designed for people who have heart disease, and for those who want to avoid it. Our founder, Pax Beale, survived a five-way heart bypass, reversed his heart disease through nutrition and exercise, and went on to become a national bodybuilding champion in his sixties. He continued to work out his entire life.

The Body for the Ages Heart Wellness Program is built on the methods Pax used to recover and enjoy the priceless gift of longevity. Pax’s mission in the last decade of his life was to get the message out that everyone—at any level of fitness, experience, or age—can take control of their own cardiovascular health.

Pax’s lasting legacy is that he shows you exactly how the resulting vitality and longevity he achieved are accessible with perseverance, effort, and commitment. He mapped out his methods in a simple step-by-step guide, so that everyone can access his proven methods of avoiding, or reversing, heart risks. Read Pax’s book, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion, to participate in the Heart Wellness Program.

Body for the Ages Heart Wellness Program

Step One: Basic Nutrition System

There is no shortcut. If anything, what you need is a ‘longcut,’ i.e., a workable, effective approach that will last a lifetime. In other words, we’re talking lifestyle.

— Pax Beale

Our founder, Pax Beale, made nutrition the first step of the Body for the Ages Heart Wellness Program because he viewed it as the perfect foundation on which to build your personal wellness lifestyle. Pax’s teachings reveal the faults of fad diets, and encourage “eating clean,” as he phrased it. In his book, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion, he shares the meal plans he followed to achieve his extraordinary levels of fitness and vitality.

ripe strawberries in a heart shape

Participants following Step One of our Heart Wellness Program are enjoying results including weight loss, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, lower instances of type 2 diabetes, and increased energy levels. More importantly, these results support Pax’s ultimate mission: helping you give yourself the gift of longevity.

The Body for the Ages Basic Nutrition System can be summed up like this:

  • Eat more, not less, but eat right.
  • Eat five to six meals per day (four or five if you are over 50).
  • Learn the art of using the three food categories—fat, carbohydrates, and protein—properly and effectively.
  • Become your own creative chef in preparing low- or moderate-calorie meals with the appropriate foods.

Participate in the heart wellness program through Pax’s book, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion.

Step Two: Prescription Method of Training

The Body for the Ages Heart Wellness Program is directed at conditioning the cardiovascular system against heart risks using weight-resistance training. Founder Pax Beale explains Step Two, the Prescription Method of Training he developed to rehabilitate his own heart.

Weight-resistance training is the only athletic endeavor wherein you can focus on any muscle in your body (and the heart is a muscle). The Prescription Method of Training gets a little complicated, but hang with me here.

women enjoying a workoutWeight-resistance training is considered an anaerobic (oxygen deficit) exercise, not an aerobic exercise (with oxygen). As a result, when you perform weight-resistance training, near the end of each set of multiple repetitions you accelerate the intensity of your effort by putting yourself into varying degrees of oxygen debt.

The result is a calculated, and momentarily higher, blood pressure. Our Prescription Method of Training does this in a controlled manner. We avoid the negative effect of holding one’s breath (called the Valsalva Effect). Key to success is continual breathing, specifically exhaling, when force is applied against the weight. It takes practice to adapt to the proper breathing techniques.

The alternating raised blood pressure, as one increases repetitions in a set while performing weight-resistance training, gradually increases an alternating controlled force on the arterial wall. The artery repeatedly expands when force is applied to the artery wall. This repetitive action  increases the flexibility of the artery, or minimally, reduces loss of flexibility, and can result in a gradual increase in the size of the artery. Thus, the heart (a pump) has a smaller demand on it during normal functioning, and pumps the blood more easily through the expanded, more flexible artery.

The result of weight-resistance training I selfishly like best is that a heart bypass, particularly a five-way heart bypass (as I had) is estimated to have a lifespan of about 10 years on most patients. My five-way heart bypass has lasted over 25 years! I’m well into my 80s as I’m writing this, which beats the average longevity of an American male, but I guess that just shows my competitive juices.

Participate in the heart wellness program through Pax’s book, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion.

Step Three: Scientific Supplements

chocolate protein shakeFor complete nutrition, Body for the Ages recommends supplementing your daily diet with soy protein and creatine pyruvate, found online or in vitamin/health food stores.

Here’s why these two supplements are so important:

Soy Protein

Protein builds muscle, and remember, the heart is a muscle. Soy protein has been shown not only to help you maintain high energy levels, but reduce heart risks. The Food and Drug Administration allows soy protein labels to claim that, combined with a low cholesterol diet, it may reduce the risk of heart disease, as long as the protein contains 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving. Check the labels before you make your purchase.

Creatine Pyruvate

Our founder, Pax Beale, conducted research with associates in the nutrition science industry and discovered the following benefits of creatine pyruvate. More importantly, he experienced the benefits firsthand, as he used creatine pyruvate as a daily supplement in his program, which successfully reversed his heart disease.

  1. Improves muscle performance.
  2. Increases heart blood pumping pressure, and heart efficiency.
  3. Reverses ischemic (dead) tissue.
  4. Reduces arterial-sclerosis.
  5. Lowers cholesterol.
  6. Lowers resting heart rate.
  7. Increases endurance.
  8. Lowers body fat.
  9. Speeds recovery time.
  10. Increases muscle size for men and women. Muscle shapes the body aesthetically.  Fat doesn’t.

Learn more about scientific supplements, and participate in the heart wellness program through Pax’s book, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion.

Step Four: Total Commitment

Persistence overcomes resistance.

— Pax Beale

Total Commitment, the fourth step in the Body for the Ages heart wellness program, is perhaps the most essential. Simply stated, total commitment equals “effort.” Founder Pax Beale said, “The results of quality efforts are cumulative, be it through the simple task of squeezing out that extra repetition doing bench presses, or our efforts against the monumental burdens confronting us as we live our lives.” Pax believed the quality of our efforts not only equip us for life’s challenges as he discovered in his own life, but most importantly, can lead to fulfillment and a lot of fun in all aspects of our lives.woman inspired to commit to wellness

Here are some key points for making a total commitment to the Body for the Ages lifestyle. You’ll find a more comprehensive list in Chapter 17 of Pax’s book, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion.

  • Visualize: Review your workout in your mind before you go to the gym. Visualize the way you want to appear. Close your eyes and picture yourself as you want to perform. This is a powerful motivator toward total commitment. You have to think it, before you can be it.
  • Make the Time: No excuses about being too busy to work out. Make the time for your most prized possession—your body.
  • Be Consistent: Consistency is the key to cultivating a workout routine. Your body will pull you in the direction of your workout subconsciously, once you get into the habit.
  • Find a Partner: Partners motivate, educate, and stimulate your workouts.
  • Talk Up Your Sport: Tell people you have joined the Body for the Ages team and have developed a new fitness and nutrition routine. Watch their heads turn.

One of Pax’s favorite sayings captures the principle of total commitment in all aspects of life perfectly: “Go hard or go home!”

Learn more about the Total Commitment step, and participate in the heart wellness program through Pax’s book, Body for the Ages: From Heart Surgery to Bodybuilding Champion.