14/09/2026
First thing every morning, before anything else: beetroot, carrot, ginger, juiced. Not for some big detox — your liver already does that job on its own, no juice required. I drink it because beetroot's nitrates help open up blood flow, and I want circulation working before I load a barbell, not after.
That's the mindset behind everything I do with training now. Dr Gabrielle Lyon calls skeletal muscle "the organ of longevity" — not a look, an organ. It regulates blood sugar, stores amino acids for when you're sick or injured, and drives a big share of how your metabolism runs. Quietly lose it over the years, and every one of those systems gets worse at its job.
The number that actually predicts how you'll age isn't on the bathroom scale. It's grip strength. It's leg strength. Every bit of leg strength you build relative to your bodyweight tracks with a real drop in all-cause mortality — and that's not coming from more cardio. It's coming from getting stronger.
If you're a woman reading this, Dr Stacy Sims has spent her career pointing out that most training advice was built on male physiology and handed to women unchanged. Her guidance through perimenopause and beyond: lift heavy, lower reps, close to failure — not light weights and endless cardio. That's what actually protects bone density and muscle when hormones are working against both.
None of this is complicated. Juice to get the blood moving. Weights three times a week. Protein at every meal,fibre and fats breakfast included. Consistency beats intensity spikes, every time.
Your legs are your engine room. Start training them like one.
— Richard Barnett | Juice Plus+ Partner
