81 Is The New 21

What You Can Learn From One Of America’s Greatest Fitness Visionaries – Who’s 81 Years Old, A Nd Still Rocks A Solid Six-pack.

- Nick Heil

MR. RIPPED IS MARCHING UP THE trail. There is only one rule on these hikes: do not pass Mr. Ripped. It’s a good rule, because attempting to pass him could put you at risk of a cardiac event. His pace is brisk, almost a jog. The grade is steep, the air thin. We’re hammering a trail at 1 830m in the Sandia Mountains near his home in Albuquerque. Mr. Ripped, whose real name is Clarence Bass, does this hour-long hiking circuit once a week, but it’s enough – just enough, combined with one weekly weightlifting session and walking and staying active every day – to place him among the fittest men in America, a physical specimen par excellence who, at 81, may be unrivalled in his age group anywhere in the world.

You’d be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Bass, a former competitive bodybuilder and fitness writer, even if he is the subject of several books – such as Lee Berquist’s Second Wind and Bill Pearl’s Legends of the Iron Game. He’s even written 10 books of his own. Unlike other fitness impresarios such as Jack LaLanne, Bill Phillips, and Tony Horton, Bass eschews the spotlight and self-branding in lieu of thoughtful articles steeped in sports science and physiology. He is the thinking man’s trainer: a wise, reclusive, Yoda-like figure hidden in the high desert, serving up insights that are often years ahead of their time.