What gets me going now may very well get you going, too.

The “what” is stretching, and the “going” is lifting weights. The “now” needs a bit more explaining - as does the liberal use of quotation marks.

Those elevated commas abound because a study has linked what “gets me going,” to what “keeps us going.” Or, as the falsetto-voiced Bee Gees used to sing back when disco was king, “stayin’ alive.”

And “now” is the word I’ve chosen to use for the last two years or so - ever since my age has inched closer to 104 than 24. (How’s that for an unpleasant, past-your-prime factoid?)

Anyway, I’m not only old, but my hips and legs have really been banged up - and thrice broken - in bicycling crashes no fault of my own. So much so that when a cycling whippersnapper overheard me telling a buddy about the modifications I’ve needed to make in the weight room when lifting for my legs, he said the only squatting a graybeard like me should be doing is in the bathroom.

While the kid’s no comedian, it’s true I don’t have the strength I had even 10 years ago. But I still squat once a week using dumbbells or a weighted vest and less-than-conventional stances and as intensely as I can.

I couldn’t imagine attempting any leg work now, however - or doing any lifting for my upper body, for that matter - without stretching beforehand. But it’s not solely because of those past injuries and advancing age.

Stretching before lifting has become the final part of my mental preparation.

The time when I review my goals for that session and beyond. The time when any doubts about torturing myself that day give way to a sense of “you can do this” and then - better still - a feeling of wanting to.

Because what Rich Roll, author of five exercise- and diet-related books and podcaster extraordinaire, so often says is true. Mood does follow action.

And the type of stretching I do before lifting is the dynamic type, requiring far more action than the static, stretch-and-hold variety used years ago to begin gym classes.

Done the right way, dynamic stretching - or “flexibility physical activities,” such as yoga, tai chi, and pilates - could similarly benefit you, yet I’m not going to reveal my stretching routine right now. After all, you don’t have metal rods in both legs, wires around one elbow, arthritis in your hips, or probably not 15 to 25 minutes each day to do so.

But you probably do have an interest, no, not in disco, but in the song so strongly associated with it and white, three-piece leisure suits: “Stayin’ Alive.” Which means you’ll want to know more about a study published online by BMC Public Health in June of 2023.

In it, researchers analyzed exercise information accrued through the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey 2007-2013 and provided by more than 34,000 Korean adults (57% female, 43% male, and on average 48 years old).

Using questionnaires, the participants catalogued all exercise (occupational and recreational) they had done for the past week. Based on that, the researchers created three groups, in essence separating the hardcore exercisers from the moderate ones and the moderate ones from those who barely or didn’t exercise at all, not only based on the overall amount of exercise but also specific types.

While you won’t be shocked to learn the hardcore and moderate aerobic exercisers had a lower risk of any type of death during the average follow-up time of 9.2 years, a true shocker emerged. Stretching, when done at least one day per week, was “statistically significantly associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality.”

In fact, compared to those who didn’t stretch in some way, shape, or form, those who did had a 20% lower risk of dying during the follow-up period.

Yet there was a bigger shocker, still. The 20% lower risk of dying associated with just one day a week of stretching was actually a bit higher than the benefit received by either hardcore aerobic exercisers or strength trainers.

This double jolt isn’t really unprecedented, though. It’s just that the December 2020 study published by Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise that found something similar was originally seen as outlier.

In that study, nearly 27,000 American adults reported exercise frequency, degree, and type and then the researchers made sense of it. Well, at least most of it.

What made sense was after factoring out all the outside elements that could affect their findings - such as total volume of exercise, demographic factors, and socioeconomic status - they determined all exercise led to a lower risk of early death. What didn’t was that stretching was one of the two activities (volleyball was the other) “uniquely associated with lower risks of mortality.”

Why that’s the case may not make sense to you, either, but neither should calling these two studies coincidence.