Ric Hartig, 78, has been lifting weights all his life, and can still leg press 1,000 pounds. That focus on strength has helped him recover from kidney and pancreatic cancer, a shoulder replacement, ulcers and more.
He started strength training back in the 1960s in a downtown Indianapolis gym he calls a "medieval torture chamber -- it was hot and dirty, but there were quite a few good bodybuilders there."
He took a brief break from weightlifting when he joined the Marine Corps in 1966, where the focus was more on calisthenics. He served in the military for two years, including 13 months in Vietnam.
As soon as he finished his military service, he got right back into weightlifting. He loved it, stuck with it and even competed as a bodybuilder in the early 1980s. "It was a good experience. Bodybuilding is hard. To compete, you have to pose. It's really tough," he says.
Hartig has battled health problems throughout his life. Kidney cancer came first, back in 2002.
"I lost strength, I lost weight and I slept a lot. But I was pretty fortunate that it was caught early," he says. Surgeons removed the cancerous kidney, and the cancer hadn't spread further. Once he recovered, he got back to the gym and rebuilt his strength.
Fifteen years later, he was working out at LifeTime and noticed he had started losing weight again. The cancer was back -- this time in his pancreas. "I dropped down to 130 pounds, and I was really weak," he says. To treat it, they had to remove his pancreas, gallbladder, spleen and part of his stomach. Removing his pancreas left him with diabetes.
His cancer is attributed to water contamination at Camp Lejeune when he was stationed there as a Marine.
Those cancer treatments led to an ulcer that struck when he was visiting Pittsburgh for a football game. He had to spend a week hospitalized there, away from home, before once again he could return to weightlifting and rebuild his strength.
Hartig, now retired, worked for a phone and cable company for 36 years, climbing poles and installing systems. While working there, he developed shoulder pain that kept getting worse.
"My shoulder hurt so bad, I couldn't even put set-top boxes on top of TVs for people. I had to ask them to do it. I couldn't sleep at night. I have rheumatoid arthritis, which is probably what took my shoulder," he says. Finally, in 2010, he had a left total reverse shoulder replacement.
"Within three months, I was back in the gym doing light stuff, just to get my shoulder loosened up. It helped tremendously. I've been through a lot of physical problems, but every time, I get back in the gym and start over," he says.
Hartig aims for five or six days a week in the gym, working out for about two hours each time. "I don't have the stamina I had 25 or 30 years ago, so I try to do one body part per workout," he says. He spends one day each on legs, arms, back, chest and shoulders, sometimes dividing arms into biceps and triceps on separate days.
"I do a lot of sets. I probably do 30 or 40 sets for my back alone. My body is used to training hard. With leg presses, I work my way up to 800, 900, sometimes 1,000 pounds," he says.
He concedes that aging has taken a toll. "I'm a little slower than I used to be. I can't just run from one piece of equipment to the next. I have to sit down for a couple of minutes and rest every now and then. And I can't always lift as much as I used to, especially with my chest and shoulders, because of the shoulder replacement," he says. "When I get done, I'm tired, trust me."
When Jarred Hubbard started as a trainer at Lifetime eight months ago, he thought Hartig was "just some older guy who would need my help. I went up to him to see if he needed my training services. He told me he used to compete [as a bodybuilder], and I realized he didn't need help from me."
Instead, Hartig is giving Hubbard pointers as he starts to enter bodybuilding competitions himself. "We've developed a rapport," Hubbard says. "I get inspired by him. He just doesn't stop. Most older people are in here two or three days a week. He's here every day. I've never seen an older person be so consistent or work as hard as he does."
Hartig points out that anyone can benefit from strength training. "It's not too late to start if you're older. I'd recommend it for anybody who wants to stay healthy. You're on your own, pushing yourself and staying motivated," he says.
And the benefits extend beyond the gym walls. "There's no question about it, exercising regularly helps recovery. Getting old is a bummer because you start getting all these ailments. But at least you've lived a little bit," he says. "And working out has got me through just about everything."