Robert Durbin, 66, is not shy about his killer abs. “Wanna see the eight-pack?” he asks. He lifts up his shirt to show off a chiseled stomach: the product of his late-in-life commitment to healthy living and the gym.
Durbin, also known as Rock-Hard Papaw, posts daily workout videos and encouragement (“AGE IS JUST A NUMBER!”) to his 10,000 Instagram followers. Though he was recently diagnosed with with colon cancer, he says, “I’m still the luckiest guy, even with cancer. I’m going to beat it — that’s just all there is to it. Cancer won’t keep me out the gym.”
Durbin: "To be honest with you, I really started to get disgusted with everything about myself when I was about 56. I’m 5’8’’ and weighed 222 pounds. I couldn’t do nothing. I had bad ankles — I’ve had 13 surgeries on my ankles. I got in poor health. I got a heart condition. I watched all my kids from the living room. I couldn’t go out, couldn’t play games or nothing. Then the grandbabies started coming along, and I thought, ‘I’m not going to sit here watching them too. So I went to the YMCA with my cane and my braces and my walker and it took me 45 minutes to walk that first mile. I just worked up from there. I got down to 170 pounds. I got the abs. I was kinda wantin’ to be a bodybuilder."
Lou Mag: What’s your diet plan?
Durbin: "You don’t get to eat anything that tastes good is all. Red meat’s out right now; I’ll never eat another piece of red meat. I get most of my protein from vegetables. Peas are one of the best sources of protein you can get."
Lou Mag: What does your workout routine look like?
Durbin: "It seems like I can’t get enough of it. I get up at 3:30 and start my morning ab work and cardio at 4. I eat breakfast at 5, then a shower, then my second meal. Then I head to the gym for about three hours. I do at least 300 push-ups a day at the house. Right now when I leave here I’ll probably go down to the river and find something to hang off. (Durbin’s latest workout of choice is “flagging” from a Zejax bar or sign post, using his body weight as resistance. He also likes to go to the skate park downtown, where us uses the half-pipe to do running wall flips.)"
Image: Adam Mescan
