Do your parents work out?
How about your grandparents?
I recently turned 36, and this was on my mind because my mother was this age when she gave birth to me.
I'm wondering what I'll be like when I'm her age, double the years from now.
Will I still be lifting weights? Doing yoga? Running HIIT workouts?
I hope so.
The inevitable decline of our bodies notwithstanding, working out is not meant to be a young person's game.
We were made to move. I firmly believe in this statement. Notice I did not say we were made to move until I retire. Or we were made to move until we got old.
Old age is subjective anyway.
When I'm "old" and grey, I still plan to be squatting with a barbell across my back. The ability to squat is something we lose easily but is foundational to proper musculoskeletal function.
Why do I want to keep this skill?
The ability to squat properly means my posture is on point, which is important for anything you do physically. It means I have the core strength to stabilize my body. It means I've maintained adequate hip and shoulder mobility and I've kept my bones dense, strong and healthy enough to handle more than my body weight. If I can squat, I should also be able to do normal things like get out of a chair or pick something up off the floor without struggle.
Squatting into old age is one of the ways I can give myself the chance to grow old with all the dignity and strength I can muster.
I've talked about the amazing adaptability of our bodies before - our bodies can be relentlessly efficient machines, but they have to be tuned correctly. If I stop squatting, I may quickly lose the ability to squat. Same goes for many other physical skills, which is why it's important to keep doing them. Otherwise, our bodies decide we don't need them any longer, and these are not the things I want to be losing as I age.
Think about what one of the greatest risk factors to older adults that has a potentially profound impact on health: falling.
A fall may result in not just broken bones but limited or loss of mobility. Limited mobility leads to other issues related to being sedentary, including serious health problems and then possible loss of independence.
This is where exercise like strength training and mobility come into play.
An older adult with strong, dense bones is less likely to break them. An older adult with body awareness and balance, which can be maintained with activity like yoga and weights, is less likely to fall in the first place. An older adult with strength in all planes of motion (i.e. mobility) is less likely to get injured in general. And an older adult who's fit has the ability to recover quicker and get back to enjoying life.
One of my favorite things to note about fitness is that's it's never too late to start. Numerous studies of varying findings have shown that you can improve your fitness at any age, and what's better, reverse the effects of aging by significant percentages in a shockingly short period of time.
Every one of us will grow old. Why not age well?
See my previous post on longevity for more thoughts along this topic.