What Are You Training For?
A few years ago, in my late fifties, I became concerned with some aging-related upper body muscle loss. But every time I tried to strengthen my upper body, I’d hurt myself. Low-level neck, back, and shoulder issues grew worse. Pain is a great motivator and I started seeing a physical therapist. When I did the prescribed exercises, my back and neck didn’t hurt as much, weren’t as tight and achy, or seized up with a piercing pain. For months I did my physical therapy exercises almost every day. It was a slog. But I did feel better, most of the time. I did these exercises to ward off pain.
But after a vacation in Kauai last winter, where we hiked down and up a steep bluff using ropes with our snorkel gear on our backs, where we snorkeled in surging swells, and walked miles in the sand carrying chairs, cooler, and beach bags, I realized something. I hadn’t been slogging through the physical therapy exercises only to stave off pain and further muscle atrophy, I’d been training for this trip, for activities that bring me great joy.
That realization made me consider what else I want my body to continue to do. I want to hike up the hill behind my house thirty minutes without stopping to the view of Mt. Baker. I want the agility to climb from boat to dingy and back again. I want to row that dingy ashore. Haul patio chairs up to the garage for the winter. Stoop to pick up downed branches and piles of leaves. Pick up a 40-pound bag of cat litter.
And then there is my writing. Writing requires a stationary body. As my nurse sister reminds me, sitting is the new smoking. I address writing and sitting in my 2016 blog The Writer as Athlete. Basically, I exercise so I can sit and write.
When I mentioned my new training mindset to my physical therapist, she recommended a book, Outliveby Peter Attia. One aspect of the book is preparing for the last ten years of your life—what do you want to be physically able to do? And then train for it.
I had a friend who used to tell her kids that being patient is waiting with a happy heart. And now this new mindset of striving toward a goal allows me to exercise, including doing my physical therapy exercises, with a happy heart as I visualize my body doing the things I want to do for some years to come.
What is your approach to exercising? What are the activities you want to continue to do? Please share in the comments.
Thank you for reading! Writing is a lonely endeavor and your presence here brightens my day!
It’s a Good Day . . . to move your body.
Yes, it can be challenging to remember that we exercise so we can have fun, see new things, go interesting places. Remember that book "Growing old is for sissies"? ....so true. Let's keep up the sweating and grunting and pushing back against time. That's my plan.
I take a Pilates mat class in order to be able to do what I’d like to do as long as I can—which is walk and hike in the hills.