“I’m too old.”

I call BS on this. 

Do our goals change?

Yup.

Does our body change?

Yup.

But so much of what we state that we are too old for, we actually need to be doing more of.

We also have to remember that fitness is always about ability.

Our needs and goals do change. And they always will over time, 

But more importantly, we have to recognize that lifestyle factors add up. And the longer we ignore them the more they can build up to create overload.

And that is the real issue.

Not our age.

Those lifestyle factors, and how we address them, may make us feel old at 25. Or not old at 105.

Think of your body like a plate.

There may be no cracks in the plate to start. 

But through a lack of attention to proper movements, or prehab….and constantly sitting hunched over textbooks and at computers….well…we start to build cracks in that plate.

But as we are creating cracks in this plate, we’re also stacking more and more stuff on it.

We’re training harder without warming up. We’re not sleeping well. We’re drinking. Eating crap food. Stressing at work.

We’re adding weight constantly to this plate as we even add more cracks.

And then when the plate finally breaks and everything falls off, we claim it’s because it is too old.

But it wasn’t the age of the plate. It’s all the stuff we did too it while ignoring the cracks.

It’s why if you start younger creating habits that don’t create such dramatic damage OR you take time to try to REPAIR the damage you can avoid feeling old and like you now can’t do the things you love.

Sure does wear and tear happen? Will we want to adjust our training methods because of different goals and the fact that with age our body does change.

100%

But too often we hold ourselves back from training the way we want because of age when it’s really INJURIES or our fitness level or our goals that are dictating what we need.

Studies have shown time and time again the importance of lean muscle to longevity, only reinforced by the importance of grip strength as an indicator of health and longevity.

So stop saying you CAN’T do something because of your age. Your goal should always be to rebuild so you can clear yourself to do more.

And the younger you start addressing your postural distortion…the younger you stop thinking you’re invisible, well the less old you’ll ever feel.

We’re not too old. If anything we just have to stop being stupider when we are younger.

Tips to help you adjust your fitness to feel young forever.

1. Include prehab work.
2. Use every move as an assessment and focus on those recruitment patterns.
3. Use variations that fit your goals.
4. Stop having the attitude of no pain no gain. This creates the cracks. You’re not being paid to train through pain. You can work around.

Change requires change no matter how you look at it

And often the changes we need the most?

Well they’re uncomfortable.

Changes that make us uncomfortable don’t feel sustainable. They feel so against everything we’ve been doing we find excuses not to make them.

We even find ways to try to VALIDATE not doing them.

We waste time putting up more mental barriers against the changes instead of just trying them, truly testing the changes by committing to them 100%, and seeing it as an experiment to gain a better understanding of our body.

Often those uncomfortable changes are necessary to achieve a new and better result.

Often those changes we least want to make, are the ones we need the most.

And once we actually mentally GET ON BOARD with the changes? Once we stop trying to find reasons NOT to do it?

Well we realize it isn’t actually that hard after all.

That NEW becomes habit.

And amazingly sometimes we even think after awhile, “How was I not doing this before?!

It is in our nature not to want to change.

Change is uncomfortable. And we don’t really like being uncomfortable.

Plus, with change there is a fear of failure.

That’s why it’s key we ADMIT why we truly don’t want to make the change. We lower those mental barriers by RECOGNIZING them.

We need to say to ourselves, “Ok I know this is going to be uncomfortable. I know I won’t like it to start BUT I’ve got to take this risk and LEARN if I want a better outcome.”

By recognizing what holds us back from at least TRYING something new, we can then better move forward and commit 100% to the plan.

Because if you don’t test something new? If you keep doing what you’ve always done?

You can’t keep expecting things to turn out better.

STOP trapping yourself in a hamster wheel working really hard without getting anywhere. You have the power at any time to step off that wheel by making an uncomfortable change.

And once you do?

You’ll be amazed often how much BETTER things are and how that new lifestyle builds into something sustainable.

We just often have to be willing to dive in and trust the process!

1. Recognize why you are resistant to the change. And remind yourself that change requires change.
2. Choose to recognize it as an experiment.
3. Don’t shut yourself in a bubble. Be willing to see the other side.
4. Recognize that you truly need to give something your 100% effort to know if it will or won’t work.

Something is better than nothing and often it is the habits we still want to be consistent with.

But also recognizing at times you need even just a MENTAL break can be key.

1. You have 300 other days of the year to dial things in. Focus on your consistency around the holidays.
2. Go in with a plan. How are you going to get back to it after? Meal prep before? Have healthy options on hand?
3. Stay active! It may not be your usual workouts but find ways to stay active.

Every move is an assessment

We constantly need to assess and reassess what we feel working and how we are moving.

Because things add up from our daily postures and new injuries impact things.

Even different variations included in a new progression can fatigue and affect things.

That’s why I utilize these 4 techniques to help me get more out of my training and use each move as a chance to assess and learn.

1. Use video.
2. Use both internal and external feedback.
3. Change your prehab.
4. Adjust your exercise variations.

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Progress…we have this vision of this straight line forward.

When in reality it’s this super curvy all over the place line that eventually moves “forward.”

And we all “know” progress is never linear.

Yet we all too often expect it to be.

We get upset at even the slightest set back or plateau.

We get upset at maintaining the amazing results we’ve already made.

And when we get frustrated?

We don’t keep moving forward. 

Nope we do things that are SURE to set us back.

And I think part of this comes from how we even measure progress.

We measure it only in terms of our overall, ultimate goal.

And we never take that step back each week to reflect.

It’s why I like to do weekly goal check ins with my one on one clients.

What did we do well this week? YUP! Recognizing the sometimes even super small habit changes that happened.

Because that consistency is PROGRESS.

What maybe didn’t you do well this week?

Because guess what?

Recognizing those mistakes or slight deviations? Well that self-awareness we can gain from that is progress.

And all of these things can keep us focused on what actually matters to progress.

All of these things can keep us in the moving forward mindset.

Progress is really just embracing the learning process.

A process we will truly be involved in the rest of our life.

So how can we change how we perceive progress to enjoy the process?

1. Complete weekly checkins 
2. Celebrate those other small victories. 
3. Realize nothing will EVER happen “fast enough”
4. And recognize that progress is progress no matter how small. And that even by learning from something that didn’t directly move us forward? We can end up moving forward! 

Don’t give up because things aren’t happening fast enough. Talk about a way to to for sure set yourself back.

With the holidays approaching, I begin to hear, the excuses as to why this isn’t the right time to start the program.

Well guess what?

Because of all of those exact same reasons, because it is the holiday season, it is EXACTLY the reason to start something. 

We can’t just keep saying “I’ll start tomorrow!”

I actually mentioned the term I use to describe our behavior during the holidays when it comes to fitness in an email the other day as WINDOW SHOPPING.

We make the excuse that it isn’t the right time.

But no time is the right time.

And what ends up happening when we have that perspective is we dig ourselves a hole we then have to climb out of.

At some point what we just have to decide is that TODAY IS THE DAY.

So what can we do to get started when it’s not the right time instead of saying I’ll start tomorrow?

1. Be realistic.
2. Focus on maintaining.
3. See it as a time to experiment.
4. Downshift your habits – if you usually track, try being less rigid with it. Try working in holiday treats. Focus less on quality and more on consistency.