I’ve noticed, recently, that I’ve slowed down a bit.
I haven’t been able to work on my speed for about two years due to a couple of injuries and a few other issues. And I had to back off on strength training.
I don’t walk as fast as I used to. I’m not talking about walking as fast as possible. I mean my comfortable, natural walking speed.
The other day I was out walking with our dogs Botti and Kobe. I was walking up a long hill. I’m not sure of the incline but it felt steep.
I glanced behind me and I saw three women about 200 yards behind me just starting up the hill.
After a few minutes, I saw them pass me.
And they weren’t a lot younger than me but they were moving.
You might think, “What’s the big deal?”
No, it’s not my ego.
What it means is I’m weaker. Slowing down means you’re losing strength. Sure, you lose some strength as you age but with training you can hold on to it for quite a while. When you stop training, your strength slinks away from you quietly, secretly, tip toeing out of your life. In three months, you can lose everything you’ve gained from prior training.
Speed comes from strength. Strength is the foundation for almost all physical abilities, things we take for granted like balance, reaction time, agility and even flexibility is influenced by strength.
All those things are built on a foundation of strength.
The problem is you don’t have to be strong to get along in life. You can do a lot of everyday things while you’re getting weaker and never notice it.
Until one day you do.
I’ve rebooted my training, some of my routines are on my website, but it takes a while to get your strength back.
Mostly because the pace has to allow the body to adapt. Exercise is controlled trauma. There’s never a question about whether you’ll be injured by exercise. The question is how quickly do you recover.
When you’re healthy, fit, strong, your recovery from an exercise session is quick – a day or two. The “injury” is the stress placed on the body. Strength comes from the body’s response to the stress load. Over time, you get stronger and stronger and the “injury” time is less.
Between the age of 25 and 70, you can lose up to 30% of your lean muscle mass with a 40% loss in strength.
As you lose strength, you lose speed (see the image for the decline is speed with age for the 100 meters).
There was a time when getting older meant getting stronger. I can still remember the day I first dunked a basketball at basketball practice. And back then we didn’t have a weight lifting program. I just got stronger from jumping and the wonders of growth hormone.
But that window is narrow. Maybe up to 30 years of age and then as you age you get progressively weaker unless you do something about it.
Care to join me and get stronger?
That’s all I have for now.
Thanks for reading.
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