This past weekend in New Jersey the weather was perfect. I spent the entire weekend outdoors. On Saturday I worked on prepping my garage for contractors to come make repairs this week. I've hired a mason who is set to fix the foundation and painters scheduled to give it a face lift. I dug a deep trench along the entire foundation on three sides a few feet down into the dirt. I had to remove a lot of rocks and small boulders to expose the foundation so the Mason can get in and repair the cracks. It is saving me a good sum of money by doing this work in advance myself.
I also replaced a bunch of siding that was beyond weathered. It was a big job, but I got it all done and I feel great about the fact that I had the strength and stamina to work this hard all day. It was a a perfect Spring day. In fact, it was the first day of Spring!
It's very gratifying to be able to do this type of work for yourself. It's difficult to put into a few sentences what took 10 hours to do. But trust me that I moved well over a ton of rocks by hand. And I had to dig each one out first!
I'm not trying to impress you with my feat of endurance. But I would like to "impress upon you" that being able to work this hard is what our bodies are meant to do.
In contrast to the human body, a car can last ten years and easily rack up 100,000 miles and it will not perform better or go faster. The more you push it and work it, the more it wears out. But the human body is a very unique machine. When you work your muscles they actually get stronger and unlike a car, the harder you push your muscles the stronger they get and the better your body performs. In addition, you can eat more and not gain weight. Muscle is king!
Pretty cool, eh?
I turned 52 this past February and I don't think of myself as being "old". I prefer to go by my "fitness age" not my biological age. "You're as young or old as you feel". True, but you are also as young or old in what you can or cannot do! So make sure you CAN DO!
My message to you is simple. You're going to get older, that's inevitable. But your muscles (and other body parts) don't have to yield to gravity. If you are willing to put up a fight by exercising strenuously on a regular basis, then you will age gracefully and maintain improved health as well as keep disease at bay.
That's one of the reasons I developed Body Basics Boot Camps. I was once a victim of circumstance. I commuted to NYC everyday and worked in a job that required me to sit on my butt all day long. I was a "weekend warrior", but it wasn't enough, and before I knew it a decade had passed and I had become a back pain sufferer and a knee pain sufferer as well. At first I accepted my fate and chalked it up to getting older, and possibly bad genetics. So I began to "avoid" activities that might hurt me. Boy, was I ever WRONG!!!
I didn't find the "fitness solution" till age 42, so I suffered for quite a few years. But even at age forty-two I began to turn the clock back. I am now 52 and I can still do pretty much the same things I did a decade ago. Can you?
I want to get a message in your head that if you can't do some things that you want to do, or that others your age can do, maybe you need to stop, figure some things out and make some changes.
I created Body Basics Boot Camps for this very reason. As a "teaching trainer" I consider movement omnipotent, and correct movement patterns to be a top priority. And if you learn how to move properly, you'll begin to get stronger, you'll feel better, and thus be able to do more. Growing older doesn't have to mean settling into doing less.
Our fitness boot camps are designed to get your body moving in dynamic ways so that your brain and muscles coordinate better. By activating more muscle you also fire up your metabolism which is your body's fat burning furnace of sorts.
Most of the time I talk about fat burning and weight loss as that is what people want to know more about. But lets not dismiss the fact that getting older is a factor too. BTW, I'm not so arrogant as to deny the aging process. But I am determined enough to be an advocate for mobility and being as active as I can for as long as I can. I don't know about you, but I want to die young...at a VERY OLD AGE!
Press on!
P.S. We are a week away for our Spring Boot Camp Season. I would like nothing more than to see more of you (get out of your own way and) come to boot camp classes! See below for the updated schedule of classes and events for April 2010.
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