What’s going to happen in 5 years if you can barely walk up the stairs right now??
There was a study done a decade ago, where they measured the rate of muscle loss between an 18-year-old and a 65-year-old; what they found was that a 65-year-old loses muscle in 3 days whereas an 18-year-old will lose muscle in 10 days.
What Does That Mean?
As we age we lose muscle at an incredibly fast rate and that is why it is so important to have a ‘buffer’ between our muscle strength and gravity.
Gravity is always working against us, from the time we go to sleep from the time we wake up in the morning. So, to build that ‘buffer’ for our older years we have to build our muscle strength now so that when we inevitably have an accident or illness, we’re able to recover and bounce back much faster.
Do you feel like you have gotten weaker over the years? Has life gotten so busy that it is hard to take care of yourself and exercise the way you want and need to?
If you plan to retire, (like most of us do) what does that look like? Travel??
Do you envision yourself in wheelchair, walker, or with a cane??? I doubt it…
The goal for most of us is to do all the traveling that wasn’t possible in the years that we were working. To do that type of traveling we need to be healthy, we need to be mobile, we need to be strong and we need to be independent.
Succumbing to surgeries to avoid the pain will only increase your loss and limit your mobility and ultimately independence. The alternative may be pain medication but what does that look like 10, 20, 20 years down the line? If you rely on pain medication, then you have to face all the unwanted consequences with pain medication like memory loss, stomach ulcers, or bursting tendons which take away the time from the things you love to do and the people you love to be with.
There is no one fix all. THERE IS NO SIMPLE SOLUTION.
BUT THERE IS A SOLUTION
The solution lies in tackling the pain and weakness head on, not negotiating and avoiding the problem which 99% of the time leads to surgery. You have to get into a structured exercise program that not only gets you stronger and more mobile, but it should also be HEAVILY focuses on injury prevention.
The exercises that you did when you were in your 20s won’t work the way they did back then. The solution is finding a program that is focused on YOUR injuries the old ones that still hinder your ability to move and attack them head on.
We have to get out of pain and get back to moving fluidly.
It’s time to TAKE CONTROL of your independence and take control of your quality of life before it’s too late!!
If you made this far then it is time to take action and to start getting yourself moving in the right direction, a clear path to a bright future.
If you’d like more information, please reach out.
If you found this helpful please forward it to a friend in need, they will thank you later!
Get Mobile and Stay Active!
Dr. Jonathan Ruzicka is a Manual Therapist whose experience as a private therapist for professional athletes drove him to further his education attaining unparalleled skills in tissue mobility work, performance based rehab, injury prevention, myofacial release and joint mobilization to optimize human performance.
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