Like, to a degree, you’re not wrong. Desk jobs, car culture, a lack of free time, it all adds up to bonus aches and pains that a more active person can avoid. But there’s another angle to it, which is simply that you don’t heal from every injury in full. And you don’t heal as quickly or thoroughly once you’ve stopped growing. So your body keeps the score.
A lot of getting older is about avoiding strains as much as keeping in shape. You’re trying to avoid adding new injuries to the pile, because they confound what you exercises you can continue to do and hobble your ability to stay limber and maintain muscle over time.
You see this a lot with people in their 40s and 50s. They’re healthy, they’re strong, they’re going along just fine. And then they get into a car accident. Or they experience some emotional trauma. Or they get a nasty illness. Or anything that puts them in bed for too long. They gain weight. They lose muscle and flexibility. They slow down. And one bad year ages them more than a dozen good ones.
Then you see it again in the 80s and 90s, when a single bad fall will straight up kill you.
Exercise helps, sure. And eating rights. And being on the right medications early on. But everything you’re doing is about dodging that next bullet. Trying to over-exert yourself can be just as dangerous as sitting idle. My grandfather died in his mid-60s after what my grandmother claims he insisted was the best tennis game of his life. Heart gave out in his sleep. My grandmother lived another 30 years, half of them in a wheelchair, until she took a spill trying to get out of bed and cracked her hip.
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Like, to a degree, you’re not wrong. Desk jobs, car culture, a lack of free time, it all adds up to bonus aches and pains that a more active person can avoid. But there’s another angle to it, which is simply that you don’t heal from every injury in full. And you don’t heal as quickly or thoroughly once you’ve stopped growing. So your body keeps the score.
A lot of getting older is about avoiding strains as much as keeping in shape. You’re trying to avoid adding new injuries to the pile, because they confound what you exercises you can continue to do and hobble your ability to stay limber and maintain muscle over time.
You see this a lot with people in their 40s and 50s. They’re healthy, they’re strong, they’re going along just fine. And then they get into a car accident. Or they experience some emotional trauma. Or they get a nasty illness. Or anything that puts them in bed for too long. They gain weight. They lose muscle and flexibility. They slow down. And one bad year ages them more than a dozen good ones.
Then you see it again in the 80s and 90s, when a single bad fall will straight up kill you.
Exercise helps, sure. And eating rights. And being on the right medications early on. But everything you’re doing is about dodging that next bullet. Trying to over-exert yourself can be just as dangerous as sitting idle. My grandfather died in his mid-60s after what my grandmother claims he insisted was the best tennis game of his life. Heart gave out in his sleep. My grandmother lived another 30 years, half of them in a wheelchair, until she took a spill trying to get out of bed and cracked her hip.