“Age ain’t nothin but a number.” This probably pisses some people off considering it’s coming from a 20 something year old. Doesn’t matter what experiences I’ve had or anything like that, there’s no way I can know. Not old enough.SIKE! I too once believed that age was more than a number. I once thought that with age came wisdom and just because you were a certain age you were more knowledgeable than anyone. I also thought that once you hit a certain age (age unknown) bad shit physically would start to happen. In all actuality, age is nothing but a number that lets people know how long you have been alive for. That’s it. It does not account for the experiences you’ve had. It does not account for whether you have a growth mindset or a closed mindset. It doesn’t account for the fact that you learned from failures or habitually made the same mistake over and over again. It doesn’t account for whether you have taken care of your health or not. Your age just lets us know when you were born. To assume much else from that number would be doing a great disservice. Age is not a reason to move away from free weights, if anything it’s a reason to move toward them, under proper guidance of course.
Since age aint nothin but a number, don’t let any age stereotype stop you from trying because you think you are too old to start or too young to know. Assuming the status quo to be a set in stone path for you is a sure way to make sure that all of the normalities of aging come true. If you think it is inevitable that you are going to have to stop doing the activities you love then of course that’s the reality that you will see in due time. If you think that you have to just learn to deal with hip, knee, or back pain instead of finding a solution to resolve those issues or to prevent them to begin with, then that is what is going to happen. People say, “man I used to be able to do XYZ when I was younger.” My response is usually ok and what have you been doing to ensure that you can continue to do XYZ? The answer is usually nothing. Not working towards something will usually move you further from that goal, you won’t stay still. This is the norm. Nothing wrong with that but when we look at statistics do you want to be just another one of them or do you want to challenge that status quo? Do you want to be an outlier?
Due to my line of work I am able to see a mass amount of people who are living their best lives. They’re older and according to society they should not be as strong as they are, as flexible, or as active as they are. Yet they are thriving. They are accomplishing feats of strength that I haven’t seen people half their age accomplish. Hence, there is a reality that you can be an outlier by doing a little bit of something everyday. That something just has to be something that is not in the norm. Learn how to move and strength train.This will vastly improve your life, but what do I know being a 20 something.
No matter your age, start thinking about what you are currently able to do and what you want to be able to do 10/20/30 years down the road. Think “what steps do I need to take in order for these wants to happen”. Thinking in this long term manner can allow you to not rush when wanting to reach a goal and also allows you to be patient. Often times people take the shortcut or the quick fix. Usually what happens when taking this route is you end up right where you started off because it wasn’t sustainable. It wasn’t a long term investment, it was very much high risk low reward and you ended up with the low reward. Usually people don’t want to hear that what they’ve been doing won’t work and they need to change. We as humans hate being wrong and we hate change because often our EGO drives us. Don’t allow your EGO to bully you. If it is something you want, do the right steps to make sure it happens.