âMost people donât stop playing because they grow old. They grow old because they stop playing.â - George Sheehan
Before we dive into the pillars of lifelong athleticism, we have to answer the most important question: why would you want to be a lifelong athlete?
Honestly, itâs a fair question. Being athletic takes work. A lot of work.
Most people donât seem to be motivated to do the work when they are past their prime. Many of them consider their prime their time in high schoolâŚ
While there is some truth that our maximum capacity of athleticism declines with age, the primary takeaway is that the rate of decline is highly dependent on our activity level.
Plainly speaking: we will all âlose itâ eventually, but if we continue to âuse itâ we'll be a 70-80 year old who is able to run circles around the 20-30 year olds who don't.
Still, why do the work? To run those circles?
Doubtful thatâs a strong enough motivation by itself, most people find track boring.
Instead, consider the things you want to be able to do long term:
Carry your child up some stairs
Hike up a mountain
Squat down to pick something up
Pick yourself up off the ground
Moving furniture
Play pick up basketball
Skiing down a mountain
Play pickleball on a weekend
Wakeboarding or intertubing
Play in an adult soccer league with friends
Play tag with your grandkids
Etc.
Notice whatâs missing: racing.
Racing at 80 can be a powerful motivator, but you donât have to want to race at all to want to be athletic. There are plenty of reasons to train for life!
Even more: continually working on our athletic ability opens up the possibility of new adventures and passions. We might not even be aware of something that we will become incredibly curious about later on. For example: hiking Rim to Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon is something that I hadn't even considered even a few months ago, but now sounds like a wonderful adventure that's on my bucket list.
Whatever your reason or even potential reasons to be athletic long term are, the questions becomes: what is athleticism and how do I work on it?
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