Exercise and Aging

Most do not believe this is true -- but it is possible to continue improving and growing in health -- regardless of age, IF one takes into account, the very important but generally overlooked consideration of precious and decreasing recovery ability.

This decreasing recovery ability is what even great athletes start to realize after the age of thirty, is their inability to recover as quickly and as surely as they might have in their younger years. Unfortunately, the typical conditioned response is to think that they now have to do even more to retain their same level of performance and proficiencies as before -- instead of suspecting, that it is quite the opposite -- and the need to do less , is paramount and indicated, because the ratios of work to recovery ability, are decreasing at an undeniable pace.

The change in the body, doesn't necessarily indicate deterioration -- but is a sure demand for how the resources and resourcefulness of the body is being used. It requires the older person, to become wiser and better, and if they don't, the consequences are punishing and unmistakable. Unfortunately again, one is conditioned to fight those realizations, to ignore and try to deny and defy them, thinking that if one increases their workload, surely the body has to adapt to those increased workloads -- rather as it will happen, shut the body down completely with an enforced injury or disability.

At this point, many people's conclusion is that they have to abandon exercise entirely -- rather than suspect and experience with the obvious, that they MUST do better so they can do less -- and that stimulus, will determine the shape, condition and form an individual will perfect -- in their movements and activities.

Those who don't notice any better, think that with increasing years, they should put less demand on improvements for the better, and simply accept the worse -- and simply prescribe exercises that ensure that outcome -- that a person surely becomes worse, than better. That is mainly because with their present understanding of conditioning and their effects, and not paying attention to the actual results and cause and effects, that they believe the erroneous pronouncements of those whose only knowledge is persuading others and manipulating beliefs, rather than the truth of the matter.

Such people think that if one doesn't like what one is seeing, one should merely change their perception rather than the actualities that create that impression. In this way, many in declining physical health, can convince themselves that they are superbly conditioned -- because they are spending more time, energy and effort on these things -- rather than the cessation of those concerns.

People who are more preoccupied with their health, are less healthy, than those for whom health is not a concern, or limiting factor. A person who devotes five hours or every waking moment of their lives to concerns about their health, is morbidly unhealthy. A person who has no concern for such limits on his activities, is as healthy as they can be -- yet this attainment in conditioning, can usually be obtained with a minimal amount of time, energy and effort -- when the UNDERSTANDING of this process is high enough.

That is the real limiting factor -- and no amount of the usual poor understanding of this process can result in any other than the typical poor results -- leading most people to accept the futility of the productiveness of exercise and conditioning activities as they age -- as the only way things can be.

The first thing that must be changed, is not one's activity levels, but their whole understanding of this process -- which is entirely fallacious because it is the conditioning that it requires great amounts of time, energy and effort to achieve -- rather than changing the essential understanding -- that one can alter one's condition and shape directly -- and not by buying all the gadgets, club memberships, nutritional supplements, spa treatments, garish clothing, videotapes, etc.

The unfortunate condition is that the "fitness industry" and its self-designated "experts," are the primary source of these advertisements and promotions of these counterproductive beliefs and understanding, which merely replaced a previous generation's misguided physical education teachers.