Why Bother to Train?
It gets harder as we get older to train and our motivation starts to wane. So why bother putting in the effort. We tell ourselves it’s because we want to avoid future health issues, but you know what……that is not enough motivation. That’s in the future and out of sight out of mind. We need more…….
Nothing becomes harder as we get older than maintaining our physical health. We are less motivated. We are busier with work, career and family. We have old injuries that flare up every time we try and train.
Yet despite all these issues, our sense of who we are as men is closely linked to how we feel about our sense of physical health. As with many things, this is a primal emotion about protecting your ‘patch of turf’, protecting and providing for your family and loved ones. Despite what we think consciously, it’s what drives us subconsciously that impacts our lives greater than any other factor, and subconscious drivers are created by both nature and nurture.
How we trained as young men should bear very little resemblance to how we train in middle age, but of course our mind tells us we can still do what we used to do, despite the physical reality, and we find it difficult to accept our growing limitations.
We used to train in a variety of ways, with energy, heavy weights, long runs, short hard sessions and others, always trying to better our last session and compete against friends and rivals.
But as we get older the competition becomes with ourselves. Competing against our eroding motivation, our injuries, and our unwillingness to accept change. The saying ‘If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got’ is true for many areas of life…….but it is a recipe for failure when it comes to our physical health as we get older. On the surface it seems a very obvious statement to say, ‘If you continue to train the way you’ve always trained…..the older you get, you will NOT continue to get the results you’ve always got’. But we are dealing with an attitude to change in our lives and a perception that we are on the downhill side of life and that is the real culprit here.
Be aware of the changes in your body but don’t let them become excuses. Research training methods, understand your injuries, and adjust your training to ensure longevity, rather than short term gains.