“10 years ago, I would have caught that ball!”
As my softball teammate cursed at himself, letting a fly ball sail past his reach. My teammate compared himself to how the younger version of himself playing little league baseball. Spry, young, energetic, and unhindered by injuries and the stresses of life. Perhaps a sedentary lifestyle of his career, becoming a family man, and the lack of time devoted to fitness left him not as athletic as he once was and a little overweight.
A younger version of ourselves doesn’t include the hardships of our current everyday lives. Challenging interpersonal relationships, parenting responsibilities, or financial obligations were absent in our younger days. Minimal responsibilities made it simple to focus on being athletic and participate in hobbies, sports, and extracurricular physical activities. Sure, aging can do a number on the body and mind. However, if you let a jalopy from the 1940’ssit stagnant in the driveway for years, it’s going to be quite the challenge to start back up. Our bodies work the same way, especially with father time officiating the game.
The silver is lining is that the soul can remain young. As my softball teammate chased that ball down, his youthful energy remained prevalent in his subconscious. The desire to continue hobbies and physical activities is the true medicine that keeps us young at heart. If we want to stay young and combat age, we need to keep doing the playful activities that maintain our exuberance.
We’re all familiar with the deleterious effects of aging. Our bone structure starts to deteriorate as osteoporosis kicks in, leaving our bone mineral density less concentrated when we were kids. Decrease in muscle mass occurs, which can affect our overall strength. Challenges to maintain coordination and balance becomes an issue, increasing the risk of injury or falling. Gaining unwanted fat mass is increased due to the demand of adhering to a sedentary lifestyle with our careers. Desk jobs and commutes can cripple us as our bottoms get glued to our chairs, propagating underuse injuries, unwanted fat mass, and cardiovascular disease. It’s a double-edged sword as we advance in age when the body slows down and stress effects our lifestyle. These conditions are obviously suboptimal. However, most of the time age hits people like a ton of bricks when they stop participating in their physically active hobbies.
Senior division recreational slow pitch softball, dancing with a partner, hiking, Tai Chi, Yoga, pickle ball, and tennis are all reminiscent to what may have been done for fun in our adolescents or young adulthood. Little league baseball, high school tennis, gymnastics, martial arts, or dancing with friends was very popular in our youth. These activities are part of the same category to older adult activities, just in a different spectrum. For example, gymnastics are for young people up to age 25. Yoga is somewhat of the same activity, just more forgiving on the joints and less intense for someone who has endured the stresses of aging. There is cornucopia of fun physical activities that can be enjoyed. The body of a 15 to 25-year-old is structured different from someone who is 40-50-year-old. However, both bodies thrive from moving for the sake of enjoyment. This is one of the most important lessons we tell our personal training clients in Napa. Stick with physically active hobbies you enjoy, and you will stay young.
These physically active hobbies organically contribute to improved strength, balance, and coordination. The side to side movement of softball, pickleball, tennis and dancing help with proprioception, balance and overall body awareness. Tai Chi and yoga contribute to balance in a stationary position and decrease injury with attention to healthy posture. Heart health, ankle, and knee injury prevention are normal adaptations from dancing, biking, walking and hiking.
The “key to the fountain of youth” is always up for discussion. If you every find it, let me know. However, my softball teammate mentioned at the beginning of the article had heck of a time catching that fly ball. Who knows, maybe I could’ve chased it down and caught it.. However, my teammate was 20 years older than me. I thought to myself, “Sure, he missed it. But he’s been chasing that ball down and cursing at it 20 years longer than I have.” He’s still chasing that ball down. He probably will be for the next 20 years too.
So how can we stay young and healthy? We can exercise regularly, eat healthy, and stay free of disease. However, it we look at my veteran softball teammate, one thing is obvious about staying young.
Keep chasing after that ball and keep having fun.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
