Just Do the Warmup

 The older one gets, the harder it is to get going -- until eventually, many stop trying -- and that is disastrous.  The problem stems from the lack of an effective "warmup" program, and many feel it is totally unnecessary -- that they should just be able to plunge right in -- cold and immediately access top speed and capability -- until one day, they suffer that inevitable injury.  That is the same kind of thinking that many people have in believing they need to do nothing to maintain top condition and proficiency -- just because they want it to be so.

The real world doesn't work that way.  People who are good at what they do get that way with a lot of preparation and practice -- so that even their warmup is way beyond most people's personal best.  That is one of the great skills they cultivate -- in being able to move from the lowest state of readiness to their best.  They are meticulous at even the most fundamental, baby steps, and that persistence gets them to the next level -- and the next.

These are important lessons because as one grows older, one has less energy, and rather than just turning over and lying in bed all day, they have to resolve to get up and out of bed, or out of their chair -- even when it seems impossible, leading one to think if they will ever walk again.

While it might be the case that they no longer pop out of bed ready to take on the world -- if they proceed slowly and deliberately enough, they will change their position and energy level -- but not if they have to do it fast and quickly.  For most people in retirement, that is not a requirement that they do anything fast -- but eventually, and that is good enough.  But beginning slowly, and repeating the movement develops proficiency and efficiency, and after a while, they are moving faster without trying -- but more importantly, are moving better because they are trying.

One is developing the muscle memory for sure, but in the movement, lubricating the joints by that movement, as well as increasing the circulation by that movement.  All the good stuff to enable them to move better -- and when they move better, they can move faster -- if that is required, but in the slow, deliberate movement, one is priming the motor pathways for such movements.

That is why slow movement exercise can enable faster movements.  One has developed the neuromuscular connections and efficiency to perform that movement.  It doesn't have to be with added or maximum resistance -- to be productive.  It just has to be possible -- and manifested.

It is not as important to run a marathon as it is to prepare oneself to run a marathon.  The former will deplete one's momentary capabilities -- while the warmup will get one in the best condition to run one.  And that is necessary in the contemporary healthy life -- to be able to meet any challenge, and not fighting every fight just because one can.

That's not how the alpha male stays the alpha male.  That individual invariably picks his spots -- and only takes on those challenges they absolutely have to -- not being the first to strike, but the last.  He knows to prepare their capabilities to rise to those occasions -- and not exercising every chance they get.  That is the great principle of conservation of energy -- rather than expending it as much as possible -- for no good purpose.

That is the proverbial lesson of the race between the turtle and the hare:  the hare takes off from the get-go, not even realizing or aware if anybody else is even running, while everybody else eventually gets there -- and passes them while they have long exhausted themselves, and even crippled themselves.  The race doesn't end at age 40 but age 100 -- and one must understand that.

In that understanding, they can better manage their time, energy and resources -- over a long lifetime.  Life is no longer short, brutal, nasty -- and so one's optimal conditioning should reflect that.  We're no longer fighting the lions in the coliseum -- to prove our merit and fitness for survival.

Humans are built for the long haul rather than a short run at the top -- and then one is at the mercy of the health care system for the remainder of their lives.  And so many despair at such a prospect of growing old rather than embracing it as a mark of successful adaptions and meeting the challenges of their unique lives -- and fear that their time is running out before they find the answers to the problems of their own existence.

Obviously in movement, that is to achieve the grace and ease of it -- instead of making it more difficult and problematic at every opportunity.  That would not be progressive exercise but regressive -- to a more primitive and unenlightened time.

So the impossible question is not how one can make any movement more difficult -- but rather, how to make it as easy as possible -- all one's life, and never stop that improvement.  That is the problem with traditional and conventional exercise -- always to increase the difficulty until finally one gives it up.  And then what?  Of course there will be atrophy, deterioration, and dis-ease.  One would not expect anything else.  That's how the world works -- or doesn't.  That is the simplicity of the instruction manual for the body; it gets better because one makes it get better.  It is the perfection of the practice -- so that one is prepared for anything one is required to do in their daily lives -- whatever that might be.

Whatever it takes.