Use it or lose it.
Imagine waking up one day and no longer being able to get off the floor without support. Or not being able to lift your groceries easily into your house after shopping. It sounds dramatic – but it's the reality for so many people who have let their physical capacity slowly slip away in the background of an otherwise busy and functional life.
And it doesn't happen overnight. It happens quietly. First, you start avoiding stairs. Then you begin using your arms to push yourself up from a chair. Eventually, you opt out of tasks altogether because you no longer trust your body or the younger people around you who are happily, but mistakenly, helping. That’s how freedom is lost – one movement at a time.
You Need to Carry Yourself – and Then Some
The ability to move freely, stand up, carry weight, and control your own body isn’t reserved for athletes or people chasing fitness goals. It’s the foundation of an independent life. You need to be able to carry yourself – and ideally a bit more. Not to impress anyone, but to stay in charge of your own choices.
Physical strength doesn’t just make you better at lifting weights or running faster. It lets you play with your kids. Help a friend move. Take the stairs without hesitation. Lower the risk of getting a row of lifestyle diseases and the list goes on.
What Happens If You Don’t Do Anything?
If you don’t use your body, you’ll lose the ability to cooperate with it. This starts with a loss of strength and muscle, followed by reduced mobility in your joints, impaired balance, and ultimately, a decline in confidence in movement. Once this decline begins, reversing it can be challenging, but not impossible.
Your physical freedom isn’t something you inherit; it’s something you work for. You’ll miss your health and capability when they’re gone, but that’s not meant to scare you; it’s simply the truth.
Our health is a temporary loan that we never truly own. However, there’s no greater expression of gratitude than taking care of it, and the things we express gratitude for tend to stick around a bit longer and for a more enjoyable time.
So, if you’re fortunate enough to be able to move today, make the most of it. Train, stretch, strengthen, and maintain your physical health and fitness.
The good news is that you can take action, regardless of your current fitness level. If your training doesn’t challenge your ability to move, such as squatting, rotating, balancing, carrying, pushing, or pulling, you’re essentially standing still and slowly moving backward.
With good physical training, you can:
Take charge of your own physical development
Grow stronger, more resilient, and freer in your movements
Prevent the limitations that otherwise wait for you down the road
Not having time?
Not having time is one of the most common excuses why people don’t exercise more. I understand it can feel this way, but it's almost never objectively true.
Time is almost always a matter of priority. But why not prioritise any of the some nay other seemingly more importnat things to do?
Because you’re going to die sooner. Exercise extends your lifespan, so by extension, you gain back a portion of the time spent exercising later in life.
How much?
The UK’s Office for Natinal Statistics concludes:
”Analysing Health Survey for England data, Beale et al. (2007) estimated that 30 minutes a week of moderate-intense physical activity, if undertaken 52 weeks a year, would be associated with 0,010677 quality-adjusted life years per individual, per year.”
Based on these numbers, for every hour of exercise, you gain back 3.6 hours, at least for the first few hours of your weekly exercise routine.
This means you’re not spending time, but rather investing it with a 260% return on investment. In the process, you’re improving your health, capabilities, wellbeing, and appearance.
So What Do You Want to Be Able to Do in 10 Years?
Do you want to get up from the floor with a child in your arms? Take the stairs with ease? Help others – without your body holding you back?
Then it starts with action today. It doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be intentional. And that’s exactly what we offer at Aarhus Training Collective.
