What do you want your body to be ready for next? Maybe it’s a trip with a lot of walking, or a hike you keep putting off because you’re not sure about the climb.
Most healthy aging advice is about what to stop doing. A more useful question is what you want to keep doing, and it matters whether you’re 30 or 70, because the habits you keep now shape a lot of what you’ll be able to do later. For Tom and me, that’s what healthy aging comes down to: staying in your life, with a body that keeps up with your plans. We came to it through Tom’s hip surgeries and my work in radiology.
What Staying in Your Life Means
Think about the things you do now without a second thought, like climbing the stairs or making the long walk to an airport gate. Most of them feel effortless right up until they get harder. Staying in your life means keeping those things easy, and that’s the real reason to exercise.
What Tom Got Back
Over about a year, Tom’s hips took away a little more of what he could do every month. In February 2020, at 54, he had his first hip replaced, and the second followed that August. After the second surgery, we started walking as part of his recovery, beginning with half a mile, cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac. Over the next few years the walks grew longer, and regular movement became part of how we live. A lot of what became Handcrafted Adventure got talked through on those walks.
What Tom got back was access to the trips and trails his hips had been taking away from him. He got it back a half mile at a time. If something is already limiting you, start where you are, even if that’s half a mile.
Age Tells You Less Than You’d Think
It’s easy to assume mobility is mostly about age. From the X-ray room, it doesn’t look that way. As a radiologic technologist, I help people of all ages onto the table every shift. Some people in their 40s and 50s struggle to get up there, and a lot of people in their 80s and 90s climb up on their own.
I don’t diagnose, and an image doesn’t tell me why one person moves easily and another doesn’t. Illness and injury decide some of it, and none of us controls those. Seeing that range reminds me that age alone doesn’t decide how well someone moves, and it makes me want to look after the strength and mobility I have.
Strength, Because Life Requires It
Muscle starts declining earlier than most people think, often beginning in our 30s, and strength training is one of the most reliable ways to slow that down. Adult activity guidelines call for muscle-strengthening work at least two days a week. Think of it as maintenance for everything that happens outside the workout, like hauling mulch or carrying your own suitcase.
If you’re not lifting yet, pick two days you could keep most weeks and start lighter than you think you need to. Squats to a chair and pushups against the kitchen counter count. I started while getting ready for radiology school, and these days I lift for about 30 minutes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Mobility, Before There’s a Reason to Care
Mobility loss is easy to miss because you compensate for it a little at a time, and most of us skip mobility work until something hurts. Start with the one spot that feels stiffest, maybe your hips after a day of sitting, and spend a few minutes moving it gently through a range that doesn’t hurt. A few minutes on the floor while something’s on TV counts.
A few minutes most days can make a difference over time. When I started doing yoga from free apps, my lower back, which used to need about five minutes to warm up every morning, gradually stopped needing it.
Walking Still Counts
Walking is easy to overlook. It gets you outside, and if you walk with someone, it doubles as time to talk. Choose a walk short enough that you’ll still take it on a busy day, like once around the block after dinner, and add distance after the habit sticks.
Walking is where Tom’s recovery and our whole movement habit started. After several years of walking most days, we got less consistent and noticed the difference. I wrote about what changed in We’ve Walked Almost Every Day for Four Years. Here’s What It Actually Did.
Rest Is Part of It
Your body adapts to the work while you recover from it, so sleep and rest days belong in the plan. Look at your week. If every day is a hard day, one easier day may do more for you than another workout. You want a routine you can keep for decades, so it has to hold up through busy work weeks and travel.
The Long View
Nobody knows what their body will be able to do later, and exercise doesn’t protect anyone from illness or injury. It does give you a better chance of keeping the things you care about, whether that’s a trip with lots of walking or getting down on the floor to play and back up again.
If you’d like the more personal version of why Tom and I keep at this, I wrote about it in What Are You Training For?
You don’t need to overhaul anything. Pick the one you’ve been skipping, whether that’s strength, mobility, walking or rest, and put ten minutes for it on your calendar this week, on a day you know you can keep.
Want to make more room for the life you want to keep living?
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This post shares our personal experience and isn’t medical advice. Talk with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine, especially after surgery or an injury.