Next time your walking down the street, look around you at the number of people shuffling along. How many people have lost their athletic ability to move? As we age, we’re getting slower and losing our ability to move. It’s becoming a real problem.
People are struggling to run around with their kids, feeling pain, feeling winded or tired. Worried that their energy levels or bodyweight will get in the way.
Aging is a never-ending battle but we can slow it down and fight back.
How can we fight back?
Firstly I’d like to talk about mindset. At Adaptive Strength we strongly believe if you have a body, you’re an athlete. If you don’t think your an athlete I would urge to you to consider how we define an athlete here at adaptive strength. We define an athlete as a person who priorities a healthy and physically active lifestyle in order to live life to the fullest.
An everyday athlete is someone who wants to feel physically and mentally strong, capable of taking on any challenges without worrying that their energy levels or body weight will get in the way. This is how we define athleticism.
It’s about getting active no matter what shape you’re in now. It’s about building fitness into your life without it taking over and being able to achieve and maintain your goals in your life.
Everyone still needs to train for complete athleticism. Complete athleticism will enable us to live a healthier, more meaningful life.
But what are the components of athleticism?
If you want to feel strong, resilient and athletic as you age it’s important to abide by one key principle- Specific adaptation to imposed demand (SAID Principle). The SAID principle basically means the body will adapt to what you expose it to. This is the most important training principle there is!
Basically the old saying “if you don’t use it you will lose it” is very true especially with keeping a strong resilient athletic body. If you don’t do anything to keep your body strong and athletic you will lose it. It’s an unavoidable part of aging. However if you purposely expose your body, your body will continue to adapt and you can continue to be strong and feel athletic as you age.
So what do you need to expose your body to in order to achieve athleticism as you age?
Here are the key components:
- Strength
- Speed
- Anaerobic capacity
- Balance and coordination
- power
- mobility
- stability
- mental resilience
- agility
- aerobic capacity
By identifying gaps in these ten components we can plan our training better. We can identify and eradicate weaknesses. While an elite level athlete training for a sport may need to focus on a specific component such as a powerlifter purely focusing on strength or a sprinter purely focusing on speed to reach the top 1% of the world. We believe an everyday athlete who want to age well should strive for balance among all the ten components.
There are many factors that go into a comprehensive strength and conditioning program. However, by looking at the training plan through a lens of the ten components we can identify what is missing and start to address these imbalances. Does your training involve the ten components? It’s a simple yes or no
If you ask anyone if they would like a better quality of life, you’ll find the answer is always a resounding yes. That’s why balance is important. Balance in each of these ten components will have a tremendous carryover effect on everyday life.
At Adaptive strength we believe that everyone is an athlete. Athleticism allows us to lead a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle. Address your weaknesses and put together a plan that works all ten components.
If you have a question feel free to reach out or want to regain your athleticism book your complimentary consultation we are here to help
