Fountain of Youth!

Doesn't exist.  Sorry...

But I am pretty sure that there are other alternatives that may help deal with the growing old process.   One alternative is eating well and the other is staying fit.  The eating well part will not be dealt with in this post, but one perspective on the staying fit part will.  As the oldest member of the NEA blog crew I will do my best to provide some insight.  Feel free to chime in...

I have never been great at training in a conventional sense.  The very idea of it brings back memories of screaming football coaches, misplaced testosterone and the smell of mud.  Now that I am about to reach the ripe old age of 46, and I have had a litany of injuries, I feel like it is time to share some ideas around this topic and investigate what works for me as well as what doesn’t.

While I was a teenager I spent my days going to one form of practice or another.  Back then it was all about lifting weights or doing sprints.  We ran around a track, threw long metal spears and heavy metal balls, and slammed into other pubescent boys while fighting over a pigskin.  All of this was done in a very orderly fashion that did include five minutes at the beginning of each practice (or game) stretching in unison.  But to me this always seemed to be more about some sort of pregame choreography then really loosening up.

Thirty years later most of my time is spent trying to keep my body functioning properly rather then trying to achieve some sort of Olympic grade, peak performance.  At this point what works best for me is a simple one to four equation - one hour of body friendly training for every four hours of body draining activities.  Body friendly activities include yoga, Pilates, road riding and high repetition weight training.  Body draining activities include climbing (especially pulling plastic), hiking, and mountain bike riding.

Another aspect of training that I think is really important is the idea of lifestyle training versus non-lifestyle training.  In my world lifestyle training is focusing on activities that the participant enjoys.  Non-lifestyle training is doing activities that the participant only does in order to get stronger.  Now that I have said that I feel like I need to make a big distinction here - I am not trying to achieve peak performance, or participate in a competitive sport.  I am just trying to maintain a healthy level of strength, endurance and flexibility so that I can continue to participate in the activities that I most enjoy.  There are exceptions to this philosophy (to be discussed below), but in general this seems to work pretty well for me...

How to beat a floating shoulder...

One exception in the training regimen is injury recovery Recently I have been suffering from a shoulder issue.  I believe the cause of this issue has several components.  The first being an old collar bone dislocation that needed surgery.  The second and third components have to do with over and under training.  The over training came in the form of an over use injury caused by pulling overhanging plastic holds at the gym.  I believe this injury could have been avoided if I had not been under training the opposing muscles in the front of the shoulders and the pectoral area.  In my case the under training was not training the opposition muscles at all.

Now I am dealing with what I refer to as the "mysterious floating shoulder".  I can push the external flank of my left shoulder and the socket will move in and out of the joint with a slight popping sound deep in the cavity of the shoulder.  Not very comforting to say the least.  I can still pull hard while climbing and exercising, but I feel that by doing so I only perpetuate the injury.  I have continued to climb (although with caution) outside and have begun to do a series of exercises that involve yoga classes, high repetition weight training and a series of activities involving a large resistance, exercise band.

I have chosen not to see a doctor about my shoulder.  In the past I have spent a great deal of time and effort waiting for appointments so a doctor to tell me something I already know - my shoulder is messed up.  After I find out from the doctor what is wrong with my shoulder then the process of finding a decent physical therapist begins.  This involves lots of phone calls and more time.  After a few visits the physical therapist will then provide me with a list of exercises that I should do.  After that, a few more weeks to a month, the physical therapist will do another evaluation.  This is not a criticism, it is just the way these things work.  Since I am leaving in a few weeks for the Wind River Range I decided to skip the doctor, phone calls, and physical therapy appointments and go strait to the exercise component myself.  Time will tell if this decision was a wise one.

Another part of the training process that I have recently figured out is that it is not good to train full throttle all the time.  Long blocks of rest, moderate training stretches and accelerated training phases are all part of the process.  Since Brian and I are leaving in a couple of weeks I have decided to train a little harder then usual.  As of late I have integrated one more yoga class a week (two a week total), one night of road work on my bike, two days of squats and lunges and more hiking over the weekends. I will only train like this for a couple of weeks prior to my trip.  Then, when I get back, I will take a real rest.  At least for a couple of days.

One step at a time...