Okay, let’s cozy up and get honest here for a sec. Yeah?
It’s time for a little real talk.
You are:
Getting old.
Feeling crappy.
And feeling crappy about getting old.
I know. It sucks when you can’t do the stuff you used to do so easily.
Like put on your socks without throwing your back into spasms.
Or, you know, turn your head to look over your shoulder.
Little things that don’t matter much — until you can’t do them anymore.
And then you feel embarrassed because your mind’s still good, but you’ve kind of let your body go.
Listen…
You want to move comfortably again.
I get it. Living with muscle stiffness is like living in a prison of sorts — one you carry with you everywhere you go.
It’s no fun to want to go stand up paddle boarding but never actually do it because you cringe thinking about how your back will hurt dragging the darn thing down to the water.
Or even just to go for a walk, but you know you’re going to pay for it later with aching feet and knee pain.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Growing older doesn’t mean feeling old.
As in stiff, weak, decrepit and incapable.
But it often seems like a hopeless situation when you can’t move like you used to and stretching is so painful that you want to give up practically before you get started.
Here’s the thing, though…
Most people wait until they get fed up with immobility before they start trying to fix it.
And then they do too much all at once. And they give up long before they see results because they’re too busy focusing how stiff and tight they are.
Here’s why that doesn’t work…
In your head, you’re comparing the body you have now to the one you used to.
You’re stuck on what you can’t do rather than what you can.
Now I know this is going to sound a little woo, but trust me when I say that neuroscience backs me up here: if you only focus on the problem, it’s just going to get bigger.
Not only that, but the gulf between where you are and where you want to be widens into a gaping chasm.
Stretching is uncomfortable.
Feeling limited is frustrating.
Focusing on the discomfort and the frustration will lead to internal defeat — you’ll talk yourself out of trying and just give up.
Decide it’s over.
You’re old.
Old means stiff.
Can’t do what you used to.
Might as well hang it up and settle in for a lifetime of Netflix and cheesecake binges on the sofa.
Okay, okay, I’m being a bit melodramatic. But you get the point.
Here’s how you can turn this around, though…
Work with the body you have today.
Not the one you had ten years ago.
Before the injuries.
Before the surgeries.
The accidents, illnesses, the sedentary job where you petrified into the shape of an office chair.
Focus on what you can do right now.
And don’t get lost in comparison — to what you used to be able to do, to what others can do, to what you think you should be able to do.
Just do what you can, and try to make it one tiny percent better.
Because if you’re one percent better today, and another one percent tomorrow, and so on and so forth, you’re on the path to improvement.
Here’s the real truth:
With all things in life, you’re either getting better — or you’re getting worse.
There is no standing in place. Growing or dying. You’re doing one or the other.
So, what’s it going to be?
The choice is completely yours.
P.S. If you don’t know where to start on the road to getting your body back, I’d recommend taking a look at Posture Rehab.
It leverages my fifteen years of experience working one-on-one with clients just like you who don’t need to be Olympic athletes but do want to be able to walk up the stairs without it being an Olympic achievement.
No out of reach pretzel poses or insane torture-level stretching. Just easy to follow, practical exercises to improve mobility.
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