Healthy Aging

Have you ever wondered why we just accept that our bodies break down as we age?

That with every passing year we’re just falling apart?

Where did this belief come from? And is it fact or fiction?

At this point, you may be thinking that of course your body falls apart as you get older. After all, everything old needs repairs.

Your car needs to have the oil changed and parts repaired at regular intervals. Old plumbing and wiring have to be replaced and updated. Even your old iPhone slows down (although that might have nothing to do with age).

So why wouldn’t you experience the same deterioration in your body?

Well, there’s just one catch here…

YOU are not a machine.

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You Are An Organism.

This is a very important distinction, and one that unfortunately goes unmade all. the. time.

But the reality is, your body is a living process. It’s changing constantly — moment by moment.

Sensory cells in your body absorb information about the environment that signals the brain to make changes in hormone production, heart rate, respiration, digestion, balance, coordination and a number of other subconscious processes.

Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist and author of The Biology of Belief, discovered in his research that environment is critical to cellular development.

It’s so important that the environment can alter cellular expression. Changing the environment in a petri dish actually determines the type of cell that will grow.

And cells are remarkably similar to your body in how they “perceive” their environment. They do so through the membrane which has sensory powers analogous with your own skin.

The key here, though, is perception.

What If Aging Is All In Your Head?

While it’s true that your environment influences your body, it’s actually only the stuff you notice — consciously or subconsciously — that affects you.

Back in 1981, a researcher by the name of Ellen Langer performed a small study where she had eight senior citizens confined inside a converted monastery that had been decked out to look like the year 1959.

The participants were instructed to speak and act as though it were 22 years earlier. And the results were remarkable.

All participants “reversed” in age. Their biometrics improved with increased flexibility, dexterity and even better sight.

While the study was never officially published, a British television show replicated the experiment in 2010 using aging celebrities as the test subjects. They demonstrated the same remarkable anti-aging results.

In both of these cases, the participants embodied their younger selves — they perceived themselves as younger not just in thought, but through all their senses.

And it should be noted that their improvements were far superior to a previous group who had been to the monastery and told only to reminisce about the past — not to inhabit it in mind and body.

So, if aging is just a mindset and we’re not doomed to a slow and painful physical decline until we crumble into our final resting place, why do so many of us hurt as we get older?

Interesting question.

I have three answers for you…

Three Reasons You Hurt More As You Age

The first is that you have been conditioned to ignore your body’s messages that things are out of balance until it actually is too late and damage has been done — a.k.a. Injury.

Recovering from an injury is much more difficult than preventing one in the first place.

But even when you have had no significant accident or injury, as in the case of many of my clients, you are indoctrinated from a very young age that getting older means losing function. Getting older means breaking down and becoming irrelevant. Getting older means limitations.

With all of these — and many more — subconscious beliefs playing in your head, you will be sure to find supportive evidence. Because science increasingly shows that it’s not reality that forms beliefs, but rather your reality is a projection of what you already believe.

And finally, remember how I said that perception is everything? Well, the above falls into that category.

But in addition to that, the medical industry is obsessed with pain.

And rating pain.

On a one to ten scale.

How BAD is your pain, asks your doctor.

What does that make you perceive? A couple of things.

1. Your pain.
2. Something is wrong.

I mean, pain inherently means something is wrong.

But your experience of pain can also be altered by what you expect. Participants in this study were told that either immersing their hand in cold water would make an electric shock more or less painful.

Of course, those who were told that the cold water would lessen the pain actually reported feeling less pain.

So your doctor implying that pain is “bad,” inherently heightens the intensity, which in turn increases your brain’s interpretation that something is wrong in your body. This is BAD pain. Not good pain.

All this constant focus on pain with a negative overtone can actually make you more prone to pain. The more pain you experience, the more sensitive your nervous system seems to get to the sensation.

Argh.

So, in sum:

• We ignore our bodies until we’ve got a five alarm fire going on.
• We believe that we are supposed to hurt as we get older.
• We focus our attention on perceiving pain and telling ourselves it’s bad.

This is why we hurt!!!

What a cluster, am I right?

Okay, so now, how do we pain-proof our bodies?

What To Do: How to Pain-Proof Your Body

The truth is, our medical industry basically has two approaches: chemical (drugs) or mechanical (physical therapy, surgery).

Both of these are useful options for the right cases.

But if your pain is not operable, PT didn’t help and you don’t want to pop pain pills until the day you die, how can we help you stay active and healthy for as long as you’re on this planet?

The answer is simple: help your body to perceive itself differently.

Broaden the sensory input.

Change the way your body is relating to itself and to the environment.

These practices, as I said, are deceptively simple. But their impact is profound.

And this is the basis of what I teach in Posture Rehab.

Enrollment is currently closed while the program undergoes an update, but you can click here to get notified as soon as we open the doors again.

Here’s a question: do you have a morning stretching routine?

If you wake up stiff and achy, it’s natural to want to stretch first thing to get your body moving comfortably again.

Of course, maybe you don’t stretch first thing when you get up, but you know you should. Or that you should be stretching more in general.

Well, I’m about to create quite a kerfuffle here by telling you something you might not want to hear…

Your morning stretching routine is a complete waste of time.

Whaaaa?

That’s right. I’m sorry if that sets your feathers all a’fluff, but it’s the straight up truth.

And here’s why:

When you do your morning stretching routine, how long is it? Five minutes while the coffee brews? Maybe ten?

Or maybe you’re a super achiever who hits up an hour-long yoga class to get rid of your morning stiffness.

Here’s the thing…

Those five, ten or even sixty minutes of stretching mean absolutely nothing if you just forget about your body for the rest of the day.

If you stretch your chest for a few minutes in the morning but then hunch over your laptop for eight to ten hours of eye-straining spreadsheet creation, you’ve not only negated the stretches — you also strengthened your already-tight chest muscles.

Or maybe you suffer from neck pain, so you stretch it when you wake up only to walk through life with your eyes on your toes causing a fatty neck hump to form in your upper back.

Tight hips? Stretch them all you want, but if you’re using your quads to motor you around, you’re not going to notice much benefit.

Here’s what you’re not learning from doctors, physical therapists and that massage guy who digs his thumbs into the egg-sized knots in your shoulders:

The way you move every day shapes your body.

How you sit in front of a computer…

How you pick up your toddler…

How you carry your groceries…

How you walk…

The fact is…

We all develop movement habits over the course of our lives. But do you remember how you learned them?

No one told you: contract right quad thirty percent, engage left toes, balance with your glutes…

You just…did it.

And now you move the way you move. Walking is just walking, sitting is just sitting.

But the way you walk, sit, and do all the other things you love to do in life actually shapes your body.

So, I would argue that how you’re doing the things you’re doing for twenty three hours and fifty minutes is far more important than what you’re doing during the ten minutes that you’re stretching.

For the record, I’m not saying don’t stretch.

I’m saying that to fix your posture and move more comfortably so that you can do the things you love without pain or restriction for as long as you’re alive…

You gotta change how you’re moving throughout your day.

Which means reprogramming your neural patterns. Because it’s your nervous system that tells your body how to move.

We learn these movement habits in various ways — some we mimic from our parents or caregivers, others are cultural (such as: men don’t wiggle their hips when they walk), still others reflect physical injuries or emotional traumas we’ve incurred on the road of life.

Basically, your movement is the sum total of your lived experience.

And if you’ve got aches and pains, the habits you’ve adopted might be a little less than optimal.

But you’re in luck…

Changing movement habits is what I do.

It’s what I’ve done for fifteen years, in fact.

Many of my clients were told that feeling stiff and achy is “just a part of getting older” or “normal for the kind of activities you do.”

I’ve consolidated my experience helping these people to stand taller and move better into a digital video course that will teach you how to heal your body and feel more agile despite old injuries — even if you’d tried yoga, Pilates or deep tissue massage without getting lasting results in the past.

The Bottom Line on Your Morning Stretching Routine

Again, I’m not saying you have to ditch your morning stretching routine. And I’m certainly not encouraging you to give up yoga.

But have you ever heard the saying everywhere you go, there you are?

Well, movement is kind of like that. Your body has a unique way of firing muscles, kind of like a movement signature. And you take that signature with you whether you’re cycling, swimming, doing yoga, running or even just sitting on a plane.

The way you move can either be causing friction that results in wear and tear on your muscles and joints, or it can be optimized for efficiency so you move through life with ease and fluidity.

Posture Rehab teaches you how to do the latter.

Learn more and enroll in the course here >>

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.

Click here to learn more >>

 

I was talking with a fellow movement nerd the other day, and what he said blew me away.

“All tension is consciousness.”

I mean, I knew it. But I’d never heard it put so concisely.

Basically, if you were unconscious — like, under anesthesia, for example — I could fold you in half and tuck your foot behind your head. There would be no resistance.

But as soon as you wake up, you’re back to your normal stiff self.

All muscle tension is consciousness. Of course, some muscle tension is essential. Without it, you would just be a puddle on the floor. You wouldn’t be able to sit, stand or walk.

But too much muscle tension? Is what wears your body down, making you feel old and crappy.

Most people think their muscles are stiff because they’re too short. And so they pull them, like taffy, to try to “stretch” them out.

What you’re really doing when you’re stretching? Is having a tug-o-war with your nervous system.

That pain you feel — the pull at the end of the stretch — is your brain telling your muscle to tighten up and protect itself.

Your muscle is already long enough. You just need to get your brain to believe it.

That’s what we do in Posture Rehab. It’s not about “just stretching more.” It’s about reprogramming your nervous system so you can move differently — so you can move better.

Remember when you were younger and you felt like you could do anything? No stiff joints or aching spines.

We get older not because our bodies are breaking down, but because years of injuries, sitting all the time, using computers too much and never ending mental stress create so much tension that we can’t move well anymore.

And then we feel old.

You’re not old — you’re just stiff. They’re not the same thing.

And fortunately, your nervous system — a.k.a. your brain — is plastic. Meaning you can change it, like reprogramming a computer, at any time.

It is possible to rediscover youthful bounce and mobility simply by letting go of all the unnecessary tension you’re carrying around.

Posture Rehab shows you how. Click here to learn more >>