As you get older your heart beat slows minimizing your athletic potential.
Even though your ultimate potential is reduced from that of your youth, you can still excel in less than ultimate achievement. In fact, many aged athletes are in better condition than they were in their youth from more consistent dedication and discipline.
I had an interesting week end as the New Zealand storm gave many surfers new religion. A friend of mine who has been surfing for 22 years and loves big waves is here today as he said because God felt it wasn’t his time.
Caught by a wave in excess of 10 feet he was taken over the falls and blacked out before he woke and realized he had been “worked”. It is possible in blacking out that you might take in that fateful mouthful of water or maybe you won’t.
Even in his supreme athletic and muscular condition, he vowed that he needed to train better, eat better and hydrate better. He had gotten casual and reckless, in his own mind. My approach is that it is life and death everyday and I am always 100% when I go into the water in the mornings.
But in this last storm, I also realized that my strength and training were no match for the violence, energy, and power of mother nature. I have also let my training take second place to supposedly conserving my energy for more surf time.
But we are lucky. We have an immediate back drop to compare our fitness. In an LA Times article Amanda Mascarelli, discusses how older athletes are taking training
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-aging-athlete-20110901,0,7412333.story?page=1
seriously to regain earlier form and youthfulness. There is nothing that sustains the physiology of our form like exercise and of course good eating.
We are on a time clock. The body definitely starts losing nerve, muscle, and oxygen producing capacity as we age. Aging begins at 35 years old. How long can you wait before you want to renew the fitness of youth? It is clear that your body is degenerating and preparing for death as you enjoy those great pasta meals followed by your favorite dessert.
Exercises as simple as walking maintains and builds your physique and keeps your body in balance. Exercise allows the cycle of tearing down of muscle and replacing it with new cells. The body is meant for continuous destruction and rebuilding of cells on an hourly basis.
If you don’t exercise, the body only tears down. It releases inflammation that never gets carried away by the renewal process. The harder you exercise, the more beneficial the renewal. The longer you wait to engage in strenuous exercise, the more difficult it is to begin anew.
As you get older and go over the peak and see the abyss, you might get invigorated. True fitness is the result of years of training, tearing down, and building anew. The longer you have trained, the easier it is to reach new peaks.