Too Old to Improve?

Wednesday, June 21, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning,

Happy first day of summer! Kathy and I would often joke about this day being bittersweet, with it being sweet that summer is here, it is also bitter that the days start to get shorter!

This morning I was up and at it with the stretching I mentioned on my chat Sunday. With a goal of better posture, I need to accomplish 3 things, stretch the muscles, and improve the flexibility, strengthen my back muscles (primarily my lats), and then actively engage (neurological). The stretching and strengthening are probably the easiest each day, because I can get myself to focus for 20 minutes each morning, however the neurological focus of engaging all day, is the biggest challenge for me.

Much of what we do as coaches, is similar to what I am going through with trying to improve my posture. Helping people improve their running, their running form, or even get faster, requires strengthening the cardiovascular system, developing the running muscles, and then putting it together and engaging the muscle between the ears. Improving cardio and the legs are a process, that most requires time and activity, accomplishment of change, requires overcoming the norms that our brain has come to be comfortable with. For instance, because I have put little emphasis on good posture over the years and my workouts never put any emphasis on what I did not see (my back), neurologically, I became lazy and that bad posture became the norm. When we are younger, we run with spring in our steps and we actually fly as we bound forward, however as we get older, we lose some range of motion, and even some muscles and then without realizing it, we stop flying. Is it just a reality and something we must accept as we age? Most definitely not! It all comes back to the 3 steps I am going through, stretch, strengthen, and engage neurologically.

Most changes in our life require various disciplines that need to be combined, but ultimately, we have overcome the neurological norms that we have allowed to control us. I can get up each morning and do the work that will allow my back better range of motion, but now I must choose and maintain the actual posture I want it to maintain. Eventually, it will become muscle memory and hopefully it will be the correct posture. While we have the capability to think, we can change if we are willing to.

Have a great Wednesday!

God Bless!

Mike