In my previous blog (Strong Foundations Don’t Need Perfect Days) I talked about building strong foundations and how they don’t require perfect days. This week, I want to take that thought a little further.
What are we actually building those foundations for?
When we talk about getting stronger, particularly in midlife, the conversation can quickly become about weights, repetitions, muscle mass and how often we should exercise. All of those things have their place, and maintaining muscle and strength as we age is incredibly important.
But strength has a purpose beyond the workout itself.
We’re building strength for life.
For the things we enjoy doing now, for the things we’d still like to be doing in ten or twenty years, and for some of the things we don’t yet know we’re going to need to cope with.
Strength for the ordinary things
Some of the best signs that you’re getting stronger don’t happen during an exercise session.
They’re when you pick something heavy up without thinking about it, get yourself up from the floor more easily, walk further than you used to, carry your own suitcase, climb the stairs comfortably or spend a day out without worrying whether you’ll manage.
These things can seem quite ordinary, but they’re a big part of independence.
The aim isn’t necessarily to become the strongest person in the room. It’s to maintain enough strength, balance, mobility, cardiovascular fitness and confidence to keep participating in your own life.
And importantly, that will look different for each of us.
Building some reserve
There’s another reason I think building our foundations matters: we don’t always know what’s coming.
We can make plans and look after ourselves, but life can still change unexpectedly. An illness, operation, injury, medical treatment or simply a particularly demanding period of life can temporarily reduce what we’re able to do.
This is where I like the idea of having some reserve.
If we’ve spent time maintaining our strength, fitness, mobility and general wellbeing, we’re giving ourselves something to work from if circumstances change.
It doesn’t guarantee that recovery will be easy, and it certainly doesn’t mean we can prevent everything that might happen to us. But there is value in going into a challenging period with the strongest foundations that are realistic for you.
This can be particularly relevant when someone receives a cancer diagnosis.
Where appropriate and with individual medical guidance, exercise before treatment – sometimes referred to as prehabilitation or prehab – can help someone prepare physically and psychologically for what lies ahead. During and after treatment, movement and exercise can then be adapted according to the person, their treatment, symptoms and changing capacity.
There may be days when maintaining strength is the goal and others when a short walk, some mobility work or simply getting through the day is enough.
It’s not about pushing through.
It’s about meeting your body where it is and supporting it from there.
Strength also includes recovery
We can sometimes think that looking after ourselves means always doing something.
Exercise. Walk. Move more. Get stronger.
But our foundations need recovery too.
Our bodies don’t become stronger during the exercise itself. Exercise provides the stimulus; recovery gives the body the opportunity to adapt.
And recovery isn’t only physical.
There are times when we need to come out of that constant state of doing and allow ourselves to slow down. That might be through sleep, sitting quietly with a cup of tea, spending time outside, breathing exercises, doing something we enjoy or having a massage.
Massage is one of the ways I work with clients to create that space. Depending on the individual and the type of massage, it might be about easing muscular tension, improving comfort and movement, or simply having an hour where there is nothing else that needs to be done.
Sometimes the benefit is simply feeling able to switch off.
We don’t need to earn recovery by exhausting ourselves first.
Think about your future self
Building strength in midlife isn’t about preparing for old age as though everything enjoyable is happening sometime in the future.
It’s about having more capacity for life now, while also investing in the years ahead.
So perhaps instead of asking:
How fit should I be?
or
How much exercise should I be doing?
there’s another question worth asking:
What do I want my body to help me do?
Maybe there’s something you love doing and want to continue.
Maybe there’s something you’ve stopped doing that you’d like to return to.
Maybe you’d simply like to feel stronger, steadier and more confident in your everyday life.
Whatever your answer, that’s what we’re building for.
Not perfection. Not punishment. Not because we’re trying to turn back the clock.
We’re building strength so that, as life continues to change, we have the best foundations we reasonably can to change with it.
Caroline