What Nine Years of Strength Coaching Taught Me About Independence

Independence isn’t lost in a day. Neither is strength. The choices you make today determine what you can do tomorrow. Does that surprise you? Maybe read it again. Strength creates choices. The aging process naturally leads to a gradual loss of strength and function. The countermeasure is to build strength, one workout at a time, so you can preserve your independence.

Photo by Richard Sagredo on Unsplash‍ ‍

I had a client who came to me in his mid-80s, feeling weak in his legs. Unfortunately, I had only a limited time with him. We did strength exercises to build his leg muscles. I was curious, as I always am, about his fitness history. He said he had stopped playing tennis five years ago. Hmm, I thought. Later, his wife told me he had stopped playing 20 years earlier. His weakness made a lot more sense. Our bodies tell the story of our habits over time.

Strength and Weakness Both Take Time

The moral of the story is that we don’t get weak in a day. We don’t get strong in a day, either. Muscles, tendons, bones, and the connective tissues that support them are constantly adapting to what we ask—or don't ask—of them. Strength training is a life sentence. Ba Dum Tss. At 68, I think that’s the good news. There is something we can do to shape the future we want.

What Independence Really Means

You may think of independence as living alone. It isn’t a single factor or ability, but dozens of ordinary movements that add up to the life you want to live:

• Get up from a chair. Or out of bed. Or in and out of a car.

• Carry groceries.

• Climb stairs.

• Reach overhead.

• Get off the floor.

• Walk outside confidently.

• Recover from a stumble.

• Keep doing all the things that you love.

What I’ve Learned After Nine Years

My clients who report feeling good, participating in the sports and activities that they love, and who keep training have a few things in common:

• Consistency beats intensity.

• Small losses accumulate.

• Small gains accumulate, too.

• It's never too late to improve.

• But earlier is easier than later.

Those aren’t just fitness wins. They are independence wins. Becky zipped up a pair of pants she hadn’t worn in two years. Melissa impressed her doctors after abdominal surgery. Sue made the finals with her tennis team. I completed a nine-mile hike even though my arthritic knee acted up after mile three.

Every repetition is really a vote for the person you want to be ten years from now.

The Biggest Lesson

Strength is about far more than muscles.

It gives people:

• Confidence.

• Choices.

• Freedom.

• Safety.

• The ability to say "yes" to life.

The truth I'm training for is that independence is earned long before it's needed. That is why I never think of strength training as exercise. I think of it as protecting my future.