Aches, Pain, & Aging

As my readers know, I kick-box.  I do it twice a week when life doesn't get in my way.  On off days I work in the garden (lots of kneeling, squatting, and up and down) and walk.

Not to toot my own horn, but I have always been athletic.  I'd love to take credit, but it's genetic.  I'm also wonderfully flexible.  At 44 I can do a split and lift my leg over my head without stretching out.  The senseis tease me about showing off when we stretch.  I'll admit that sometimes I do show off.  Sean and the kids are all in better shape than me, and this is one of few areas where I can beat them.  Sean & Jesse can't touch their toes.  I am still a tiny bit quicker than Jesse in the way I move, and have better stamina, but it's fading.  I always expected that as the kids and I aged they'd surpass me in abilities, but I'll take what I can as long as I can.

Kids aside, I'm sometimes amazed at the effect of aging on my body.  Sean has a favorite saying, "when you hit 40 the wheels fall off."  Forty is a significant age.  The body's physiology changes, and you really move into the next physical stage of life.  You don't heal as quickly.  You're more likely to injure yourself.  I have hit that stage.  Doing things that used to mean nothing hurts.  Last time we packed to move I pulled both rotator cuffs.  After rest and physio it still took over a year to fully heal; well, as fully as it's likely to.  I no longer wake with pain in my shoulders, but it still twinges now and then.  I strained my right knee in December.  It comes and goes.  With proper rest (a long one), it'd likely heal fully, but that means giving up kickboxing for at least two months, and that I cannot do.  And so, each day after kickboxing, or gardening, or whatever exercise I choose to do, I accept the pain with which I wake.

The Marines say "pain is weakness leaving the body."  My response is usually, "pain is the body's way of saying, 'STOP!!!'"  Reality is I've lived with pain for decades.  I've had chronic knee problems since I'm twelve.  One day, I think I was in my twenties, I woke without pain in my left knee.  I assumed my knee was numb.  It took a few minutes before I realized it simply didn't hurt.  So I accept the pain.  Pain  doesn't stop me.  As I age, I realize that I'm going to be sore.  I'm going to hurt.  The more I push myself now to get into better shape, the more I'm going to hurt.  I'll accept that.  I'll push, and I'll work through it.

Coach Herb Brooks, of the US Miracle on Ice hockey team, is believed to have said to his team, "Grow  through pain."  If you want to accomplish something, you have to be willing to give your all.  I may be aging, and I may be achy, but I plan to go into the future healthy, and if it takes a little (or a lot) of pain, I'll accept it.

Grow through pain, and come out better on the other side.