There’s been a lot of discussion recently about social care and how we look after people as they get older.
It’s an important conversation.
But it raises another question that receives far less attention:
How do you want to arrive at old age?
We spend decades preparing financially for later life. We pay into pensions, invest money and hopefully build enough financial security to enjoy retirement.
Yet how much time do we spend investing in the body that actually has to get us there?
Because getting old isn’t the problem.
Getting old is the goal.
The question is whether you arrive there strong, capable and able to participate in your life for as long as possible.
Lifespan vs healthspan: living longer isn’t enough
Modern medicine has transformed how long many of us can expect to live.
But there is an important distinction between lifespan and healthspan.
Lifespan is simply how long you live.
Healthspan is the period of your life spent in relatively good health, with the physical and mental capacity to continue doing the things that matter to you.
That’s the bit we’re particularly interested in at NG Health & Fitness.
Because adding years to your life is fantastic.
But if those additional years are spent sitting in your living room watching daytime television because you’ve lost the physical capacity or confidence to do much else, that’s a very different proposition.
We don’t just want more years. We want more life in those years.
Exercise cannot guarantee that.
But it can be one of the investments you make today in the person you hope to be decades from now.
Think of strength and fitness as physical capital
Most people understand the concept of a pension.
You give up some of your disposable income today because Future You is going to need it.
You might spend 20, 30 or 40 years accumulating financial capital before retirement.
We think there’s another form of capital worth accumulating:
Physical capital.
That includes things like:
- Strength and muscle
- Cardiovascular fitness
- Balance and coordination
- Movement capacity
- Confidence in your body
- The ability to tolerate physical tasks
These aren’t just numbers on a fitness test.
They’re what allow you to interact with the world around you.
Can you get yourself off the floor?
Can you climb a flight of stairs?
Can you carry your shopping?
Can you put your suitcase in an overhead locker?
Can you play with your grandchildren?
Can you travel, garden, walk the dog or continue playing golf?
Ultimately, can you continue participating in your own life?
These abilities don’t suddenly become important on your 70th birthday.
You’re investing in them throughout your life.
Why strength training becomes increasingly important as we age
One of the biggest misconceptions about exercise is that its primary purpose is changing how you look.
That’s one potential outcome.
But strength training can also be about maintaining capability.
We naturally experience changes in muscle mass, strength, bone health and physical capacity as we get older. Resistance training provides the body with a reason to maintain and develop some of those physical qualities.
And importantly, strength is relative to the demands of your life.
You don’t necessarily need to deadlift twice your bodyweight at 75.
You might need enough lower-body strength to confidently get out of a chair without assistance.
Enough upper-body capacity to lift something onto a shelf.
Enough balance and coordination to navigate stairs.
Enough cardiovascular fitness to walk around a new city on holiday without worrying whether you’ll manage it.
That’s why good training for older adults shouldn’t simply be about making exercises easier because someone has reached a particular birthday.
It should be about understanding the individual in front of you and developing the physical qualities that matter to their life.
Exercise is an investment with delayed returns
There’s another reason I like the investment analogy.
Exercise is delayed gratification in its purest form.
Your heart rate rises.
You perspire.
Your muscles burn.
Sometimes it’s uncomfortable.
And despite being a personal trainer who’s trained for almost 20 years, here’s a shocking revelation:
I don’t always want to exercise.
Sometimes I procrastinate before starting.
Sometimes motivation isn’t there.
But after nearly two decades of training, I understand what makes me tick and why I keep doing it.
Some of the reward happens immediately. I enjoy feeling strong and capable, and I genuinely enjoy the challenge training gives me.
But some of the biggest potential rewards may be decades away.
I’m 38.
The training I do now isn’t only for 38-year-old me.
I’m building the 50, 60, 70 and hopefully 80-year-old versions of myself too.
That’s delayed gratification on a completely different timescale.
Healthy ageing isn’t about avoiding getting old
We work with a number of people in their 60s, 70s and beyond at our personal training studio in Weybridge.
And some of our septuagenarians are running rings around their peers.
Hopefully they’ll continue doing exactly that when they graduate to becoming octogenarians.
But the objective isn’t to pretend ageing doesn’t happen.
Nor is exercise an insurance policy against illness or social care.
You can do everything “right” and awful things can still happen.
Cancer exists. Dementia exists. Neurological conditions exist. Accidents happen. Genetics matter.
Sometimes life simply deals you a shit hand.
Nobody credible should promise that exercise can prevent all of that.
The proposition is much simpler:
Give yourself the best opportunity you reasonably can to maintain your physical capacity, independence and quality of life for as long as possible.
That’s a bet we’re very comfortable making.
Don’t let your world become smaller
Perhaps one of the most important reasons to invest in your future health is something that’s difficult to measure on a spreadsheet.
The size of your world.
Physical decline can mean gradually removing things from your life.
You stop doing one thing because it’s become difficult.
Then another.
Maybe you stop taking certain trips.
Perhaps you don’t play with the grandchildren on the floor because you’re worried about getting back up.
The stairs become something you avoid.
You stop playing the sport you’ve always loved.
Bit by bit, your world can become smaller.
Our philosophy is to fight like hell to keep that world as big as possible.
Not through punishment.
Not by destroying yourself in the gym.
And certainly not because getting older is something to fear.
But through intelligent, progressive exercise that meets you where you currently are and continues challenging your body appropriately.
The best time to invest in your future health is now
Social care will remain an important societal conversation.
We need good systems to support people when they need help.
But social care exists at one end of the equation.
There’s another conversation worth having much earlier:
What are you doing today to invest in the person you’ll eventually become?
You cannot control everything about ageing.
But you can invest in strength.
You can invest in cardiovascular fitness.
You can develop balance and coordination.
You can continue learning physical skills.
You can maintain muscle.
You can build habits that last for decades.
And perhaps most importantly, you can keep giving your body reasons to remain capable.
Don’t exercise because you’re scared of getting old.
Exercise because getting old is the goal.
And when you get there, you’ll want to be able to do something with it.
Train for decades.
Personal training for healthy ageing in Weybridge
At NG Health & Fitness in Weybridge, Surrey, we specialise in one-to-one personal training built around the individual in front of us.
That means understanding your current physical capabilities, injury history, goals and the things you want your body to continue being able to do—not simply handing everyone the same workout.
Whether you’re already in your 60s or 70s, returning to exercise after injury, or you’re younger and beginning to think more seriously about your long-term health, the principle remains the same:
Build the body you’ll want to live in later.
If you’d like to work with us, you can join the NG Health & Fitness priority list and we’ll contact you when an appropriate coaching space becomes available.
