Aging Movement and How to Not Fall Down the Stairs (Yes, Seriously)

Follow me. Your elder parent or relative starts moving a little slower. Them living in a two sporty home doesn’t make sense financially and, respectfully, the stairs make you nervous for a fall. 

Out of an abundance of caution you move them to a ranch style home to both cut down on costs and, mostly, to avoid the perceived risk of the stairs. Then, to your horror, she experiences a fall on the back patio stairs within a year of moving into the ranch home. 

This exact scenario was explained to me by world-renowned strength coach, Shane Sweatt, and, at the time, I didn’t understand the punchline. The point of the story wasn’t “you only live once!” The point of the story is that capacities are ours until we give them up. Walking the stairs is the best insurance against not being able to walk the stairs. 

This is the most basic case of “if you don’t use it, you lose it.”

Longevity, then, can be quite simple. Maintain the movement and capacity that would make you hard to kill.