Disguise itself as aging

One of my YouTube fitness brothers recently shared a profound statement causing me to take a pause and reflect on it.  He said, “I’ll never make age an excuse, but it definitely has an effect.” He made this statement in the context of a workout he just completed where he didn’t feel as strong as he would have liked.

 

Haven’t we all had days like this?  For sure if we’re among the coveted group of gracefully aging fitness fellows who are still in the game.  I have my fair share; it goes with the turf of being above ground and still making decent attempts to show up and subject ourselves to our fitness training grind. 

 

Another YouTube fitness brother, a younger one, said it best, “If it’s easy, everyone would do it.” Pick your favorite challenging fitness exercise to test the truth of this prophetic statement.  Burpees, for sure!  A double kettlebell complex of, say, five exercises performed for five reps each for five rounds, absolutely!  Hill sprints or slam ball slams, certainly!  The list goes on for those of us who thrive on challenging ourselves. 

 

But we don’t have to do it.  We could resign our fitness training to taking a comfortably paced 30-minute walk or swing some light pink dumbbells up and down following some “great” workout a “fitness influencer” said we should do. 

 

Pierini Fitness isn’t ready yet to sign up for this half-baked fitness training pace but maybe one day I’ll have no choice but to do so.  When will that be?  When I’m age 75, or when I’m age 80?  Or maybe sooner than I expected.  One never knows and we should always be prepared for this eventuality. 

 

But until that day comes, I’ll continue with my pedal to the metal training, challenging myself in ways that make me grunt and gasp for air, and not letting my proclivity towards laziness disguise itself as aging. 

 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum 

I will never be at this age again

With a couple of months under my belt being age 70, Pierini Fitness finds himself a little more reflective than in years past.  I suppose it’s only natural as the clock tick tocks towards the end of my life.  Not that I’m obsessed that my life will end soon or suddenly, one never knows, but rather just acknowledging that I’ve lived more life than the life I have left to live.  If that’s not an eye-opener, I don’t know what is.

It's also a healthy reminder for me to get busy living my life to the fullest.  The mañana mantra or playbook no longer serves me well as it did when I was a young’un. 

Someone recently shared on a fitness discussion forum I sometimes frequent that his grandfather’s last words were “It's just yesterday, I was a boy".  Isn’t this so true and a good reminder that I have so many things to do and so little time to do them.  At some point, like I’ve jokingly questioned my mother, I’ve asked myself, “Are your suitcases packed?”

Blah, blah, blah, I could go on forever with idioms, similes, figures of speech and the like, in a circular loop like a dog chasing his tail, as I ponder the rest of my life, but one thing is true and that’s I will never be at this age again.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

How long will this last?

Now is the time for Pierini Fitness to acknowledge that he's grateful for his upper-percentile and age-adjusted cardiovascular conditioning and strength endurance. These blessings aren’t automatic, though, because it takes dedicated fitness training but the fact that I’m able to slip into my workout clothes, lace up my training shoes and show up are also reasons to be grateful. 

 

Obviously, it won’t always be this way.  As my gracefully aging clock ticks toward the end of my life, at some point my eventual fitness erosion will start to show its ugly head.  There may also be later-in-life health issues I’ll experience that could very well be a game changer for me, bringing an end or a downsizing of the fitness training stuff I’ve been able to do thus far. 

 

Visting my 93-year-old Mom recently in the hospital was a stark reminder that I’m going to get my turn one day. The turn I'll get will likely be different than hers, but nonetheless it’s a turn for which I'm preparing.    

 

When will my day come when I’m no longer able to pull myself up and down on a pull-up bar, or dip myself down and up on my bar dips equipment?  What about the day when I’ll no longer be able to swing my kettlebells like I now do, or do one hundred burpees and have younger people marvel that I can?  Only God knows and He’s not telling me! While I don’t spend a lot of time pondering these questions, today I did, and this is the theme of today’s Pierini Fitness reflection.

  

I recently viewed a video of a fit 72-year-old man who shared that he doesn’t think about how old he is.  Do I?  Generally, I don't but my recent turning age 70 gave me cause for acknowledging I'm an old man rather than a middle-aged man, and has made me think about how old I am. I also recently started collecting my Social Security benefits and know that I need to live to my early 80’s to “break even” in collecting the amount I could have had I started collecting a lesser amount four years earlier at my full retirement age. 

 

Yes, all this makes me ask myself, “How long will this last?” 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum 

That no longer exists?

I recently read something on the internet, but I can’t remember where.  It asked the question “Do you ever get homesick for a place that no longer exists?”  Not much to my surprise, the rhetorical question became firmly embedded in my mind’s eye where it has remained ever since.

Pierini Fitness is a reflective guy, so the question allowed my reflective being to thrive in full throttle.  Here are some of my rambling reflections when thinking about this question:

Watching the “Adventures of Superman” on our black and white television set, knowing that I would was a sure bet.

Playing outdoors with friends, and riding my bicycle here and there, never afraid that bad people would surface and give me a scare.

Swimming at the YMCA after school and jumping off the high dive, were healthy activities making my boyhood thrive,

Going to the Memorial Auditorium to watch Big Time Wrestling matches cheering for the good guys, and booing the bad guys,

Working after school and summer jobs to save for my first car, then depositing my earnings in the bank and not a cookie jar,

Joining the Army, surviving boot camp and making friends from everywhere, and being confident as a young man to accept a dare.

Meeting my future wife and dancing with her on a warm summer night, knowing she would be my bride, not anyone else in sight.

Becoming a father to a daughter and then a son and discovering that it was a lot of fun.

Starting my career in a profession that’s challenging and rewarding, forty years later it’s only a memory that surfaces when I’m sleeping, 

Family vacations to Europe with my wife and children, all excited as can be, with our eyes wide open, there was so much to see.

Now an old man, I’m living new experiences that’ll one day be dear, but will they be as good as the ones from yesteryear.

So, my answer is yes to the question, “Do I ever get homesick for a place that no longer exists?”

 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

BECAUSE I CAN!

I do pull-ups . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

I do bar dips . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

 

I do push-ups . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

 

I do squats and touch my toes . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

 

I do kettlebell workouts . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

 

I slam my slam ball and jump . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

 

I do burpees . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

 

I do sprints and run . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

 

Because getting fat and weak isn’t an option.

 

Sometimes we need to step outside our comfort zone to discover the dormant greatness residing in us.  If we do, it’ll resonate brightly but only if we respond to the hidden opportunities regularly coming our way.

 

My name is Pierini Fitness, and I approve of this message . . . BECAUSE I CAN!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

I waited until age 70 to start collecting my Social Security benefits and I'm glad I did!

 

I turned age 70 last month and began a new decade of life as a septuagenarian, a crown I’ll proudly wear, God willing, for the next 10 years of my life.  Today, I received my first monthly Social Security benefit check that was direct deposited into my personal checking account.  It’s been a long time coming and I’m delighted. 

I’m among the six percent of Social Security recipients who chose to postpone collecting benefits until age 70 in exchange for a higher benefit than what it would have been had I started collecting at my full retirement age of 66 years and 2 months.  I didn’t even consider starting to collect my benefits as soon as possible at age 62 or before full retirement age like the 57 percent majority of recipients do.

But it wasn’t easy, at times, holding off for this delayed gratification.  The never-ending “expert advice” in internet articles, unsolicited suggestions from friends and relatives, Tik Tok videos and the like seemed to constantly point out that my delaying wasn’t a smart move.  I beg to differ while acknowledging that it’s different for everyone.

What matters is that I methodically analyzed it, considering my longevity risk and the financial investment risk of collecting it sooner and investing it for, hopefully, a bigger return than the higher benefits I’ll now be collecting.  Those higher benefits are about 32 percent more than what they would have been had I started collecting at my full retirement age.  Time will tell if I made a good decision, but I believe I did.

I also considered that my spouse’s survivor benefit, if I predecease before her, would be higher than it would have been if I had started collecting benefits at my full retirement age. 

My math says I need to live to about age 80 to be at the breakeven point where my total delayed benefits collected will equal the amount collected had I started at my full retirement age.  Again, time will tell if I made a good decision.  I’ll continue reading the obituaries each morning to make sure I’m still here, and if I make it to my breakeven age, I’ll write an article about it.

Again, what matters is that I methodically analyzed my situation, considering longevity risk and investment risk in arriving at my decision.  My message to you is for you to do the same and leave your emotion at the front door when doing this.

What about the constant internet articles about how our benefits will be reduced because the Social Security Trust Fund is going to run dry?  I’m not worried about it, and I suggest you don’t worry either.  Now younger folks might have the worry of their retirement age being increased, and higher-income folks might face the prospect of having more of their earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax, but they have the likelihood of a longer lifespan and greater wealth accumulation if they live healthy lives and save.  They’re not the Social Security recipients of yesteryear, and neither are we, the folks who retired, lived a few more years, and then died.  On average, we’re all living longer and that’s good.

Besides, our “fearless” elected leaders, while at times casting doubt in our eyes about their wisdom in the decisions they make when casting their votes, are smart enough to know that voting to reduce Social Security benefits is a recipe for their political careers to end sooner than they’d like.  They like their political careers and won’t do anything to antagonize voters who’ll vote to send them back from where they came.

Yes, I waited until age 70 to start collecting my Social Security benefits and I’m glad I did!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum