How young we were

 

A recent conversation with Mrs. Pierini Fitness took both of us down a long-ago memory lane, the time we met.  We both spent time sharing our recollection of that “historical event” along with our thoughts and feelings about it.  It was a conscious effort by both of us, spending quality time dwelling, reflecting and sharing, not rushing through the process, and learning if new thoughts and feelings would arise from the original ones, we faintly recall having almost 50 years ago.  I guess the time spent doing this lasted almost 45 minutes. 

 

Thoughts are easy to recollect for Pierini Fitness, but feelings are slower to recognize and acknowledge; you know, it’s a guy thing.  Mrs. Pierini Fitness, on the other hand, has no problem with either, so this dialogue had an ebb and flow of reflective duh-pauses from me and triggered fast contributions from her.  Regardless, it was a healthy experience, one that I enjoyed, and one that I look forward to doing again but next time for a different historical moment. 

 

The takeaway mood during our discussion can be expressed in these lyrics of a song sung by Mary Hopkin in 1968, eight years before we met: 

 

“Those were the days, my friend 
We thought they'd never end 
We'd sing and dance forever and a day 
We'd live the life we choose 
We'd fight and never lose 
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days.” 
 

Additionally, the final takeaway was best summarized by Mrs. Pierini Fitness, who commented that we didn’t know how young we were. 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum 

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