With over nine months in septuagenarian-land, Pierini Fitness now regularly identifies
himself as an old man. Honestly, it’s
not a label that I view unfavorably, rather it embraces the golden years existence-sphere
to which I have successfully arrived.
I’m happy to be aging because it beats the alternative. I’ve been aging since the day I was born and
will continue doing so until that unknown date in the future when my life
ends.
But the old man I am now is different than the young man I once
was. While I enjoy good health and
physical fitness, there are many reminders of my old man status. I don’t see as well, I don’t hear as well, and
I move slower, unless I’m intentionally doing an intense speed-oriented
workout.
I don’t have many aches and pains thus far, knock on wood, but my
wrists and hands do hurt which could be arthritis-light, or the result of the
cumulative things I’ve done in my fitness training that have created this
result. My knees, hips and shoulders feel fine, but they sometimes wake up to
stiffness, and they don’t have the flexibility they once did.
Overall, today, I’m doing pretty good for a 70-year-old man, but
it can all change in a moment. This I’m
fully aware of and am prepared as an old man can be. When this day comes, my thinking about aging
will undoubtedly be different and that is, aging is not for sissies.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum
