Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone? Such is often the case with physical mobility and strength as we age. The realization of a new pain or other limitation can sneak up on us over time, especially as fitness is so often relegated to the back burner with families, careers, etc. squarely at the forefront for most of our adulthoods. And then one day, you notice you can't do that thing you just did as freely and comfortably as you once could. Picking up a pen you dropped. Lifting a grandkid. Trying to sit and stand with one leg after a hip or knee surgery.
In this life, there are many things we cannot know for certain, but we do know that stuff happens: people fall, twist weirdly, sleep wrong, get sick. We may not know what it will be, but life will throw some kind of challenge our way sooner or later. By increasing and maintaining your physical fitness as you age, you build your resilience to meet those challenges. Keep your bat up: the balls are gonna keep coming.
That's why it's so important to incorporate strength training into our regular routines, especially as we enter retirement. We've talked a lot about reasons why you might want to be fit in retirement, but now we're going to talk more about some specific exercise considerations for folks who are either in or on the cusp of retirement. As we built the Restart! app, we kept these key principles in mind to help aging adults give themselves the best chance at physical ease and comfort in their golden years.
Primal pattern movements are seven basic movement patterns we do in everyday life that we want everyone to be able to do. They are:
When our resident exercise expert, Ben Dreyer, begins working with clients at Studio Melt, he runs them through exercises that hit each of these movement patterns (plus a few more) to get an understanding of that client's baseline fitness and assess any imbalances in their primal pattern movements (we all have them), and sets up their plan accordingly. So we built Restart! to work with users (a.k.a. Reclaimers) the way Ben does, using an exercise library curated by Ben to ensure the app helps Reclaimers cover all their movement pattern bases.
Why do you need to be able to do all these primal pattern movements? Let's talk about real-world applications:
Squatting
Sitting and getting back up again requires squat strength, and that one is a real biggie. Going back to our earlier example of a time when folks may realize they're not as strong as they used to be, if one side of your body is immobilized after an injury or surgery like knee or hip replacement, you're going to wish you'd done some single leg squats.
Bending
Bending isn't just for the Legally Blonde Bend & Snap: we all bend all the time. Every time you need to pick something up off the floor, you're bending.
Lunging
Another biggie: if you should find yourself on the ground, whether on purpose or accident, you'll need lunge strength to get yourself back up again. Fun (and a bit morbid) fact: the more points of contact you have with the ground when standing up from the floor, the higher your risk of death by any cause. Lunges will help you get up in fewer touches.
Pushing
Pushing probably feels like a pretty obvious motion we're doing all the time. Opening doors, pushing shopping carts, rearranging furniture, you get the idea.
Pulling
Pulling also seems fairly self-explanatory: again, opening doors (ever tried to push on a pull door?), tugging your dog's leash, opening drawers, etc. But pulling is also related to posture. If you've spent a lot of time at a desk or behind the wheel, you need to counteract all that rounding forward with pulling motions that get you to squeeze your shoulder blades together and open your chest.
Rotating
When you need to see something to your side or behind you, you're probably going to rotate to do it. Passing Goldfish back to the grandkids in the car, serving a tennis ball, dancing—you want your spine to keep up with all that rotating.
Locomotion
Locomotion refers to gait, so if you're used to getting around on your legs, you'll want to take care of your locomotion.
In addition to these movement patterns, grip strength is crucial as you age and serves as an indicator of your overall muscle mass. If you hate having to ask someone else to open jars, keeping up with a strength training routine will help you increase that overall muscle mass and in turn, your grip strength. So you can keep opening your own pickle jars.
It can be overwhelming to begin strength training later in life, especially if you haven't been active in a while. But the important thing to remember is to not let perfect be the enemy of good. Begin with what you can do, and progress from there. Your workout doesn't have to look like anyone else's. It's for you and your healthspan and quality of life, so give yourself the gift of good health by taking the time (and it doesn't have to be much time!) to work on your strength.
Need a little help getting started? That's what we built Restart! for! The Restart! app is launching soon and we want you to be the first to know when it's available for download. Sign up for email notifications here: [SIGN UP LINK].