What is Your Health Worth?
To you? To your family?
I think we can all agree on one thing, being healthy and able-bodied contributes greatly to one’s quality of life. Living with pain, injury, disease is challenging, exhausting and can lead to relying on others' help for the basics of life.
If you consider yourself fairly healthy and able-bodied now, what if in 20 years or less, your health took a turn and when looking back you could see the path that set you there… one of sedentary living, too much screen time, ultra-processed foods, etc…
We know these things are not good for us, bad habits are the easiest to form. Sometimes, looking at our current lifestyle, seems like too much work to change, especially changing into healthy habits. Going to the gym for an hour a day? Who has the time? Planning healthy meals each week while trying to keep up with the busy kids scheduling? Living with nagging injuries and not even knowing where to start without flaring up those injuries and setting yourself further back! Looks like an impossible mountain to climb. This, apart from the knowledge that we do lose muscle mass as we age, that is a given. But strength training for health as we age is one of the best things that you can do, and that is research based information!
What kind of strength training? Body weight, resistance bands, free weights, machines? Research1 shows they are all good, though machine training does come out on top, I am making an educated guess when I say that using a machine can give you more confidence in pushing a little heavier weight than maybe using free weights.
But think of the alternative. I know we have come to believe that to ‘be’ fit and healthy you need to spend hours a week at the gym, or running, or being very active. But the truth is that if we spent 15-20 min a day adding in activity, we will be SO MUCH better off in the future. And this doesn’t even need to be 15-20 minutes of continuous activity.
I often work in care homes where the caregivers are attentive and helpful, the facility doesn’t smell weird, and the rooms are inviting. But there have been a couple that are not like that. If there is one thing that will motivate my butt out of bed to get some movement happening, it is thinking of how I’ve seen older people who are wheelchair bound, rolled in front of a TV screen with 15 other people and left there for hours.
I want you to think about this. What is your health worth? And I am talking not only about physical health, but mental health as well! Sure, you could put a price tag on it, or a Rx, but in terms of energy output right now, can you start something and make it a ‘must’ do each day? If you were to look ahead 10-30 years and imagine yourself needing more help/support, would the future you think back to today and say ‘Amber was right! I should have listened to her!’
Listen, I live in a 3 story townhouse, I have to do at LEAST 20 flights of stairs a day. Guess what. I have a 97 year old neighbour, same layout townhouse. And she lives on her own. Guess what she attributes it to… keeping active.
So where do you start? Walking is a perfect starting point. Do you need some guidance to get going? Are there things that you loved doing but fell out of the habit of doing them? Don’t get caught up in thinking about it. What was the first thing that popped into your head as you read those previous sentences? Start there.
If you need guidance, here are 2 free choices to start with.
GoGet.Fit app to help you build healthy habits with FREE weekly support. Use the code: GW3UH
Download your free Get Moving program from my website criticalmovementyyc.ca/get-moving Choose between the Natural Movement program or the Strength program, either way, very little equipment needed to start!
Need a little guidance? Hit up the local gyms for group fitness classes, there is something for everyone out there, but you have to do some looking and try a few out to see what you like and what fits your schedule.
Need a little extra help and motivation to get started? It is worth its weight in gold to hire a personal trainer! Or get a few friends together and start a regular meet up.
I could talk about this for hours, I’ll keep it short though. I work with the older population and believe me when I tell you, getting your squats in each day is worth every single bit of effort!
Ok, one last thing, if you are living with cranky body parts & nagging injuries that just don’t want to move, there is a place to start. If you are breathing, you can start a movement program. It doesn’t have to be balls to the walls! (I think I mentioned that at the beginning) Don’t let it overwhelm you. Just start with three mini squats each time you brush your teeth. Then, next month add one more thing like going for a 5 min walk.
You are worth it!
Wiedenmann T, Held S, Morat T, Rappelt L, Isenmann E, Berndsen E, Hopp NH, Donath L. The effects of different resistance training modalities on muscle strength in community-dwelling older adults: a network meta-analysis. Gerontology. 2025 May 27:1-24.