In the spirit of the 4th of July holiday, let’s do a little mental exercise, shall we? If I were to ask you what comes to mind if I say the word “freedom”, what would you say? Perhaps you would reply with something about constitutional freedoms. Or maybe something about freedom from debt, a vacation from work, some time without personal obligations, or the ability to travel and move about without hindrance. Or, simply the opportunity to do what you want, when you want. These are all valid expressions of what freedom might mean in a given context. For me, an observation I’ve made recently has me thinking about a slightly different aspect of personal freedom: freedom of physical movement.

The gym that my wife and I go to recently opened a new location here in town. Since the new location is a bit closer to our house than the old one, we switched to the new spot. The facility is quite nice; it has all new equipment, lots of space, nice big windows, and is co-located with a good coffee shop…I do love me a good coffee. The gym is also co-located with a medical clinic, with which it also shares a main entrance.

As a result of how the building is configured, we often see clinic patients arriving or leaving as we transit to the gym. Sadly, many of these people are mobility-limited in one way or another – wheelchairs, walkers, scooters, crutches, large braces, and so on. Of course, there are many possible reasons for these conditions, a lot of which have nothing to do with a person’s overall health and physical condition, so this observation is not meant to be critical of them. Instead, seeing them makes me want to do everything I can to avoid a similar fate, insofar as it is within my control. The question, then, is how do I do that?

As I’ve gotten a bit older, I have found that my outlook on fitness has evolved. A decade or so ago, I was primarily focused on numbers, personal achievement, and setting new personal bests – how fast I could run, how much weight I could lift, and so on. Now, these things are still important to me (I’m a numbers person, what can I say?), but my outlook has shifted to quality of movement and longevity as really the most important outcomes of fitness training. What will best support all of the things I want and need to do, while keeping me healthy and free of injury?

The answer to that question will of course vary from person to person, and I don’t believe that one form of exercise is necessarily right for everyone. At the same time, it does seem like one essential ingredient is universal – some sort of resistance training and mobility work. Having seen (usually elderly) friends and family members lose their independence, it was usually not because of mental capacity; it was because they had lost physical strength to the point that they couldn’t do basic things for themselves anymore – getting up and down, using stairs, putting groceries away, being able to prevent falls or getting up from a fall, and so on.

I realize that not all bodily conditions associated with aging are preventable, but many of them are. I also realize that I am (hopefully) many years away from an age where this sort of thing might become an issue. At the same time, I feel like the time to prepare is now. For me, that looks like barbell work, interval training, and a splash of yoga and mobility work mixed in to keep my body as strong and mobile as possible. For me, strength and mobility equates to prevention of injury, the ability to recover from illness, and a body that can do the things I want and need to do in life for now and many years to come. This, for me, is freedom.

So, go find something heavy to lift, and happy 4th of July!

AB6.