I don’t know what age you are, but I’m 42.  Now, if you are my daughter’s age, just going into her teen years, you might say that is pretty old.  If you are my parent’s age, close to 100 I think but who’s keeping track, they would say I’m so young with so much life to live.

However you view 42, I will say that my body is in good shape, but has seen better days.  I’m currently battling a lower back muscle strain that stiffens up and makes me walk like an old man for a few strides before loosening up.

My knees ache a little bit and probably have a little arthritis in them.  Occasionally, I will get a slight muscle pull, but all-in-all if you allow me proper warm-up time I can pretty much move the way I could as a 25 year-old just a titch slower.

I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to injuries.  When I was in my teenage years playing competitive sports, I didn’t get many muscle pulls.  I would twist my ankle from time to time, but not too bad.  Broke my nose and my hand in basketball, but it didn’t make me miss any time.

“Those aches and pains are you just getting older”

So when I complain about the muscle strains I get every so often, especially in my lower back, a common response from people my age is, “you’re getting older.”

I went from having very little injuries until maybe my early thirties when I strained my back for the first time.  That happened a couple more times in that decade, then my plantar fasciitis incident which I detailed in a blog post.  Recently, my stupid lower back got re-aggravated.  This time around because I was watching a movie in the theater sitting in one of those comfy recliners.  My back apparently didn’t like it.

But, that’s the normal progression of things huh.  You get older, your body starts breaking down.

Well, I’m not accepting it!  Here’s my theory.

I had no major injuries during my formative years with the exception of what I explained above, but I played sports.  I was a long jumper and high jumper.  I took thousands of jumps, plus all the jumps I took in basketball, that takes a subtle toll on the body.

My Muscle Activation Technique (M.A.T.) specialist, Charlie Rowe, assessed that my pelvis was a little cockeyed and that was pulling the muscles in a way to cause stress.  Since everything wasn’t really aligned properly issues would manifest to other parts of my body (like the plantar fasciitis).  All those years generating powerful force out of my leg threw my pelvis off just enough that you don’t feel it then, but later in life.

I am a firm believer that if you haven’t had any traumatic injuries to your body, but you are getting aches and pains, it could be due to muscle imbalances and body misalignments.  These can be subtle changes that happen over time as your movement patterns go from being functionally correct to whatever is easiest (not always the same thing).  Not corrected, it eventually leads to the pains that you have, not so much due to old age though.

What would be perfect if I could go back 25 years to when I was really into the competitive sports arena.  I would tell my younger self that even though I don’t feel any pain now, it might be a safe bet to have someone assess my body and see if things are starting to fall out of alignment.

If they are, then do what is necessary to correct it then.  That way you can have little checkups every so often and make little adjustments.  Rather than waiting years later when it manifests into something bigger where potentially you could need surgery rather than slight adjustments.

What exactly am I talking about then?

Go get a professional to assess your body.  A chiropractor, a M.A.T. specialist, or someone who knows the Functional Movement Screen at the very least.  Get a baseline reading and if there are issues, get them corrected.  Even if you currently don’t feel like you have any issues, it would be smart to do.  If you do have some lingering aches, then definitely do this now and see what can be corrected.

Better safe than sorry.  You’ll be doing your future body a big favor by preventing major health issues you would normally chalk up to old age.  Plus, while still competing, you might make your body that much more efficient now.  Which will give you a better chance to have an awesome performance each and every time you compete.  That could be worth it right there.