Physical Reserve

When my sons were about six and nine, I occasionally let them try some of the strength exercises I used with adults. I was always surprised by how strong they were.

They weren't unusually muscular. They were kids. But they had something many older adults gradually lose: physical reserve.

Physical reserve is the difference between what your body is capable of doing and what everyday life requires of it.

When that gap is large, life feels physically easy. You carry groceries, climb stairs, get off the floor, work in the yard, travel, and play without giving much thought to whether you can do it.

My mother is 89. She has never exercised. Today she tells me she has enough energy to accomplish one or two things in a day. Her world hasn't necessarily become more demanding. Her capacity has become smaller.

That's what makes physical reserve important.

We tend to notice physical decline when we can no longer do something. But the decline began much earlier, as the gap between our capability and life's demands slowly narrowed.

Strength training is a way to push in the other direction—to ask the body to become more capable than everyday life requires.

The objective isn't simply to be stronger in the gym.

It's to have enough strength in reserve that you can continue living the way you want to live.