With the limited movement, postural distortion, and chronic pain that often accompany old age, it’s easy to see why people put so much stock in the notion that aging itself is the cause of physical degeneration. In his book, Somatics, Thomas Hanna offers a contrary view. “As we grow older, our bodies – and our lives – should continue to improve, right up until the very end.”
Like me, he is deeply disturbed by the widely held beliefs that human beings naturally become crippled as they age and that we will naturally require walkers, canes, and wheelchairs to get around.
A very important distinction: when problems occur, they are not because of the accumulation of age itself. The extra years simply allowed more time for the causes of physical degeneration to accumulate, like stressful living and traumatic injuries.
We know, for example, that stress can activate reflexes that cause muscular contraction. A 65 year old who has spent 30 additional stressful years on the job than his younger counterpart has had enormous opportunities to experience events that caused him to contract his muscles. The end result: the picture at the top of this post.
Fortunately, all of this can be undone with proper training at NeuFit.
