Spring has sprung

It's been great practicing at the studio this week with the sun streaming in. There is something about these longer and warmer days that seems to be lifting peoples energy. We have been having some great classes in the studio with good chats and lots of energy. One of the topics that came up before a yoga class was just about this feeling of movement getting harder as we get older. I wish it wasn't true but the concept of use it or lose it does hold up. That is because our body is constantly adapting. If we don't use a range of motion or challenge our muscles our body will adapt by letting go of those abilities. So often I see people just let go of their abilities and strength and blame it on aging. I get it, as we get older things change and get harder. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way! That constant adaptation also can happen in a positive direction. We can build muscle at any change. We can work on our range of movement. It can happen even within one hour a week of intentional training. There can be this message out there that as we get older we should do less, relax more and no longer challenge our bodies. I've come around to thinking it's actually the opposite! One of the surprising things for me though has been that as I challenge my body more, I have more energy, range of motion and strength. The first and most important step in this is reframing how you think about movement.