We shouldn’t fear injury. We should fear not healing from injury but the ability to heal is within our control. The best argument for developing tone in our core musculature is to give the body an optimal opportunity for healing from injury.
Far too many people have bad posture and don’t exercise. And a number of them will get away with it into a ripe old age without consequence. This amazes me but I see it often enough to know that it is true.
There is a subset though, with bad posture and no strength to speak of, who will escape harm for decades until one minor injury throws things off and the physical body spirals down out of control.
This is the best argument I’ve got for building core strength in the body. It makes healing from injuries so much easier. It also makes aging easier, and pretty much all I care about is aging well.
I watched my father fall apart once he hit his seventies, payback for a life devoid of exercise. If the spine is well supported by the muscles that surround it, it is much more likely to withstand the aging process.
I wrote a personal story about healing from injury last summer, when I fell while walking across the arms of Adirondack chairs in New Hampshire. My lower back landed squarely on an arm of a chair and I could barely walk for days.
In a lifetime filled with its share of injuries and pain, this was one of the most acute. I thought, and anyone who saw me in the days after it happened would have concurred, that I would be out for months. Shocking myself, I was fully healed in three weeks.
We are here get injured and to heal. If we fear getting injured our lives will likely be less adventurous and exciting (which is fine if that is your preference). Building muscle tone to bear a little physical punishment can go a long way towards being active when elderly and having whatever kind of physical fun that you might desire.
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