Physical Reserve: What It Is & Why You NEED It
Anyone who has driven a car ultimately learns to pay attention to the gas gauge. As a teenager, I had to learn this the hard way and ran out of gas 2 -3 times before I really started paying attention.
If we’re smart and take good care of our car, we fill it up with gas before letting it get below the quarter of a tank mark. If we procrastinate sometimes, we may wait until the gas light goes on to motivate us to fill up.
Physical Reserve (or Functional Reserve) is your body’s ability to recover from any type of taxing exertion.
If we don’t have any physical reserve, it’s like we’re living our life with our “gas light” always being on.
This means if we do anything that takes up too much energy, there’s no reserve energy left to rely on. We simply run out of gas (energy).
When this happens, we can’t live our lives the way we want because we simply don’t have enough energy. Unfortunately, this is how many people over the age of 65 live on a regular basis.
You don’t have to drive around with your gas tank on empty just because you’re getting older, but you do have to do the work of “filling up your tank” regularly. Here’s how:
You fill your tank by doing the work of strength training, cardiovascular training and flexibility training as we discussed in the last post. This must occur consistently to be effective.
You understand that the more you move, the more energy you will have (e.g. more reserve and so more ability to recover if or when you need it). It’s a snowball effect either positively or negatively.
You proactively decide to stay healthy now so you you have the ability to live your life that way you want to later, regardless of what comes up (e.g. exposure to COVID, a fall, etc.)
We have to be smarter as we age. Our bodies change and we can’t expect them to work exactly the same at 65 as they did at 25.
This doesn’t mean that you have to limit your activities after 65. It does mean that you have to maintain your strength, cardiovascular endurance and your flexibility - you have to fill up your tank.
Many of us know this information but it’s always helpful to have reminders.
If you’d like to learn more, please check out this podcast that a client shared with me about the dangers of getting lazy with our physical reserve. Thanks Ellen!
Action Steps:
Consider where your physical reserve is at right now.
Are you living with a full, half or quarter tank of “gas” or are you living with your gas light on regularly?
Think about one thing you could realistically add to your life on a regular basis to keep more fuel in your tank.
Could you add a regular daily walk, schedule some strength training, figure out a foam rolling or stretching routine?
As the Nike logo say: JUST DO IT!
Your future self will thank you.
