Body Aches and Pains could be a lot more than just “Getting Older.”

It Sucks Getting Old.. But Is That Pain You’re Feeling Something Else? 

As someone who’s nearly 30, I have to say that working out now is much different for me than it was in my teens and early twenties. I could do just about anything in a workout, have no warm-up or mobility work, and feel just fine afterwards. It was not until the past couple of years that I began to feel pain. My knees would hurt in the morning walking down the stairs at my apartment complex, my lower back would bother me after a heavy deadlift workout, I developed somewhat debilitating Achilles overuse injuries in both feet, which made walking from my bed to the kitchen a painful feat, and I had impingement in my left shoulder that prevented me from lifting overhead and made simple actions like pouring coffee painful. Okay, I am done whining, and I promise I tell you all of this to make a point. 

Throughout my years of training, I have noticed a consistency in fitness culture. Plenty of people have experienced or currently experience pain like me and it is explained with an emphatic “It SUCKS getting old!” Now, I know that this is said in a semi-joking manner, but I feel there is some true feeling behind the statement. It’s the feeling that we used to be able to do so much more in the past without feeling pain, and now that we are “old,” all the same shit hurts. Could it be that simple? You have a window of time where you can do whatever you want without experiencing pain and once you pass a certain age it all goes downhill? Welcome adulthood! The land of decreased performance and joint aches, please grab your icy hot, Tylenol, and back brace…