The Aging Athlete: Tips For Staying In Shape As You Grow Older

anyone’s individual achievement? Did you enjoy pageantry, such as the baseball stadium, with uniforms and marked-out running lanes, or did you prefer the isolation and simplicity of cross-country running? Your goal is to understand the preconditions that set you up for success so that these can be redeveloped in other venues.

For example, I loved long distance running. In high school I ran cross-country. Even in track, I preferred the longest distances. As an adult I gradually morphed into a marathon runner until knee surgeries and lower back pains suggested that this was no longer the best sport for me. As I analyzed my love of running, I found that I enjoyed working out with my teammates as well as their companionship on the subway ride to the park in the Bronx, more than an hour from our school in Brooklyn. I enjoyed the planning for the race almost as much as the race!

I began to see that I enjoyed sports where a theoretical understanding was as important as the actual performance. Gradually, after trying various classes at my gym, I found that yoga gave me many of the same values I associated with running. I read about the mind set which made holding postures possible and it was remarkably similar to the strategies for long distance running! The only difference was that my body thrived in this new regime. There were no more swollen knees, no Ibuprophen or ice packs. I just showed up, took classes with my fellow students, many in their twenties, and felt terrific afterward.

Like others who have found joy in adapting their sports to their bodies, I had come to a new sport partly by serendipity (I had a tried a few other classes) and partly by having a prepared mind. I knew the feelings I

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