Over the last couple of days, I have had several conversations about why it’s important to keep your butt strong. And yes we want our butts to look good, but the real reason they need to stay strong has to do with so much more! These talks have taken me back to why I opened this place—one of my big goals is to keep people independent and active as long as possible.

I have several friends that work in old folks homes as therapists. I visit these places often, and what I’ve seen is frightening. I’m not saying that all these places are the same, but to see so many people in various states of disrepair is very disturbing.

The people I saw in those homes didn’t just wake up one morning unable to get off the commode without help. It took time to get to that point. And more than likely, during that time, they made excuses for what was happening like, “I’m just getting old,” or “I have a bad knee, hip, or back.” Ultimately, they just didn’t do anything to fix it, and eventually, they could no longer function on their own. 

Starting to build strength now means a better quality of life now and down the road; it’s not necessarily for today or tomorrow, but for five, ten, or fifteen years from now. People are living longer and are planning financially to live longer, but most are not preparing physically to live longer with a quality of life that they may want. We spend way too much time chalking things up to old age and very little to poor maintenance. Investing some time to make sure that your body continues to work the way it was meant to will yield big dividends later in life.

So often, people will say that training is “too expensive,” and when we end up at the doctor with lifestyle-related illnesses, such as diabetes or heart disease, we also complain about the cost of medication or the visits the doctor themselves. What many don’t understand is that most, if not all of these illnesses can be avoided with a good exercise routine and with good eating habits. Though in the beginning, training may seem costly, but our poor lifestyle choices will end up costing us way more than training ever will. And it’s the quality of life that we sacrifice that’s even more important (and costly).  

As you go through your day to day activities, I want you to think: “What things do I enjoy doing? Do I want to be able to do this forever? And if so, what do I have to do now to make it happen?” Giving up the things that you enjoy should not be an option; it’s not a normal part of growing older. I believe that we should be able to live life at its fullest until the day we die.  

We shouldn’t put ourselves in a position of merely existing, or in a position where we can no longer contribute, we can only take.

I hope that going forward, you start to look at working out with the bigger picture in mind—it’s a vehicle to a better life. It’s a vehicle that you can ride till the end.

- Bill Burnett

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