Why preparing your body for everyday life means building more physical capacity than you currently need.

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Watch: Life Changes the Assignment — Is Your Body Ready?

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What if being physically capable of everything you do today isn’t enough?

Think about it.

You probably have a pretty good idea of what your typical day asks of your body. You might take a morning walk, climb a few flights of stairs, carry groceries or spend some time working in your yard.

And because those activities are familiar, you might not give their physical demands much thought.

But here’s the thing.

Life has a habit of changing the assignment.

Your gate changes at the airport, and suddenly you’re practically running to catch your flight.

You’re getting off a boat, and the dock is moving underneath you.

Or maybe you wake up one morning after a storm and discover that your afternoon plans now involve several hours of hauling branches around your yard.

Life doesn’t exactly send a calendar invitation when it’s about to ask more of your body.

Wouldn’t THAT be nice? 😂

Are you preparing for the life you have—or the life you want to keep living?

We often think about exercise in terms of improving something specific.

We want to get stronger, improve our balance, increase our mobility or build endurance.

Those are all worthwhile goals.

But I want you to think about them a little differently.

What if the real purpose of developing those physical capacities isn’t simply to get better at exercising?

What if it’s to give yourself more choices in your everyday life?

Because the physical demands of your life aren’t always predictable. And they certainly aren’t guaranteed to stay the same as you get older.

The question isn’t whether you can accomplish everything your ordinary Tuesday requires.

It’s whether you have enough physical capacity available when Tuesday suddenly becomes something else entirely.

The value of having capacity in reserve

This is one of the ideas behind my EveryDay Athlete approach.

I don’t want to develop just enough strength to accomplish what I already do.

I want a little more strength than I currently need.

A little more balance.

A little more endurance.

And enough mobility to adapt when life asks me to move differently.

I call that having capacity in reserve.

It doesn’t mean you need to train for extraordinary athletic achievements.

It means developing physical abilities that give you more options when ordinary life presents an unexpected challenge.

Of course, no amount of training guarantees you’ll be prepared for everything. But developing and maintaining your physical capacity can expand what you’re able to do.

And that’s worth working toward.

Don’t wait until your world starts getting smaller

Here’s something I encourage you to consider.

We don’t always recognize how much we rely on our physical capabilities until something becomes difficult.

Getting up from the floor.

Carrying something heavy.

Walking across uneven ground.

Keeping your balance when something unexpected happens.

These activities involve combinations of strength, mobility, balance, coordination and endurance.

And when we stop challenging those abilities, we may gradually lose some of the capacity we once took for granted.

That’s why I believe in a proactive approach to healthy aging.

Maintain before you have to reclaim.

You don’t need to wait until an activity becomes difficult to start preparing your body for it.

You can begin building that capacity right now.

Your body deserves to be prepared for your life

I don’t want my physical capacity deciding what I have to say no to.

I want to travel, explore, work in my yard, try new things and respond to the unexpected demands of everyday life.

And I want to keep doing those things for as long as possible.

That’s what being an EveryDay Athlete means to me.

Not training to become an extraordinary athlete.

Training so you have the physical capacity to participate in your own extraordinary life.

Because life WILL change the assignment.

And I’d rather have some capacity in reserve when it does.

Ready to discover what your life asks of your body?

Your everyday activities provide valuable clues about the physical abilities worth developing.

That’s exactly why I created the EveryDay Athlete Decoder, a free interactive tool designed to help you explore the physical demands of your life and start thinking about the capacities that support them.

Discover what your life is asking of your body—and where you might want to build more capacity.

Explore the EveryDay Athlete Decoder