Your life might be getting easier.

And that sounds like a good thing, right?

In a lot of ways, it absolutely is.

We have groceries delivered to our doors. We take elevators instead of stairs. Machines wash our dishes, clean our floors, mow our lawns and do countless other things that used to require physical effort.

And listen—I like convenience.

I’m not about to start washing my clothes in the river just to preserve my functional capacity.

But there’s something worth paying attention to:

Every time we remove a physical demand from our lives, our bodies have one less reason to maintain the capacity to meet it.

And over time, that can add up.

Prefer to Watch?

I talk through this idea—and what it might mean for your own everyday physical capacity—in this week’s EveryDay Athlete video.

▶ Watch: Your Life Might Be Getting Easier—And That’s Not Always Good News

Or keep reading below.

Ordinary Life Used to Ask More of Our Bodies

Think about all the little physical things you used to do without considering them exercise.

Sitting on the floor.

Carrying all the groceries into the house.

Walking farther because you couldn’t park close to the door.

Taking the stairs.

Getting down on your knees to work in the garden.

Reaching overhead to put something away.

Moving furniture.

Pushing a lawn mower.

None of those things necessarily feels like a workout.

They’re just life.

But they all ask something of your body: strength, balance, mobility, coordination and endurance.

And as more of those demands disappear, we can lose some of the everyday opportunities we once had to practice being physically capable.

We Talk About What to Add. But What Have You Stopped Doing?

When we talk about maintaining physical capacity as we get older, most of the conversation focuses on what we should add.

Strength train.

Walk more.

Work on your balance.

Maintain your mobility.

And yes. All of those things matter.

But I think there’s another question worth asking:

What have you stopped doing?

Not because someone told you that you couldn’t.

Maybe you just…stopped.

You started carrying fewer bags at once.

You stopped sitting on the floor because the couch was easier.

You automatically started looking for the railing.

You stopped taking the stairs when an elevator was nearby.

You stopped lifting the heavy thing because somebody else could do it.

Individually, none of those decisions is a big deal.

Sometimes they’re smart decisions. Sometimes convenience is exactly what we need.

But when enough little physical demands disappear from our lives, something can happen without us noticing:

Our world can start getting physically smaller.

The Answer Isn’t to Make Life Harder

I’m not going to park three miles away from Target because I’m committed to functional aging.

And I’m definitely not giving up my dishwasher.

The point isn’t to reject convenience.

The point is to notice what convenience has removed.

Your body adapts to what you ask of it.

But it also adapts to what you stop asking of it.

So instead of only asking:

Am I exercising enough?

There may be another useful question:

What opportunities am I still giving my body to DO things?

To carry.

To reach.

To balance.

To get down.

To get back up.

To push and pull.

To walk farther.

To navigate something unpredictable.

Not because every moment of your life needs to become a workout.

But because ordinary life used to give us more opportunities to practice physical capability than we sometimes realize.

This Is What I Mean by Being an EveryDay Athlete

Being an EveryDay Athlete isn’t about trying to get your younger body back.

And it isn’t about making everyday life unnecessarily difficult.

It’s about maintaining more physical capacity than your ordinary life requires.

Because you want something left when life suddenly asks more of you.

I call that Capacity in Reserve.

It’s the strength, balance, mobility, coordination and endurance you might not need on an ordinary Tuesday—but you’re really glad you have when Tuesday suddenly isn’t ordinary.

There will be stairs when the elevator isn’t working.

A suitcase that needs to go into an overhead compartment.

A grandchild who wants you on the floor.

A storm that leaves branches all over your yard.

A gate change at the airport.

A dock moving underneath your feet.

You don’t get to control all of those assignments.

But you can give your body opportunities to prepare for them.

So here’s the question I want you to consider:

What have you stopped doing?

Not because you can’t.

Not because you shouldn’t.

But simply because life made it easier not to.

And is there anything there you’d like to start asking your body to do again?

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What Is Your Everyday Life Asking of Your Body?

If you’re not quite sure, I created the free EveryDay Athlete Decoder to help you take a closer look.

It will help you think about what your everyday life is—and isn’t—asking of your body, and where you might want to start building a little more capacity.

Try the Free EveryDay Athlete Decoder →

Because the goal isn’t to make your life harder.

It’s to make sure your body is still prepared when life is.