As I'm getting in shape, losing weight and flattening the old gut, interesting things are happening.
First. I can do five pull-ups. Basically any time. I know for a fact that for the past five years I could only do two, and then I'd be hurt for the rest of the day.
Second. And this is really weird. I can sense that my center of gravity is moving up. When I walk I feel it. There's more of me in my arms and chest and shoulders and less of me in my belly.
Third. I'm starting to notice a big difference when I'm warmed up vs just getting started. There's a kind of ramp of performance I can feel. It used to be (and to a certain extent it still is) that I try to workout and I just get more and more tired and it takes a day to recover. Now I get warmed up in about 20 minutes (which used to be all I could go) and then the blood and adrenaline is pumping and I can really push myself.
There's a weird new sense of self taking over which is a combination of many things. There's something very different about getting in shape in your mid fifties than at any other age. I have (half) a lifetime of athletic experience to judge what my body is doing and how well. I'm pushing myself to do what I remember I could do, and I accept that I'm slower and get more winded quickly, but I approach it from a very different set of reasons. What I think about now is how meaningless feats of strength are to me. Form is so much more important. Balance is so much more important. Fluidity of motion and the ability to withstand pain. These are things that matter. Being able to do a double somersault seemed to be a pinnacle of achievement when I was a teen. I don't even think it's impressive to chicks any more, if it ever was.
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