Only One Body

Imagine you are sixteen years old and your parents 
give you your first car. They also give you simple 
instructions. There is one small hitch, you only get 
one car, you can never get another. Never. No 
trade-ins, no trade-ups. Nothing.

Ask your self how would you maintain that car? 

My guess is you would be meticulous. Frequent oil 
changes, proper fuel, etc. Now imagine if your 
parents also told you that none of the replacement 
parts for this car would ever work as well as the 
ori ginal parts. Not only that, the replacement 
parts would be expensive to install and cause you 
to have decreased use of your car for the rest of 
the cars useful life? In other words, the car would 
continue to run but, not at the same speed and 
with the efficiency you were used to.

Wow, now would we ever put a lot of time and effort 
into maintenance if that were the case.

After reading the above example ask yourself another 
question. Why is the human body different? Why do we 
act as if we don’t care about the one body we were 
given. Same deal. You only get one body. No returns 
or trade-ins. Sure, we can replace parts but boy 
it’s a lot of work and it hurts. Besides, the stuff 
they put in never works as well as the original 
“factory” parts. The replacement knee or hip doesn’t 
give you the same feel and performance as the original 
part.

Think about it. One body. You determine the mileage? 
You set the maintenance plan?

No refunds, no warranties, no do-overs?

How about this perspective? One of my clients is a 
very successful businessman. He often is asked to 
speak to various groups. One thing he tells every 
group is that you are going to spend time and money 
on your health. The truth is the process can be a 
proactive one or a reactive one. Money spent on your 
health can take the form of a personal trainer, 
massage therapist and a gym membership or, it can be 
money spent on cardiologists, anesthesiologists, and 
plastic surgeons. Either way, you will spend money.

Same goes for time. You can go to the gym or, to the 
doctors office. It’s up to you. Either way, you will 
spend time. Some people say things like “I hate to 
work out”. Try sitting in the emergency room for a 
few hours and then get back to me. Working out may 
not seem so bad. Much like a car, a little preventative 
maintenance can go a long way. However, in so many ways 
the body is better than a car. With some good hard work 
you can turn back the odometer on the body. I wrote 
an article a while back (Strength Training- The Fountain 
of Youth) that discussed a study done by McMaster 
University which showed that muscle tissue of older 
subjects actually changed at the cellular level and 
looked more like the younger control subjects after 
strength training.

Do me a favor, spend some time on preventative 
maintenance, it beats the heck out of the alternative. 

Just remember, you will spend both time and money.


Source: StrengthCoach.com