My family just recently returned from a fantastic road trip. At the start of the school holidays, we packed the car, headed south, and started the Eye Spy games. Our eventual destination was the ski fields of Perisher Valley. This would be the kids’ first-time seeing snow and the first time Bec and I had been back in a pair of ski boots since 2004.

I was actually pretty apprehensive about the trip because two years ago I had injured my knee in a significant way. The orthopaedic surgeon would have had a fit if he knew I was contemplating hitting the slopes.

Especially, if he knew what kind of skier I had been in the past!
You see, when Bec and I had travelled the world, I had a desire to get from the top of the ski lift to the bottom of the mountain in the fastest way possible.

Unfortunately, my skill level did not match my need for speed. There were many poor Frenchmen and Frenchwomen who had to dive for cover as I hurtled down Alpe D’Huez, mildly out of control. Fortunately, though, Bec and I had previously spent a month learning French in a French immersion course in Toulouse so I could scream a few profanities to alert the better skiers below me of my pending arrival.

And so, it was with a certain amount of apprehension that I clicked my skis in at the bottom of the baby slopes at Perisher.
But guess what? The times had changed. No longer did I feel the need to hurtle down the slopes. I was in control; I was safe, and I was upright. I enjoyed it tremendously. I was challenged but was always within my ability level, and that familiar feeling of burning in my quads at the bottom of the run was still there.
I was surprised. But I guess I shouldn’t have been.

I had worked hard on my fitness, my strength and losing weight in the past 12 months and I was seeing the benefits of this hard work. I also recognised that my mindset around not only skiing, but exercise in general, had changed.

I am no longer young. I reckon you could even start to call me middle aged. I have only recently understood that the way I approached exercise in the past is now resulting in injuries for me. My body just simply can’t do what it could do in the past.

So, I have changed what I do. And it has been amazing. I walk every day, where I used to run a couple of times a week. I do regular resistance sessions with small weights or even just bodyweight, where I previously lifted big weights. I get regular maintenance physiotherapy treatment. And I do Pilates – the single most amazing hour of my week.

This change has helped me tremendously. If you are no longer a young‘un, don’t accept that your best days are behind you. Get back out exercising. If you don’t know how to start or have an injury slowing you down, give us a call at Physique. No more excuses. Make some changes. Get back into it and start to feel amazing again.