When falling becomes 'a fall'

At 84, Senator Mitch McConnell returned to the Capitol after three months recovering from a fall. For the elderly, a simple tumble becomes a medical event with serious consequences.

“The clearest sign of old age is when falling over becomes 'a fall.'”

The fifties are make-or-break

Your fifties determine your physical future. If you don't sort out fitness and diet by then, you're setting yourself up for serious trouble in the decades ahead.

Getting fit can injure you

The author tore his knee cartilage running in the forest. Three friends had similar injuries from trying to get fit, with one needing surgery on both knees after playing padel.

The low-mileage paradox

A non-exercising friend argues that staying inactive preserves your body like a car in a garage, while constant exercise wears out your engine, brakes, and gearbox.

“If we were cars, what would you rather be, a car that stays in the garage with one careful owner, or a car that is on the road all the time wearing out its engine, brakes and gearbox.”

Timing is cruel

You need to exercise most when you're working hardest, have the most responsibility for others, and start feeling aches and pains. Nature's timing is terrible.

Your kids don't see you aging

Teenagers repress the reality that their father is aging because they still assume he can solve any problem. The happier the home, the harder the fall when they realize he can't.

You have to try anyway

Despite the paradoxes, your wife is right. Exercise helps mental health and good nutrition prevents illness. You have to make the effort, even if the timing is terrible.

May you fall over, not have a fall

The author's wish: to stumble and recover with dignity, never reaching the age where a simple fall becomes a medical crisis that defines your remaining years.

“May you always fall over, but never have a fall.”