Whether we evolved over millions of years from monkeys or fish, or whether we can all trace our family tree back to Adam & Eve…undoubtedly we have survived for a long time and each one of us is born with the incredible gift of an unlimited potential.

Few things are certain about our lives, but for at least 300 years ‘death and taxes’ have been widely cited as being ‘certainties’. Is it time to consider ‘reduced mobility’ as a third certainty?

Look around at the people you work with, the people you see in the gym, people walking around the aisles of your local supermarket. Look at their posture, their gait, their physical dysfunctions. We all have them.

The sad fact is that only a tiny minority of us actually use our bodies for physical activity anymore. Of the small amount of us who are regularly active, an even smaller minority of those are performing efficient movements with safe techniques. This means that the vast majority of our population are becoming weaker, less mobile, more injury prone, or a combination of all three.

Mobility specialist, Kelly Starrett, says that “all human beings should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves” and he has a point. Imagine a car lover who had a prized 1967 Porsche 911 (which is fast approaching its 50^th birthday). Do you imagine for a second that he would put the wrong fuel in it or leave it to gather moss and rot away under a tarpaulin in his backyard? Not a chance. He would polish it with the finest cloth that money can buy and would take great pleasure in taking it for a careful spin at weekends - just to hear the purr of a timeless, healthy engine that has been well maintained, and at 47 years old performs better than ever.

So do we become less mobile because we get old? Or do we just look/act/feel older because of our reduced mobility? Obviously we cannot turn back time, our bodies will always diminish slightly as we get older, but good mobility can be prolonged and really enhance the quality of our lives…making us feel younger as we get older.

All it takes is some care and attention of our most cherished possession. You all know the benefits of exercise, as do the fitness professionals who work at your facilities, but never underestimate the value of improving your clients/members range of motion, mobility and flexibility with a well-designed ‘functional’ training programme (email marklaws@jordanfitness.co.uk to arrange a ‘Functional Training Workshop’ at your facility).

A good accountant will reduce your tax bill, good genes and a good diet might even be able to postpone death (for a while), and by using our bodies to their full potential we can at least enhance our mobility and quality of life, rather than joining the masses of our peers who look and feel older than they should…which should give us all something to smile about and get us back down to having only two certainties to worry about.