Of Course We Are Improving With Age

Diana Nyad, Key West, Florida, at the end of her epic Cuba to Florida swim source: diananyad.com

Aging doesn’t mean decline - We can continue learning to our last breath

The Washington Post announced new research confirming that we CAN continue to improve physically and cognitively as we gain years and experience. A 12-year, longitudinal study of  11,314 participants, by Becca R. Levy and Martin D. Slade, Aging Redefined: Cognitive and Physical Improvement with Positive Age Beliefs, published in Geriatrics, concluded:

It was found that 45.15% of persons improved in cognitive and/or physical function over this period, and positive age beliefs predicted these two types of improvement, both with and without adjusting for relevant covariates….

[A] meaningful number of older persons showed improvement beyond baseline level in cognitive and/ or physical functioning. Among participants with measurements of both domains, 45.15% showed improvement in cognition and/or walking speed from baseline to the last measurement up to 12 years later. 

In addition, the current study demonstrated for the first time that participants who had assimilated more-positive age beliefs were more likely to show improvement in both cognitive and physical function. ..[T]his suggests that the improvement, and its prediction by positive age beliefs, is not only due to participants with deficits recovering to a normal level of functioning, but also occurred for those who started at normal levels of functioning. Thus, it seems this improvement pattern is picking up on a cognitive and physical reserve that is available to the general population of older persons.

In other words, if you feel positive about aging, you have a better chance of continuing to learn, to expand, to improve your abilities. But we knew that.

The Feldenkrais Method is built to encourage continuous improvement. Our lessons guide us to find the easiest way to move in the bodies we have in the moment. We stimulate our nervous systems to wake up and listen with unusual, unexpected movements that offer just enough challenge, in doses that we can manage. Our focus on full body awareness introduces alternative ways of solving movement challenges. Our rests give the nervous system time to integrate learning.

And as the nervous system learns to learn, our minds also learn to learn and improve.

Diane Nyad isn’t the only 65+ athlete who has done amazing things. Everyone of us who gets down on the floor with her grands, takes up a new activity, adjusts to enjoy activities from youth is disproving the assumption that aging is regression..

The amazing thing is that