Injuries and diseases

If you do not take care of prevention, it is very easy to fall into a spiral that I call the vicious circle of health:

injury → no training → loss of fitness → higher risk of another injury → even less movement → an even greater drop in health

I have seen it many times.

It starts with one knee injury, one herniated disc, one strained shoulder. A year later this person is still not training, gains weight, loses fitness — and every attempt to return ends with another pain.

It is similar with infections. One “downplayed” cold can stretch into a week-long period of weakness that takes away your regularity, sleep, strength and even motivation.

The older you are and the lower your baseline health is — the faster this circle spins.

In youth, the body recovers almost “in the background”. You sleep poorly, the warm-up is symbolic, injuries heal surprisingly quickly, and the body still returns to form.

However, after thirty this automatic recovery starts to end. The body begins to work differently: every overload, every fall, every infection costs you more time, more energy and more biological resources.

This does not mean that after 30 you have to slow down and give up your ambitions. It does mean that the price of skipping prevention is an increasingly expensive bill. In the background there are biological processes at work that gradually change the rules of the game.

Decline in bone density

After thirty, the rate of bone mineral loss begins to exceed the rate of rebuilding if you do not provide the right stimuli (strength training, loading, diet). Bones gradually become less resistant to micro-injuries and overload. On a daily basis you may not feel it until something “minor” happens — a sudden pull, a fall, lifting something with trunk rotation.

Effects:

• higher risk of microfractures, stress fractures and injuries “without a clear cause”,
• recurring back pain that stops being just “stiffness from sitting”,
• greater susceptibility to overload injuries at the same loads that used to be neutral.

Reduced flexibility and mobility

With age, collagen regenerates more slowly and connective tissues become less elastic. If you do not take care of mobility, your range of motion decreases almost imperceptibly year by year, until one day you realise that a simple squat, bend or reaching high overhead requires “warming up” or starts to pull.

Effects:

• morning stiffness that is easy to blame on “age” or a “sedentary lifestyle”,
• a feeling of tightness during simple movements — bending, rotation, climbing stairs,
• higher risk of strains, tears and overloads during dynamic movements and changes of direction.

Weakened immune system (immunosenescence)

Immunosenescence is the process of gradual “aging” of the immune system. Immune cells work less efficiently, react more slowly, more often “let through” infections, and each episode of illness lasts longer. This does not have to mean serious diseases — it is enough that a simple cold knocks you out of your protocol for 10 days instead of 3.

Effects:

• more frequent seasonal infections and lingering subclinical states,
• longer time to regain full energy after illness,
• greater susceptibility to chronic inflammation that “eats away” your resources in the background.

More inflammation and oxidative stress (inflammaging)

Inflammaging is a term describing chronic, low-grade inflammation associated with age. The body starts to work less economically: to react to a stimulus, it uses more energy, produces more free radicals, and repair processes are slower and less effective. The result is chronic “material fatigue”.

Effects:

• chronic fatigue, even when you theoretically get enough sleep,
• slower building of fitness despite a well-designed training plan,
• greater susceptibility to overloads and micro-injuries, because the body “cannot keep up” with repair.

Conclusion:
After 30, every illness and every injury hurts more, lasts longer and takes more health from you than you think. This is not a reason to slow down. It is a reason to start treating prevention as a key investment, not an optional add-on.

Your goal is not to “never get sick” or “never get injured”. That is unrealistic and would only lead to frustration. The real goal of the Longevity Investment Strategy is to:

• fall out of your protocol as rarely as possible,
• return to it as quickly and wisely as possible when it does happen.

For this to be possible, you need several pillars that work in parallel.

1. Strengthening immunity

A strong immune system is your first shield — it protects you not only from infections, but also from losing continuity in your protocol. The goal is not “magical supplementation”, but building an environment in which the body has the resources to defend itself effectively.

Basics:

• regular, deep sleep — this is when the immune system “learns”,
• a diet rich in micronutrients, antioxidants and fibre — fuel and building material,
• daily physical activity — movement that modulates immunity instead of suppressing it,
• moderate exposure to cold and heat — wisely used hormetic stress,
• reduction of chronic stress — because chronic cortisol weakens immunity as effectively as lack of sleep.

2. Mobility and flexibility training

Mobility training is not “stretching for joggers”. It is insurance for your joints and tissues for the coming decades of intense life. Without mobility, the body has no space to safely generate force or absorb loads.

Benefits:

• lower risk of injuries during dynamic movements and with heavier loads,
• greater range of motion, which makes technically correct exercises easier,
• better control over the body in extreme positions (fall, slip, sudden stop),
• comfort in everyday activities: bending, lifting, carrying.

3. Proper technique

What we often call “bad luck” is in reality years of accumulated technical compromises. Most injuries do not arise because the weight was “too heavy”, but because the body was not positioned in a way that allowed that weight to be transferred safely.

Good technique means:

• safety — you minimise unnecessary shearing and rotational forces,
• longevity — you can train for years without burning out your joints,
• stable progress — because each next step is built on a solid movement pattern.

If in any exercise something regularly “pulls”, “stings” or “clicks” — it is a signal that your technique, mobility or loading needs correction.

4. Proper recovery

Recovery is not “being lazy”. It is the phase in which your body turns the training stimulus into a real adaptation: more strength, more muscle, better endurance, stronger bones. Without recovery, training becomes nothing more than controlled damage.

Lack of recovery = lack of progress + higher risk of injury.

Proper recovery includes:

• sleep of good quality (not just quantity),
• days that are lighter or completely free from intense effort,
• adequate nutrition around training,
• techniques for lowering arousal (breathing, calming down, breaks from stimuli),
• a daily walk and an appropriate number of steps.

5. Not doing stupid things

The simplest pillar, but the most often ignored. In practice it means being able to say to yourself: “today I skip it”, instead of “I’ll manage somehow”.

If:

• you feel joint pain — that is a signal, not a challenge,
• you experience unusual, sharp discomfort — that is a signal, not “sluggishness” you should “walk off”,
• you are chronically tired, sleep-deprived, run-down — that is a signal that your body has no resources for another hard stimulus.

In longevity, the winner is not the one who is most heroic today, but the one who is consistently wisely ambitious over the next 20–40 years.

Let’s take a specific scenario: you twist your ankle and drop out of training for 6 weeks. On paper that is “only” a month and a half of break. In reality — it is a real drop in assets in several areas at once.

1. Physical assets

Within a few weeks without full-value training:

• VO₂ max can drop by about 5–15% after 3–4 weeks of complete break, and in highly trained athletes even up to ~20% after 6–8 weeks,
• muscle strength decreases by 5–15% depending on the muscle group and previous level,
• you can lose 0.5–1.5 kg of muscle mass (especially with low protein intake and lack of stimulus),
• joint mobility and proprioception worsen, which increases the risk of another injury,
• the amount of body fat increases, because energy expenditure drops while eating habits usually stay the same.

All of this happens very quickly — much faster than you built your previous form.

2. Metabolic assets

A forced break from training is also a hit to your metabolism:

• insulin sensitivity worsens — muscles that work less capture glucose less effectively,
• inflammation increases — both because of the injury itself and because of lower activity,
• glucose regulation becomes less stable, which translates into energy fluctuations during the day.

As a result, after a few weeks you may feel “heavier”, more sluggish, less stable energy-wise — even though formally you “just didn’t train”.

3. Emotional assets

The body is one thing. The second area that suffers just as much is your mind.

• mood deteriorates — lack of movement means fewer endorphins, less dopamine, more tension,
• you lose your sense of agency — you are not following the plan that was an important part of your identity,
• motivation drops — the longer the break, the greater the resistance to returning,
• stress increases — because you feel that you are “moving backwards on the Path” instead of forward.

This is often the biggest silent cost of injury: the weakening of the psychological foundation on which you base your protocol.

4. Loss of momentum — the biggest but invisible loss

Momentum is the momentum of your system. It is the feeling that you are “in motion”: you are doing what you planned, you see progress, you feel continuity.

Research on habits and physical activity shows that a significant proportion of people who interrupt their training routine:

• never return to their previous level,
• or return only after many months, often from a much worse starting point.

One injury can therefore mean not a 6-week break, but:

• loss of your previous trajectory,
• having to start from scratch,
• a real shortening of your healthy years of life — in a literal, not metaphorical sense.

Injuries and illnesses are not just “bad events”. In the Longevity Investment Strategy they are:

• lost gains,
• a drop in biological assets,
• risk of breaking continuity,
• moving backwards on your Path,
• an opportunity cost that is often irreversible.

That is why treat injuries the way an investor treats the risk of financial catastrophe: minimise risk before bad things happen.