Hi Reader,
Over the last two weeks I've been talking about the physical pension - the idea that the choices you make now determine what your body can do in 10 or 20 years.
This week on the podcast Marc Pietropaoli, an orthopedic surgeon who has spent 35 years helping athletes avoid knee replacements, put it in terms I haven't heard before.
He called it the dummy tax.
The athletes who skip the strength work, ignore the niggles, push through the warning signs, and try to figure it out themselves rather than getting in front of someone good - they end up paying. Not immediately. But eventually, and usually at a much higher cost than if they'd addressed things earlier.
Marc made a point in our conversation that landed hard. Most athletes in their 50s and 60s wait too long. They manage things, they push through, they hope it settles. And by the time they do get in front of someone who can actually help them, they're dealing with something that would have been so much easier to treat six months earlier.
I recognised myself in that immediately. The right kneecap that niggles me. The tightness that I've been putting down to years of swimming, cycling, and running. I've told myself it's just the penalty for a life well lived. What Marc made me realise is that some of that penalty is negotiable - if you're willing to be proactive rather than reactive.
There's a line I use in my coaching that this conversation reinforced. You don't have time to do the strength work now. But when you end up in the physio's chair - or worse, the surgeon's - you'll suddenly find all the time in the world. The irony is that the athletes who claim they can't fit strength training into their week are the same ones spending months rebuilding after an injury that the strength training might have prevented.
Proactive and preventive. That's what Marc kept coming back to. And it connects directly to everything we've been discussing about the physical pension. Every session of strength work, every mobility routine, every early conversation with a good physio when something doesn't feel right - those are deposits. Ignoring them, hoping they'll settle, managing rather than addressing - those are withdrawals.
The dummy tax is the price of all those accumulated withdrawals arriving at once.
Train smart,
Wardy
P.S. SWAT members are getting access to a series of winter training videos this month - including practical strength and mobility work built specifically for endurance athletes over 50. New members join at £65 a month, no minimum term. If that sounds like the kind of support you've been looking for, find out more about joining here: https://www.simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle
P.P.S. Marc's full conversation this week is worth your time - particularly the sections on bone on bone being used as an excuse, what the evidence actually says about cortisone and PRP, and the three questions to ask before agreeing to a knee replacement.
Listen here - Repair Not Replace: What every endurance athlete needs to know about their knees
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Simon Ward
Performance coach for endurance athletes over 50
Helping you train smarter, race stronger, and stay in the sport for the long haul.
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