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This is the Making Moves Podcast hosted by Vanja Moves.
Most people think that ageing is just this slow decline into weakness, stiffness, fragility and pain. By the time you hit 40, people tell you that it's normal that your back constantly hurts. By 50, your knees are shot and done. And by 60, you are told that you need to take it easy. You know what that really means?
Vanja:They expect you to shrink, to settle, to accept the idea that you are falling apart. But let me be very clear with you. That whole narrative is a lie, and you don't have to be that statistic because aging is not an inevitable decline. Aging is adaptation, and adaptation is something that you control. Your body is the most adaptable machine on the planet.
Vanja:It doesn't just exist, it responds, it reorganizes, it learns. If you stop moving, your body adapts to that lack of input by becoming weaker, stiffer and more fragile. But when you move, when you put it under the right kinds of stress, it adapts in the opposite direction. It becomes stronger, it becomes more resilient, it becomes more capable. And that process doesn't have an age limit.
Vanja:It doesn't stop at 30. It doesn't stop at 50. It doesn't even stop at 80. The only time that it stops is when you stop. What's happening to most people is not aging.
Vanja:It's deconditioning. It is decades of sitting, ignoring pain signals and outsourcing health to pills, treatments and surgeries, instead of taking accountability and addressing the root cause of the problem, which is lack of movement. One day you notice that you can't get up off the floor without using your hands. The next day you're gripping the railing just to climb the stairs. Then you wake up stiff and it takes minutes to actually stand up straight because of all the pain.
Vanja:And you start saying, I'm just not as young as I used to be. And the system nods and tells you, yep, that's normal. That's just part of aging, But it's not part of aging. It is accumulation of choices, complacency, becoming unaware. And if it is built by choices, that means you can choose to act differently.
Vanja:You can change the narrative of your story. So why do so many people believe that aging has to be a downhill spiral? Well, because it's profitable. There is an entire industry built on keeping you fragile. Pills for your joints, injections for your pain, surgeries for your hips and knees, special chairs, funky shoes, braces, gadgets, and gimmicks that keep you functioning just enough to survive.
Vanja:But none of these things make you resilient. None of them build a body that can handle stress. Our culture has normalized fragility. Sitting in chairs instead of squatting to the floor, slowing down in your 40s and 50s as if less movement is a solution to the problem while we age. Avoiding discomfort, never crawling, never hanging, never carrying anything heavy, never moving out of alignment, never flexing your spine, until those movements feel impossible for you, until you start to fear movement.
Vanja:And the biggest one is outsourcing responsibility to doctors, physios, or pills, instead of owning the one thing that actually gives you freedom and control. And that's movement. Here's the danger. When you accept fragility as normal, you stop questioning it. You hand over the steering wheel, and you let decline drive you.
Vanja:But the proof is all around us that the story is wrong. You see the 70 year old running marathons, you see the 80 year old deadlifting, you see the grandparents who are able to get on the floor to play with their grandkids and stand back up without needing help. If decline were inevitable, then how come these people exist? Well, they exist because they never bought the lie. They built resilience through movement.
Vanja:Let me paint you a story. Picture this, two people, both 70 years old. One of them spent thirty years in the normal lifestyle, long hours in chairs, stress at work, the occasional gym membership they didn't stick with, mostly comfort Netflix, cars, elevators. Now their knees ache, their back hurts, they avoid stairs, they're just retired, not from work, but also from life. The other person, well, they practiced the fundamentals.
Vanja:They did their squatting daily, they're hanging, walking, carrying, moving through full ranges of motion, nothing extreme, just consistency. At 70, they are able to sit on the floor and stand up without needing help. They're able to carry groceries in one hand and their grandchild in the other. They don't fear stairs or falls or play. Same age, same years on earth, completely different outcomes.
Vanja:And here's the kicker. It's not genetics. It's not luck. It's choices. One chose fragility, the other chose resilience.
Vanja:And here's the part that nobody likes to admit. We have been programmed into fragility. As kids, we were told to sit still, in school sit still, At work, sit still. At home, sit still. Don't slouch, don't bend that way.
Vanja:Be careful, you'll hurt yourself. We were told that movement was dangerous. Don't round your back. Don't squat too low. Don't take your knees past your toes.
Vanja:Just stretch. Don't strengthen. Pain, that's just life. Every one of those messages chips away at your potential until one day you say it out loud, I'm just getting old. But you've been told wrong.
Vanja:The decline that most people experience isn't inevitable. It's engineered. Engineered by culture, by comfort, by neglect. And the solution isn't another pill or more stretching or taking it easy. The solution is movement, real human movement.
Vanja:The kind that your ancestors did daily, the squatting, the hanging, the crawling, the wrestling, the break eating, the twisting, the climbing, not circus tricks, not fitness gimmicks, the basics done consistently with strength, with intention, with daily practice. And that's what builds resilience. That is what rewires your future. Let's talk about the silent thief of movement. Decline doesn't happen because the human body is weak.
Vanja:It happens because we've engineered movement out of our lives. For most of history, movement wasn't a scheduled workout. It was survival. Squatting to cook, crawling together, climbing to reach, carrying to live, walking for hours, running when needed, hanging, twisting, rolling. But today, you can survive without moving.
Vanja:We sit to work. We sit to commute. We sit to relax. Exercise is an optional side quest, and your body adapts to whatever you repeatedly do or don't do. Stop moving and you don't pause capacity.
Vanja:You lose it slowly and silently until a simple bend, twist or step surprises you with pain or injuries. People call that getting older. It's not. It's under stimulation in a movement starved environment. The comfort culture is the slowest poison.
Vanja:Convenience trades away capacity. Your cars replace your walking, your delivery replaces leaving the house, the chairs replace squatting, the cushion shoes replace foot feedback and strong arches. The desk posture moulds the body into rounded shoulders and locked hips, so you end up looking like a prawn. Each easy choice tells your nervous system that we don't need this range. So it deletes it for you.
Vanja:You don't notice the deletion until you try to use it and then it's gone. That's how the spiral starts. Neglect compounds like interest. Avoid a range for a year and you lose a little. Avoid it for decades, you lose trust, strength, and confidence.
Vanja:By your 50s, you're not old, you are carrying a thirty year old bill of neglect. The good news, compounding works both ways. So small daily deposits in fundamental movement patterns, such as bending the back, arching the back, taking the knees over your toes, all of that build it back into your favour. The nervous system is the gatekeeper. Mobility is not just about tissue length, it is the nervous system which grants or withholds access.
Vanja:If the brain doesn't trust the position, it locks you out. Stretching alone rarely challenges that. Strength in range does. Own positions under control and the nervous system reopens them at any age. Decline isn't age, it is accumulation of comfort, neglect and disconnection from movement.
Vanja:The answer is to reintroduce the inputs that your body was designed to adapt to consistently, intentionally with strength. You have to think of movement as the blueprint for longevity. If fragility can be created, resilience can be created too. Longevity isn't luck, it is a system that you build. The longevity blueprint isn't a six week plan.
Vanja:It is a set of non negotiables that compound over decades. The core philosophy here is building strength through range. So flexibility without strength is fragility. Real longevity is owning your ranges under load and control. What breaks people isn't a marathon, it is the unexpected slip, the reach, the twist.
Vanja:So train your joints and your nervous system to be resilient in every position, and you will be prepared for life. Here are the four non negotiables that I give everyone. Number one is a squat. That is your birthright position. Reclaim the deep squat as a daily posture.
Vanja:Your hips, knees, ankles and spine will thank you. Rest in it, breathe in it, make it normal again. Being able to sit on the floor at 70 and stand without help is freedom. Number two, hang. The antidote to the modern spine.
Vanja:Your shoulders are made to hang, swing and climb. Hanging decompresses the spine. It opens a rib cage, it restores shoulder mechanics, and it also builds grip, which is strongly associated with longevity. It is not about pull ups, it is about telling your body I still own this range. Number three, carry.
Vanja:Real world strength. Life strength is carrying strength, groceries, luggage, kids, projects. Carries integrate the spine, the hips, the shoulders, the grip and gait. You don't need fancy equipment, you just need load, posture and intent. Independence lives here.
Vanja:And number four is crawling, which is strength and coordination built together. Crawling reconnects cross body patterns, stabilizes the spine and restores fluidity. It exposes the leaks quickly and fixes them through repetition. It is humbling, playful and profoundly effective. So let me explain why these four concepts are very important.
Vanja:Lose the squat and you lose independence. Lose the hang, the shoulders and the spine lock. Lose the carry and you outsource daily life. Lose the crawl and you lose adaptability. These movements are the basics that keep you human.
Vanja:And that's where you start. Because consistency beats intensity. Longevity is built on movement snacks, such as daily deposits, not heroic binges. Five to ten minutes done forever beats an hour done sometime. So think of these like brushing your teeth for your joints and your nervous system.
Vanja:So a simple day for you can look like this. In the morning, you do a sixty second deep squat. At midday, you do two hangs of twenty to thirty seconds. In the afternoon, you do one intentional carry such as a backpack, a bag or a suitcase. And in the evening, one minute of crawling patterns.
Vanja:That is a total time of ten minutes, but the return on investment is massive. That's how you compound freedom. You also want to make sure to build a bulletproof spine. A spine that never moves is a spine that breaks when life forces it to. Train controlled flexion, extension and rotation so that your nervous system trusts those positions.
Vanja:Prepare the spine to move and it will protect you when it must. And finally, stop treating movements like a hobby. It is your identity. The people thriving into their 80s don't negotiate with the basics. They weave them into who they are.
Vanja:And that's the blueprint. I would now like you to picture two different futures. At 70, 80, 90, do you see yourself free and capable? Or do you see yourself sidelined and dependent? Both are possible.
Vanja:The difference is the blueprint and how you build now. Freedom is the body moving without permission slips, spontaneous trips without knee anxiety, floor play without fear of getting back up, stairs without calculation, independence without negotiation. This is the dividend of daily movement. You have two accounts, one choice. Every day that you deposit into resilience or fragility, squats, hangs, carries, crawls, each is a deposit towards freedom.
Vanja:Skipping them funds a different future. The math is simple. The habit is the work. So why does starting now matter? Because you cannot cram resilience.
Vanja:You build it. The longer you wait, the more debt you carry. But it's never too late to begin compounding in the right direction. Start where you are, the body will adapt along with you. I need you to go from fear to power.
Vanja:Avoidance grows fear, practice shrinks it. Each reclaimed position tells your nervous system that this is safe, I own this, I got this. That confidence in movement becomes confidence in everything that you do in your life. Your body becomes a model for the people watching you. If they see fragility, they will accept fragility.
Vanja:If they see capability, they will believe in capability. You're not just training for yourself, you are teaching what's possible. Aging is adaptation, input is your choice. Make movement non negotiable. The future version of you is already responding to what you do today.
Vanja:I'm going to close this episode by busting out some myths that I hear on a daily basis. So if you've ever said this, I want you to break it from today. One, I'm too old to start. False. The nervous system adapts at any age.
Vanja:Start scaled, build trust and progress. Two, I need perfect genetics. No. Baseline matters, but environment writes most of the story. Consistency wins every time.
Vanja:Three, pain means that I'm broken. Pain is information. Use it to choose better regressions and build strength in range. Four, if I can't train hard, it doesn't count. Longevity loves frequency.
Vanja:Small daily inputs are better than occasional intensity. Five, decline is inevitable. Only if you accept neglect. Movement changes that narrative forever. Here's a practical anchor for you.
Vanja:Begin today, ten minutes. Squat sixty seconds in your deepest accessible squat. Use support if needed, breathe. Hang twenty to thirty seconds twice a day on a bar, ledge or sturdy doorframe. Carry heavy stuff, pick up something meaningfully heavy, walk tall, steady steps, set the distance and crawl sixty seconds of total forward, backward lateral smooth and controlled.
Vanja:That's all you have to do. You don't need equipment. You don't need a lot of space. You just need to do it daily. This becomes your insurance policy.
Vanja:Aging is not the villain, fragility is, comfort is, neglect is. You are not destined to break, you are destined to adapt. Movement is your medicine. Movement is autonomy. Movement is how you rewire the ending.
Vanja:So squat daily, hang often, carry weight, crawl on the ground, train your spine to move, build strength through every single range. Not for show, for freedom, for independence, for the future you. Ten years from now, someone will live inside the body that you are building today. Make choices that they will thank you for.