The Vicious Cycle of Subtle Physical Withdrawal

Source: AI Generated Image

Janelle rides an exercise bike at the gym several hours a week, but the thought of riding a real bike intimidates her. Even without traffic, the idea of dealing with wind and uneven surfaces makes her hesitant.

Max notices he’s stopped going to very large warehouse-style supermarkets. He increasingly prefers to do more frequent shops at smaller stores where he can just grab a basket or a small cart. The thought of pushing a big cart, possibly with janky wheels, up and down giant aisles and loading many grocery bags into the car has begun to feel like a supersized effort he's not up for.

Parker moved from a five-floor walk-up to a building with an elevator when she got a promotion. The more she's gotten used to that convenience, the more she avoids hopping up a few flights of stairs in general.

What Janelle, Max, and Parker have in common is subtle physical withdrawal.

Physical Avoidance Accelerates Declines in Confidence and Power

In psychology, many causal relationships are circular.

For example, we lose a bit of physical power. This could arise from aging or, equally, from de-conditioning that's happened because we've been focused on other things, such as career or pregnancy. Then, we pull away from physically challenging ourselves. As a consequence, we lose confidence in what our body can do, and we lose even more power and endurance. This kicks off a cycle.

The pattern I’ve described can occur with reaching middle age or for other reasons. It can start in your 30s, when small routine shifts begin to compound or because other challenges take priority. For instance, as your intellectual confidence grows, you might gravitate to that realm. Or, you go on a diet, and that under-fueling influences your activity level.

Physical Confidence Comes from Novelty, Not Intensity

We gain and maintain physical confidence from using our body in new ways. When we start avoiding routine movement, such as carrying heavy things, we become more inclined to avoid novel movement.

To keep your brain youthful, you need to keep challenging it to learn new physical patters. whether that’s playing a new instrument or sport, or new-to-you tasks with practical value.

The activity doesn’t need to be intense. The value comes from variation, not intensity. For example, this week I did several tasks I’d never done before related to my car. I visited a “U pull” model junkyard where I had to use tools to extract a parking brake I needed out of a wrecked car. I also replaced a broken rear door handle on my car exterior, which was fiddly and required more patience and frustration tolerance than power.

These weren’t workouts. That’s not the point. They were new physical tasks. In this case, they involved climbing around at different angles to look and pull at things.

Signs You Are Falling into a Pattern of Physical Withdrawal

To avoid the pattern of decay I’ve described, we need to be alert for signs of it.

Examples:

• You used to swim with your kids when you took them to the pool, but now you sit and watch.
• You start getting heavy grocery and household items delivered rather than schlepping them yourself.
• Vacations that involve diverse physical challenges like waiting outside in lines or being active in unpredictable weather start to feel less appealing.
• Your highest cupboards become graveyards of items you never use again. If something gets put up there, it’s never going to be accessed.

Physical Novelty Is Part of How You Stay Resilient

Everyone reaches a point of physical limitations, but we reach it sooner if we shy away from physical tasks and don’t challenge our brain to regularly encounter unfamiliar motor patterns. If we stick to only a restricted set of movement patterns, our brain gets accustomed to firing our muscles only in a narrow range of ways. When we give ourselves new challenges, within reason, we adapt to them on a variety of mental and physical levels.

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We’ve all heard phrases like “neurons that fire together wire together” and “use it or lose it.” However, it’s not often talked about how subtle behavioral changes can lead to a loss of physical confidence and greater physical withdrawal.

If we use the intellectual side of our capacity more, we become more comfortable with that.

You Don’t Need to Do Anything Heroic to Reverse the Trend

Earlier I emphasized diversity of movement and the benefits of challenging your brain to command a wide variety of motor patterns, not intensity. You don't need to do anything physically heroic to counter a trend of avoidance. Make some bread that requires hand kneading, change the battery on a high-up sensor, or reorganize your highest cupboards.

Identify role models who don't shy away fro diverse forms of movement and from using the full extent of their body's capabilities.

If you think this article is anti-convenience, that's a misread. It's merely anti-mindlessness. We can't withdraw from capacities we want to maintain. If we want to be able to scoot, climb, and exert physical power, we need to regularly do that. (Note: I'm aware this article makes some ableist assumptions, and I don't mean to cause any harm by that.)

Readers who come to Psychology Today are often seeking to be more cognitively nimble. This article is your gentle reminder about the emotional benefits of being physically nimble, to the greatest extent you're capable of.