Sounds easy ? - Actually I think it will be ... Eat healthy - Exercise Body and Mind - Sleep - Be with People and have a Purpose !!
I am a Swimmer for life - Erik Hochstein - I live my life now at what I consider normal health, but most may look at it as extreme something. I believe we should learn the information “out there” and then decide ourselves, I am not judging or believe others are wrong - I just want to share the decisions I make and why I make them. I have made decisions that I would change now and will make more of those- but overall for me I believe I am on a path to swim FOREVER - or another 56 years PLUS as I am a 56y old Swimmer !!
The journey back into the pool - I have done my share of “laps” in the pool - but then my 3 kids were a what I now call excuse not to swim or exercise at all for 14 years. This is my 3rd return to the pool. I swam for West Germany in the 88 Olympics and won a relay Bronze, then at USC under Peter Daland. Stopped after college as so many do but got back in the pool in my 30s - made it back to Olympic Trials and all - shoulder surgery was another stop but I came back quickly. Came close to my best times at age 41 with those funky suits, still have some Masters records, but then I stopped - odd thing was that I always thought of myself as a swimmer, always.
Now on my way back into the pool - I started just doing sprints for about 5 months - as I still strongly believe that swimming to this day does way way too much distance and endurance. I will share my “return” lessons, there are many !! I will share what other things and lessons I see and learn about swimming and life.
One thing I keep learning - your body loses sooooooooo much of everything if you don't use it !!! My stroke and technique are still close to what it used to be. But as one would of course think and should expect if you advise somebody (always so easy to tell others but hard to see it in yourself) strength, endurance and flexibility simply "disappear". This is not my take on the aging decline - this is meant only as - you lose it all if you don't use it !!! Again - we all know this but the degree and experiencing it - totally different. My easiest example and odd for me as I was never a weight room guy - bench press ... I was a mid distance swimmer, we did do strength 3x per week - my best bench was 210lbs - nothing amazing but solid for me. Now at age 55 I did a very slow and careful building of workouts - didn't measure, but 5 months of frequent push ups or basic strength work. I gave it try to see my best - I could not bench 135lbs .... Imagine what that means for my pull strength in the water .... Can I get it back ? we shall see - I am on the path now...
