The Gen X Athleticism Series — Wellness Mechanics

The athlete’s dilemma

You feel old.

Not sick. Not out of shape. Old. Your movement system, your kinetic chain, has three links: bones, brawn and brain. They have gone kinked, weak and out of sync. Moves that used to be automatic now feel stiff, slow and jerky.

Kinkedbones out of line

Weakbrawn won’t brace

Out of syncbrain fires late

The numbers behind it

If you do nothing

−30%

of your muscle, gone over a lifetime.

−3 to 4%

of your strength, every year after 75. Strength goes 2 to 5 times faster than muscle.

+10%

more fat inside the muscle, every year. The scale can stay the same while it happens.

If you train, at any age

+174%

stronger in 8 weeks. People around 90 who started lifting.Fiatarone et al., JAMA 1990

+7.5 years

of life for people over 50 who believe they can still get better.Levy et al., Yale, J Pers Soc Psychol 2002

Harvard Health, Preserve your muscle mass · Mitchell et al., Frontiers in Physiology 2012 · Ponti et al., Frontiers in Endocrinology 2019 · el Hadouchi et al., Eur Rev Aging Phys Act 2022

The goal

Athleticism is flow.

Fluid and firm at the right time, in the right sequence. Your body makes it with two systems: the movement system does the moving, the energy systems power it. Together they produce output, capacity and durability.

Movement system

Bones

Brawn

Brain

Energy systems

Anaerobicshort & power

Aerobiclong & steady

OutputCapacityDurability

The athlete’s solution

Athleticism is a skill, and few have ever reached their genetic potential.So you can blame your genes, or luck, or getting old. Or you can go get it: it is up to you. Your athleticism is not fixed. You change it by optimizing five pillars. Neglect one and you decline. Fitness is one of the pillars.

Fitness

Movement system and energy systems. This is where Wellness Mechanics works.

The Gen X Athleticism Series

Fuel

Food, water and sleep. Everything that refills the tank.

Fluency

Technical and tactical skills of your sport or activity.

Fun

Emotional and mental resilience that keeps you in the game for life.

Faith

Living with purpose, connection to something greater, and serving others.

Fitness · The Gen X Athleticism Series

The Four Steps to Athleticism

The Gen X Athleticism Series is the Fitness program: four steps, each built on the one before. Start at Restore.

Step 01

Restore

Fix your kinetic chain’s function. Restore mobility, strengthen the weak links, and sync all the links to prepare your body for increased athleticism.

Step 02

Reinforce

Build on the foundation of mobility, stability, and motor control of your kinetic chain.

Step 03

Refine

Add sport-specific movement patterns and progressively increase complexity for performance.

Step 04

Retain

Lock in your gains. Maintain results through recovery, regeneration, and sustainable athletic habits.

Every step fixes the three links: your ABCs.

Kinked, weak, out of sync: one fix for the bones, one for the brawn, one for the brain. In that order.

Alignment

of the bones

Problem: the bones get kinked.

head to toe

Stack the ribcage over the pelvis, the diaphragm over the pelvic floor.

Bracing

of the brawn

Problem: the brawn is the weak link.

inside out

The breath is essential for bracing: the whole trunk expands 360° and holds the pressure.

Coordination

from the brain

Problem: the brain gets out of sync.

ground up

Move all the muscles in the proper order, the breath coordinated with the limbs, to produce an efficient movement pattern. Learned in the order you first moved: see how you were built, below.

Example 1 · The stack

The stack is how we look at your overall alignment, bracing and coordination.

IDEAL ABCs

POOR ABCs

Line up the top and the bottom of the cylinder, level with each other. Then, on the inhale, the diaphragm drops, the trunk widens 360°, and the pelvic floor holds. That is bracing. You’ll feel the difference in your first breath drill of Restore, Step 1, before you do a single rep.

Ideal ABCs: A, spine, rib cage and pelvis lined up. B, the proper inhale: the trunk widens 360°, the diaphragm drops, the pelvic floor holds. C, from here every muscle fires in order.

Poor ABCs: the spine, rib cage and pelvis are out of line (malalignment), so the brace is poor and you are unstable, so the limbs are poorly coordinated. Kinked, weak, out of sync.

Free video · 3 minutes

3-Minute Quick Fix for Your Gen X Athleticism

Touch-your-toes test. 3-minute reset. Re-test. Enter your email and we’ll send you the free video right away.

Before: fingertips at mid-shin. After the reset: fingertips nearly at the toes.

Kenny’s own result, a few minutes apart. Results vary.

Example 2 · How you were built

You were built in this order.

Developmental kinesiology: the order every baby learns to move, the way the Prague School (DNS) teaches it. In each position we work on alignment from head to toe, bracing from the inside out starting with the breath, and coordination from the ground up.

This is how we teach and coach the ABCs, and how we build your alignment, bracing and coordination.

Ten anatomical figures in developmental order: frog, log, low log, high log, tripod, half kneeling, squat, standing, running, and throwing, kicking, striking

Start with Restore, Step 1. Free for 30 days.

Start My Free 30 Days

Never too late to improve your athleticism.

Same body. Same years. One decision.

You feel old.