This entry was inspired by a ridiculous boxing match that occurred the night before writing this. I am not a boxing fan but for curiosity purposes I felt compelled to turn on the Netflix showing of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight. For those of you that do not follow this sort of stuff, Tyson was the best fighter in the world decades ago but he is now 58 years old. Paul is a 27 year old “Youtuber turned boxer”. Netflix paid Tyson $20 million and Paul $40 million for this match. It was heavily promoted and received lots of press leading up to the fight.
As expected, Tyson appeared slow, mostly out of shape and Paul won convincingly. The fight rules were changed to lessen the potential injury to Tyson including 2 minutes rounds as opposed to the usual 3, 8 rounds as opposed to the usual 12 and the boxing gloves were made larger than the usual to lessen the strength of the blows. Even though Tyson lost, he did not appear to be hurt to any extent and that $20 million he received will surely lessen the pain he may be experiencing this morning.
The reason why I am posting this event for my health-related blog is this: I have many patients that have been injured during activities they should not have been doing. This includes skiers with previous knee injuries that try skiing again only to blow out their knees once more, patients with back issues that go to cross-fit and/or other strenuous activities and reinjure their backs and older guys trying to play basketball with much younger men and wind up tearing their hamstrings or Achilles tendons.
The point: We all must adjust our activities based on our ages and medical situations. By not doing so we will subject ourselves to injuries that will sideline us for weeks if not months or years. There are PLENTY of exercises we can do that do not hold the potential for injuring ourselves. Our brains may tell us that we are 25 years old but as we age, our bodies cannot perform the way they did decades ago.
It is sad when a great athlete/sports figure does not retire gracefully at an age-appropriate time. It is much better to leave when you are on top…the Glory Days.
