I was at the yoga studio recently, and this woman was describing how her body's just falling apart — that now she's in her late 40s, everything just doesn't work right anymore, and how broken it is. Even though she's at a hot power yoga class, everything looks like it's working pretty well to me. And then this woman who's in her late 20s starts agreeing with her, talking about how things just don't work the same for her either, and she's getting injured, and it's taking longer to heal.
So I interrupted the two of them after listening to this for a few minutes. I said, stop saying you're falling apart. You're applying the nocebo effect to yourself — the opposite of the placebo effect.
The Nocebo Effect: Hexing Your Own Body
If you're not familiar with that, the placebo effect is where you convince yourself that something that is inert, or doesn't really do anything, has some magical powers. And because you believe it, it produces that real positive effect. Nocebo is the opposite, where you're essentially hexing or cursing yourself — where something that perhaps doesn't have any real meaning or impact, you start believing that it does, and because of that, you manifest it.
I interrupted them to say, look, I'm 42 — just a handful of years younger than the woman saying everything's falling apart, and more than a decade older than the other woman. And I'm saying my body works better than it's ever worked before.
For example, over the last two years I started playing tennis, and I've injured my wrist, injured my elbow, injured my shoulder multiple times, and both of my knees. Now, these are minor injuries. I certainly am open to going to the doctor or the emergency room if there was a severe, debilitating, massively painful injury. But for minor things — and I'm obviously not a doctor — what I do for myself is I trust my body to heal up minor injuries. In fact, I don't want more examination of them, because I trust my body will fix it just like it always has. What I've noticed is that I have this positive belief, I live on it, and my body just feels fantastic — anything that goes wrong, generally I only experience minor little injuries. And I'm not going to do anything that I don't want to do.
The brilliant thing about me now is I'm much more sensitive to listen when my body is giving me a gentle signal. For example, three weeks ago my friend got me out to this run club — which apparently some people on YouTube say is just for hookups. I can kind of see that, but I went once and haven't been back, and it didn't seem 100% like that to me. But I did get a minor injury in my shoulder when I tried to do about 30 push-ups at once. Now, I've been doing yoga for years, but I don't think I've done more than 20 push-ups at once, without stopping, in years. One of the guys there encouraged a whole bunch of us — yeah, let's get down on the pavement and do 30 push-ups. Well, I had just run, and I guess my shoulder was a little tight. So some little thing aggravated in my shoulder, kind of right around my collarbone.
Now, I'm sure some doctor could tell me what that is and why that happened. But do I need to know that? No. Maybe it's some placebo, maybe it's just reality, but I know my body will fix that. And yet, when I go to yoga, I am not doing push-ups until that sensation stops. I do everything else I can do. But when I go to do a push-up, I feel this extra tension right there, so I just back off. When I had a couple of little minor knee injuries playing tennis, I just went out there and ran slower — I'd run at like 50% speed instead of all-out sprinting. And I'm super grateful now.
One time a few years ago, I was walking around the house, and my calf muscle suddenly — I thought I got shot or something for a minute. I heard this gigantic loud pop, I felt like I got shot in the back of the calf, and I fell on the floor immediately. I'm not sure what happened with that, but that fixed itself. I've also sprained ankles. My body is still fixing itself just the same as it used to, and I pay attention to it better than I used to.
Pain Is Information, Not an Identity
So I understand that pain is information. But if I can help anybody stop these negative stories — making pain an identity and hexing the body with all kinds of this negative self-talk — please stop that.
Now, I will validate that perhaps the woman who's in her late 40s has some experience that's valid — that maybe her body is not healing as rapidly as it did 20 years ago. There may be some validity to that. But here's an idea worth sitting with: how much capacity is your body operating at right now versus what it used to? What potential does it have now? And what are you doing with it now to help it succeed?
To boil that down: maybe this woman has a legitimate point that her body is running at a limited capacity compared to what it used to do. Let's say maybe 80% capacity — that perhaps she has lost 20% of her edge. But you've got to still think about that 80%: most things are functioning correctly the vast majority of the time. Realistically, it's probably more like 95%. Now, this is just a metaphor — it's not an objective measurement.
If you look at the Army PT test — at least the last time I took it, which was a long time ago — you would basically peak in your mid-20s or so on what was expected of you in the fitness test, and then the standards would progressively drop off. Now, is that because it wasn't possible to maintain that level of fitness? Or was it because people who were in their 30s and 40s in the Army often just weren't needing to exercise as hard? Or maybe their bodies couldn't quite perform at that same level, and the bar was set down so that people on average could meet it more often?
My Body Responds to What I Do With It
What I found is that what I do with my body is a big part of how it functions. For example, when I first went to hot yoga, maybe two or three years ago, I felt like I was dying after a fairly easy, not-that-hot hot yoga class. I do much more intense hot yoga classes now. I just go in and knock out a hard, hot power flow class where it's 95-plus degrees in the room with infrared heat on, sweat an incredible amount, and go about my day. No more feeling like I'm dying. Why? Because my body adjusted to that.
Now, if you took me nine or ten years ago — back when I had been doing personal training and cardio, but then I moved, stopped personal training, and started just walking my dog — and dropped me into the hot yoga class I do today, I don't think I could do it. My body ten years ago was not in as good a shape to do a hot power yoga class as it is today. I've done probably 100 hot yoga classes by now, and I've worked up to that.
So the idea that age primarily determines our body's health — and then pouring our stories into talking bad about our body — is just insane. I am so grateful for how well my body works today.
This conversation goes for lots of different parts of the body and all different things. My friend, who's in his late 70s, just called me and said his testosterone tested at the same level most men in their 40s test at. And I'd be willing to bet that if I were to get a test, mine would be at the same level most men in their 20s or 30s are at. Because I take care of my body. If you look at me, I don't look old. If anything, if I showed you pictures from 15 years ago, back when I drank and I was overweight, you'd probably think I was about the same age then as I am now. The powerful thing about weight loss is that it's not just about the weight — it's about the body.
Lifestyle Choices Changed Everything for Me
The powerful idea I have to share with you here is this: think about how amazing your body normally works, and think about how many choices you make that impact how it works. Because this woman who was complaining about her body and putting it down with her words — she may have some additional valid points, but some of those may be her lifestyle choices and her beliefs.
I found that when I changed my lifestyle choices, my body responded dramatically. For example, I switched to whole plant, away from eating a practically carnivore diet before that was even a thing — carnivore diet plus junk food and an occasional fruit or vegetable. When I switched from that, my blood pressure dropped 20 points. My weight, along with quitting drinking and switching to whole plant, dropped 80 pounds — and I got more mindful about what I ate. In the times when I drank and disrupted my sleep, my mental health took a serious dive. Today, the way I take care of my body, it functions as well as — if not better than — I was used to it functioning in my 20s.
Now, is it possible that maybe some of the injuries I had before might have healed somewhat faster? Is it probable that if I had a hangover today, after being sober for 12 years, it would completely debilitate me compared to the hangovers I used to have, where I'd go through the whole day miserable? Is there some validity to the idea that the longer you've been here, the more your body has been through? Yes, there's some limited validity. But what I see is mostly people sabotaging themselves and making exaggerated conclusions. You can't really control your age, but you can control what you put in your body and how you take care of it. Therefore, you can have a huge influence on how your body functions at any age.
The more you put your focus on things you can't control and set yourself up as a victim, the more it pulls your attention away from the things you can control — like your diet and your exercise and your beliefs and your words and your sleep. So I hope you will never use language like "my body doesn't work anymore." I would hope you would say, "my body needs a different approach today." Because yes, maybe some of these bodies, the longer they've been here, might get a little more delicate.
And yes, some days I think, would I have had this shoulder injury doing the same thing 20 years ago? I don't know. And that's what you should lean into. I remember I got all kinds of injuries throughout my teens and my twenties, and they all healed up. I remember one time, from drinking, I had sprained both ankles — that was nice, trying to walk, especially being overweight and getting drunk.
Respecting My Body Without Calling It Old
So I don't use terms like "I'm too old for this." I do try to be a little more gentle and respect my body, and I generally avoid doing things I don't see a need to do today. The woman in her twenties was talking about being injured doing some kind of very advanced move right next to her boyfriend — they collided, and she got injured. I used to go snowboarding, and I hurt my back snowboarding and just kept snowboarding straight through it. I looked like I'd been beaten head to toe from all the falling bruises. I don't see the need to go snowboarding today. Maybe my body could handle it, but I don't see the point of putting myself in a position where a more serious injury is probable — like Owen getting his leg destroyed going skiing. Now, he went skiing a lot of times before he got his leg destroyed. But at the point I'm at, I try to put my body in positions where it's less likely to get injured.
I played tennis today, and I've played through a lot of injuries and done yoga through lots of minor injuries — but I limit doing things where injuries are more probable. I used to practice to level up my yoga skills — getting into handstands and all these more advanced things. But I talked to a guy who's 10 years older than me, and he said, "I did all that stuff and I kept hurting things." I probably would have hurt things doing that in my twenties too. The difference is that now I don't see why I'd try to do handstands in yoga, at least until the rest of my body is strengthened. I can always work on that later. I share more stories like this in my Life playlist.
Thus I encourage you to think about how grateful you are for your body. I don't panic over every minor sensation. I just observe and give my body a chance to heal when it's injured. I try to proactively take care of it. I am very willing to seek medical attention if I'm not confident something will fix itself or if I could get some help. That said, I don't have any health insurance, because I don't like paying for it and I'm borrowing money anyway. So I try to take care of myself. And I invite you to take care of yourself.
Let's Build a Life You Love Together
If this sounded good to you — if you're looking in the mirror and your life looks fine but it doesn't feel good — I'm here to support you in building a life that feels good and creating a life that you love. I'll work with you to see what's keeping you stuck. You can post in the group, direct message me, or show up on a group call in the Jerry Banfield Family, and we can work on rebuilding your mind and body together.
I don't provide medical advice. I have lost lots of weight, I take great care of myself, and I show you what I do. If there's something I don't know about, I'll suggest you go get help, see somebody who does know about it, or read a book. I'm here to help you build a life that you love living every day. And I have a community that's all about that. It's holistic — we talk about making money, dating, AI, crypto, and YouTube. We're here for you every day. Thank you very much for reading all of this.