Longevity … or length of life, life span, lifetime; durability, endurance, resilience, strength, robustness.

In the mid 90's I was living in Minneapolis studying at university and training at Rick Fayeʼs MKG.  Because I was a student, I didn't usually have a lot of money to spend on training.  Knowing this, Rick was good enough to allow me to clean the gym in exchange for not paying monthly dues.  I loved this arrangement, and spent A LOT of time in the gym 5 and 6 days a week.  “Gym Rat” was a good descriptor to fit me at that time. 

During this time I suffered an injury to my lower back which caused me to not be
able to train for a period of weeks.  When I had gotten through the worst of the injury I went back to the gym to pick up my training.  As I met with some of my training partners I found out to my dismay that they had learned many new techniques while I was gone.  I now felt as though I...