Walking Up a Downward Escalator

If you’ve ever rushed through an airport, you may have been forced to run up a downward-moving escalator to get where you needed to go. In that setting, the trip is short enough that you can still make it to the top. You work hard for a brief period, reach your destination, and move on.

Training throughout life is different.

There is no short ride to the top. In many ways, training is like climbing an endless escalator that only wants to pull you down. It never stops trying. And the moment you stop climbing, even briefly, you begin to lose ground.

Skip a few weeks of training and you feel it. Skip longer and the downward pull becomes even stronger.

Don’t Lose Ground

The longer I train, the more I realize that progress doesn’t always mean reaching higher highs. Sometimes progress just means keeping pace with the downward pull of the escalator.

My homemade T-handle (below) is a prime example.

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Same exercise, same weight, years later. I don’t need more, but I don’t want less. I’ll keep fighting to hold on.

At some point, we all experience this shift in mindset throughout our training journey. You become more concerned about holding on to your hard-earned strength rather constantly seeking more. It’s a transition from your beginner days when progress came quickly. Early on, you could gain strength just by looking at a barbell. There’s nothing quite like those early, newbie gains. Back then, we didn’t even know there was an escalator, and if there was, it was barely moving.

But as the years pass, the challenge changes.

Eventually, the goal becomes less about smashing personal bests and more about holding on to what you’ve already built. And that is not a negative. In many ways, it is one of the purest forms of progress.

Maintenance Is Progress

Many people become discouraged because they expect progress to look the same forever. They assume that if the numbers aren’t constantly climbing, something must be wrong.

But if you can still run hills, skip rope, do pull-ups, or perform the same exercises you did years ago, that isn’t failure.

That’s progress.

Being able to maintain strength, conditioning, and movement while life and time continue pulling in the opposite direction is an accomplishment in itself.

Of course, recognizing the value of maintenance doesn’t mean you stop trying to improve. Gains can still happen. Even after decades of training I still find areas where I can get stronger or more efficient. The difference is that I no longer expect progress to occur everywhere at once. Sometimes improvement in one area comes while another is maintained, and that too is progress.

Keep It Simple

The solution isn’t complicated. And yes, I’ve said that for years, and I’ll continue saying it. Not enough people are listening, not enough people are saying it, and too many are trying to sell you a complex storyline that isn’t true.

Do this instead.

Show up. Work. Keep climbing.

You don’t need endless novelty or unnecessary complexity. The same exercises that worked years ago still work today. What matters is the consistency to keep using them.

The escalator never stops moving, so neither can you.

Final Thoughts

None of us reach a point where the work is done. There is no final step where the escalator suddenly stops pulling downward.

That’s part of life.

But it also gives purpose to the climb.

Every workout is a chance to keep your footing. Every day you show up is another step upward. And if you keep climbing long enough, you may one day look back and realize that refusing to be carried down was its own kind of victory.

“When you’ve exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison