What Does High Maintenance Mean? Salon vs. Gym

“High maintenance.”

What does high maintenance mean to you? For some people, being a high maintenance person is practically a badge of honor.

Regular salon appointments. Hair, nails, skin care, grooming, great clothes—the time and money spent maintaining appearance can signal something very simple:

I value myself. I’m worth maintaining.

Fair enough.

But if being high maintenance reflects high value, there’s something even more valuable to maintain.

Your body.

You maintain your hair. Your skin. Your teeth. Your car. Your home.

So why would you expect your body—the one thing you have to live in for your entire life—to maintain itself?

Salon Maintenance vs. Body Maintenance

There is nothing wrong with caring about your appearance. In fact, that’s exactly the point.

If you consider yourself worth maintaining on the outside, why stop there?

A hair appointment maintains what people see.

A workout maintains what your body can do.

You can spend an hour maintaining your hair—or an hour maintaining the muscles that get you out of a chair and up a flight of stairs.

You can maintain your manicure—or maintain the grip strength that lets you carry your own groceries and luggage.

You can invest in treatments designed to make your skin look younger—or invest in the strength, balance and conditioning that can help your body function younger.

Beauty maintenance changes how you look. Body maintenance changes how you live.

And the two aren’t entirely separate. Building strength can change how you carry yourself. Stronger postural muscles and better body awareness can contribute to a more upright, confident appearance. The way you stand, walk and move is part of how you look, too.

Your Body Is High Maintenance

Like it or not, your body requires maintenance.

Muscle doesn’t remain simply because you once had it. Neither do strength, cardiovascular fitness, mobility or balance.

They require use.

And the older we become, the more important that maintenance becomes.

Yet exercise is often treated as optional—something we’ll get around to when there is enough time.

Imagine applying that philosophy to everything else you maintain.

“I’ll brush my teeth when I have time.”

“I’ll change the oil when life settles down.”

“I’ll take care of the house someday.”

Maintenance works because it is repeated consistently before something breaks down.

Your body deserves the same consideration.

Self Maintenance Isn’t Self-Indulgence

The phrase self maintenance can sound indulgent until you consider what you’re actually preserving.

The ability to get off the floor.

Carry your own suitcase.

Walk through an airport.

Climb stairs.

Travel.

Hike.

Ride a bike.

Continue working if you choose.

Live independently.

Those aren’t cosmetic goals.

They’re life goals.

Taking care of yourself physically isn’t about obsessing over your body. It’s about giving yourself the greatest possible physical capacity for the life you want to live.

You Wouldn’t Skip the Salon for Five Years

Here’s where our priorities can become interesting.

Most people who color their hair wouldn’t casually say:

“I haven’t had time for it in five years.”

The appointment gets made.

Yet someone can go five, ten or twenty years without meaningful strength training and think nothing of it.

Then one day getting up becomes harder.

The suitcase feels heavier.

Stairs become something to avoid.

Getting down on the floor requires thinking about how you’re going to get back up.

Physical decline can happen so gradually that we accommodate it without realizing how much capability we’ve surrendered.

That is why taking care of your body isn’t something to save for later.

Later is exactly what you’re maintaining it for.

The Gym May Be Your Most Important Anti-Aging Appointment

There is an enormous market devoted to helping people look younger.

But looking younger and functioning younger aren’t the same thing.

Hair color can cover gray.

Skin treatments can improve appearance.

Clothing can flatter your body.

None of them can build muscle for you.

None can improve your cardiovascular conditioning for you.

None can practice your balance for you.

None can make you stronger without asking your body to do some work.

Exercise may not come in an elegant jar or require an appointment at the salon, but when it comes to maintaining physical capability, it’s difficult to think of a more valuable anti-aging investment.

Is a High Maintenance Person Always a Woman?

Men aren’t exempt.

The barber. The wardrobe. The car. The house. The hobbies. The things we polish, upgrade, repair and protect because they’re valuable to us.

Meanwhile, the body can keep sliding farther down the maintenance list.

So this isn’t really salon versus gym, and it isn’t about women versus men.

It’s about priorities.

What are you willing to maintain because you value it?

Your body should be high on that list.

Take Care of Your Body Before It Demands Your Attention

There is an important difference between maintenance and repair.

Maintenance is proactive.

Repair is what happens after something has already stopped working the way you want it to.

Fitness works best when it becomes part of life before loss of function forces the issue.

That doesn’t mean everyone needs to become an athlete.

It means using your muscles. Challenging your strength. Moving regularly. Maintaining cardiovascular capacity. Eating to support muscle and health. Working on mobility and balance.

And doing those things consistently enough that they become body maintenance, rather than another short-lived attempt to “get in shape.”

What If Your Body Hasn’t Been Getting Enough Maintenance?

Sometimes an occasional trip to the gym isn’t enough to change years of habits.

That’s where stepping away from your normal environment can be powerful.

A dedicated fitness experience creates time to focus on training, nutrition, movement and the daily behaviors that are difficult to establish when they’re constantly competing with everything else in life.

The goal isn’t simply to lose weight during the experience.

It’s to learn how to maintain yourself when you go home.

Because the best fitness program isn’t one you survive for a few weeks.

It’s one that teaches you how to take care of your body for the rest of your life.

What Does High Maintenance Mean for Your Body?

Get your hair done.

Take care of your skin.

Wear the clothes that make you feel fantastic.

Maintain the house.

Polish the car.

And pick up something heavy.

Walk.

Bike.

Train your balance.

Build and preserve muscle.

Eat enough protein to support it.

Make appointments with yourself and keep them.

Because perhaps being high maintenance means recognizing that something is valuable enough to deserve your time, attention and care.

Your body is high maintenance.

Maintain it.