Every golf swing causes tiny tears in your muscles and joints.
That's normal. That's how the body works.
You break it down. It builds back stronger.
But the speed your body fixes those tears changes with age.
At 30, your body fixes the damage from a round in 12 to 16 hours.
At 50, it takes 2 to 3 days.
At 65, it can take close to a full week.
The damage is the same. Your body just got slower at fixing it.
Now here's the part nobody talks about.
When you're sore after a round, that's inflammation. Your body sends it to the damaged area on purpose. To start
the repair.
Soreness means your body is working.
But after 65, your body stops clearing that inflammation out.
The cleanup never finishes.
So Saturday's inflammation is still sitting in your back when you tee it up Wednesday.
And now you're adding fresh damage on top of damage that was never repaired.
This is called recovery debt.
It builds up like credit card debt. Every round you play with unfinished repairs in your body puts you further behind.
That's why it gets worse every year.
It's not aging.
It's unfinished repairs piling up on each other.
That's why rest days alone never catch you up.
If your body needs a week to repair and you're playing again in 3 days, no amount of sitting on the couch fixes it.