The neural motor circuitries in the spinal cord receive information from our senses and the rest of the nervous system and translate it into purposeful movements, which allow us to interact with the rest of the world. In this review, we discuss how these circuitries are established during early development and to what extent they are shaped according to the demands of the body that they control and the environment that the body has to interact with. We also discuss how ageing processes and physiological changes in our body are reflected in adaptations of activity in the spinal cord motor circuitries. The complex, multi-facetted connectivity of the spinal cord motor circuitries allow that they can be used to generate vastly different movements and that their activity can be adapted to meet new challenges imposed by bodily changes or a changing environment. There are thus plenty of possibilities for adaptive changes in the spinal motor circuitries both early and late in life.