I’m half joking. But as a 30-something who used to be very active, I recognize I’m over the hill and my joints sound like pop rocks
As a 54 year old who has just had two weeks of agony because he forgot his age and tried to deadlift a 225kg motorbike by himself, I’m going to skip this one because I clearly haven’t learned anything.
Mustn’t’ve groaned enough.
A for effort though
I’m 62 and had to be advised to get a few fit young people to assist with moving a piano.
ITT: One half providing helpful insight into healthy physical activities, the other half total assholes ripping into this person for not being a jock.
Some people have been living sedantary life styles, the reasons for such can range from lack of interest to mental illness. Some people get a good dopamine hit from exercise. For others, exercise is a pretty miserable experience.
If someone is reaching out to seek advice on how to improve their lives, lend a helping hand. Please don’t be an asshole.
Nothing. It takes like five times longer for bruises and cuts to heal, but it’s not bad enough for me to change my behavior to avoid them.
Make sure your iron levels are ok, my wife has this issue and had super low iron after pregnancy, but she’s in her late 40s now and still dealing with it.
Just walk for everything under a mile. Eat one type of new fruit a week.
The less you weigh, the easier life becomes.
Drop alcohol completely.
Buy high quality shoes, beds, tired & brakes.
Which fruit you got last week?
Gooseberry last week. This week it’s Lychee.
Great choices! Have you tried kumquat?
I have not. Thanks for the tip. I will try this.
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I’m half joking when I say decrepit but I’m definitely not able to workout 6 days a week, play 3 mid intensity basketball games back to back, or bike for 4 hours anymore. No major injuries but I feel the wear and tear a lot more than I used to. Biologically, people typically do go through a noticeable decline in performance after 30.
I read that there are two “waves” of rapid biomolecular aging in the mid-40s and early 60s. Still affects everyone differently and of course a worn-out body will feel that much worse.
In general, though, our bodies start wearing out in our mid-teens, about a decade before we’re even fully grown! High-frequency hearing is one of the first things to suffer. Bodily decline is really a constant companion in our lives; it only becomes noticeable when it starts accelerating.
No exercise and lack of muscle really makes life harder.
I road bike, try to do yoga regularly, and incorporate strength training when I have time (never). Don’t try to ramp up too fast with activity because not getting injured is the biggest priority. The more mindful activity you do, you’ll become more resilient and less likely to get injured.
Trying to eat healthy (really just avoiding ultra processed foods and not drinking too much) also helps. I normally check to see where stuff falls on the NOVA scale. If it’s higher than a 3, I try to avoid it all together.
I’ve had to come to terms with taking things slower than I used to. I learned the hard way that I can’t just train for a 10k in a few weekends.
The rule of increasing distance/duration by 10% per week is to protect our joints/bones/etc when they ain’t what they used to be.
Same. I’m 43, and it mostly takes learning that you’re no long 20-something. I can do everything, I just have to do it more slowly, more sparingly and give myself the time both physically and mentally to recuperate.
I was in a terrible youtube rabbithole of knee replacement surgeries the other day and I’ve been hating our fragile corporeal vessels lately
Ah, yes. The Scared Straight, Couch Potato Edition. A classic at my house.
I find a variety of activities help distribute the loads
I often push my older body when it’s not used to work. This means I pull a muscle once every few weeks, often in my upper body; or demand too much in my knees.
Fortunately I can heal in a week or two, but I definitely am slow to heal compared to before.
Spoiler alert, it doesn’t get any better. I need to do more yoga and cross training
I’m still trying to reach my potential two hours of workout daily, only doing one hour of things that makes me sweat.
I have alarms on my phone set every three hours to remind me to stop and do something
Go for a walk (outside) every day. I used to try different posture exercises, running, sprinting interval training, but as you get older, nothing is healthier and easier on your body than just daily walks.
We kinda are walking machines anyway:
Bonus points for mental health if you walk in nature, without any headphones or entertainments.
Also do strength training (you can get hand barbells very cheap if you don’t have a gym close by), starting very light at first, and working up to whatever feels comfortable.
Over the hill at 30? Damn. I’m 49 and have no issues. Stay active walking, biking, hiking, I work an active job also. I live that I stayed in shape as a younger man and it’s worked well as a middle aged man. I plan on staying active for decades.
20 somethings think 30+ is forever away.
tbf, every decade thinks the next decade is basically game over and will take an eternity to reach
It seems like some people here either never trained hard when they were younger or are deluded about their abilities. If you are in better shape in your 40s than your 20s, I applaud your progress but I don’t know of a single life-long athlete in their high 40s that would say they could outrun, outjump, or outpower their mid 20 year old self unless they’re on the juiciest of stacks. There is a reason we don’t have many 40/50 year olds in the vast majority of pro sports.
I would say that I could over power my 20-year-old self. But honestly I know that at this point I have more muscle and greater strength than I did at that point. In between then and now I trained in martial arts I taught for 15 years I didn’t stop doing that till I was in my early 40s. In my early to mid 20s I was definitely the definition of a skinny little guy. I weigh probably 60 lb more than I did back then at very least. And it’s not fat sure some of it is but overall it’s muscle. When I competed I was only about 8 lb lighter than I am now so I haven’t gained that much weight since then. And I definitely wasn’t a professional but I did compete and win at State levels. And even in the 8 to 10 years since I’ve actively trained I still can hold my own with my kids who are in their early twenties and active themselves.
part of me envys you; my own middle aged body reminds me everyday that i’m middle aged and i curse the american diet & activity levels for it.
You know you can actively change that… You can’t blame American diet and body. Because I am both American and I eat out quite a bit but I make sure to balance it out.
the american diet goes beyond food to include psychological triggers as well as including foods that have been proven to be addicting to some of us. so yes, i’ve changed it several times in the last 30 years; but that addiction keeps making me “fall off the wagon” every time i face diet influencing psychological triggers like layoffs, evictions, deportation, etc.
First of all, stretching. The same stuff I learned back in gym class. The same stuff my soccer coaches made me do in elementary and middle school. Having a morning routine is good, but also taking a moment to stretch before physical activity helps. Whether that’s working out, mowing the lawn, moving the Christmas decorations down from the attic, having sex, or whatever else.
Then there is exercise. I have had a basic structure for years that I landed on in high school, and I keep changing it as my needs change. I’ve also gone through years of my life where I have stopped exercising and faced the consequences.
The core structure is a super set of arm workouts with free weights. Curls, front raises, overhead extension, hammer curls, lateral raises, overhead press. The amount of weight, number of reps, and number of sets varies. If I haven’t worked out in a while and just want to get my joints used to moving again, I might not use any weight and just do 20 reps of each for 2 or 3 sets. If I’m strength training that might be something like 5-10 reps at 25lbs each hand (honestly higher weight/lower reps would be better, but those are my biggest weights and I don’t want to spend the money or dedicate more space in my house for bigger ones right now).
Of course, arms alone is a terrible workout. If I am in a hurry, I’ll do what I consider a “focused” set. I start with pushups (using my 25lb weights as hand holds), then upright rows (with the 25lb weights I still have), then situps (using the 25lb weights as footholds, often grabbing extra weights to hold in my hands). Then I stand up and do the 6 exercises I mentioned earlier, and end with a handful of squats. Then repeat one or two more times. This is usually between 15-45 minutes depending on how long I take to rest, how many reps, and whether I’m doing 2-4 sets. My biggest complaint is that I get bored. I can put in music but that only does so much.
If I want a longer workout with more cardio, I have other options. Until a year ago I had a treadmill and a 10" Fire tablet I got real cheap and hacked to allow regular android apps. I installed Steam Link and used a MayFlash USB adapter to connect joy cons, and this let me play games from my gaming PC while on the treadmill. Not all games work- I found a lot of 3D games disprorienting, and fast-past games were hard because I wanted to time my inputs with my walking pace. But stuff like emulating Pokemon games, visual novels like Ace Attorney, and other turn-based games like Wargroove were great. Playing games and working out made me really enjoy working out, it was great to make progress on my backlog, and it was overall blorerty great. Did that for years and went through a couple of treadmills that broke.
Last year when the treadmill broke my wife and I discussed other options. I have a bad knee and so I wanted to try something lower-impact. The treadmill was also really loud- headphones were required. So instead we got an exercise bike. It’s been even better than the treadmill was, but being more stable means I’m more comfortable with lifting weights while I use it than I was while walking on the treadmill. Which is great multitasking, but instead of playing videogames I just watch videos on the tablet. Still good, but I do miss the gaming time sometimes. But it’s also really nice to get arms and cardio in at the same time.
Ultimately it’s a balance in constantly tinkering with. The beauty is that once you have the core movements down it’s very easy to customize. Strength, cardio, endurance, muscle mass, time, entertainment value, whatever it is I need. It’s good to alternate throughout the week. At my peak I workout every day, but that’s rare to sustain because life gets in the way.
Nutrition… I’m sure some vegans and vegetarians are going to hate on myself for this, but I’ve found the best results come from a nearly-carnivorous keto diet. Eggs for breakfast. Zero-carb protein powder smoothie for lunch (with a bit or orange juice, peanut butter and ice. Some banana if you can spare the carbs). Chicken or pork with leafy green veggies for dinner. Cheese and nuts for snacks. I don’t do it all the time, but every time I’ve done it i usually lose about 30lbs in 2 months. I’ve tried other diets and general CICO and it just doesn’t work the same- I can actively feel my metabolism change as I enter ketosis. And once I’m there, I can shove as much protein into my face as I want and still lose weight.
Which brings me to my final tip: marijuana. Other people my age swear by Tylenol or ibuprofen, but THC is my drug of choice, especially for my bad knee. I can still feel the discomfort in my knee and know that something is not quite right, it just stops bothering me. I feel less likely to accidentally do something that damages my knee further, plus it’s better for the kidneys and liver and stomach than those other drugs. Plus it’s fun to get high… On the exercise bike… And then snack on a bunch of cheese and nuts with no consequences. It really feels like what my body wants to do.
Final tip: Pedialyte makes freezer pops. It’s basically Gatorade as a freeze pop form, and they’re only 4 carbs each! Great frozen treat in the summer when you’re doing something that involves sweating.
45M
I’m probably in better shape now, than when I was in my late 20’s and defiantly in my 30’s.
I go rock climbing once a week. And general running around with my 3 boys… For the exercise part.
But about 90% out the improvement is, I have a way better diet. If you can’t identify it by eye, severely limit how much of it you eat.
If you can’t confidently state “hey, that is a bit of broccoli” or “that’s beef mince” etc…don’t eat much of it.
Fruit, vegetables, meat, spices, simple grains, rice… Keep your ingredients simple, it will pay dividends in health long term.
Climbing and living in a city where I walk everywhere is how I get fit too.
I learned that no matter the diet, spices can compensate for the stuff that is nice for the tastebuds but bad for the diet.
Best time to build muscle for the rest of your life was 20 years ago. Second best time is now.
I’m 57 and I started running this year. Overtraining is the biggest issue for me. I’m up to about three miles maybe four times per week, but most of those miles are zone 2 HR, really slow and easy runs. On the weekend I’ll do a tempo run, or intervals, alternately. If I maintain that schedule for more than a month or so I end up a little more sore every time I go running and my time starts to drop. So I have to take most of the week off every four or six weeks. I also take a lot of supplements; creatine, L-carnitine, Beta-Alanine, protein, etc. They help. I feel I can exert myself more since I started taking them. I also take EFAs for joint health, collagen for connective tissue recovery, and sometimes MSM, though evidence on that one is spotty.
Healthy Hobbies instead of Gym - stuff that’s actually fun for me instead of just a chore
In my case, Sport Climbing and Yoga
As a Lemming, I walk over cliffs.
