I'll be 53 this year ffs. All my adult life I've maintained a decent level of fitness. I used to do triathlons, Olympic distance to half ironman. Not done one for about 4 years now. I used to love running (up to 50 miles a week) then had a good crack at cycling and got to a decent level though never started racing. I'd do 100+ miles a session when I got well bike fit but by Christ, it takes a chunk out your day. The Mrs. started moaning which was understandable I suppose. Anyhow, I recently went for MRI scans on my knees and basically they're a bit shagged. Not totally, but looks like there's trouble ahead. Funny thing was the doc told me to crack on with the training as it keeps the knees strong. When I'm offshore (quite a lot) I hammer the gym most nights. Although I have regular treadmill and spin bike sessions I now do loads of stretching, squats, lunges etc to keep the knees strong. I'm on the slippery slope and definitely not where I was fitness wise but that said, not in bad nick for my age... on the outside anyway.... I just wondered if I should be easing off and wondered what others on here do to keep in reasonable condition??
Disclaimer: I am not reasonably fit Having spent, for various reasons, a good chunk of the past 20 years not being even slightly fit, a change of lifestyle saw me starting to address the old body. Because I am more or less your age, and because I have neglected myself, I will never be able to become as fit as I would if I had kept myself in shape. Thus, your circumstances and mine are rather different. Where we are the same though is that we have to acknowledge that our capabilities now are less than they were in our thirties. In my case, I try to be realistic about what I am capable of and I listen to my body (it's hard not to listen, when I'm wheezing). I have at least one rest day between any two exercise days. I don't recover like I used to and I was never good on recovery in any event, so the rest days are every bit as important as the exercise days. TL;DR - slow down.
Yeah, I don't even attempt to lift heavy stuff these days. And if I'm more than 4 feet up, I'll climb down rather than just jump! Ha ha....
back in the day i did a fair bit, jogging every day, weights 2-3 and rugby training. i do a fair amount of walking in the hills, loves it, keeps me fit enough,fugs me off tho watching the old fellas like yourself cycling past me up some dirty track. quite envious really, the only way i can see me getting fitter is to give the fags.
I find it hard to have a balanced view on this stuff. Over the years I've known plenty of people who are sixty plus who are as fit as any twenty year old I've known. The only constant I can see is that they continue to live a lifestyle that keeps them conditioned and in shape without braking themselves through over doing it. I hope I will be like that in twenty years time. I left the Marines pretty broken and had a bad neck injury doing MMA soon after and it took a good five or so years to recover properly. I was a mess of more and more pain killers until I did Alexander Technique for about six months and its probably the most life changing thing I've ever discovered. All the injuries I was carrying from fifteen years of abuse just disappeared through doing the Alexander Technique. Even now I apply the lessons into pretty much everything I do. It's mostly a case of reprogramming my movements where I had been regularly over doing it and over-compensating or just traumatising my body. In many ways I'm now fitter than I ever was because I've reset myself and built the fitness back up again. I'm forty one now and I am definitely not capable of abusing myself like I used to but I think it is possible to get to a higher level of fitness if you are intelligent about how you do that. Certainly any limits to how far you can go are almost always in your head, and you dont need to abuse your body to reach them, you just need to approach them in a calculated manner. I've seen eighty year old women carry shopping up huge steep hills in the mountains in Italy every day with a smile, I'm sure it's the key to just live the lifestyle?! I'm currently training for the Lanyard March which is an Army organised 60km march carrying 20kg. I'm not actually certain the body will take the training but I'm not doing bad so far. I did 25km with the 20kg last week and a 16km run. This morning I did 20km with 20kg and will probably do the same tomorrow. If I can build the distance to 60km in a week then I'll go ahead with the competition. The last time I did that distance I was in my mid twenties in the Brecon Beacons. I'll come back to this thread after the March in April and report my findings!
I don't know enough about fitness to comment but sounds like a good idea to ease off a little. I ruined a knee by overdoing the cycling when i was 55. It took around 3 years before i could get back to cycling as the bursitis as a result of the damage wouldn't calm down. 4 years later I can do 50 miles plus as long as I start slowly and up the pace carefully.
Funny thing is just walking the dogs through the woods for 3 miles or so leave's my achillies aching like feck!
What damage to the knee did you do? knee damage is one of the things that I worry about as I often train carrying heavy weight. I've had leg issues but my knees have always been strong. I have started feeling pains since I started training hard with weight again recently though.
Thanks for that. I'll look up the Alexander Technique... But you may have hit on a point. Which entails change.... eeeek... Nah, that's fine. I hate to tell you but at 41 I still felt invincible! I started creaking at about 45 and it ain't letting up. When the pain kicks in here or there you sub consciously compensate and that's when things start going south. And nearly all bootnecks I know have knackered knees. It's perfectly normal. Kind of Good luck in your challenge. Don't go hammer and tongs, build it slowly. Or you'll end up like me
I'm 55, training at the moment for a 1/2 Ironman, the running I'm finding very difficult, probably due to me snapping my Hamstrings kitesurfing 2 1/2 years ago. Anyway that aside, swimming surely has to be one the best ways of keeping fit, if you did Triathlons yourself then you must have a done afair bit of that!! Also cycling, been doing a lot on Zwift over the winter months, interval sessions of an hour, don't take up too much time and so much easier in a group.
Hmmm, bursitis is a bastard. Not had it but I know people that have and it's knocked em well and truly sideways.
P.S. if you want the name of a great Specialist!! This man fixed my Hamstrings, top man in the country for Knees http://www.fareshaddad.co.uk/
I hated the swimming. Once I was out the water I felt I'd cracked it. The cycling and run would see me reel in the field. But you're probably right, it's the least impact. Fekkin hated it though.... Might need to readjust my attitude.
im 55 now, about 4 stone overweight, eat too much rich food and crap all too often, drink too much cos i can, and do sod all exercise apart from walking the dog. My mind tells me that i could still be as fit fast and strong as i was late 20's, i played a lot of Rugby at a pretty good level and could do around a 11.00sec 100 metres.... and i can remember not having to work hard at being fit regularly completing level 10.6 bleep for my job. So now i let out that groan even tying my shoe laces, have the capacity to buy bigger leathers if required rather than slimming to fit the existing ones..squeeze into jeans that are a bit too tight a size for me, I have now convinced myself that ive had my turn at being fit been there done that but secretly i wish i could lose some weight and be more active again.. oh how i wish was 25 again!
Same age. Im lucky as Im pretty fit. 5'8", 10.5st and 30" waist. Full head of hair. Goddamned Im still fabulous.
Bout the same numbers as that leathery auld twat from the Rolling Stones. What's his name? Ronnie Wood??
Glad you haven't had it yet and it means you are in a position to hopefully stop it happening - mine started with an 'itch' within the knee, like it had been cut with a scalpel. There was some swelling but I stupidly ignored it and cycled the next day. The whole damage only took around 4 days and of course after that the swelling/ 'water on the knee' becomes obvious as trouser fit became a problem.
Haha I wish I could say I feel invincible but it's definitely a case of being strong through being calculated. I suppose I would feel pretty invincible if I hadn't been so damaged in the past and try to keep this at the back of my mind. That said I walked away from two 120mph crashes last year without injury so I must be either lucky or in decent shape RE Bursitis - I got pulled off the final exercise in Commando Training with a nasty case in my elbow. Kept ignoring it whilst on exercise on Dartmoor until it knocked me out one morning and I woke up in the med centre with drips hanging out of me. They reckoned if I'd ignored it for another day or so I would have had blood poisoning or some such exciting thing.
