Soon, I will turn 45 (shudder). (08/08/08 is the end of my 44th year; if I were Chinese, I would be very lucky.)
I do not want to end up like my father, fail and unable to walk across the room. What are the prospects for remaining strong and flexible? I know from experience that it’s more difficult to exercise as one ages, but what are the limits? Could I acquire enough strength and flexibility to do, say, gymnastics?
My Wife will be 48 in a few weeks. She is training for a full Iron Man triathlon in Sept.
She started doing these kind of events about 6 years ago. This will be her second full triathlon. She’s done a lot of shorter ones.
2.4 mile open water swim.
112 mile bike ‘ride’.
26.2 mile marathon.
Wow! That’s very encouraging. 
It is NOT more difficult. This is the common misconception about aging: that you must decline and do less. This is not aging: this is decaying. Run, do not walk, to your local bookstore or to Amazon and buy a copy of Younger Next Year. This is a truly new way of looking at aging gracefully.
Okay, I have to get that book.
both my wife and I are both 48, almost 49. We work out three times a week and stay in good health. We both started the Couch to 5K program and now easily can run 30 minutes a day—3 months ago I would not have believed that. I am starting another program I read about in some thread here on the Dope—100 pushups in 6 weeks. I can do it!
I was amazed at the Couch to 5K program. I have never been a runner but that program made it much easier. I have cut it back now to 20 minutes of running since that is what I wanted to achieve. So I do 10 minutes of a fast walk up the maximum incline on the treadmill, 20 minutes of running at about 11 minute miles and then 10 minutes of walking on the uphill treadmill again. Then I finish either with 20 minutes on the elliptical or 20 minutes of weights.
I frankly feel I am in the best shape of my life! My wife also does Yoga and Pilates and is amazingly flexible-for which I am truly grateful
good luck–44 is just a number!
Use it or lose it, baby…I see quite a few older folks (70s, maybe) at my gym using the strength training machines.
Stretching is your friend, or warming up with cardio first.
I run 3-5 miles with my 69 year old dad every weekday.
You might want to consider yoga. It’s low impact so easy on the joints and great for strength, balance and flexibility. I like Bikram yoga which is taught in a 105 degree hot room but it’s too intense for some. The nice thing about Bikram is that you get a nice cardio workout as well. There are several types of yoga so it won’t be difficult to find a style that appeals to you.
I will be 45 at the end of the year and started doing Bikram twice a week almost three years ago. I’ve always been lean but now my body is nicely toned and I have more stamina, strength and flexibility than ever. I’m in the best shape of my life.
Find the type of exercise that you hate the least and do it.
A decade or two ago I remember seeing rule of thumb and a “graph of fitness/atheletic ability”.
The rule of thumb was given an appropriate get in shape routine, it took a week or so of “getting in shape” for every decade old you were to reach a major fraction of your peak fitness with that routine.
So a twenty something took the better part of a month…a forty something the better part of two months…a sixty something about 3 months.
The graph part showed fitness (maximum possible at any given age) peaking at some fairly young age, then having a fairly shallow and linear decline till about mid sixities.
Of course if you are a genetically blessed or cursed the data is meaningless…but the good news was if you about average and somewhat motivated, and with a bit of luck, you could remain pretty “fit” for a decent amount of your likely lifespan.
Blll
My husband will be 52 this year, and he works out at the health club (lifting free weights) 4 days a week.
I just started my exercise regimen at Curves - I go first thing in the morning, and I’m the youngest one there by a long shot. Those ladies can bust a move, lemme tell you! No frail peeps there - no sirree!
Thanks, everyone. You’ve given me a lot of hope. I was pretty depressed about my upcoming birthday (“my chances at romance are over!”), and of course the situation with my father is always there in the background. But I can and will take a different path.
I think pravnik’s dad wins.
Yeah, never give up. I’m 53, I’m doing 4-5 miles daily, but I walk or use a nordic track. I can still help my neighbor load hay bales for about four hours at a time. Of course, I should point out that my neighbor is 67 and he can work my sorry butt right into the ground. I get off the hook by whining that I’ve got arthritis and I’m fat and I’ve had a bunch of heart attacks and besides, it’s *really *hot out.
The trick is to jest get in shape and stay that way.
For the record I’m 56, currently biking 7-10 miles daily and just upped my squat to 635 lbs. Any day now I expect to turn 55, then 54…
PS I dance disco and can still do a split. Do stretches daily.
I took martial arts in college and there were several people there who started the sport in their 50s. Flexibility was a bit diminished, but they could all keep up with the drills and cardio demands.
There are also three men who are regulars at the rock climbing gym I frequent who are in their 70s. One looks a touch frail and one of the others recently did some major aid climbing trip that included zip-lines and waterwater kayaking (granted I think that guy has been active his entire life).
It’s a matter of starting slow to avoid injury.
:eek: I’ve never been able to do a split. never been that flexible, even when I was young. maybe I can work up to it…
My current goal, still a ways off, is to be able to do a chinup (which means, of course, lifting my body weight with my arms).
You could emulate Jack Lalanne, still alive and active at 93.
Some of his feats, from Wikipedia:
May I present Fauja Singh?
I’m 46 right now, and while I can’t claim any sort of accomplishment like a marathon, I’m loving cycling around 20 - 25 km every day. The trick is to find something you enjoy enough that you don’t notice you’re exercising. And there’s loads out there to do, from kayaking to skiing to martial arts to…
I do believe that it is harder to bounce back from either a period of inactivity, or an injury as we age, then again I rode my first century at 46, and my buddy, who turned 60 last month regulary backpacks the high sierra, and we swap the lead in our mountain biking ‘‘race’’ all the time.
Good idea. The killer is that you really have to exercise 6 days a week. 45 minutes a day. I haven’t gotten there yet. There is no diet to follow, just common sense as to portions and to stop eating like a teenager. People who follow the advice are running marathons in their 70s, climbing mountains, doing heavy biking, rowing, etc. You have to grow older; you don’t have to rot.