What are your fitness goals and how have they changed?

In My Humble Opinion
1

There’s been a series of fitness threads lately in a variety of the fora and in one @Toxylon appropriately pointed out that “[g]oals vary, though, as they should.”

Which made me wonder about revisiting a nearly ten year old thread, curious not only what individuals hold as their fitness goals, but how they have changed over the years, if they have.

Mine have stayed the same as expressed then:

Older now but otherwise no change. Including no weddings on any seen horizon … :slightly_frowning_face:

How about you? Have your goals altered over time? What are they now?

2

To continue to be able to lift my bottle of Scotch.

3

I have not really had any extended period of time during which I was fit, with the exception of two good years where I had a friend breathing down my neck and putting me through the paces daily. I got to where I could do 100 pushups and pull my car across a parking lot, but I fell off the wagon after a miscarriage.

Fitness in general has been a lifetime struggle due to various chronic ailments and psychological problems. I did pretty well last year using the Elastic Habits system and my goal was just to keep doing something every day. I took up kettlebells and jogging and my main focus was on improving my V02 max, which is pretty lousy. I got it up two points.

Then I hit a patch of ill health that has persisted for about six months. It feels like everything that can go wrong with my body is going wrong. I’m constantly sick with some or other virus. I decide to take a short walk, I come home limping. I try to use a massage gun and hurt my hand. I can’t exercise without triggering asthma. And on and on. I just turned 40 and I’m wondering if my brain is just psyching out my body because I feel old now.

I suspect the problem is stress and inflammation but I guess the point is my current goal is to have any goal at all. As soon as I can reliably breathe I’m just going to have to start up with Elastic Habits again. But I can’t lift as heavy as I did last year. I need to set the bar about as low as it can go until the injuries stop. I’m not yet sure what this looks like for me. Maybe replacing my jogs with walks and rucking instead of slinging kettlebells. I’m open minded.

4

This sounds like my wife who is a bit of a physical wreck with fibromyalgia, some arthritis, congenital high cholesterol, chronic pain and acute stubbornness, which tends to exacerbate the physical stuff, and it bloody hurts to watch. She says that it feels that her world is increasingly shrinking.

You certainly have my sympathy.

To the OP’s question, I’m now 64 and I just want to physically look reasonably good and to be as healthy as possible without sacrificing all pleasures in life. I really have no self discipline so I am lucky that I love bicycling and enjoy walking.

5

Wow! Really that is impressive. Clearly the base and capacity are there.

A patch is just that. A patch. It ends.

You WILL be following up with your allergist soon. Not a question. Any control plan that leaves your ability to exercise or function in any way limited by your asthma would be unacceptable. That will be your allergist’s attitude too.

And sorry poor baby who is just about the age of my eldest, wrong room to complain about being “old”!

So your short term goal is to exercise regularly again. Longer term TBD?

6

It’s quite common for people to shift their fitness goals as they age. Typically, strength / gym oriented guys end up doing much more cardio, losing muscle mass but gaining aerobic fitness, or at least not losing it as fast. Not a dumb plan.

I want to be fit and healthy, of course, but I also want to be strong, at midlife. My goals have stayed the same, but my motives have evolved.

Back in my 20’s vanity played a big part in choosing the iron game. I figured muscle is the best way to dress to impress, not the snazzy outfits I used to do before. And lo and behold, people actually treated me differently when I wasn’t skinny anymore but had muscle. Men gave me quiet respect (and doses of ego-stroking envy) they didn’t before, and women were clearly more interested in me, up to admitting they wouldn’t have dated me if I was the skinny guy I used to be! I was basically Milhouse.

Over the years, I figured the biggest reason to lift is really the mental gains it affords me. The mental well-being hours after each heavy workout. Others get that from running, but strength training just suits me better. Being fit and strong is also such an important part of my identity that I don’t want to lose any of it. I want to be able.

Year by year, I see I’m in a smaller group of peers. Few of my middle-aged friends are strong, or fit, anymore. I plan to keep on doing this as long as I can, and be a Jack LaLanne of my own little world. Just yesterday I broke my personal best in weighted dipping, Gironda-style. At 46, that’s mighty satisfying!

7

Congratulations!

But really, 46 is just a pup. I was just two years into triathlons at 46 and was another two years out from peaking at a half Ironman. Kids today!

8

“You ain’t seen nothing yet”, the 60-y-o’s tell me, I know. But it would be folly to think 46 is a pup, in anything but the most relativistic / jocular way.

I may be as strong now as ever, but age has definitely affected me already. Lack of sleep / lack of food hit me way worse than at 30. Recuperating from minor injuries takes much longer. Certain static positions that were nothing are now impossible to keep, due to general pain. Warming up used to be optional, now it’s mandatory.

The peoples I study as an archaeologist had 46-year olds, who mostly had another 5 to 15 years to go, with multiple aggravating illnesses and conditions. My own father died at 76 due to basically old age, despite access to first-class modern medicine.

9

My goal is fitness pizza in my belly.

This past weekend was good weather for some projects that needed taken care of outside, along with all the usual mowing. I happily limped to work on Monday.

10

I’m currently facing a bit of a struggle WRT my fitness. 62, used to be quite fit, last few years just figured, “Keep the carcass moving.” I bike regularly, also golf (walking) and walk/hike. For the last couple years I did a limited number of pushups/crunches at least every other day.

Over the winter, I developed arthritis in my left hip. At first, I thought it was a pulled groin, as I found it difficult to lift my leg over the bike seat. After skiing in March, I could barely walk. I stared some PT. Then I started golf, and realized I could not shift my weight to my left side. The PT gave me some exercises that really exacerbated things. So I reacted badly, and stopped the PT - as well as the pushups/situps. Still biking, tho.

Gonna have to come to grips with what I have to do to get my hip back into shape such than I can golf/hike. Likely more aggressive/consistent PT/exercises and likely yoga. If I’m not able to golf/hike, the idea of retirement/old(er) age looks mighty bleak.

11

I used to run and lift weights regularly. The gym on base closed three years ago due to the pandemic, and I haven’t lifted since. :frowning: It’s back open, and I really need to get back to lifting.

The good news is that I’ve kept up on my running. I try to run at least 10 miles a week. (Humble brag: I figure that’s not too bad for a 55 year old.)

12

Yeah. For cardio, I’m thinking either improve my V02 max or something like a timed ruck. For strength, I’d be happy with 20 pushups. That seems like a reasonable intermediate-term goal.

My ideal is 300 fitness minutes a week, with vigorous exercise counting double. Fortunately my Garmin tracks this for me.

Now I just have to determine the when. Looks like I’m gonna have to start getting up earlier than I already do.

13

I want to return to this, because here’s the thing: most Americans more fit @Jaycat.again ’s or @kayaker’s fitness goals. Staying reasonably fit is really not too much effort. The immediate rewards, such as your sense of mental well being, or @velomont’s liking the way they look, or my feeling that exercise is my play time, are often very significant. The longer term benefits from small investments in fitness, of being able to enjoy healthy active lifestyles up to very near when we die in advanced years, even larger. But the vast majority of Americans do not bother, especially as they hit middle age and beyond. I’m not shy about bragging some: I am a very fit 63 year old. I was a fit 45 year old, I was a somewhat fit 30 year old. I am/was the roughly the same level at each point and work at it a bit less hard now. My being very fit now is solely because so few others try at hardly at all. Not because it is so hard to do at my advanced age.
‘
Which sets me up to respond more seriously to this:

I’m not going to deny that age has impact, but the reason that @Crafter_Man’s 10 miles a week is impressive for a 55 year old is NOT that 55 is so old, but that so many have dropped off from any effort at fitness by then. In @Dr_Paprika’s weight lifting thread he provided citations that well demonstrated that lack of activity is the huge player for strength loss, far above the impact of aging itself, and that activity can lead to significant gains at older ages. Age does not need to inevitable mean decrepitude.

But yes honoring the importance of recovery is more vital as we get older. At your age, trading for tris, I could get away with training hard in some way pretty much every day in order to fit in the time in the water and the miles and interval training on bike and running. It was dumb but at that relatively young age I thought harder meant better. If I was to ever return to doing tris (and I won’t ) I would have to train much smarter. And I suspect that weightlifting focused folk are often shortchanging the extra recovery they really need as they get older.

You were a fighter as your back in the day fitness activity of choice, right? Really fit fighters are and they often have the physique I’d want to have over many others, from distance runners to serious lifters. Okay maybe wrestlers (sort of fighters) and gymnasts as much. But wear on the joints that catches up with you? If not wear to the brain from hits to the head? The downside of that choice.

And then you’ll lose ground due to inadequate sleep for recovery!

Seriously as your tendinitis finally completely resolves and you have a better asthma care plan you may want to consider more HIIT, with shorter intense workouts, no closer than every other day. Sleep and recovery matter even for you youngins …

14

It is true that sarcopenia, the loss of muscle, kicks in at around age fifty and is estimated by Hazzard at about 1% loss per year. Chronic disease or hospitalization can result in muscle loss of 1% per day. Though not rapid, this absolutely affects mobility of non-exercisers in their seventies and eighties.

You want enough reserve to keep mobile and independent, notwithstanding appearance, athleticism, strength or other things. The effect on future quality of life is very significant. The good news is it is usually not too late to start. Research suggests even the elderly can often build muscle fairly quickly with proper diet and guidance.

Although trainers often ask about “goals”, I suspect they don’t change all that much from person to person apart from events and such.

15

And here I will disagree. My thought is that goals do change quite a bit from person to person, and the thought of this thread, often within the same person over time

Clearly some people, and some people at some points in their lives, are more motivated by wanting to look their best than other reasons. Nothing wrong with that. Most of us, even those old farts like me, still want to look good, even if that is not our major motivator. And young singles wanting to attract romantic partners? Young men wanting to impress buddies? Probably more so.

Heck that group can be divided into body type they desire! Jonesing for the six pack. Just big. Long lean. Whatever.

Some are motivated by being competitive. They want to lift more than their bud, be able to answer a large number to “whaddaya bench?”, or beat their own past personal best.

Related is wanting to check off their bucket list of accomplishments. Complete a marathon, a half Ironman, so on.

To be the person asked to move something heavy.

To treat an existing disease: control their hypertension or diabetes better, fix their back pain.

As noted in this thread, to get an exercise high, or more broadly the mental state result.

I don’t think everyone is primarily motivated by higher quality prolonged healthspan. I suspect that motivation is more frequent in those who continue to exercise longer term though.

16

My goal is mainly to lower my blood sugar, give some sort of psychological boost (getting in shape supposedly has a lot of mental spillover benefits,) sleep better, and have more stamina for ultimate frisbee games.

17

I agree with you to some extent. But you could summarize most of these goals by saying “look a little better, be a bit more athletic and/or stronger, be healthier, avoid problems.” This would apply to many even if the specifics differed.

I agree most people, particularly younger ones, don’t typically think a lot about health span or avoiding illness. I don’t think people think about pain unless they have it. This is a change over time, but is also pretty commonplace. If people did think about health more often, you might see more older people at the gym and trainers catering to this niche more effectively.

18

When I was in my 20’s, if I ever thought about fitness, it was in terms of how I looked. In my 30’s, it was about what I weighed.

I didn’t get serious about fitness until I was in my 40’s and realized that I was avoiding going upstairs unless it was really necessary. So I joined a gym and got fit. My goals were to lose fat and build muscle and endurance, and that’s what I did - I even got certified and taught step aerobics and a cardio/weights combo class geared towards older women. Then I got a full-time job and didn’t have time for the gym. It took about six years of dedicated desk-jockeying for me to slide back into non-fitness. I put on some weight and was starting to feel like my health was declining.

So, in my 50’s, I went back to the gym with the goal of getting stronger and improving my cardiovascular health. I hired a trainer to come up with a program for me, and I did three cardio and two Body Pump classes a week along with a free weights regimen once a week. The only problem was that, after a year or so of sticking to that schedule, it seemed like I was feeling worse after exercise. I had redeveloped good muscle mass and stamina, but my joints were starting to really hurt and I felt like my endurance was slipping. I had a couple of surgeries, and I just never seemed to come back to the same fitness level afterwards. The gym trainers really weren’t good at knowing how to modify an exercise program for an older adult; instead, they just kept exhorting me to push harder. I ended up quitting the gym.

Now I’m in my 60’s, and I’m trying to come up with a way to exercise that will keep me healthy. My inclination is to hyper-fixate on an activity and overdo it, so it’s a struggle to find something moderate that I’ll actually do. Most gyms and trainers are geared toward younger people and more intense workouts, so I’m steering clear of them for now. What I really need is some kind of gamified app that can be programmed for my specific goals, since I apparently need some kind of external encouragement in order to actually do exercise.

19

In organized sports, 35 is the cutoff for the Masters (formerly known as Veterans) class. Someone in their late-40’s - early-50’s would have been competing with the oldies for 15 long years.

20

Hey now! :wink:

Had a weird experience skiing in March. As I go about my usual life, I’m pretty confident I’m in the top 10% among my age group in terms of fitness. But out on the mountain, a HUGE number of the instructors were in their 70s. I think I saw maybe 2 skiers whom I would describe as obese. And MANY who were older than I. And I was way at the bottom in terms of skiing ability. Just weird to put yourself among such a different cohort.

(Funny, but in our lodge there was this one really old guy. He was INCREDIBLY fit. Way more muscle mass than you expect in a guy in his 70s or older. But EVERY TIME I saw him, he was wearing a tight sleevelss muscle shirt, and those silky short-short running shorts. I wanted to tell him, “Dude, you’re CLEARLY in phenomenal shape. But you are also a little old man. Put a shirt on!”). :smiley:

I often look at overweight men my age and wonder how the heck they mow their lawn. Or even tie their shoes? (They probably wear slip-ons.) Not to mention keep up with their grandkids (probably my biggest single motivator these days. They wear me out!)

I intentionally changed my mindset from “improvement” to “maintenance.” The first time I realized I was doing it was when I started swimming maybe 5-7 years ago. When I used to run and lift, my thinking was always “run faster/further, lift more, get stronger”). And when I started swmming, it kicked my ass, so I was only doing a few laps at a time. I gradually increased the # of laps I did until I was up to IIRC 70+. But swimming that many laps took quite a bit of time, and I found myself looking for excuses to NOT go and swim that long. So I dropped it down to 32 laps, which I did 3x a week without fail. It fit into my schedule and I was able to keep it up (until covid. Gotta see about getting back into that!)

Same thing with my pushups and situps. I was increasing both week by week, until I realized the same mindset was creeping in - I was trying to convince myself to skip days. So now I just do 2 sets of 12 pushups, and 8 sets of 15 different crunches every other day without fail. Only takes me 5 minutes, and even I am not lazy enough to say I can’t do 5 minutes every other day.

I bike 20-35 miles with my sister about 3x a week. Maybe 5 years ago we stretched it and rode a century. But we both realize we don’t need to do that again. So we are content with urging each other to go 3x each week - and modestly pushing each other during our rides.

I was always that guy. I wanted to think of my body as something that could bear any amount of stress. As a result, I probably am paying for that attitude these days.