“If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself”
– Eubie Blake or Mickey Mantle
I went to the doctor a couple of years back about something or another. He made some offhand comment about everybody my age having some medical problem. Really? Even worse, was that everyone my age is on some kind of corrective meds. Holy smokes!
There is no reason that just because you are pushing fifty, sixty or beyond that you can’t be exceptionally fit and super strong. It’s just that most people aren’t. You just need to want it, and want it badly enough, and be armed the right tools and knowledge. You also need to be able to accept certain things however.
If you have led the lifestyle of your typical North American, then maybe you woke up one day in your fifties and looked at yourself in the mirror and said “what the fuck just happened?” You certainly didn’t get that way overnight. And along the way you may have possibly incurred some mostly irreparable damage. Hardened arteries, decreased bone density, diabetes, etc. So there’s only so much you can do with what you have.
Others might have led a decent lifestyle and got caught out by some fucking genetic thing or another that you have no control over, and that’s too bad. But I know some of those guys, and some of them are still pretty hard, and can kick my ass any day of the week.
Then there are some other cats, who lead a lifestyle very atypical and were rode hard and put away wet and have a lot of tough miles on them. There’s a good chance that some of these folks have also jacked themselves to a point of no return. Damaged joints, ligaments and the like. You are probably better off than some of the other guys, but still there’s only so much that you can do.
Recovery is a big thing. I can often hang in with some of the young un’s for a session or two but then I am usually toast for several days afterwards. Whereas they can hammer day in and day out. When you get older you have to be able to choose which hill to die on.
There is also a certain ‘use it or lose it’ feature to this business. The older you get the harder it is to not only gain fitness, but to maintain it as well. I think as you age it’s easier to maintain endurance than it is strength. The one saving grace in all of this is that a very large percentage of fitness is mental and not physical. This serves as a bit of an equaliser.
I believe that I could be fitter at 60 than I was at 50 all things being equal. But not as fit as I could have been at 50.
Hindsight is of course 20/20 in most things and fitness is no exception. If I had access to the techniques I know now; and more importantly the motivation to use them… yadda, yadda, yadda. But all you have now is what you have now. Whatever personal power you have accumulated, and the time between now and your death. My two pennies worth? Use them wisely.
It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.
– Socrates
There are some pretty hard dudes out there that are getting on in years.
Fred Becky: 93+ Alpinist, Rock Climber, Dirt bag. High Mileage. Moving sloooow these days…like a 93 year old; but still climbing.
Clarence Bass: 79 Bodybuilding Champion, Indoor Rowing
Francisco Marin: 61 Rock Climber 5.14a
Clyde Aikau: 66 Big Wave Surf Legend. Still riding 50’ waves…
John Williams: 70 MMA fighter
In an interview after his record making victory, (defeating his 49 year old opponent) Williams said, “The point of life is living it. And I tell you, I got in that cage and I felt alive. I felt human again. You get that thing over your head, people think you’re 70 and you don’t know [expletive]. They don’t bother to get to know you. I like Eminem. I like rap music. …Mentally, I feel the same as I did when I was 30. I like the same kind of cars, make the same kind of ridiculous claims, and enjoy same kinds of women. Nothing’s changed for me, but there’s this stereotype. You don’t change, but they try and make you fit a mold and be something you don’t want to be, which is an old person. Not me. I’ve been a fighter all my life.”
Some guys are content to go with the flow. And that’s okay. I am abundantly aware that the clock is running down. I also think that there is only so much that one can do to slow it down any. But what I know for a fact is that I plan to squeeze as much into what I have left as I can and then some. Hell, I don’t know if I have 60 seconds, 60 minutes, or 60 years ahead of me. I am going to make the time count, regardless of how long it is. That means living and training with an intense engagement and purpose of being.