Is age just a number?

I might start a new mini series for these blogs called the monkey business diaries, it’s nice to stay productive and keeps me distracted from the rubbish surrounding me. Firstly, I want to talk a little bit from my own experience on this subject, then as I progress I’ll try and back up some of my ramblings with some science. As always if you have any comments on this subject please say so in the comments, I love hearing from you all!

I am currently at the ripe old age of 31, I have been lifting weights on and off since the age of 13. I never had a single injury until I was in my 30s! Many times, I have thought to myself how age is affecting me, training is becoming harder, and it’s taking much longer to recover. But I also have to consider my training is of course much harder then it was when I was 13, or even 21. Strongman really takes its toll, everything is stupid heavy, and bodybuilding was a bit of a doddle compared to this. So that is one aspect. The other is the fact I’ve been lifting heavy weights now for 18 years, that would take its toll on anybody! Whether I started now and was writing this in 18 years’ time, the level of damage done would be the same. Now this sounds like a very bad advert for weights which it shouldn’t be, heavy weights don’t have to mean you feel 61 when you’re 31, as long as you look after your body properly! Recovery is just as important as the training itself, and I will touch on this a little more later on.

There’s two people who really inspired me to write this blog, and reading this they know who they are, and many people who run in the same circles will find this obvious as well, they both have different goals and are super motivated and even motivating for me. Now unfortunately I can guarantee this blog will not reach its target audience, which is people over the age of 50, sat at home convincing themselves they are too late in life to do anything about their own pre-diabetic condition. If you know this person, please send them this blog, I can think of a few who will be getting this in their inbox already.

A little bit about these ladies, (yes LADIES! Don’t come at me with any stereotypes, I’m leaving 0 room for any excuses here) both are over the age of 50, both of them are convincingly in the best shape of their lives, both of them refuse to use age as an excuse, and both of them started their journey with me within the last 3 years. The important take away from this is they both refuse to use age as an excuse. All they had to do was clean up their diet, which was easily done once they had a little education, and find some exercise that they can stick to because they enjoy it, for one of them its lifting weights, and for the other its pretty much anything with a social aspect. Now that might not sound overly impressive, anyone can just turn up and do some classes or press some dumbbells, well how about you take up running in your 60s and run 2 10ks in a week in just over an hour, or deadlift a 160kg car for 26 reps in a minute in your 50s? Can’t be bothered? Thought not! Personally, this is very inspiring to me, and honestly, it’s even making me a little bit emotional writing this, I’ve been extremely hard on both of them in the past and tried to push them to the absolute limit, in doing so they have learned what their own limit is, and what they both manage to do now takes my breath away. If you need me I’ll be crying in the ball pit.

A few disclaimers I need to get in before people start firing excuses at me why their special, or different or whatever bullshit excuse makes them feel better about not being able to move around more. Hormones do change as you get older, for men testosterone begins to decrease at the age of 30, without exercise this can lead to a 1% loss in muscle mass every year, WITHOUT EXERCISE! Copeland et al. (2004) states “Women experience significant changes in endocrine function during aging. Decreasing levels of anabolic hormones may be associated with musculoskeletal atrophy and decrease in function that is observed in older women and, as a result, there has been an increase in the use of pharmacological hormone therapies”. Well there you go, menopause means you can be lazy right? Wrong! The very same study admits it is hard to distinguish between age causing this affect or the level of exercise participation? In my eyes this gives me 2 options, convince yourself its age and do nothing, slowly get worse and worse, until you’re a shrivelled-up vegetable that might as well be dead, or be like the two ladies I spoke about earlier, move your arse and start being a fucking savage!

Don’t go into your new endeavour blind, I mentioned earlier about the importance of recovery and how it is just as important as the exercise itself, even more so as you approach your twilight years. LeBron James spend $1,000,000 a year on recovery alone, he’s one of the best athletes in the world and looks after his body accordingly, I’m not suggesting you spend anywhere near that, but perhaps a £30 massage once a month, or some wellness classes would be much more affordable (I highly recommend Slowe Sports Massages, she did not force me to say this). And please don’t wait until your injured to start doing this either, you’ve only got one body, look after it properly. You wouldn’t wait until your teeth started falling out to start brushing them!

Now this is an offer to anyone out there who’s read this and wants to make a change in their life, if you think your too old or have too many injuries, send me a message. I want to help you, completely free of charge. Every man or women who wants to forget their own self-imposed limitations and improve their life, I am here to help! You are not too old and tired, you’re just uninspired.

I raise my denture glass to all of you!

Aaron

P.S. Can someone bring some tissues to the ball pit please.