sadly it doesn’t get any easier. I didn’t find my 50s too bad - sure some slow down from my earlier years but generally my strength and aerobic capacity were fine. but them my 60s hit and the slowdown suddenly hit hard - it was almost like a trigger - one minute I could do certain exercises easily and then all of a sudden they just hurt. being an ex-rugby player (front row)I had good strength and could happily shove loads around all day - now at 67 everything feels so much heavier and my reptitive capacity ain’t there.
all you can do is carry on what you are doing, accept it’s not going to get easier, just harder, and keep as fit (physically and mentally) as much as you can.
I’ll be 59 this year and I have certainly noticed a change both in my fitness and, as you point out, strength. The fitness aspect started I guess when I was about 52 as a consequence I would say that my half marathon time has dropped from 1:20 to say 1:33-1:35 ish in a very short space of time. The strength is not quite so noticeable but it is there. Things that never used to hurt do so now.
So , as has already been said, getting back into training (fitness & strength) is a very gradual process. (I resumed running a week last Saturday and this afternoon I am going for a 3k run maybe 4k!!!) . The key, I believe, is not to get injured and do something (anything) on a regular (daily or near daily) basis.
Now if anyone out there has any tips for staying injury free then I would love to hear them
Pretty much like me Sparky. I turn 55 this year and have noticed my running times getting slower and slower, but the effort seems to be just as great. Have started introducing strength into my training routine, which I think is helping me to stay injury free. I’m pretty fortunate in that I rarely get injured but that’s because if I feel something isn’t right, I take it easy for a couple of days instead of trying to ignore it and push through. I maintain a base level of fitness over winter months and then gradually ramp up the intensity and duration from around end of Feb.
Still like to think that I’m fitter than a lot of friends, but not as fit as others.
I find that having a 26 year old son to try and keep up with is a great motivator
I am nowhere near as fast as him (he thought he would go and try run a marathon (his first) last weekend on his own and nailed a 3:23) but trying at least to be a respectable distance behind
Mind you my wife has started "proper running " in the last couple of years - I am worried that there will be an intersection between her improvements and my decline at some point!
I was just getting back into doing some strength\core work around Christmas until the gym closed, I thought it was starting to return but didn’t get long enough to see how much further I could take it.
But despite hardly training for a few weeks the aches and niggles aren’t going very quickly and I’ve just turned 50 last year. This stupid groin\flexor problem is lingering but I didn’t help myself by keeping going for a while last year. It seems to be stuck atm, I’d say it’s about 95% but hardly moving from there despite what I do. The extra sitting from work etc. isn’t helping and I’m not sure if easy cycling is aggravating it a bit even. I’d normally go to the sauna etc. as which helps various things.
I’m sure it will resolve at some point and it’s then a balancing act of staying injury free.
May or may not be on interest, this is my “lazy S&C” - most admin work done kneeling on a physio ball. Been doing this for years, people at work with are used to it by now.
Few years ago I had some issues with what I think may have been impingement type hip pain due to prolonged seated flexed position. That’s when I started doing this. Coincidence maybe, but it got better hasn’t come back yet.
PS I always feel a bit guilty trespassing here aged a mere 47.5
i think that’s what i have right now. Sometimes when it’s at its worst, it feels like a numbness down, what seems like, the sciatic nerve - so hip, down ITB into knee. don’t feel it past the knee.
Feeling very achey in the hip and knee today - have spent a lot of time this morning on my uncomfortable seat, as well as almost 2.5 hrs on the turbo last night (longest in a while and i tweaked my saddle position).
My wife had something like this too - she is a primary school teacher. She was spending a lot of the day perched on tiny chairs which pinch the hip into a really tight angle. She stopped doing that & got better.
I’m not expert on this but the concept of “femoral cam” makes some sense to me - for some people each time the hip is flexed right up, a hard prominence on the femur can pinch the acetabular labrum which is made of softer cartilage and cause injury.
When my back “goes” a gym ball is the only thing I can sit on.
If you want to be pedantic, it’s not the sitting, it’s the getting up that kills me. It’s agony rising from a sofa, dining chair, works chair etc, etc.
I currently have this (the numbness sometimes goes a bit pins and needles as well) !
Did a 10 mile ‘run’ (off road slower than my marathon pace) at the weekend and my knee was grim at the end. I sit a lot and we have a physio ball (one of those buys and never used it) so I might give this a go as was thinking I need to book a physio but then am rubbish at doing all the stretches they give you. If I can build some exercise in my normal day I’ve got more of a chance, so thanks for the tip
That’s why I’m glad to be back at work as I’ve got a standing desk and do stand up most of the day, but have a tendency sometimes to still lean to one side, I think I need a rod for my back. But definitely the sitting down last year when I was WFH didn’t help.
I’m still reasonably sure that it is the hip flexors, and psoas and that’s what the physio thought. Also saw an osteo that said something down the same lines and that my left hip was a bit out of alignment. The pain is generally when I lift my knee upwards, which seems to fit the symptoms with Dr Google (I’m not asking for advice here BTW!). But it radiates around the groin area and there’s a few very painful spots I can palpitate. I’ve also been doing a lot of rolling\stretching\icing etc. recently, I think it is improving but tediously slowly and is something I’ve had before.
I’ve actually managed to get another appointment at the Osteo tomorrow to see what he says.
Ultimately I think it’s the increased sitting at the desk for the last 12 months, lack of regular massage etc. and a holiday would get me away from sitting down for too long!
And ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with being old and running on too many mountains
