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IF like me you are getting long in the tooth and the on set of years is making the fireside or sofa more attractive than the gym, especially during those winter months, then it might be high time to pull out the Rocky Movies or whatever works in terms of grabbing some form of motivation and set yourself deep into a regimen. I can tell you….Tomorrow on this one definitely never comes.
There’s probably been more papers, blogs and articles written on how to train, where to train, what to avoid, routines, regimens and training plans than I could calculate on any one of my 3 laptops, smart phones, Casio calculators or my infant daughters abacus. But knowing what to do training wise past 40? Is this really the issue for the majority of us?….No not really. If you are anything like me you have spent at least a reasonable proportion of your life in an out of various gyms; you’ve lifted…probably still do, ran…when you can, cycled, boxed, maybe done any number of martial arts….no at 40+ knowledge probably isn’t the issue and lets face it you could always read or watch any of the above blogs, vlogs or articles on the subject.
The truth is training for the average Joe certainly in the Western world past 40 years, maybe in many cases 30 years old, is not just about the physical demands as you get older, but more about two other demands much less spoken of, but most certainly stand in the way of keeping to a fitness regimen. These waistline killing factors are your time demands and responsibilities to your family, career and friends.
Its almost universally accepted that some for of regular fitness regimen past 40 has far reaching benefits for almost every aspect of your life: disease prevention, stress relief, weight control, improved sleep etc but then its also true that once your career kicks in and you have a young family, the simple demands on your time become endless- quite often to the point where you are constantly and consistently making choices between doing A or B….Sound Familiar?
So what’s the answer? There may not be a simple solution but the one factor I think may be universal is finding the motivation to grab whatever training you can whenever you can – even if its 20 minutes here, and half and hour there.
What I’ve personally found to work no matter what happens in a day….Do something: whether its a few rounds on the bags, weights, some sparring…essentially just take my opportunities when they are there- even if its an odd point in the day. As long as I get something done its preferable to getting to the evening and simply running out of time, motivation or steam!
I was challenged with the #22 thing last year and got in to quite a habit of doing push ups; I progressed from 22 to doing over 100 on average a day. Now if I do nothing else, I do my push ups….
Whenever I’m travelling I find a gym- it doesn’t matter what kind; I often get more training done on a trip than when I’m at home. Plus I get the chance to make new friends and contacts. I purposefully book hotels with some form of facility even if it costs a little more.
Training past a certain point in your career, whether its 30’s or 40’s, probably becomes all about making it work around your not expecting it to be like in your twenties- when you maybe could afford the time to live in the gym. If set routine works better for your lifestyle then make it your routine; all routines start somewhere but the real trick is minimizing the BS around it… Don’t pick the best gym, pick the one you can get to. Maybe don’t join a gym but just pay the drop in fee and go to the nearest on that day. If you need someone to push you then just bite down on the mouthpiece and pay the PT fees…
