Achieving fitness at 55 despite chronic illness!

I recently hit 55. I’ve had 1 chronic disease for over two decades and had three major abdominal surgeries, the last one just over a year ago. Despite these setbacks I’m more motivated and determined than ever to make the most of life and get as fit as possible, and hopefully slow inevitable decline.

For me, that means staying physically fit for travel and hobbies, to delay the onset of any more chronic diseases and to just enjoying life to the fullest. Who doesn’t want that, right?

In this article, I want to share my exact starting point, how I went about things post surgery and built up over the year to where I’m at now.

Now, let me be clear — I’m no fitness influencer. I’m just an ordinary middle-aged guy on a journey of self-improvement, and I just hope my experiences resonate with you and are helpful to some of you out there.

So, let’s get started.

Just over a year ago, I had a bowel blockage — not my first, and they’re every bit as gruesome and painful as they sound. Apart from the immediate danger to life, a bowel blockage and the following surgery leaves you in a state of total bodily depletion and the inability to eat a single morsel for some weeks. As you’d expect the body ‘eats’ itself — so first all my muscle wasted away then all my body fat. As I wasn’t being fed intravenously either I was depleted of other major nutrients too. So when I came out of hospital, the road to recovery took much longer than it would normally do — as you still can’t eat. The bowel wall swells following surgery. It’s essentially a long tube, and thicker walls means smaller opening through the inside — which means you still can’t eat.

Additionally I’ve been a Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferer for the past 20 years — for those who don’t know, this is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks itself. Fortunately for me I’m on a medication that reduces the inflammation. The inflammation is the cause of the joint pain and the so-called flare-ups you might hear sufferers talking about. It’ll never be cured, just slowed down.

So that’s where I was a year ago. Not a great place. Where am I now? Well, I might not be quite ready to enter an iron-man competition, but I can tell you that I have zero pain, I’m strong enough to be progressively lifting weights and my stamina is better than its been for decades. Let’s look at how I got there — and how I am continuing to improve.

Early Days Post Surgery

So in the first couple of months following my surgery it was all about trying to move from liquids to solids.

I was once told by a surgeon that the bowel wall takes nearly a year to reduce back to the paper-thickness that it should be — so eating normally has been a slow process of 2 steps forward and 1 backwards.

The only exercise was stretching, walking and gentle bodyweight movements. And believe me, that was enough to begin with. My stomach muscles had been sliced through for the 3rd time leaving me with permanent back pain — something which took almost a year to rectify, and no core strength at all.

The danger in those early days is doing too much. Your body is so depleted following surgery coupled with the inability to re-nourish it — I was mostly concerned with regaining the ability to eat and to replace all those lost nutrients.

Eventually, after a few setbacks things improved to the point of being able to start light exercise again. I’ve quickly brushed over that time, but don’t think it was easy. Recovery isn’t a nice smooth linear path.

Pathway to Fitness and Beyond

So once I reached that point of having a couple of months of recovery under my belt I was able to tentatively begin ‘proper’ exercise — but of course it’s all proper exercise really — just at different levels.

So, I break my fitness routine down into three main areas: strength, heart health, and nutrition. I believe everyone at any age should focus on these 3 areas to enjoy life to the fullest, and to be around for as long as possible! The great thing is, it doesn’t matter which chronic diseases you have — you can STILL work on these 3 areas from your own starting point and at your own pace.

1. Strength

First, let’s talk about strength. As we age, our muscles shrink, there’s no escaping it, but we can slow down this process through weight training. Studies show that you can increase strength well into old age with the right training approach. It’s not just about looking good; it’s about functional strength for daily activities and its about delaying the onset of more chronic diseases. The key is to work at your own level, track your progress, and continually challenge yourself.

I’ve had a garage gym for 27 years now, and during the gardening season (I’m a gardener by trade) I aim for a couple of strength workouts a week, increasing them once the season is over. After my last abdominal surgery the main issue I struggled with was rebuilding my core strength, a result of having my abdominal muscles sliced through for the 3rd time, which helps relieve my lower back pain — a gardener’s curse unfortunately! Happy to say that after a year it’s finally getting to the point where my lower back is pain-free for the majority of the time. But I’m still working on it.

2. Heart Health

Next up, heart health or cardio. Now, this was an area I neglected for most of my life. Bad memories of high school “runs” haunted me, but I later learned that it’s doesn’t have to be running — thanks to an excellent book by Peter Attia called ‘Outlive: the science of longevity’, which I can heartily recommend.

I found a cardio activity I enjoy (definitely not running!) — in my case, indoor cycling. It’s low-impact and doesn’t involve dodging traffic. I focus on maintaining a pace where I could converse at a struggle for most of the ride (or ZONE 2 training for those in the know) and push to my limits for the final 10/15 minutes. I’ve currently worked up to a 45 minute ride every 2 or 3 days. Thanks to this approach, my cardio efficiency, measured as VO2 Max, well exceeds the expectations for my age.

3. Nutrition

Lastly, let’s talk about diet. I’m aware that I’m currently on the ‘over-nourished’ side, or ‘skinny fat’ seems to be more accurate, but I try to prioritise healthy eating without the hassle of tracking every calorie. I’ve been there — and it definitely works, but frankly it’s a huge hassle, especially if you’re eating as part of a family, so I don’t currently track my food intake. However, I still have goals there, so I aim to reduce body fat levels while still enjoying the occasional dessert on weekends.

Reality of Fitness

So, that’s my fitness journey in a nutshell. I’ve followed most of that protocol several times now as anyone who’s tried to stay healthy will have found — you continually begin somewhere, then build up and build up until life comes along and knocks you down again. Then you get up and start again, building and building before life knocks you down again. It might be illness that knocks you down, it might be starting a new job, having a child, a death in the close family — there’s always something to derail you. You’ve just got to see that as part of the process and begin again — from scratch if needed. What’s the alternative? Stay at rock bottom?

I hope this serves as a starting point for your own fitness journey, and of course, I’d be happy to dive into details around this should people in a similar situation as me be interested.

Over to You!

Now, I’d love to hear from you. Are you into getting healthier or planning to start? On a recent poll I did on my Youtube community page 25% of people who voted claimed to be absolute beasts in the gym (not sure if they were being funny!), but another 70% claimed that they didn’t currently do anything for their health but really wanted to — is that you? How do your health conditions affect your journey? Sure, you can go watch some buff YOUNG guy or gal strutting their stuff in a video, but this is real-talk from someone who’s been through the health mill and is once again, fighting his way out of it! Just 12 months ago it was all I could manage to walk round the hospital ward with my IV stand and gingerly clutching a catheter! We all start somewhere. If I can do it, anyone can!

Let’s grow and get fit together.

And if you want to see this in video form click below: