Health + Fitness

The Middle of Middle Age

How do you want the rest of this to feel?

You get to a certain point in life and you realise that there are habits of all kinds deeply ingrained in you. The good ones, you keep. The bad ones that we all have are a little bit more difficult to deal with. But deal with them you must. They are the topic of a different article.

Instead, let’s talk about the good ones, especially as they relate to physical fitness. What follows is what I do, and I come at it from a male perspective (but non-males are welcome to read and comment as well!) It is by no means a comprehensive list, nor do I claim to be giving any kind of expert advice. I have never wanted to do an Ironman and I am not into extreme sports that require a lot of gear (camping excepted). I have run 3 half marathons in my life and they were good experiences that I trained for. But I’ve never run a marathon, but maybe I still will. I like working out, but I also like not working out.

I do, however, have the benefit of being given a solid base as a youth athlete and later as a varsity one in college in my (much) younger days and there is a certain amount of discipline that was drilled into me that I still benefit from. This can still be learned, if you do not already have it. It is never too late to create a healthy life.

The Physical Component

1. Quantity. I give myself 5–6 elevated heart rate sweats per week. Each of these involves a warmup and a cool down, in which you could carry on a conversation and are sandwiched around a middle 60–70% in which you couldn’t. In that part, you are on the edge and trying to stay there. No time for chit chat.

2. Vary activities. For me, I alternate a running day (on a treadmill, given that where I live is not conducive for running) and a yoga day. I can run two days in a row, and sometimes do without much difficulty, but when I try 3 days in a row, I start to feel it. At this point in life, your body needs time to recover more than it did even just a few years ago.

There have been times in my life in which I would swim a lot, but right now is not one of them. Swimming is great exercise, especially when done efficiently. However, I find my desire to get in the water and do laps comes in waves, so to speak. Presently, I have no interest, but I know it will come back. It’s where the original athletic base came from, so how can it not?

Hikes on weekends. Sometimes. But not as often as I’d like.

I say nothing about weights or resistance training. The gym used to comprise a big part of my workout programme, but no longer. I should probably add a bit of that in, but I feel like I get a lot of it from yoga. I stand to be corrected on that.

3. Keep your sessions relatively short. My runs are 30–40 mins covering 3–4 miles or a bit shorter at 20–25 minutes covering 2–2.5 miles. The shorter ones are just stretched out and aerobic, around 75–80% heart rate. The longer runs involve a few challenges throughout, getting up to my maximum heart rate for periods of time. A cool down session involving walking, stretching and a few pushups is a good idea too. Oh yeah…before you begin running, start with some stretching as well.

For my yoga practice, my sessions are about 45–60 minutes, rarely more. I do my own thing for about 30 minutes — always the same routine as sort of a warmup and then follow an instructor online for 30 minutes of sweaty vinyasa power flow. I have not done a class in years, but that’s all about to change. Sessions start and end with breathing exercises.

The Nutrition Component

1. Water. Lots of it. All day long.

2. Coffee. I’m around 3 cups a day. No sugar, no milk, no anything. Just coffee. It’s probably too many, but I did mention earlier about bad habits, didn’t I?

3. Booze. I’m sure it’s become pretty clear to you that your body no longer deals with the alcohol that you pour in it the same way it did 30 years ago. So change your intake. I am not saying quit, although that’s probably not a bad idea either, for many reasons. But limit yourself. Since New Years, I have been trying out a weekly plan in which I don’t have any from Sunday night to Friday night and then let it be part of my enjoyment of the weekend on Friday night and Saturday. It’s not easy, but it does produce results (including better sleep and easier wake ups).

4. Cut out sugar as much as possible. You don’t need it. But a bit of banana bread and a piece of chocolate in the evening is fine. It goes without saying that any kind of soft drink and juice that you didn’t squeeze yourself at home are out.

5. Fast food. The sooner you get that out of your life the better your life will be. To say nothing about the state of the planet.

6. Fruits and vegetables. Absolutely. As much as possible.

7. Lean meats, if necessary, maybe once a week: chicken, pork, beef all grilled over briquettes on the barbecue. Get rid of that gas powered contraption.

8. Try making your own stuff instead of buying off the shelf at the grocery store. Granola, barbecue sauce, ginger beer, pickles — all super easy to make, and if you do it yourself, you will know exactly what you are eating. It’s far cheaper and better tasting as well.

9. Don’t forget about your face. It’s your whole twinkle. Spend a bit on quality razors, shave cream, after shave balm, daily moisturiser and face wash.

The Mental Component

1. Challenge yourself, but don’t punish yourself. You’ll only grow if you force your body to adapt to increased pressure to perform, since it is happy to stay at status quo. But maybe you are just trying to maintain what you already have. That’s alright too. At the same time, our aspirations of the Olympics flew away a long time ago. Be reasonable and don’t obsess. Other parts of your life need your attention too.

2. A solid 8 hours of sleep is crucial for your body to recover and perform its maintenance tasks.

3. Keep track of your workouts. Each one, with key stats and metrics that are important to you. There are plenty of watches and apps that will do this for you now. I use none of them, as I am a creature of habit and there are certain methods I use to track my progress. I’ve always been a middle adapter to technology, so this could change.

4. Stretch. Every chance you get.

5. Discipline. You need a routine and developing habits is a big part of this. Some people like to get up early and work out right away. Others do it when they get home from work. I like to ease into the day and set aside an hour for this, once the first coffee has been consumed. At the same time, there might be a day when you just don’t feel like it. By now you’ll know that there are times to battle with yourself and times to take it easy on yourself. Have that conversation, make a decision and then move on. Don’t beat yourself up about it.

6. Weigh yourself. But only once a week maximum.

7. Mind the kind of energy you put out and the kind you take in. I have found that reading, writing publicly, journaling privately and having interesting conversations all do wonders for my mental health. I have consciously and drastically reduced my consumption of corporate media and I feel better not having to read the news on a daily basis anymore and instead get my information in other ways. And you’ve heard it enough times that you will be doing yourself a big favour if you end any participation on social media platforms. So I won’t mention it again here.

Finally, set some goals and explore new areas of interest. For me, I am committed to a month of yoga teacher training in April. It will be challenging and I will be humbled. That’s a big part of why I am doing it. But coming at it with an open heart, an open mind and an open spirit and willingness to learn will make it a great way to begin what I would like to consider the second half.

Come to think of it, that’s a pretty good way to approach life from here on in.

If you like what you are reading here and want unlimited access to thousands of writers, consider a subscription to Medium. It’s $5 a month and if you use this link, then I get a piece of that. I’ll put it towards my enjoyment of the middle of middle age.