How old do you feel? How old do you look? If you’re past the age of 40, in your minds-eye, what version of you is your self-image based on? Maybe this is a purely masculine thing, but if I was honest my “mental avatar” is me, albeit circa 29 years old. I mean that is the physical template my mind accepts as my true physical manifestation. It’s not that I don’t accept myself as I am now, I do, but if I can’t help notice a subtle mental recalibration going on in the background when looking in the mirror. It’s my subconscious going, ” Ok, the dude in the mirror? That is actually you so get with the program. ”
Why 29/30? Why not 21 or 35? Perhaps it corresponds with some Jungian idea of male archetypes (anima, hero, etc). There must be a reason. Am I happier and wiser now than when I was 30? Hell, yeah. Was I at my physical peak back then? Yes and no. I was in pretty good shape in a very superficial sense. I had a six pack, some development of the “disco muscles” (shoulders, arms, chest) and decent cardio-vascular shape. But I could have been in much better shape had I, for example, followed the same training program I do now. Therein, I think, lies the answer. 29 or 30 years old represents a sort of sweet spot in mental, intellectual and physical maturity. It is, was or should have been you when you had the most raw potential. You’d have completed years of education, should be at least 8 or so years into a career, and hormonal health is still firing on all cylinders.
I was orders of magnitude wiser and happier at 30 than I was at 21. I remember thinking I wouldn’t go back to 21 for anything. And that trend has continued while I do have to make some concessions to aging. In my case, I don’t lose weight as easily as before, my eyesight got a little weaker and my temples went grey. Other than that, the main difference between my 30 year old self and me now is “life wisdom” which is both a burden and advantage. Youth, the saying goes, is wasted on the young which I interpret as while you’re getting wiser and happier, your physical vitality is waning.
It does, but I think how quickly it does is something you might be able to control. Partially its genetic, yes, but it’s a least 50 percent lifestyle choices. Purely coincidentally, I became serious about weight training in my 40s. As a flood of recent, peer-review studies has shown, strength training with compound movements (deadlifts, squat, presses, etc) is probably the single best form of physical training for older people. It builds muscle, maintains bone density, ramps up hormonal efficiency (production of testosterone, human growth hormone and others) and increases metabolic efficiency. This is not news to any of my middle-aged powerlifting brothers and sisters. Honestly, what is cooler or flat-out funnier than getting really strong at an age when most people take up golfing?
Personally speaking, I unwittingly had 2 advantages when I started lifting. First, I had no expectations or ego when I began. Started really light and added a little bit of weight each week – classic linear progression, though I hadn’t heard the term at that time. Anybody can do it and everyone will inevitably see results of they keep it up. Secondly, hormonal health has never been an issue for me. As a young man, it was a problem in that high levels of T meant I had really bad skin. (Interestingly, subsequent studies have backed up anecdotal evidence from dermatologists that former acne sufferers’ skin ages slower than the average populace due to longer alleles in their genes. Seems to be my case as well, so perhaps the universe does have a sense of justice). As an older man, it meant that, to my surprise, putting on muscle wasn’t too difficult.
Whether or not you have an advantage when you begin lifting, the result will be the same for everyone. If you put in the work week in and week out, your body will change. You’ll gain muscle and feel physically vital (Ok, except for those mornings after a heavy squat or deadlift sessions when crawling out of bed while groaning is the norm). I’m 51 and I feel great, I feel strong. I feel as if I’ve made some progress towards exploiting my physical potential. I could have easily spent the last decade doing nothing. Had I done that, I’m fairly certain that I’d feel a lot weaker, a lot more frail…old, if you will.
In short, I don’t feel 51 so I assume that is why my minds-eye reflects somebody a bit younger. I don’t mean to imply there is anything wrong with aging. It’s part of life. It’s how you react to aging that makes the difference. One of the benefits of age is gratitude. The older you get the more you know how often life doesn’t go as scripted. So many things can go wrong at any time. To be alive and to have relatively good health for yourself and your loved ones is already such a blessing. Physical training is not a “drudge” or hard work, it’s an almost decadent opportunity to turbo-charge that blessing.
Barbells, books and... 