Guys 50+ Questions on Fitness Longevity?

[TxxAgg]

What advice, tips, and tricks do you have for younger guys to stay in shape and keep injury free?

I'm late 30's and enjoy running and lifting. The aches and pains and old injuries creep up from time to time. What do you recommend for keeping things at bay so guys my age can keep up 20 years from now?

I'm sure diet becomes more important. What about rest days? What about vitamins? What about stress? You get the idea...

Let us know what you think.

 

[Kevin Dill]

Within reason, the more physically you live your life the better your odds are of aging out physically fit to hunt. Don’t gain weight...it will steal your abilities. If you can’t work hard all day then you probably can’t hunt hard all day, let alone for a week or two.

 

[elkduds]

Treat it when it hurts, as opposed to waiting years for it to heal. If you already have a chronic injury such as shoulder, knee, hip, foot, back; get a specific workout routine from physician or physical therapist. Keep it as strong and flexible as you can. Maintain healthy weight, don't smoke, treat high cholesterol. Flexibility and cardio health become more important than muscle strength. Consider alternatives to running, which can lead to chronic injuries.

I'm 61.

 

[Scoutman]

As stated before if your overweight at all, start now, change eating habits,etc. If you smoke,stop. Exercise is essential, walk more, join a a gym, cancel your lawn service, get moving. Whoever called them the golden years, LIED. Like everything else in life, you get out of it,what you put in it. I try to eat right, take vitamins, exercise, drink moderately, not always perfect but still chasing elk every year for two weeks or more at 56.

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[blackdawg]

Just do what this poster says to do with enthusiasm and all will work out


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[Marble]

A body in motion, stays in motion.

I listened to a doctor that specializes in circulation of the blood. He talked about how increasing your heart rate and exercise made your heart pump more and thus, circulate your blood. DUH! But the point was, your blood gets filtered more, so more toxins out, and if you are sedentary, blood will pool in certain parts of the body and causes issues. Exercise, even mild, does wonders.

 

[beachbunny]

at 62, i try to protect my joints as much as possible,i stopped heavy weight lifting a while ago as i saw that damage in others, i stopped running on the hard a while ago but am fortunate to live on the beach ,so i run soft sand and swim an awful lot.
definitely yoga,sunrise salutation everyday, drink a lot of water .
sometimes i feel like a rusty hinge in the morning and need to be oiled!
and don't stop no matter what,like was already said, body in motion ,stays in motion.
enjoy being young and your time in the sun.
oh, yeah "golden years" thing,if you could hear my laughter at that!

 

[mtnbiker208]

don't stop
objects in motion, stay in motion; objects at rest, stay at rest.

and advil lots of advil. if you count screw removals as 1\2 surguries i am at 7. all from playing. I have crashed and burned so many times. you have to learn to deal with being uncomfortable. at least that is what has worked for me.

 

[5MilesBack]

Stay away from heavy pack training. Your joints will thank you later in life.....and possibly even earlier. Don't live life on the edge at 150% on everything........that's where all my injuries have come from. I'm still not sure I know what moderation means. Everything is full bore ahead. I've just come to accept the injuries as they come, that's who I am. Growing up as a 4-sport athlete takes a toll on the body as well. But I wouldn't change any of that.

I still can't lift like I'd like to, just too much tendonitis and pains in the shoulders, elbows, and knees. And then all those herniated discs in my neck and back........those will be my downfall. When I got married my wife told me "You know, there's something to be said about being able to walk when you're 40". Well, I've made it to almost 55 now and can still walk....so life is good.

 

[kda082]

49+ y/o runner and lifter. Run trails, gravel and asphalt. Avoid pavement with any frequency. Listen to your body lifting and take days of as needed. Drink good beer, lubes the joints.

 

[Mosster47]

#1 control your weight. Weight wears you down more than anything. When you run and hike breathe through your nose 100% of the time. If you mouth breathe you can push yourself harder, but you can easily over train also. The little aches go away after half a mile or so, but if something isn't going away then stop. Training through the pain doesn't work on the back half of your 30s. Then stretch your whole body before and after you run or hike. That will help a tremendous amount with sorenes. I'm still able to run marathons so that's good enough for me.

About a year ago lifting heavy just wasn't working anymore. I started working up with 25 reps per set, then the next week going up 5lbs per lift then 20 reps per set, and I do that up to 5 reps that are pretty heavy. Then at the start of the new five week cycle I add 5lbs to my 25 rep set and start it back over. What used to be my 3rd lift day is now just body weight only stuff.

It still sucks being 37, but I don't feel like a broken lawn chair by Sunday morning anymore.

 

[Poser]

10 hours of sleep with as much regularity as absolutely possible

 

[tanker]

Take the stairs not the elevator. Don’t fight for the close parking spots at Wal Mart. Drink more water and less pop. Drink fewer good beers and not lots of cheap ones. Take care of injuries early. Back the heavy weights down a little and do more cardio. Repeating what was said earlier but most importantly....keep moving!!

 

[sniper61]

Turning 59 soon , i worked hard all my life and played even harder. did a lot of tough hunts like shooting a moose with a 2 mile pack out. I say do all you can while you can. I am hunting AK. this year but adding some deep sea fishing. I planned it, that i would wait till now in life to chase blue waters . Enjoy life with the pains of it.

 

[TxxAgg]

Great feedback. Thank yall

 

[mtnwrunner]

62 here. And yup, getting old sucks. Never thought I would say that.....but...….it is true. Your recovery time just takes longer and you will be slower. I was an avid ultramarathoner and a dedicated skier...…take care of your knees and back.
Rest, don't kill yourself, get plenty of sleep, reduce the stress in your life and just slow down and enjoy the moments. Money ain't everything.
Oh yeah, and the one BIG thing...…...whiskey.

Randy

 

[cnelk]

Get a young girlfriend or wife.
That’ll keep ya young and in shape

 

[LostArra]

rest and recovery is as important as training

Stay Strong.. Folks aren't in nursing homes because of their decreased aerobic capacity, It's because they are too weak/frail to handle daily living.

my dad told me as soon as you start paying people to do your regular chores, it won't be long before you're paying for someone to wipe your ass.

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

What advice, tips, and tricks do you have for younger guys to stay in shape and keep injury free?

I'm late 30's and enjoy running and lifting. The aches and pains and old injuries creep up from time to time. What do you recommend for keeping things at bay so guys my age can keep up 20 years from now?

I'm sure diet becomes more important. What about rest days? What about vitamins? What about stress? You get the idea...

Let us know what you think.

Being a guy that has had 3 knee surgeries and nerve damage in my left shoulder from college football. At 43 I had a Widowmaker Heart Attack only 7 months after winning the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Pan Ams and 6 herniated discs in 2017. Three are in my neck and 3 in my lumbar region from falling through steps at home due to rusted nails from Hurricane Sandy flooding. After the fall through the steps I couldn’t lift a gallon of milk for two months, needed an epidural and was barely able to walk the dog around the block for a year.

My son and I went for our first elk hunt this past september only a little more than year after I could walk right again. What helped me at 53 was yoga, backpack cardio and a kettlebell routine. Yoga made my body feel better than anything else. It’s really amazing the range of motion it can get back. The backpack cardio is training specifically for hunting and the kettlebells are a good for strength, range of motion and cardio in a compressed amount of time. I did each of these workouts 3-4 days a week. I would backpack 2-4 miles in the morning before work and then either do the kettlebells or the yoga when I got home.

With this workout I was able last fall to hike 6-8 miles a day with the primary area we hunted being a 950 foot vertical drop into a drainage in less than a 1/3 of a mile. I wore a heart rate monitor and hiking back up that hill had me at a peak heart rate of 196 beats per minute. I haven’t had a heart rate that high since the day I had my heart attack! It’s just crazy high. I had to stop for about 15 minutes and wait until my heart rate dropped to about 140 before I continued.

I would also recommend fish oil. Since starting Jiu Jitsu when I was 38. I have taken 6-12 fish oil pills a day with 1200 IU’s of omega 3’s and they are amazing for inflammation.


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[TxxAgg]

^^^ interesting you say that. I do kettlebells 3-5 times a week and take fish oil every day