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Not literally, but I don't feel too much different to what I did ten years ago, yet most professional sportsmen have retired by 37.
Why? Is it because of a lack of speed or aerobic fitness? Does the body take longer to heal? Why would I need to retire by now if I were, say, a footballer etc?
look at it this way, if from now on, on each birthday, you took off 1 year instead of adding one, do you really thing you'll reach zero?
It will be due to a lack of speed and recovery from injury Grandad.
on each birthday, you took off 1 year instead of adding one, do you really thing you'll reach zero?
How depressing!
Are you a pro?
I'm 42 and have more (sexual?)stamina, patience and general umph than at anytime in my life.
Endurance athletes tend to be older.
look at it this way, if from now on, on each birthday, you took off 1 year instead of adding one, do you really thing you'll reach zero?
Didn't mork do this?
Most, there's a few exceptions
[url= http://running.competitor.com/2011/03/news/european-indoors-37-year-old-clitheroe-victorious-in-3000m_22616 ]Clitheroe[/url]
[url= http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2011/03/02/2375710/in-pictures-how-manchester-uniteds-ryan-giggs-became-a ]Giggs[/url]
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Maier ]Hermann Maier[/url]
I'm 40 and the fittest I've ever been thanks to cycling.
Didn't mork do this?
Actually, I think if you remember Mork, the chances are you won't reach zero
I'm (almost) 60 and I've just started to feel like I'm slowing down a bit.
The "All Day 8-hour expedition" is a thing of the past.
[url= http://www.bikeradar.com/commuting/fitness/article/fitness-dont-let-age-slow-you-down-23117 ]Don't let age slow you down[/url]
Mr Woppit - nearly 60? But you act like a teenager 😉
Im 44 and the fittest I've ever been.
I am a physio and there are the patients who have done high intensity sport since they were small and have burnt out by the time they are 40. Then there are the people who took up something new in their mid 30's and are doing amazing things with endurance skill and power.
I think the research is a little skewed which says that your performance deteriorates as you get older. Classically people have done less as they have got older, (maybe time commitments or slowness to heal).
Dont let age dictate how you feel, just get out there and enjoy.
rewski - Member
Mr Woppit - nearly 60? But you act like a teenager
Sur naturaillement, mon petit glace cerise. 😈
All that Charlie you whanged up your hooter
mon petit glace cerise
My small frozen cherry?
Why? Is it because of a lack of speed or aerobic fitness? Does the body take longer to heal? Why would I need to retire by now if I were, say, a footballer etc?
Football is a sport that requires both strength and speed I think its difficult to maintain both these attributes at the same time as you get older its one or the other.
Also football is highly competitive you have to be at a really high standard and obviously maintaining that performance is even harder.
then there are injuries etc
Im 32 and probably as fit as I've ever been but that might mean I've never been that fit and probably could have been fitter in the past.
All that Charlie [s]you[/s] your still whang[s]ed[/s]ing up your hooter
rewski - Membermon petit glace cerise
My small frozen cherry?
Ah, oui.
I'm 57 and it takes me all night to do what I used to do all night. 😀
And if I chased after a football, by the time I got there I'd have forgotten what I was going to do with it.
Bollox to giggs et al. Bernard Hopkins is a lesson to us all!
But my point was a general one. I don't feel too much different, but the statistics show that in general, we are on the slide as we reach our late thirties. I am just curious why..
What statistics are you referring too?
Like some others have said it really depends where you start from. I'm 47 and until last summer when i fractured my back i can honestly say i was the fittest i had ever been primarily due to mountain biking.
How many premier teams are employing 37 year old footballers...
At 37 you're just right for winning the Paris-Roubaix a couple of times.
Who wants to ba a footballer anyway?
SB
How many premier teams are employing 37 year old footballers...
All of them - as bus drivers 🙂
I'm 35 in a couple of months...I don't feel old though. Although sometimes I see old school friends on Facebook and wonder if I look as old as them...I hope not, some look ancient.
I have been looking back rather than forward recently...you know, wishing I'd done things differently years ago.
I train in thai boxing and have been interested in Western boxing recently...but you can't compete at an amateur level once you reach 34. So the only option is white collar boxing now. I wish I had competed more when I was younger in thai boxing and boxing...too late now.
I have discovered that since my late thirties I don't get better, fitter or recover as quickly without a LOT more effort.
With my injury regime that means i am always recovering and never truly fit.
As you get older, you get slightly slower. In the realms of professional sports, "slightly" is the difference between Manchester United and Accrington Stanley.
*shrug* give a toss. When I was of 'professional sports' age I was wet and hopeless; since then I've rock climbed, mountain biked, run 10k races, fallen out of aeroplanes, if people I knew at school could see me now they wouldn't believe it. And the fact that I think "well, it's their loss" speaks volumes about my mental growth since then too.
Ultimately, how active you are, or aren't, or aspire to, is down to you irrespective of how old you are.
if you were a footballer you'd probably be in the nick now for sex crimes
54 and going like a steam machine on all bikes (single speed, hardtail, full suss and village).
[i]I'm 35 in a couple of months...I don't feel old though. Although sometimes I see old school friends on Facebook and wonder if I look as old as them...I hope not, some look ancient.[/i]
this is so true. I'm now aged 38. I moved back to my hometown in 2007 after leaving at 19. keep seeing people from school, some of them look worn down, fat, old and knackered already. Which is quite saddening to me.
I think you can keep a visual image of yourself in your head though of yourself at your best and carry it through yer life!. My old man is continually miffed by his reflection. What did you expect!? I've found working with younger people really keeps me on my toes.
I'm just as physically fit as I was when I was 19, just a bit fatter. I've never been that "athletic" mind.
At 38 years old and now nursing a dislocated shoulder, what i have discovered is that i just don't bounce quite as well as i used to!!!
Already peeved at not being able to ride though!!
I was always fairly fit due to playing football and fairly physical work, but I stopped smoking 3 years ago after 22 years on the fags. Since then I've taken up cycling, I've ran a marathon, 2 half marathons, a kilomathon and 3 10k's. I'll be running the Edinburgh marathon again this year. I'm 39.
I know that I'm definately not as agile as I was 10 years ago though, and I do take a lot longer to heal when I get injured. I also make involuntary noises more often when getting up from a seat, or bending down. I would say that experience or wisdom makes up for our lack of speed and agility as we get older. We become more sensible and responsible.
I'm just approaching 30. I'm gaining weight, my joints are starting to ache from the pounding I've given them over the years, I get back pains from the accidents I've had in the past and my fitness is dropping. At 37 I reckon I'll be dead, or wishing I was.
I was chatting to an ex Olympic swimmer a while back about getting older and losing fitness, he said that as you get older your muscles become more dense, this makes them stronger pound for pound but they cant support as much oxygen, so you lose some of your stamina.
Football is a game that require a complete fitness from a person and its very hard for a 35 to 40 years old person that they continue the whole game due to a lack of speed and body strength.
+1 TheBrick
people our age tend to have more mental strength and stamina than under 30's. You rarely see 20 somethings doing well in 6-8hr events, so look at it as if you are approaching your prime 🙂
I just discovered that at 32, I'm now too old to enter the Seniors class for some races 
If you're past it, then so am I! 37 here as well, but I feel fitter in some ways than I have been at any point in my life, but saying that, my recovery times are definitely a lot longer. I was probably as fit in my early 20's but other than being almost twice that age, I'm a bloody sight heavier too, and that makes things more tricky... 🙂
What I notice most (in mountain biking terms) is that I have a fear gland now. I guess a career, mortgage, lovely wife and three cats probably make me hold back a bit and keep my wheels more attached to the ground than when I used to muck about as a youngster, but I wish I had the balls and skillz to enjoy the downhills with the kit I've got now compared to when I look back to my first few mountain bikes in the 1990s.
Ah, those were the days. I'm sure summers were longer then too. And the price of bread now, I say.
[i]he said that as you get older your muscles become more dense, this makes them stronger pound for pound but they cant support as much oxygen, so you lose some of your stamina.[/i]
I'm just glad he doesn't teach biology...
At 37 I was probably at my physically fitest ever.... when my alcoholic wife went into melt down and I found myself doing the working single parent boogie. I've been playing catch up ever since, but never quite got back there. 54 now and doubt things will get better.
Jeez!
Go an Audax and see blokes of 70 stuff you over distance!
37 - and I've just found that life hasn't a handbrake!
FFS!
flip - Member
Are you a pro?
I'm 42 and have more (sexual?)stamina, patience and general umph than at anytime in my life.
POSTED 5 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST
Fazackerley
Just to clarify (again), I am not saying 'I' am past it, I am saying that it is evident that people do start to decline, as evidenced by most sportsmen being past their peak by this age.
46 here - probably endurance wise about the same as I was at 30. But try anything fast eg 5 a side football / Dad's race and I'm in pinged hamstring city. Partly due to the type of training I do though - generally steady effort stuff though. Since I was 40 I have dabbled in the dark world that is triathlon which keeps motivation up
deffo losing flexibility (not that i had a load) eg vaulting a fence or something would be a challenge. And if I tried a game of rugby (played to about 33) I'd probably die. But I don't work on flexibility which I probably should
have always maintained some level of fitness as I'm a big lad so can chuck on the weight if not careful - think this puts me at an advantage as from my teens I have been a bit careful say compared to someone who has been dead skinny up to late twenties and done no sport who then finds everything going south
echo comments about mental strength etc - as an old git I don't expect it to be easy and will keep churning on
I seem to remember that men are at their physical peak at 23-25, women a bit older. The reason that there are not many older professionals is probably:
They cannot train as hard and recover as quickly as their younger counterparts.
They found it hard to keep up the level of motivation required to train and perform at such a high level.
They got injured and had to stop.
Anyone who is fitter and stronger in their 30-40's than in their 20's was obviouly not trying hard enough when they were younger.
[i> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Couture /p>
He's 47 now, and stupid fit[/i]
I think if you're called 'Randy Couture' you either go down the 'fit as a butchers dog' or the 'wearing comfortable shoes' route. It's the law.
there are always a few freaks though, 40+ is pretty rare for a sprinter:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/queally-returns-to-uk-2012-london-olympics-sprint-squad
perhaps he's related to reg harris
But there's a clear difference between top class folk and most of us. They were close to their theoretical peak at some point and declining from there. You, me and most of the people we know have never been anyway near our potential. We can probably improve on where we've ever got to before with a bit of work and doing the right stuff.
I'm the oldest I've ever been and the fittest I've ever been and have no plans to stop improving just yet.
I read in a running magazine recently that people get 'best' at a sport after 12 years doing it.
Anyone who takes up a sport later in life will tend to improve for quite some time, then peak, then decline with time. Obviously you can extend the 'peak' by trainign and staying injury free.
It's vaguely comforting that as I didn't take up mtbing until about 10 years ago I've still got a couple fo years to get better at it 🙂
Played high level rugby to around 32. I gave up then as I was losing my motivation to train hard enough to stay at the top level. Think it was having done it for >15 years. I simple was not enjoying it as much. Time was also a factor as other life commitments started to take higher priority.
Took up biking a couple of year after I quit rugby. Last year (40) I beat all of my times on the few things I measure myself on. Fully expect and plan to improve again this year
Never mind all this physical stuff.
If you are 37, relax in the fact that you have been getting stupider for a number of years and will continue to deteriorate. 🙂
Im 50 next year and can still knock out a 1.30 half marathon, ride sportives (road) and come in the top quarter but sadly still getting hammered by my mates off road, technical ability has not improved but fear factor has risen! Train sensibly, use a heart rate monitor and just enjoy being outdoors. Act your shoe size not your age (in all areas of life!!!) and you'll be fine.
I was chatting to an ex Olympic swimmer a while back about getting older and losing fitness, he said that as you get older your muscles become more dense, this makes them stronger pound for pound but they cant support as much oxygen, so you lose some of your stamina.
Yes.
In my thai boxing it's amusing when a younger lad who's a better boxer that me will attempt to over power me...in the clinch I'll beat them everytime. I think you only begin to appreciate 'man strength' when you're older...as a young man you aren't aware of it.
Not literally, but I don't feel too much different to what I did ten years ago
Because you can't actually remember it. i'm 26 and my best years are a close enough memory for me to realise they are gone.
when people over 30 start telling you they aren't over the hill it's because they have started the descent.
[img] 
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EDIT: Is that a flat barred CX bike?
Kelly Slater, 38 and still world surfing champion(10 times I think).
Me, 41, as fit as I've ever been but not quite as flexible and injuries seem to take longer to heal. Still go downhil with a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" mentality.