Posted on January 31, 2010 by Dave W

Your Time of Life!

Time and tide waits for no man!

If you are young and full of life, enjoying your sport and are generally keeping fit, I would like you to bookmark this page, come back when you are a lot older and add your comments at the bottom of the page.

You could visit me in the rest home and discuss it face to face if you like. Please bring along some liquorice sweets as they are my favourites now but I will probably have forgot by the time you visit. It might bring back memories.

It is a fact of life that once we ‘grow up’- about sixteen, – we think we know everything there is to know about life. Why should we listen to our parents, or that old 30 something doctor?

It is my life; I know what I am doing!

 We have already discussed keeping fit whilst injured. In this article we discuss how to keep fit while growing up.

I have to chuckle at that last sentence. I still get told to ‘grow up’ when I am annoying the children.

I keep telling them I have no intention of growing up.

Stay young at heart and enjoy life!

Using Dave’s theory of relative activity we will take a look at how it applied to our 50+ male, and if you can apply it to your situation.

Thinking he may never play cricket or football again, he decided he would like to stay involved in cricket so he studied to become a cricket umpire.

He was to become the youngest umpire in his local league, but each week he yearned to be on the field, bowling his trademark Dennis Lillee bouncer.

Some memories never leave you, they sometimes become better (more exaggerated) as time goes by.

A full 12 months had passed when he was asked if he would like a game of badminton.

Having played at school he jumped (hopped) at the chance, not giving much thought to how his knee would cope.

He managed to get through the session, and woke the next morning to find he could hardly walk.

He took a calculated risk each week as he played again and his knee responded and grew stronger.

He then returned to the sports he loved and played football in the winter months and cricket in the summer.

The warning from his doctor filed in the ‘not needed’ section of his memory.

Moving quickly on (it wasn’t meant to be a life story, sorry)

Our male resumed training which was relevant to his sport and his age did not matter.

As time passed, little niggles began to be a cause of minor irritation. Injuries that could be ‘run off’ lasted longer than usual, his body was trying to tell him something. SLOW DOWN.

He found that instead of being a regular in his teams, he was missing more and more games through injury.

Eventually, he listened (with one ear) to his ageing body and decided to give up football.

It was at this point in his life that he gave his body a rest and just played cricket in summer. He only had to bowl 10 overs each game, field close in, and his batting would not put much strain on his knees as his visits to the middle rarely lasted long.

This continued for around 10 years with the odd game of football here and there and 5-a-side each Thursday. Looking back with a more mature attitude, he now realises the 5-a-side continued for so long because of the male bonding sessions that took place in the bar after.

Not knowing about the theory of relative activity, he did no other training.

If he had have known the theory he would have trained relative to his chosen activity and not expected to keep fit by just playing.

Did you get the not so subliminal message in that last sentence?

One day he decided to weigh himself as there had been one or two comments asking if he had put on weight.

Ridiculous he thought. These scales must be broke. How could he possibly have put that much weight on?

A trip to the shops and a new set of scales revealed the first reading was correct. Could these new scales be broke he thought.

Eventually he came to terms with the reality of things. Even though he was playing 5-a-side he still had put on weight.

It was time for drastic action, renewing his gym membership was the first thing to do and then he would get busy.

And busy he got, sometimes he would spend 4 hours at a time in the gym and this was after an hour’s swim.

If only he had known about the theory of relative activity, he might not have over trained and made himself look ill.

He had by now started to play badminton on a regular basis, but found he was struggling to get through an hour’s session. How could this be possible, he was going to the gym six days a week and playing badminton on the seventh?

If only he had known about the theory of relative activity.

So now our male had started to evolve. He realised he was training too much and that he needed to train more specifically, but how?

A stroke of misfortune was to provide the answer.

He had started to have problems with his knee again and was playing one week missing three. Then it went completely and he had to stop playing for almost 9 months.

It was during this time, that, unbeknown to himself he was to undertake in some activity relevant to his age and fitness levels.

He continued to go to the gym, but just did exercises which didn’t hurt his knee. His knee became stronger and he was just starting to use the treadmill again when fate stepped in.

He thought that because he had to run at badminton, he had to train by running. When his friend mentioned he had bought a bike and was going out twice a week, he decided to join him.

He was amazed at how much fitter he became in a short period of time and without any knee pain whatsoever.

He had discovered the secret of keeping fit when his ageing body had almost given up hope.

No more treadmill, cycling and low impact cardio, along with some weights was now to be the Holy Grail of his fitness regime.

 In summary (are you still awake?)

Listen to your body as it gets older, it needs a little pampering now and again. Keep your training relevant to the sport you are involved in.

If you are preparing to run a marathon, run long distances.

If you no longer find running comes easy, try a bike. It is low impact and you can see a bit of your surroundings. Besides you should finish first in the marathon!

If you are ‘of a certain age’ and are contemplating starting a fitness regime, forget the running until you feel you can manage it safely.

Keep your activity relevant to your time of life and fitness levels. No need to re-invent the wheel, a bike already has two.

I think it is turning into a life story so I will end this part here.

Coming soon Part 3 ‘Your State of Mind’

Keep Moving

Dave W

Cycling For Fitness

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