Some background first, then a low- to zero-price solutions. My partner and I are both 52 years old. She had Stage-IVb cancer two years ago, the treatment for which left her with ongoing issues. I abused the hell out of my body starting in my early teens:
dirt biking (crashes)
mountain biking (crashes)
road bicycling (been hit by cars seven times, MCL tears, cervical disc herniation)
open ocean sailor (yeah, all of it is just brutal)
Despite all of that, we are both regularly clocking PBs. She’s a competitive rower, triathlete, and mountain biker, and I’m a long distance cyclist. AND we are 90 to 99% pain-free, depending if we did our maintenance work.
Doing yoga, Pilates, and McKenzie Method physical therapy (MMPT) keeps you going at full tilt. You can start for free with yoga and Pilates, just find a zero-equipment YT channel that appeals to you. We’re partial to “Yoga with Adrienne” and “Move with Nicole.” Start slow and easy.
For the MMPT, “Bob and Brad” on YT are MMPTs. Robin McKenzie’s books are worth owning, or just check them out from the library. Memorize the exercises, and don’t stop doing them just because the pain dropped below threshold(!!!). I…uh… might have direct experience there. :D
Use or lose it, take care of the hardware and software, and all that. With a little care and maintenance, you can rock the hell out of your body for a very long time. I didn’t believe it until the first time I met a 70 year old downhill mountain biking champion. His age class starts at 55, so he was beating professional racers 15 years younger than he. He was the one who taught me about yoga, Pilates, and MMPT being the key.
If any of this blather helps even one of you just a little, it was worth the insomnia, typing-on-phone hell. :D
I don’t seem to look into mirrors unintentionally. I don’t like seeing myself unless it’s deliberate, like to check my skin or shave. I pass by a huge bathroom mirror on the way to go to the bathroom without registering it. I like that about myself.
Tried to have ice cream in a place where the bar-style stools were in front of a mirrored wall and it was really difficult to relax. That part I don’t like.
K E R A T O S E S. Actinic and Seborrheic. One might kill you, both feel like barnacles growing on your body. My body’s little present to welcome me to middle age. I now have to go to the dermatologist every 6 months, just like the dentist, to have them removed or I start to feel like an old sail boat that might die of skin cancer.
As someone who is not young, I kind of agree with OP. It’s not uncommon for me to be going about my day feeling all spry and happy, and then I walk past a mirror and I’m like “WTF? Who the hell is that?”
Looking young is very different from feeling young.
I could never look at myself in the mirror ever again and it wouldn’t make my knees feel any better.
Don’t make sitting in the house your identity, I think every older person I know who is still doing all the things they did at 40 has hobbies and a lifestyle that gets them about. There’s a group of 70-year-olds on my commute riding mountain bikes daily up the biggest hill in the area, and they’re faster than me.
Damn, that’s impressive! There’s a brutal training hike around here that is unmaintained, rutted up, nastiness that goes 1-2 feet up for every 1 foot forward. My friends and I hike it weekly when we’re preparing for a backpacking trip. I’ll be struggling my way up the trail with my hiking boots and trekking poles when this little old Japanese lady in low-top trail runners, and tiny jogging shorts, goes running past me. She must be 65 years old, and weighs like 90 pounds, but she’s peak fitness. I’ll still be heading up the trail when I see her jogging back down. She’s honestly an inspiration for me to keep training.
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