I am going to mention Sex

nigeypiggy

I am 60 and I do lots of cardio work and strength and resistance training at the gym, I have a personal trainer too. The problem with this routine is that I am broken. I have numerous issues brought about by living life. It's quite hard not to let these issues harm your motivation. Tell me about your pains and aches too and how it affects your training regime. Or like me how you accept it and do your best to live with it. Oh, I forgot to mention Sex.....maybe next time.

rileysowner

57. Lots or aches and pains. Numerous issues like pre-diabetic HbA1C, high blood pressure, high triglycerides. I dealt with it by going Keto and A1C is normal in half a year, blood pressure is normal with no meds from using 3 to keep it normal. Knee pain greatly reduced in a matter or weeks, and other than issues when I do something stupid, I have no pain. Triglycerides are very low. My weight is down 84 + pounds. The only negative in my doctor's opinion is my cholesterol is up, but that is an ongoing discussion between us. Keto is not for everyone, but it works for me, and I see no issue with sticking with this way of eating for the remainder of my life.

DiscusTank5

47 F here. I strained an upper leg muscle back in the summer (after a 45 min run when my body was only used to 25 min runs) and tried to just carry on as usual. That didn't work out very well, and I haven't been able to run in months. Today, I sucked it up and visited a physical therapist. The hour and a half with him didn't hurt as much as I had expected, and I even experienced dry needling! With electrodes!

Oh, and I had surgery for a cancerous tumor (stage 2) last month. It was found during a routine colonoscopy. I highly recommend getting one; it didn't hurt at all, but the "cleanse" the day before wasn't fun, TBH.

A freckle above my eyebrow suddenly looks bubbly, so I've made an appointment with my dermatologist to get it checked out.

This is life after 40: lots of health check-ups and paying more attention to my body than I ever have before. Neglecting an issue means more work, more treatment down the road.

Good luck to you!

springlering62

61, started at 56, went from obese to right around average normal BMI, but muscular.

I had the opposite. I had pretty bad joint pain while obese, fairly frequent colds etc.

When we bought our current home (3 story house in central business district) eight years ago, we paid a considerable amount extra to have an elevator installed, installed wooden flooring on staircase walls so I could hand-over-hand my way down staircases, made sure master bathroom would be accessible, all with an eye towards my expected “future health”.

Weight loss has been an indescribable godsend.

I may have aches and pain- but I know what causes them. It’s not the intolerable arthritic ache from the inside out.

Now it comes from workouts, over exercise.

Being able to bounce up and down the stairs without a care in the world (other than tripping over critters), using the elevator as a mobile vacuum cleaner closet, or as a dumb waiter to bring up groceries, weight loss has given me this.

I do have an issue commonly called “yoga butt” from overstretching, and shoulder pain, but both come and go.

Otherwise, it’s temporary pain. I joke with my trainer that one week it’ll be an ankle, by the next it’s moved to an elbow, then maybe a knee or fingers. I figure that’s just part of aging.

But then I look at other people my age, and I figure I’m aging a darn sight better than most of them, and I appreciate the piddliness of my complaints.

Arthritis pain literally drove my mom crazy, made her cease moving, and her muscles atrophied as a result. She was constantly crying about the arthritis pain, couldn’t shift or move herself for any relief.

Me, mine has almost disappeared. I’ll take my exercise related issues over ”Uncle Arthur” any day.

I also appreciate that with my better health, I (knock on wood!) seldom get a cold. Even our bout of Covid was embarrassingly mild. I’ve had worse colds.

Don’t spend your days worrying about what’s “broken”. Spend your days celebrating what still works.

springlering62

Also want to add, upon proofreading the above, the mindset has totally changed from whinging, bellyaching complainer to….. surprisingly positive.

I think that’s the best change of all.

I read this and think who TF is this person?

xbowhunter

Aches and pans? oh my where do I start! lol

55YO Arthritis in my left hand, right ancle and lower back. But I feel strength training keeps it from getting worse. Although my hand is killing me today becasue I pushed really hard yesterday..

AnnPT77

I'm female. There, I mentioned sex. Also, I'm 68. I've been active for around 22-23 years, during most of which I was obese. Before being active, I was very sedentary, very out of shape, and at the time I started being active, I was very physically depleted from full-bore cancer treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation, other drugs).

I don't understand the question: "How do I not let these issues harm my motivation?" They have little or nothing to do with my motivation.

They do affect how I structure my activity/training, sure . . . but that's technical, not psychological. There are things I can't do (hard limits), and things I have to do carefully, but overall I can do the things I most want to do.

Since you ask, my aches and pains and such include: At least one torn knee meniscus, probably both. Osteoarthritis in hips, knees, probably other areas. Osteoporosis. Fairly extensive upper left chest/neck scar tissue and necrotic tissue from modified radical mastectomy surgery followed by radiation. (Simple mastectomy surgery on the other side, but that's non-problematic athletically.) Vision deficits from retinal tears in both eyes, among other things (not legally blind, able to drive). Tendency to shoulder nerve impingement. Possible/probable early stage COPD, mostly asymptomatic. Sleep apnea. Sleep interruption insomnia. Currently odd ribcage pain that may be dire or trivial, still being diagnosed via lots of scans & tests. Probably some stuff I'm forgetting, besides. If it matters, I'm also severely hypothyroid and of course menopausal.

I used to have high blood pressure, high triglycerides, and high cholesterol, but all of that resolved nicely part way through weight loss, and has stayed solidly in a normal range for 8 years since.

I do find that in general, the stronger/fitter I get, the less pain I experience, if I'm smart about the training.

I'm lucky: I can do the things that matter most to me. Sometimes they hurt. Mostly they don't hurt lots. (If they did, I'd probably drop them, seek something else . . . or have the <bleep> surgery.) I guess in that sense, it affects my motivation: I'm not "motivated" to do exercise that hurts really a lot. But so far I don't need to.

I don't mostly do things because I think they're good for me, so I'm not powering through discomfort and needing motivation to do it. I do things that I think are fun, some of which are physically demanding. I'd do them even if they weren't good for me, but they are. I do other things to improve at the fun things.

How it affects my training regimen? I do better if I don't do the same activity every day. My main fun things are on-water rowing and cycling on paved trails. In season, I row 4 days and usually cycle 2 other days, take one rest day a week. I do much better with one full rest day weekly. (I may walk or do some yoga/stretching, but nothing intense.) In off season, I usually alternate machine row and stationary bike 6 days, and add some lifting.

Each season, I start lifting slowly (light weight, fewer sets), and increase gradually. I do an idiosyncratic set of exercises, looking primarily to remediate the imbalances from rowing, so there's a lot of upper body push. (Rowing is all lower push, upper pull - full body, but very unbalanced.) I do better if I increase reps/sets before I increase weight, usually. There's also that nice thread about ways to increase useful stress other than by increasing weight:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10877279/30-tips-to-increase-strength-training-intensity

But I don't have any ideas about motivation, other than "find something fun enough that you don't need any". That works well for a natural hedonist like me.

DiscusTank5

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I've been active for around 22-23 years, during most of which I was obese. Before being active, I was very sedentary, very out of shape, and at the time I started being active, I was very physically depleted from full-bore cancer treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation, other drugs).

Thanks, Ann. This is the post I needed to read today (the story of someone with cancer in the rearview mirror who survived it decades ago and has moved on to a fun, active lifestyle).