Ageing well requires staying fit

Ageing is many people’s greatest fear because many believe that to age is to wane and that life doesn’t get any better, but I, for one, haven’t seen that to be true. Working in a gym gave me an excellent insight because I saw people from all walks of life and in all stages. What I like to remind myself every so often is that the healthiest and fittest people there, and particularly the happiest, were sometimes the eldest.

Now, don’t get me wrong—age is a big challenge, and putting miles on the clock is going to add some wear and tear, but I do like to see the body and mind just like a car. The question is, what kind of miles are you putting on, and how do you drive?

In the same way that driving aggressively or simply not maintaining it properly can cause your car to wear out sooner, the body ages badly when not cared for. The fact is that working in the gym, I met many people who didn’t just look younger than they were; they lived younger, too. I got the chance to get to know them personally and gain insight into whether their good health was luck and genetics or whether they themselves had a greater part to play.

The answer I found is that, just like with a car, luck determines the body you are given, but the greatest impact on how you age is in how you take care of what you have. For example, one of the ladies I knew is an inspiration to this day because I thought she was 60 and doing well for her age. To make conversation, I asked her what she was training for, to which she replied she was going on a skiing holiday in a few weeks.

Skiing is, in my eyes, one of the most intense activities there is, so you have to be pretty darn fit even to do it, let alone be any good. This lady was treating it like a normal thing and I thought how great it is to be able to do something this intense as a normal activity at 60.

Good for her, I thought; think of all the other cool things she must be able to do that many of her age can’t, like run around with her children because, unfortunately, even climbing stairs is a challenge for many at that age.

Because I worked in a gym, I knew people’s ages because it’s part of prescribing the right activities and such, so I had a quick check and found she was, in fact, 80. Yep, you read that right, an 80-year-old grandma thought nothing of popping across to the Alps for a bit of skiing.

Now, that is a woman to be inspired by, isn’t she? So the question is, Was this exceptional health down to luck and genes? Not really, because when I asked her this question, she said she was always active throughout her life and didn’t want to let herself go. Her attitude determined her health, not her genes.

Maybe this is a lucky find, but she was not the only person at this gym with the same result. Several people I found were experiencing health 20 years younger than their nominal age. The pattern I found was that they all had the same attitude that they must use their body or lose it so they chose to maintain it well. The fact is that the body doesn’t just need a yearly check-up but a more regular one a few times a week. In fact, that’s what cars are like because they still need to be used regularly, often every day, to function properly. In fact, most cars need to be given a decent run regularly enough to keep themselves working properly.

These insights didn’t just apply in the gym I worked in. When I look around, I find the same story everywhere. Being older can and should mean the same health and happiness you knew when you were younger. To those who maintain their bodies properly, this is invariably the case.

The Neurobiology of Aging

I love how science changes as we learn more, and what once was said to be impossible is now being shown to be possible as this video from the 2016 Brain Awareness Video Contest shows, cognitive decline doesn’t have to be an inevitable part of ageing.

Just watching this video is like going back to my psychology A level. Something I really enjoyed. The beauty is simply in understanding the body as a whole. So many know a lot about the body but little about the mind. This is the same as knowing all about a computer but not the operating system it runs or a car but not the fuel and engine it uses. The knowledge is incomplete.

This particular topic on aging reminds us that the brain is there to be used as we age just as when we are young. There is no evidence that any decline is inevitable it is just that that is what normally happens. So all you really have to do is choose to use your brain as much when you age as when you are young. In fact, as far as I can learn from my seniors it is the experience you possess when you are older that enables you to out compete the younger fitter individuals. My plan is to keep my fitness while gaining the experience so I can have the best of both worlds when I am older.

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