The older, the wiser, the strongest

　
Recently I wondered about how getting older could make it more difficult to make progress in terms of physical fitness. Would it be fair to assume that it will be all downhill from the time we reach our late 30s?

I don't think so. Just think of all the badasses who are in their late 30s or over who could put many teens and twenty-somethings to shame when it comes to physical fitness.

The first person to come to mind is Tony Horton from the P90X program, mostly because it was his program that inspired me to take fitness seriously. The guy was almost 50 years old when that DVD program came out in 2004 and there is no doubt he was and still is in amazing shape. Now in his mid 50s, Horton gets a kick out of  beating young military guys in pull up and push up challenges.

Jacinto Bonilla, a 73-year-old who participates in the masters division (of athletes over 40 years of age) of the CrossFit Games, also comes to mind. In his CrossFit Games profile, Bonilla says he has no athletic background besides CrossFit. "I have only run in road racing and a few marathons, my best being at 3 hours and 26 minutes. Back in the 1960s I earned a black belt in Karate." He has been doing CrossFit since 2006.

In her biography on CrossFit NYC's website, a coach who is in her 20s, says that the first time she ever tried CrossFit she was in the same class as Bonilla. Given that she has a gymnastics and weightlifting background and is a Golden Gloves boxer, she expected to crush everyone in the class. Instead, she says she got smoked by Bonilla, who was 70 at the time.

Not only guys come to mind. About a month ago, when I started taking Muay Thai classes, I  began watching women's mixed martial arts (MMA) fights and reading about women in MMA to gain some insight into the sport. I got the nice surprise of finding that there are women in their late 30s and over who are grounding and pounding away.

One of them is Kaiyana Rain, who is 39 years old. She recently turned pro and is fighting girls in their early 20s. In her blog, Them's Fightin' Words, Rain describes how her age is not an obstacle.

 

"Isn't it harder now that you're older?" -No. I am more fit and more agile than I have ever been. In my youth I was more body than mind. In my years ahead I will be more mind than body. But right now I am enjoying the time in life when my mind and my body are in balance.

 

"How much longer until you stop?" - I am just getting started.

Baby, I am just getting started.

Another fighter I learned about is Susie "Mama Beast" Wyatt, who is 47 and is #14 in the 135-pound women's amateur MMA world rankings. She has won five fights and lost one. In a 2011 testimonial she recorded to promote the gym where she trains, Wyatt mentions that she had been training for about a year and a half, mostly in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. If my math is right, she began training at 44 ...and she has said in interviews that she expects to be fighting in her 50s. You go, girl!

Science agrees that it's not all downhill from mid-life on, as long as we stay active. Research published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine's September 2011 issue contradicts the notion that muscle mass and strength inevitably decline as we get older. Instead, it notes, these declines are the product of chronic disuse rather than muscle aging.

The study, which evaluated 40 people aged 40 to 81 who trained 4 to 5 times per week, showed that despite an increase in total body fat percentage, peak torque (torque is the force needed to rotate an object) and muscle-specific strength did not significantly decrease with age.

So, no, there is absolutely no way it's all downhill from your 30s. Age is no excuse to shy away from picking up the pace and kicking ass with even more intensity.