Many older men have resigned themselves to the notion that their best years are behind them, and that what’s left is a long, drawn out epitaph, otherwise known [around here] as death in slow motion.
This is a mindset, not biology.
With motivation and the proper training, many achieve feats of athleticism they couldn’t come close to in their 20’s.
So what stops them?
Many battle clinical depression.
For others, it’s a chronic injury.
But for the most part, it’s just plain laziness.
The refrain is common:
“Why should I work out? I’m an older man for god’s sake! Who cares?”
I guess the person who should care died a long time ago, which is why people tend to look right through them, reinforcing their sense of irrelevance.
For those who do go to the gym, they often do so to just to avoid injury, or to “stay alive,” as they put it.
Needless to say, this attitude never won a Superbowl or anything else for that matter.
Challenging the forces of nature is not a slam-dunk, but it’s well worth the view if you have the will to climb the mountain.
…………….
There are 3 primary reasons why middle-aged men should hire a personal trainer, in this order:
1] Mental Health
Hypochondria is a pandemic amongst mid-lifers.
Everything is a potential apocalypse: The annual prostate exam, an impending stroke, a heart attack, colon cancer, or the ever-popular brain tumor paranoia. It never ends.
“That shoe will damn well drop, so if not now, when?”
No wonder Xanax sales are through the roof.
But here’s something I’ve learned: The 3 hours a week I spend with my personal trainer are enough to obliterate depressive episodes, anxiety and transient existential pain.
2] Physical Health
One of the biggest fears expressed by middle-aged men is failing health.
I’m not referring to a terminal illness, but literally, physical strength.
Without it, men begin to feel vulnerable and defeated.
“No longer can I protect those close to me,” is the way it comes across, but rapidly escalates into “I am no longer physically respected and relevant.”
From here it’s down the rabbit hole.
3] Medical Bills
“OMG everthing is falling the hell apart. My back hurts, my shoulder hurts, I have stomach pain, headaches, arthritis, I can’t lift a toothbrush…”
Sound familiar?
Poor health costs a hell of a lot more than your self-esteem.
In many cases it can rival your home mortgage. A typical hospital stay is somewhere in the 6k/day range, if this helps.
For less than that amount over 365 days, you could hire a personal trainer and tell the hospitals to kiss your ass.
Preventive medicine is the future. Without it, there is no future.
If after all you do you still land the the emergency room, it’s probably genetic.
……………..
Postscript
I like being physically strong. There’s something about lifting a lot of weight that’s emotionally transformative.
And while professional achievement is always a great picker-upper, having both is 10 times the high.
No longer are you a fading older man, but rather a successful older man who can stand should-to-shoulder with men half your age, dignity in tact.
With this as a backdrop, if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that personal trainers are probably responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in lost therapy revenues.
There’s only so much you can do on the couch before you have to get your ass up and get back to living.
Nobody “looks right through” a man’s who super fit no matter what his age happens to be.
