FITNESS PAST 50

I was one of those who was always greatly fond of fitness but somehow I used to only research on fitness and not do much actual physical work to get fit. I was a skinny child, born premature at 4 pounds and sickly. I used to suffer from asthma for a large part of my early years till I became a teenager. Luckily it then just disappeared.

I was always fascinated by getting fit and this was one of the main reasons why I decided to join the Army through the National Defence Academy in Pune. Here as a impressionable 17 year old I got a rude shock. Over the three years at the NDA I was consistently at the rear of the pack physically. While I could run 5 miles I could never run faster than an 8 minute mile despite undergoing the rigorous physical training over three years of almost 4 hours per day.

I stayed at this relative level of fitness until I had to have an ACL replacement in 1996. After this my weight ballooned to a 100 kg. It stayed this way till 2008.

It was at this stage that my wife decided that enough is enough and gifted me a bicycle.  That was it. My life restarted.

I am now in my early  fifties and I consider myself in the best shape of my life now even though I have been less active in sports and in average shape my whole life. At age 48 I completed a solo bike ride from Manali over the treacherous Rohtang Pass into Ladakh. In 2009 later I cycled 500 kms from Bangalore to Coorg to Ooty.  At the age of 50 I then did the Tour of Nilgiris covering over 800 kms of cycling over a week.




 In this blog I shall give my tips for staying healthy, fit, and happy in your 50′s and beyond. 50′s and 60′s does not mean old ! Strike that word from your vocabulary. If you think of yourself as old then you will act old. 50′s and 60′s means midlife to me – the prime of your life. I believe in a holistic approach to fitness. There is a mind body connection and in my opinion to be in top shape and in top health requires not just physical but mental well being as well. Its all about attitude, think and act young and you are young. The  effect is real and you can let it work for you by having a positive, excited outlook on life and believe in your heart and soul that you can improve yourself thru exercise or you can let the effect work against you by being a pessimistic victim.

I am keen on now sharing my knowledge on fitness with you all via my blog. http://www.melbournecyclist.com/photo/slide1-1/next?context=user