45 Years, 45 Thoughts
What it's like being closer to 60 than 30...
As of a month ago I found myself closer to 60 than 30, and these are interesting milestones for a few reasons. 30 used to seem old, as if you’re an adult. In hindsight, whew, what a kid. 60 always was “old age.” Not really. It’s a wise age.
Life is an age range, not a year.
People get caught up on round numbers and have dumb things like “Dirty 30 party” or “Over 40 Over the Hill.” Not really how it works.
16-24 is pretty sucky if you’re a man and didn’t really hit the jackpot with rich parents or early puberty / deep bone structure. You might have acne or be awkward (look up myelin sheath to understand why). Bad years. Grind during these as otherwise you’ll sit around sad listening to Pearl Jam or the Beatles.
28-35 is primetime for a man’s life. You have a fully developed frontal cortex. You have some cash. You also get “man looks,” which is hard to explain. I had girls flirt with me before, but they would outright hit in me sometime around 26. I had no idea what was going on.
In your 30’s, you’re capable of physically doing whatever you want but have better judgment. Life unlocked.
Sometimes you see people claim that their bodies failed them at 30. What a joke. They were losers and didn’t take care of themselves. Your VO2 max and endurance aren’t even at peak values yet. Eliud Kipchoge broke the marathon record in his mid-30’s.
38 is when you start to feel some age, not a lot, it’s subtle. Unless you’re on anabolic steroids, you’ll likely notice you don’t get that sick pump anymore. You aren’t getting weaker tho except in explosive movements. (Peak power declines after about 27 years of age.) You aren’t getting stronger, either, unless you were totally not training at all during your 20’s and early 30’s.
45 is a whole new range. It’s different. I still feel good. That’s not copium. I’m not even on testosterone replacement therapy again. Been natty for a couple years. Keeping the powder dry. But anyone saying 50 is the new 30 did not do anything at 30.
For example I use less weight at the gym. I can’t do hard intervals more than once or twice a week. Gotta be careful with plyometrics and start asking about risk vs. reward. Is a movement worth snapping a ligament over? It never was. This is now 10 times more accurate as injuries take a lot longer to heel.
(There are also better peptides and pharmacological solutions. Why push the envelope? Focus on total volume over years, not one workout.)
Anyone saying 50 is the new 30 did not do anything at 30.
Losing your Top Gear
You don’t break all of the sudden, but as you close in on 50, you lose your top gear. Joe Friel explains this well in Fast After 50.
50 is a biological cliff. 70 is another one, and it’s a freaking huge drop. (More on that in a later article.)
You need to be clocking in as much exercise and reading time as you can before you turn 50. Your body will hold onto what you lay in pretty well. It’s much harder for gains to stick once you hit your late 40’s and early 50’s.
Think back to books, as one example. If you’re past 40, you probably remember books you read in college more than one you read last week. Memories / fitness gains aren’t absorbed like when you’re younger.
Your VO2 max declines starting in your mid-20’s at about a rate of 10% per decade. VO2 max isn’t something racers should care about. Whether you’ll be able to get out of your chair at 70 will be determined in large part by your aerobic capacity.
You can mitigate this loss with hard training at maximum aerobic capacity, but as you get older, you don’t recover as well. Which means you need to add in significant amounts of what is now fashionably called “zone 2 cardio.”
Alan Couzens has a chart illustrating this:
You need to be doing 30 hours a month of structured exercise to maintain the VO2 max of someone in his mid-20’s, who can skate by with a random run or two a week and some gym time. As you get older, you must put in more hours to maintain where you are at.
That’s why master’s categories exist for every sport, and the cutoff is usually around 35. With some exceptions (you’re not it), you begin physically declining from your maximum potential in your mid-30’s.
Some people find that depression and go into denial mode. “I’m in the best shape of my life at ___.” CONGRATULATIONS. I mean that sincerely. And it’s also true that you’re not in the shape you would have been at 30.
Biological aging is real. There’s no reason to be in denial of it.
As a result of the clear research, I went from somehow who lifted pretty regularly with some intervals here and there to adding in 5-8 hours a week of “low and slow” cardio. That means a brisk walk for a couple hours while my baby naps. Or 60-90 minutes on the Peloton while keeping my heart rate below the MAF 180 Formula.
180 - 45 (my age) = 135.
Add 5 since I’ve been training for years (140).
That’s 140 * 90%.
126 beats per minute.
I stay within 126-140 on the bike and when walking or hiking it’s harder to keep the HR up as I’m pushing a stroller and don’t want to run while doing that. Walks are mostly in the “zone 1 range,” which is fine too. Volume adds up.
Vo2 Max is so important that it gets its own headline.
I always thought Vo2 max was something for endurance people.
Wrong.
A higher VO2 max is protective against cancer. Peter Attia said that a VO2 max in the top 2.5% of your age group means you have a 5 times lower risk of dying from all causes than others your age.
I haven’t had mine measured, don’t really care about the specific number but have upped my lower end cardio and also done the cycling style intervals of getting your heart rate to 90% of maximum and hold it for 3-5 minutes, and then repeat. (These are brutal.)
You’ll have friends and family die or have mental health breakdowns by now.
“Chris is dead.”
I was on a flight back home when I got the text. Unfortunately it wasn’t a surprise. He had struggled with alcoholism for decades and had hit what would have been rock bottom for anyone else.
Friends who are addicts and older will tend to hang out with a younger crowd, as drunks tend to die off. In the case of our friend, he got with a guy who put what he thought was cocaine into a joint. You already know what happened. The coke was laced with fentanyl.
Bankruptcies and breakdowns.
Something I wish someone had told me when I was younger and trying to make it, and as a result had some rough nights: People you’d never imagine have spent time in a mental institution or had a bankruptcy. (I’ve never been in an institution or had to take any mental health medication. Would tell you if I had.)
There’s a huge conspiracy of silence around mental health. If you have a breakdown, you can’t talk about it because then people won’t invest with you.
They’ll pat your back and say HOW COURAGEOUS.
Then they’ll ghost you.
Everyone hides this stuff.
If you’re going through some stuff, I can assure you that some very famous, rich, and successful people (as well as good people who aren’t any of those things nor want to be) have had total breakdowns. It’s not the end of the road.
The same is true of “going bust.” I stressed over money so many times, long before having kids.
I say this now as the market is tanking and there are already reports of people committing suicide.
Please don’t ever think this way.
Who cares if you bankrupt, you’ll live.
You Report Card Comes Due.
You can live in denial for a long time.
“I’m a late bloomer.”
On this side of the ledger, those lies don’t even fool yourself.
Are we at 45 thoughts yet?
I don’t think so. But I’m also not counting.
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This hurts. I feel like I’m trying to play catch up. 39 years old closing in on 40 quickly. Started lifting seriously last year. I’ve seen excellent results but kick myself for not doing it sooner. Shoulda, coulda, woulda I suppose. I’m here now and able to keep up with all my kids and their activities. I’ll keep pushing though. I look at some of the other dads of my kid’s friends and am glad I jumped on my fitness when I did. I want to be around for my grand kids and great grandkids.
I assumed that your VO2 max went down as you aged, not that it took X times longer to maintain. That's optimistic because we can do something about it. I feel like I hit the wall this year at 43, but I just have to put more effort in to maintain. Thanks Mike!