Someone asked on a forum for men over 30 when they started noticing physical declines. I thought I’d share what I wrote there here:

My body overall peaked in my early 30s but the decline is a lot slower than I expected. My sports performance dropped off heavily. I played nationals-level ultimate frisbee then. Now I’m a bit player in summer league. A couple years, maybe age 32 to 35, saw enough drop-off that I couldn’t compete.

Still, I could run marathons with decent times for a while. I still can but it takes more training, or rather the training takes more recovery time.

The biggest issue is time for injuries to heal. A small pull that used to take a week to heal, and I could still compete on without significantly reinjuring it, takes months to heal and the slightest reinjury sets me back weeks. Same with recovery time. A lot longer.

Flexibility is terrible too. I got to touching my toes last year for the first time in at least ten years with a lot of effort, but an injury undid it and it will take months to get back to what in my twenties was a given.

Keeping fit is still reasonably easy, still. Here’s my gratuitous picture of myself on my 45th birthday, with what I consider pretty good ab definition. I’ve never had a goal of big muscles, so I don’t have them, but my resting heart rate is in the 50s per minute. Regular exercise and a healthier diet than ever help a lot.

I think beliefs affect a lot. I remind myself that George Foreman won the heavyweight title at my age. He’s an outlier, but still human.

I see a lot of guys commenting on eyes. Lasik was one of my best decisions. I wore glasses from about thirteen years old. Lasik in my 30s was awesome. Losing near vision now, though.

[Sigh]… Time marches on, never ending. We all get our turn at each stage.

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