Never Too Late: Getting In Shape in Your 40s And Beyond

When I say that I barely ever exercised until my late 40s, it is not hyperbole. One trip to the gym (total lifetime stat), some occasional light yoga, and cross-country running my freshman year of high school were all I had to show for 46 years on the planet.

But fear not if you find yourself in a similar place—or older with even less experience with physical fitness.

As it turns out, exercise is not only for the young beautiful people. With a bit of determination even the least confident older person can transform into a modern Adonis or a lean, mean muscle machine, or nearly any physique of their choosing. There’s no reason you can’t have the body type you’ve always wanted at any point in your life.

That being said, it will take some work.

“We don’t get better by doing things that are easy,” Dr. Lauren Lynass, a physical therapist from the fitness platform [P]rehab told the New York Times. “The more we intentionally challenge our body as we age, the better equipped we’ll be for whatever physical feats our future self wants to take on.”

According to Healthline, the other key to achieving your fitness goals is varying your workout regimen. The online publication recommends moderate aerobic activity for 30 minutes daily, muscle strengthening three days a week, and balance exercises two days a week.

That doesn’t mean you have to spend all of your time at the gym. My own exercise routine has included bouts of sprinting at a nearby track, another thing I never thought I’d find myself doing. Sports like basketball or swimming laps are other fun ways to change up your workout.

The good news is it may not matter at all when you start exercising from an overall health perspective.

According to a 2019 study from the Journal of the American Medical Association that included over 300,000 participants, the difference in mortality rates between people who started working out in adolescence and those who began in their 40s is negligible when compared to those who don’t exercise (up to 36 percent better for young guns compared to those living a sedentary lifestyle as opposed to a 35 percent better outcome for late bicep bloomers).

Part of the issue for many older exercisers is the intimidation factor—the fear of walking into the gym environment that you’ve avoided your entire life and finding it filled with a lot of muscle heads bench-pressing hundreds of pounds.

My advice is to find a gym that feels right to you, even if it takes several tries. Different gyms cater to different demographics. If you don’t feel comfortable—even reassured—by your fitness facility, you simply won’t go. It doesn’t matter if you’re paying an exorbitant membership fee, the only way you will make it over there to work out is if it’s somewhere you want to be, or at the very least don’t mind spending time at.

But the takeaway is you still have plenty of time to get fit, as Scott Trappe, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University, recently told the Washington Post. “The evidence is pretty clear that the human body maintains the ability to adapt to exercise at any age,” he said.