You Don’t Miss Playing Sport – You Miss How It Made You Feel

This Saturday I’m running the Lisbon Marathon.
At 41 years old.
With two young kids, a gym to run and a history of three bulging discs.
Which seemed like a considerably better idea when I entered it.
But the closer I’ve got to the marathon the more I’ve realised something.
This was never really about running 42.2km.
It was about feeling like an athlete again.
And I think a lot of men and women in their 30s and 40s are missing exactly the same thing.

Remember When Training Had A Purpose?

If you grew up playing GAA, football, rugby or any other sport you probably never had to think too much about staying fit.
You had training.
You had matches.
You had teammates expecting you to turn up.
You wanted to get stronger.
You wanted to get faster.
You wanted to play better at the weekend.
Nobody needed to tell you to get your 10,000 steps.
You certainly weren’t standing in the kitchen wondering whether your watch had registered walking to the fridge.

Training had a purpose.
Then eventually sport stopped.

And life got busier.
Work.
Kids.
Mortgages.
Businesses.
Responsibilities.

Suddenly nobody was expecting you at training on Tuesday night.
And for a lot of people that’s when things slowly start changing.

You Didn’t Suddenly Become Lazy

This is important.
Most former sporty people I speak to haven’t suddenly lost all discipline.
They’ve lost their structure.

You go from three training sessions and a match every week to trying to squeeze the gym in whenever you can.

Monday gets busy.
You’ll go Tuesday.
Tuesday becomes Wednesday.
Then one of the kids is sick.
You’ll start properly again next Monday.

We’ve all been there.

Eventually you notice you’re not as strong as you used to be.
Your fitness isn’t great.
There’s a bit more around the belly.
Your back, knee or shoulder has started complaining.
Your energy isn’t what it was.

So you decide enough is enough.
You go back to the gym.

And because your brain still remembers what you could do at 25 you train like you’re 25.
Unfortunately your body has received several software updates since then.
Everything hurts.
You stop again.
And the cycle repeats.

You Don’t Need To Become 25 Again

This is where I think the fitness industry gets it wrong.
You don’t need to get your old body back.
You don’t need to train six days per week.
You don’t need to live on chicken and broccoli.
And you definitely don’t need every workout to leave you lying on the floor questioning your existence.

You need to build the strongest version of the person you are now.

For me at 41 that means I still want to lift properly.
I want muscle.
I want to be lean.
I want to run.
I want to be fit enough to take on stupid challenges like a marathon.
I want enough energy to keep up with my kids.

And after injuring my back badly in my 20s I want confidence that my body is capable rather than constantly worrying about what might hurt it.
That’s what training means to me now.
And increasingly that’s what my coaching is about too.

Training Should Give You Something Back

Most adults don’t need more punishment.
They’re already busy enough.
Training should improve your life outside the gym.
That means building strength so everyday things feel easier.

Building muscle as you get older rather than slowly losing it.
Improving your fitness so you’re not wrecked chasing the kids around.
Getting your nutrition under control without making food miserable.

Managing stress and recovery.
Keeping enough mobility to move well.
And perhaps most importantly building confidence in what your body can actually do.

Those are the things I care about with my own training.
They’re also the things I want for the people I coach.

The Five Things I Keep Coming Back To

Over the years I’ve found that getting someone feeling properly good again rarely comes down to one magic workout.

I look at five areas:

Training
Get stronger. Build muscle. Improve fitness. Train around your current ability and progress from there.

Nutrition
Eat in a way that supports your goal without having to put your entire life on hold.

Supplements
Get the basics right first and use supplements where they actually add something.

Stress and recovery
You cannot separate training from the other 23 hours of your day.

Stretching and mobility
Keep your body moving well enough to do the things you want to do.

None of these are particularly sexy.
They just work when you do them consistently.
Annoying really.

Find Something Worth Training For

I’m not going to finish this by telling you to enter a marathon.
Please don’t blame me for that.

But I do think there’s something powerful about having a reason to train beyond trying to burn calories.

Maybe you want to run your first 5k.
Maybe you want to get back playing five-a-side.
Maybe you want to deadlift your bodyweight.
Maybe you want to lose the belly that’s slowly appeared over the last ten years.
Maybe you just want to take the kids hiking and not be the one asking when we’re turning around.
It doesn’t matter.

Find something that makes progress mean something again.
Because maybe you don’t actually miss playing sport.
Maybe you miss feeling strong.

Fit.
Capable.
Competitive.
Confident.
Maybe you miss feeling like yourself.

This Saturday I’ll stand on the start line of the Lisbon Marathon and find out what this 41-year-old version of me can do.

I’m not trying to become 25 again.
I’m much more interested in finding out how good 40 can be.
And that’s exactly what I want to help more people do.

If you’re in your 30s or 40s and this sounds a little too familiar, send me the word AGAIN.
Tell me where you’re at now and what you’d love to get back to.

Paul
Templetown Strength & Conditioning