So many things about getting older can make you feel like life will never be the same again.
We‘re told that it’s harder to lose fat. We get heavier every year. Lose muscle mass. Our hormones are all out of whack and make us feel good, bad, sad, happy and exhausted.
Some hormones go through the roof, others drop through the floor.
Some of these processes are blamed on age, I think age is a correlation not a cause.
I think it’s more that our priorities change as we age which leads to us paying less attention to the areas that can help the other stuff. I’m starting to bore myself with how important it is to do something that maintains or improves strength and mobility, it’s so important though.
Maintaining muscle tissue means that we are more metabolically active, we use more energy to simply sit around.
Doing strength work also improves our hormonal profiles, not to the point that it will prevent menopause in females but can help ease some symptoms. As blokes we can maintain pretty high levels of testosterone just by training effectively and eating well.
Sleep is also something that needs to optimised when thinking about hormones.
This month, it’s Movember. I’m clean shaven ready to start growing a moustache.
It was originally started to raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancer, it’s developed to include all aspects of men’s health; particularly mental health.
I’ll write a little something every day that you can do to improve your health.
Start by seeing where you are currently at. How many press ups can you do?
Squats?
Pull ups? Or how long can you hang from a bar for?
Take that number and think about what you would need to change to improve that.
If you need any advice, let me know.
Darren “baby soft” Checkley
