
Extreme Athleticism Is the New Midlife Crisis - dsr12
https://medium.com/s/greatescape/extreme-athleticism-is-the-new-midlife-crisis-d87199a18bed
======
lellotope
I have mixed reactions to pieces like this. It's very salient to me because I
fit the stereotype being discussed. At 43, I did my first triathlon and am, I
suppose, training to do more (the season for them is basically over where I
live, so I can't really do more this year).

The problem with the idea of the midlife "crisis" is that it's more a period
of change and not all crisis. And it's somewhat, but not all, about mortality.
At that age, in your 40s, you've often had enough time to establish a career,
and for many, realize it's not what you thought it would be. It has nothing to
do with mortality; if you started your career earlier or later, you'd be
reaching that point earlier or later. Also, you've reached a point of wisdom
to realize, yes, exercise is good, maintaining your health is good, all these
articles you've been reading about it for years are right, and so forth and so
on. You might have a new family, which changes things at any age. And finally,
speaking of kids, I do think there's something about the 40s being the new
20s, the 60s being the new 40s, and so forth. I could go on and on about many
things that cause change, but don't have anything to do with death or even old
age.

If you knew me, for example it would be clear that I am in fact in crisis in
many ways, and have been in recent years, in the ways that the author
suggests. But that's not what motivated me to do a triathlon. It has nothing
to do with some need to prove myself or anything like that. It was all about
being prodded by friends to join them, and it was something I had always been
interested in. I've always been a little athletic. It could have happened in
my 20s or 30s but didn't. Why my 40s? I'm not sure. I guess I've just reached
a point where there are many things like triathlon I've been wanting to do for
years, and am now getting around to it. When you reach that age there are
things that accumulate like that.

I think midlife change is very real, and often comes as a crisis, but I think
that focusing on the mortality issues that do arise is really missing many, if
not most, of the other factors involved.

In the case of athleticism, it stigmatizes exercising and wellness. So you're
doing a triathlon or a marathon in your 40s? Now this is a bad thing? Can
those of us in our 40s get a break? It's another form of ageism in many
regards.

~~~
yason
_In the case of athleticism, it stigmatizes exercising and wellness. So you
're doing a triathlon or a marathon in your 40s? Now this is a bad thing? Can
those of us in our 40s get a break? It's another form of ageism in many
regards._

It doesn't stigmatise anything nor point to individual people. It merely
refers to a data point where absolute masses in their mid-life have started
running or training heavily which did not happen before.

I can validate for my own part with dozens and dozens of my middle-aged peers
posting about how next month they're doing their 5K, 10K, 20K, marathon, or
whatnot. That sort of flocking most certainly didn't happen ten years ago.

I think that in another 10-15 years the craze has faded and replaced by
something else. There will always be people who really do enjoy what they do
and it's these people who'd run or train regardless of the passing fashions.
But it's often the general mass of people who do things _because others do
those_ things.

Entering mid-life provokes a lot of thoughts and emotions to be processed and
become acquainted with, and people need to face these in order to lead a
balanced life into older age. It has seemed for years that the masses are now
doing it by starting with heavy physical training. Which itself is fine but it
means that it's not about the running craze itself. It's a fashionable way to
live your mid-life and as such I can tell you it does not last forever.

Maybe the next generation's way-of-mid-life is finally giving yourself some
rest after all the hard work and doing absolutely nothing.

I think the focal point of the criticism about middle-aged 40K runners is the
way that heavy training is praised as if it was somehow a unique discovery or
near-enlightening experience that everyone should try. No, people have been
training before. No, people have entered mid-life before. Those just happened
to meet, for a passing moment, this decade.

~~~
watwut
Around 40, if you are not exercising, you will become noticeably weaker. After
a while you start loosing muscle. Your back hurts. It is not possible to
ignore it anymore, be it walking up stairs, during holiday or when outside
with kids or just when walking to work. Exercising works. And it feels more
pleasant then I remember it from younger age. Moreover things like running are
not boring anymore (because you did not done those really fun things for
years, so you cant compare.)

When your back or whatever hurts and when you have high blood pressure and
what not, doctor tells you to do move more. Many people started those runs
after healths problems started and sport really helps. The competitions and
trying limits is really treating it the way the same people approached school,
work, hobbies and pretty much everything in their life before.

Those 10k, 20k and marathons are achievements available to middle aged people.
(5k easily reachable) We can run, we cant lift as much we cant effectively
start sports that require flexibility or agility. In a lot of senses, these
people are not doing anything different then their done whole their life
wherever it was possible, except that they adjusted choice of activity to
aging bodies needs.

------
dsajames
Hardly midlife crisis. At 40, your kids might be getting old enough to require
less time. You have a stable job, etc.

Most importantly, the massive amount of information on hand, connectivity of
the internet, and some creative organizers have allowed people to do what many
have always wanted!

Why is athleticism not looked on for a 20 year old, but is for a 40 year old?

When a woman returns to work after a decade and a half off because of kids, is
she going through a midlife crisis, assuming working wasn't needed to survive?

A crisis implies an impending sense of doom or mortality. It implies socially
unapproved behavior. A 50 year old man buying a Corvette to hit on 20 year
olds.

Extreme athleticism is hardly risky behavior unless you believe live should be
without any risk and limited to strolls in park. Sometimes life just gets in
the way for a decade or two.

Does a 50 year old who buys a truck for hunting or fishing have a crisis?
Hunting and fishing can be a lot cheaper than flying all over the world on
vacations.

A 40 year old is easily young enough to handle an R1, so why not buy one? If
he can handle ultra-marathons, go for it.

My father did triathlons until 60. Guess what? He loved them. It was a great
way to pass the time.

As you get older, you find you may have automated a lot of your life away, or
at least simplified it. You might also not be fighting to climb the ladder,
but instead discovered where you are happy.

You might find your day to day too cerebral, with the rest of your body semi
neglected. If you have achieved a lot "mentally", why not see what you can do
physically?

------
tunap
It's not 'new' for middle-aged persons to begin doing things they have been
meaning to do but never made time to do so far. It's the onset of age-related
symptoms that remind us we're not getting any younger & our abilities are on
the wane. Some definitely wig out, but most do something about it in
constructive ways. I have logged 100 miles of rugged terrain & paddled more so
in the last year. Because of a mid-life crisis? Nah, the possibility that
within a decade or less I will not have the faculties to do these activities
is what motivates me.

~~~
anothergoogler
I thought that's what mid-life crises were all about: Trying to make the most
of youth and vigor perceived as fleeting, vanishing.

~~~
tunap
The key word, and marketable perception, is "crisis". Most don't go off the
rails and even fewer go to 'extremes'. This is what I consider real fake news,
in the same vein as fake Reality TV. MSM sucks in so many varied ways.

------
fractallyte
I know someone who _was_ engaged in various vigorous sports for much of his
adult life: running, weights, badminton, ping pong. 'Healthy' in every sense.

At age 46 he has osteo-arthritis in his hips and knees. Now: no more intensive
sports. Weights are still in, but cardio is limited. He can hear/feel grinding
when he walks; even 1-2 km can present a problem. He hasn't given up, though:
his big project now is to try to regain the lost cartilage. Consulted doctors,
did huge amounts of research, and became an expert in the field of
regenerative medicine. His blog details the cutting edge treatments he's
administering himself (including purchasing an ultrasound scanner and
injecting drugs directly into the joints):
[https://myjourney2curearthritis.wordpress.com/](https://myjourney2curearthritis.wordpress.com/)

In a separate conversation, my doctor friend confirmed that the cartilage in
joints wears out inevitably, especially with prolonged and repetitive use
(cycling, running). There's very limited blood supply to cartilage and bone,
so the body has no way of regenerating what's lost.

There has to be an equilibrium sought in the pursuit of fitness and the
resulting wear to the body. To paraphrase James Hilton, moderation in
everything, including moderation itself.

~~~
HeadsUpHigh
Weights, especially if done in the extreme and with bad form can cause
deterioration on the joints. Take an extreme example: Ronnie Coleman, 7-times
Mr. Olympia winner( bodybuilding). Apart from the insane amounts of drugs
these people inject themselves( bodybuilding competitions are the only "sport"
that doesn't test the athletes for steroids), this guy was training with free
weights at the extreme. We are talking about 800 lbs squats etc. He has had 8
spinal disk surguries and both his knees replaced.

Compare that to Phil Heath, the current mr Olympia winner for 8 times in row(
I think, could be 7). He is using mostly machines and so far( he is pretty old
at this point) hasn't had any major injuries. So my point is that although
machines are proven to not increase functional strength( due to the isolation
of the joints), at some point weightlifting can be detrimental. I don't know
if the person you are talking about took it very far or not but it certainly
sounds like the type of person that would.

------
teekert
I feel this way, and it seems logical. We have kids late, from 30 onward, we
had a free life before and we want it again, only we will be about 50-55 when
the kids leave the house. Moreover, we want to do cool stuff when the kids get
the age at which they become capable of doing cool stuff (hiking for days,
mountain-biking through the alps, ...) And yet we are now 36 and we get back
pains from sitting all day, the horror! We must do more sports to be able to
experience freedom as we did back when we were 28, when circumstances allow us
again: when the kids grow up!!

If only we had kids at 23 when we were most fertile. They'd be 16 now and we
would have had a lifetime to live in wealth and freedom. (I'm exaggerating of
course, kids are great but man, I would have been able to handle those
sleepless nights better when I was 23 ;))

------
khitchdee
There are now apps available that help you to meditate. Since the app not only
has knowledge about the process of meditation but tools to help you stay
focused on the process, they offer a far more effective way to follow the
process. What I'm trying to say is extreme athleticism is only a reaction to a
lack of discipline that is probably experienced in that stage of life which
leads to side effects that have to corrected. While athleticism is a possible
way to treat the problem, it doesn't really get to the root cause, my
hypothesis anyways, and using a meditation coupled with some yoga classes
under an experienced instructor is probably a better way to treat the effects
of age related decay. Note that many of the famous yoga instructors such as
Mr. Iyengar and Mr. Bikram who started entire schools of yoga were
practitioners and teacher well into their final years. Since most modern gyms
now have yoga sections, the problems of extreme athlecicism in Midlife are
clearly highlighted to the observers of this new phenomenon.

------
bbarn
Let's not also ignore the fact that doing triathlon is very expensive. Those
who are mature, set in their lives, and have disposable income have much more
access to it. Sure, you can swim in 5$ trunks, ride an old hybrid on the bike,
and jog in the shoes you wear every day, but that's not the segment the
article is addressing.

~~~
dominotw
Is it _very_ expensive though?

Pair of good nike swim shorts + goggles cost like ~100

Decent road bike around ~1500

Good running shoes ~150

My gym membership with pool is ~65/month

Sure thats expensive but is its not for super wealthy you need to be well
established expensive.

~~~
taneq
The amount of free time required to train for a triathlon also makes it less
tractable for someone with a full time job and school-aged children.

~~~
dominotw
Wouldn't this be more true for middle aged though. I certainly had way more
time in my 20's.

~~~
taneq
I guess it depends on your definition of "middle aged". They seem to be
talking about people in their late 40s to early 50s who you'd expect to have
grown-up (or at least high-school aged) children and a lot more free time,
compared with 30-soemthings with small children.

------
andrewstuart
Here's an interesting video if you are an extreme athlete: it is a cardiac
researcher and lifelong exerciser who identifies that such exercise patterns
damage the heart:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U728AZnV0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U728AZnV0)

~~~
skookum
For a longer treatment of the same topic, I recommend reading the book _The
Haywire Heart_ by Case/Mandrola/Zinn.

------
z3t4
Old mans strength.

------
glangdale
[ meta-note: why is this flagged? we seem to be rather haphazardly applying
the criteria "that good hackers might find interesting", especially given the
number of hackers into life-hacking, surviving middle age and athletic
behavior]

Not a fan of running, but I am picking up way more BJJ classes than expected
at my advanced age (46). Another factor that might help (aside from more free
time, money, and the psychological factors in the article) is the fact that
once you hit middle age, sporting behavior "is what it is". No-one expects
that you're going to tear it up and compete with people in their 20s.

I have found it _way_ easier to maintain a focus on intrinsic achievements
("today I will do X because I want to and it's my goal") than extrinsic
factors ("what people will think of me", "what I will look like") once Old
Fart status is achieved.

------
hawkice
I am skeptical that even running 50km with good hydration and fancy shoes on
well-maintained paths would be considered extreme if you roll back the clock
more than a couple thousand years. Long distance running is a core competency
of humanity -- I've run ten miles while being, objectively, out of shape.

If you remove the claims of how extreme this is, all this really says is that
older Americans adopt exercise as a hobby they enjoy with seriousness. This
is... not a crisis.

~~~
partiallypro
Actually, I think Iowa State did a study and found that it's actually not
healthy to run more than around ~5K at a time. Long distance runs eventually
lead to no health benefits and if anything are detrimental to almost every
part of your body. Our ancestors likely walked long distances, but didn't run
that distance. There's no need to run while gathering, or while farming, only
while hunting and even then we developed tools to not have to even do that.

~~~
glangdale
Their findings were considerably more equivocal than you make out; certainly
"actually not healthy to run more than around ~5K at a time" doesn't seem be
something that their study is even equipped to discuss.

[https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(16)...](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196\(16\)00068-9/fulltext)

Things start to look rough for the highest quintile and especially the top 2
'tertiles of the top quintile' (I know, a weird subdivision here). But we're
talking about 24 miles in a week and maybe 5+ sessions... pretty far removed
from evidence that you shouldn't ever run more than 5K.

I don't have a horse in this race but there's a lot of broscience drifting
around this area with the general message being that any kind of slow distance
training will turn you into a pencil-necked dweeb with bad health and a
shocking hormone profile.

~~~
partiallypro
Most 5K training programs have you running about ~18 miles a week. A full
marathon is 26.2 miles in a DAY. That's quite a difference. If you ran every
day with no rest days, for 24 miles a week (per your post)...that's almost a
5K a day. I never said that was a definitive number. Hence the "~." There are
other studies that back up this idea.

As for your last sentence...no one here said anything about that. No one even
said it would cause "bad health" to run a full marathon. However, when you run
long distances, it has tremendous effects on parts of your body that are prone
to injury and strain. Women long distance runners even have fertility
problems. The human body was not meant to run long distances as the person I
was replying to suggested. It's not "healthy" when contrasted with lower
distances. Running itself is good.

------
khitchdee
Speaking from first hand experience, I go to this gym in Bethesda, MD. Very
well equipped, including a pool. You go there early morning and you find half
the people there a middle aged. Fit bodies juxtaposed with natural signs of
age-ing. If you correlate facial expressions with age, you will find a
noticeable correlation between age and seriousness. The point of going to a
gym is to enjoy the process of replenishing your muscular strength. If you
take that too seriously, that points to age-related associations you've
developed that do not belong in the gym. The best way to learn about this is
to consult an experienced trainer. All trainers in private gyms are in the
peak of their fitness years and hence better qualified to determine what is
best for you.

~~~
jl2718
Most trainers are worthless. Source: trainer.

A good trainer is basically there to evaluate and fix problems. Programs are
pretty much the same for each particular goal, available for free on the
internet. Want to ‘get in shape’? Great. Get your HR above 120 for an hour
every day. Doesn’t matter how. Snatch stuck at body weight and you want to get
to 1.5? Okay, go see a trainer.

But you need one anyway. Source: human.

Most people do absolutely nothing of value in the gym. They’d be healthier
using the time to get more sleep. Enter the trainer. Something about a human
telling you what to do is comforting and allows you to put your brain away and
just do it. People that train with a trainer will see results. People that
don’t, might. A trainer is required to be the best in any sport. Lots of
people that are pretty good don’t use one. But if you’re at the bottom of the
pile in where you want to be, get a trainer.

~~~
mothsonasloth
Thats the problem with gyms though, they offer nothing of human value.

I switched to doing BJJ instead and I am addicted because I have training,
discipline and a social aspect.

I never got any of that pounding on the treadmill or struggling to lift 16kg
dumb bells

~~~
WkndTriathlete
> I never got any of that pounding on the treadmill or struggling to lift 16kg
> dumb bells

I think that's what was meant by "Most people do absolutely nothing of value
in the gym."

There's a little bit more to it than that. I retained training services for
the first few years I did triathlon simply because I didn't know anything
about it. (What are these heart-rate training zones? What strength exercises
are useful to triathlon? What are base/build/peak/transition stages? What are
the correct biomechanics for strength exercise? etc., etc.) In the end I ended
up reading a lot of books and pieced enough together that I construct my own
training plans and do my own strength training - correctly - now.

At my first triathlon it was quite apparent that 80% of the participants
hadn't done any of this. These days I'll see someone "pounding on the
treadmill [or pavement]" or flailing through the water or riding their bike
with a seat that's way too low or doing basic strength exercises incorrectly
and realize that - indeed - all that time spent exercising is mostly wasted:

a) Pounding on the treadmill/pavement - usually too low a stride rate and/or
incorrect running mechanics will lead to joint problems / repetitive stress
injury in short order; b) Flailing through the water - hello shoulder surgery!
Form is 10x as important as strength in the water. I've seen guys with well-
developed lats struggle at 100 yards and skinny kids zip right by me. c)
Riding bike with seat too low will eventually lead to knee and possibly back
problems. Get a bike fit. d) Strength exercise is useless unless you are
correctly activating the right muscles in the correct order. Worst I've ever
seen: GHD machine being used with hip flexion range of 45 to -15 degrees.
Ouch.

It is possible to get value out of a gym membership but mechanics are really
important.

