Matt Jones says:

I could not agree with this more. A lot of my martial arts friends keep saying they are just too old to train hard anymore. This is hogwash, sure if you’re an elite athlete over time it will be slightly harder to train at the same intensity you have been, but for most of us we are nowhere near that level of fitness and there are HUGE gains in fitness that can be made. The hardest part is getting back into the routine where you work that hard, everything will tell you that its futile, but just remember back when you were young…you were not really as invincible as you tend to remember, you still had injuries, got sore, got tired. It may take a little longer to recover today than it did at 20, but unless you were a professional athlete at 20 using the best methods available to train you can most likely eventually be able to exceed the shape you were in at age 20 if you work hard enough!

When I first started my martial arts training I weighed 260lbs, had the agility and speed of a couch, could not kick higher than a person’s knee, my ankles killed me, I was always sore and tired, not to mention that just the beginning class warm ups winded me. My first night at sparring (about 2 months into training) I constantly had to keep telling my partners to stop so I could catch my wind, I was good for about 30 seconds lol. I almost quit, several times people told me I was too old to be STARTING martial arts but I kept telling myself I am too young (30’s) to feel this bad. Now 2 years later, I am 48lbs lighter, can throw decent head kicks without too much effort, have become fairly fast with my movements and strikes, and with the recent addition to HIIT in my workout scheme I virtually never get winded and recover very fast. To me this has been a complete 180 in my fitness, I am doing things in my 30’s that I could not have dreamed of doing in my 20’s and perhaps my teenage years with the shape I was in. I still think there is a lot more room to improve every facet of my fitness and training also, I expect to only continue to get better into my 40’s and 50’s…and perhaps 60’s and beyond! I used to beat myself up about not starting at a younger age because I am playing catch up, but I have plenty of time to get to where I want to be because as long as you stick with it you don’t really lose that much.

Don’t forget George Foreman won the heavyweight boxing title back at age 45 (by KO in the TENTH round no less), and Randy Couture has also defied age in MMA by winning the UFC light heavyweight championship at 43. There are a lot of good examples of older people doing really well in terms of fitness and accomplishments, we just have to realize it is possible so we can strive to get there ourselves.

-Matt