I recently completing reading "Fitter After 50," by Ed and Mary Mayhew. For me, an unusual book to be reading, being as that I will not be 50 for a little over 17 years. However, ever since I have been addicted to running (and thus been trying to recruit other people to running), the excuse I hear most often is “I’m too old and too busy to run.”
This is the dumbest excuse, especially after seeing two 90-year old finishers at this month’s Paramount 10K. One finished in 76 minutes (about 13 minutes a mile), and he beat several people 1/3 his age! In any case, the people who really think they are too old are usually in their late 30s, or early 40s.
The book begins with a number of success stories – the first chapter are about people in their 50s and 60s; and the second are those in their 70s, 80s and 90s. Most of the stories are about runners, of note, the story of Helen Klein, an inveterate smoker, who started running at 55. In December 2002, she broke a world record for 80-84 year old women by running a 4:31 marathon! There are also a few stories about triathletes, swimmers, bikers and ballroom dancers.
After reading a number of these stories, you start getting a little inspired. After all, if people over 50 can achieve greatness, why not me? So, once you start to get inspired, the book moves on to reasons to get into better shape, as well as devil’s advocate answers for the excuses why you shouldn’t try to be fitter, followed by diet suggestions (by which I mean, how to treat your temple, not which diet plan to follow!).
Some of the description at this point got a little bogged down for me; after all, the book is not so much geared for someone who is already exercising vigorously several days a week, but rather toward people who make excuses for themselves.
The last few chapters of the book are different exercises you can do to inspire yourself. Obviously, as the writers point out, you probably cannot expect to achieve the same kind of results as the people in the opening chapters, but you can be rewarded just the same by having the extra energy, eat more of what you want and protect yourself from illness.
What I enjoyed least from the book was a bit of repetitiveness, where the same message was repeated in several different chapters, mostly of the variety, Make a List for Yourself, Number Your List, and so on.
But what I loved about the book is the inspiring stories, some motivational exercises, and the resources (great websites as well as “8 Plans that work” (for getting into shape)).
"Fitter After 50" makes a great gift for someone who is not particularly active, because it helps them realize there is a whole world out there. Additionally, though, it is a great book which would inspire anyone to try out just about anything, because age is really irrelevant.