The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

"You're only as old as you feel"

Bullshit.

I sometimes still have trouble envisioning myself as an adult.  In my mind, I'm still a 20-something college kid.  Yet here I am, in my early-mid-40's, I'm starting to see how age is affecting my every day life.  I'm noticing that stuff like creaks in my joints (especially my knees) and that thing where you have to hold things at the perfect length to be able to see it clearly.  I notice this most often when playing video games for a long time.

Many of us have been visiting these forums for almost 20 years.  So, we've all aged significantly since we got here.  So what kind of things are you starting to notice that make you feel like you're getting old?

Hangovers, when I was young I could bounce right back. Now I can feel a difference in my body if I have three drinks. Sleeping in, I remember hearing people I considered old talking about how early they get up. Guess what, if I stay up late I just lose that sleep now.

As I approach 60 now, I can tell you that my 50's has all been about expiring warranties on body parts. Knees, stomach, eyesight, the waking up every couple of hours to use the can at night. If the "You're only as old as you feel" adage is correct, then I skipped most of my 50's and 60's and landed smack-dab in the middle of my 70's.

I am reminded of this one app that circulated in the early days of the internet called "Deathclock," where you put information about your life in there and it predicted how long you would live. When I put my info in there, the response I got from Deathclock was: "Holy shit...you're still here?"

Yes, Deathclock...I'm still here, coughing, wheezing, creaking and making the ungodliest of smells and noises. Catch me if you can!

That could be a sign that you have sleep apnea .. maybe look into that

This topic hits close to home for me.  At 56, I still compete at the amateur level in weightlifting competitions and play tournament level softball.  BUT, old age has made itself very apparent to me in two ways for sure.  I am now slow.  When I try to sprint, I feel like I'm running in thick mud.  This was confirmed on video in a recent softball tournament.  I looked like I was dragging a tractor behind me when I was running the bases.  And recovery from little injuries takes forever now.  Sore muscles take two weeks instead of two days.  Even cuts and scrapes.  I was in a car wreck on May 18 and the cuts are just now starting to heal completely.  In my 20s and 30s, those same cuts would have healed in 3 weeks instead of 8 weeks.  I'm not complaining because my general health is excellent.  But damn, I am an f'ing shell of my younger self.  LOL  

I didn't know it made you pee.

My breathing is fine. My prostate, on the other hand...not so much

I am definitely old. 

I noticed, post 30, that I had a longer time recovering from basic injury.  ...like if I bumped my hip on a desk, the bruise was more severe or affected me longer.

I have noticed, post-40, that I get injury from nothing.  I can get a general soreness, just from sleeping.

Also, physical activity is taxing in a way it wasn't before.  Like...just running down the street for a second seems to jolt my whole body.

I hate to tell you this, brother Dave.  But when you hit your mid 50's you will look back at this as "the good old days of youth".  LOL

1990 was 30 years ago.

When I hear the term "that was 30 years ago" I still keep thinking of the 70s

It doesn't make you want to pee, but when you are awake after being asleep for several hours you have natural inclination to go to the restroom. The desire to pee is not making you wake up, but once awake the desire to pee will be there. It is a symptom of sleep Apnea.

The thing that makes me feel old is when I think of how incredibly ancient stuff like The Beatles or Leave It To Beaver seemed in the 80s when I was growing up... and then I realize that Run DMC or Transformers are significantly more ancient in 2020 than The Beatles were in 1985.

Damn you!  I hadn't thought about it that way, but you are right. Now I feel even older!!!!

Sarcasm

Didn't realize it was a symptom of sleep apnea.  I don't have sleep apnea but I have to wake up in the middle of the night to pee a lot.  Mainly because I drink a 1 liter bottle of water before bed so I don't dehydrate when I sleep. 

This is exactly what gets me too.  I think of the things that I thought were old when i was a kid, and then think of how today's youth views the stuff that I grew up with.  That makes me sad.

I believe it, brother.

30s was different than 20s.  40s different than 30s, so I have no doubt.

I feel this, I agree.  There is even a difference from the early 40's to late. 

When I turned 40 I was still "clanging and banging" in the gym, lifting heavy, training like a maniac.  I would run anywhere from 30-40 miles per week; participate in upwards of 20 Obstacle Course races in a calendar year, along with five to ten martial art tournaments.  I trained for one race by running (literally) up and down 4,000 foot White Mountains wearing an 80 pound training vest and an oxygen mask. 

Fast forward to this year.  I'm 49, I'll be 50 this year.  I couldn't do ANY of what I did, as little as nine years ago.  I participate in one martial art tournament a year (the one my dojo hosts) and it takes my body weeks to recover from it.  I do two Spartan races a year, neither one of them over 3-5 miles (and my days of doing mountain races are long gone).  I take long, brisk WALKS now, versus running, and own a spin bike for cardio.  I think back to the squats, deadlifts, front squats, goblets, etc., and my training - at 40 - would literally kill me now. I hit the weights x 3 a week, light, higher reps, and my body sometimes feels like it's ripping apart on leg day.

I do yoga and holy hell, it really hurts.  But if I don't I literally feel my entire body tighten, like a drum. 

I'm a pretty big believer of a body in motion stays in motion.  A body at rest, rests.  If I stop, I know what that means.  But it's quite staggering to see, in the same decade, a body once capable of squatting 500lbs and now it literally hurts to do body weight exercises.  Quite the drop off.

Got to keep moving!!

This...exactly this. Mine happened across my 40's as well. One day I am running full court 5's until nobody else had next, and the next day, it hurts just walking to my car.

I am completely unamused...

I'm 44, and have been slightly near sighted and in glasses for distance since Highschool. I could always read, or look at something that was close up with my glasses on, but almost to the day of my 40th birthday I had to take my glasses off to read, look at a picture etc... And I've recently noticed some white in my stubble. I mean shocking whiter than white. I remember being about 21/22 and talking to my dad about age and time. I said to him the first 20 went by really slowly. He laughed and said it gets faster. He was right.