Why Fit In The Middle began - and where it’s taking you next
Thirty-ish and overweight, I kidded myself that I was fit, because I played social sport. One night, I went to bed with a stiff back and the next morning, everything came crashing down when I couldn’t get myself off the floor, thanks to an event called a Facet Lock. As muscles seized around my locked vertebrae, I physically couldn’t pick my legs up from the ground. Years of ongoing treatment and anti-inflammatories masked a very suspect middle and I lived on edge of the next time things would go pear-shaped.
Even after dropping some kilos, other things weren’t quite right. The occasional elevated sugar or cholesterol reading, a pain in the gut, some aching joints, interrupted sleep. As I ticked off birthdays though, I’d started to wonder that maybe I didn’t have as many left as I’d thought. When my Mum died of bowel cancer at 57, my idea I’d be smashing life out of the park at 100 shifted. I did try to do the “right things” with my health but the struggles continued with each year. I was feeling old before my time.
Then I got lucky - twice
Slice of luck #1 - a cricketing mate returned from the off-season transformed. Suddenly he was leaner and energetic. He shared the changes he’d made in his diet, while still eating abundantly. I began to experiment with foods I was and wasn’t consuming to find out what could work for me. Through trial and error, I discovered the foods that were most suitable for me and my inner health improved.
Slice of luck #2 - you could say I had a lucky fall, when I came off my bicycle and injured my shoulder. The injury deteriorated over a couple of weeks until the shoulder froze, leaving me with badly compromised movement. A quick procedure started things back in the right direction, before I headed off to a local Pilates studio, to recover the range of movement. Here’s the lucky part - as I worked on my shoulder, my back problems started disappearing.
The penny dropped - I started getting fit in the middle.
I’m not a qualified health or fitness professional. Here, I’m a writer and interviewer, sharing my personal story and the experienced opinions of people qualified to give them. My hope is to help you avoid the frustrations that I’ve felt along my journey. Are any of these familiar to you?
You’ve started a fitness program and found you needed to be 20 years younger to be able to do it
It seems like the only solutions to your aches and are to treat symptoms
You’ve turned up to an exercise class that wasn’t suitable for your fitness level or age
No matter how hard you try to eat the “right things”, you feel like you’re losing the battle to reach and maintain a healthy weight
You wake up with a stiff back, sometimes in pain - and people tell you it’s just a part of getting older
You keep buying the latest device or program, only to be disappointed
All the fitness advice you find is far more suited to people 20 years younger than you
Are some of these you? Each of these has been me. As my family and friends head into their 40’s, they’ve had the same frustrations. The lucky ones hold out a few more years! The unlucky ones start feeling it earlier. And here’s the problem we all have when we try to do something about it …
We can’t find local, age-specific fitness information
This is why I’ve created Fit In The Middle. Here I will share my experiences with different activities and treatments - whether they are working for me, whether they’re enjoyable enough to stick at and if they’re a good fit for people of different age groups. When you’re reading my personal opinions, remember that’s exactly what they are - it’s not medical advice, but it may be enough to prompt you to seek some out.
You’ll find two main groups of posts here on the site. Does It Work? is a collection of my personal experiences, specifically from someone past his athletic prime! Sometimes this could be useful, other times you might just get a laugh. Getting It Together is information from people I encounter along the way, working in different aspects of the industry. They’ll share some of their own experiences and suggestions for getting fit in our middles.
Is there something you’d like us to discuss here? Let me know your questions and we’ll do all we can to answer them.
