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Comment by reverend_gonzo | Hacker News Reader

I beg to differ. In my opinion, life doesn’t really start until you’re 25 or so, maybe even 30. The first 18 years are generally spent at home, following other peoples rules, and learning how to get by. The next few years you get your independence and start finding your place in the world. If you went to college, then you enter the workforce and are probably getting by, still finding your footing.

Then the real fun starts.

I just turned 40, and feel like I’m finally hitting my stride.

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A significant percentage of kids are also hampered in their development while growing up by abuse, miseducation or neglect, so they may need even more time to recover from this and 'find their footing'. Many 25 year olds are still processing childhood trauma and playing catch up with their less disadvantaged peers.

This is a great viewpoint emotionally, but physically you can’t do at 50 what you could do at 25. There’s a reason pretty much every sport (even golf!) has a “masters” class for older players.

I’m in my 50’s and I’m a much better golfer than I was in my 20’s. Partly club technology has enabled me to hit the ball more consistently and partly I now don’t try and hit the cover off the ball each shot :)

I don't think the post is talking about golf. If you look at physically demanding sports, most players don't last past 40 unless they're an incredible athlete.

This only applies to professional athletes. Plenty of older people play sports as talented enthusiasts.

I actually see that as the other way. If humanity's best athletes and most incredibly gifted people physically can't make it, who can?

This is incorrect or at least incorrectly stated with respect to the word "you". I didn't start running regularly until my late 40's and I loathed nearly every step for the first year but my fitness and enjoyment levels slowly improved especially after discovering trail running. I started participating in ultra trail races after a couple years and found a wonderful community of people enjoying an activity all around me I didn't even know existed. Now, 10 years later, I'm the fittest I've ever been and far more fit than the vast majority of 25 year olds.

Am I going to win races against people half my age who are in peak fitness for their age group? No, of course not. But I can physically do far more at 57 than what I could do at 25 with respect to running. Many people can alter the course of their health trajectories at nearly any age but it requires consistent effort and often ignoring the messages of vested societal interests telling them otherwise.

If you had followed the exact same fitness regimen when you were 25, you would have seen better results: higher speeds, more endurance, shorter recovery times, etc.

That’s why I mentioned sports: even people who have worked out their whole lives, at the top of their sports, see declines in physical performance as they age.

Congrats on getting in shape. Relative improvements in physical fitness are beneficial and possible for many people. But it doesn’t reverse aging.

Obviously had I started from an earlier point, I may have achieved a higher overall peak performance level but that isn't the point I was addressing. Nothing reverses entropy that we know of but that isn't the point either. The point is that saying "you can’t do at 50 what you could do at 25" is patently wrong. I point this out simply because many people have an incorrect perception of their ability to alter their fitness via lifestyle changes.

Speed and recovery? 100%. Endurance, not so much.

Recovery times are shortest in children - and become very significantly longer even at ages where maintaining muscle mass isn't too much of an issue. Maximum speed peaks with strength in your mid/late 20s & declines from there. Endurance seems to carry on increasing in to the late 30s & declines very slowly, plenty of ultrarunners, Audax cyclists and triathletes in their 40s/50s.

I retired shortly after my fortieth birthday, and it's been a godsend!

My worst day of retirement was better than my best day of working or education.

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