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Comment by wonderwonder | Hacker News Reader

I felt incredibly old from ~36 - 42. Then I started seriously working out, took control of my diet (it had very much always controlled me) and started aggressively pursuing a "better living through chemistry" approach to life.

I feel 25 years younger now. My BP and cholesterol are under control and I roll out of bed actually feeling rested (probably due to not snoring anymore).

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I started weight training at about age 54. I had never done any form of regular exercise in my life. Attempts here and there, but nothing ever stuck for very long. I am stronger now than I ever have been.

I’ve been athletic most of my life. At 42 I feel much older than at 32. Chronic injuries add up! Be careful out there everybody

Have you happened upon Keith Barr’s work on tendon repair? Up to a few years ago tendon injuries were thought to be mostly unfixable (you could strengthen what was left of an injured tendon at best) but Barr’s work is proving otherwise. And using a very low risk isometric exercise protocol.

It won’t make you feel 32 again but it might help you get rid of a lot of lingering aches and pains.

I combined vitamin C with a daily dose of collagen and it did wonders for my tendons when combined with stretching exercises. My Achilles went from constant pain and at least a couple hours every morning of hobble walking to no pain and just feeling like normal. The doctor recommended surgery and even then made no promises. I still can't run for any real distance but the quality of life difference of just being able to walk without pain and do heavy calf lifts in the gym is immense.

Note: I also aggressively supplemented with BPC-157, GHK-cu and TB-500 to get to where I am.

How good! Have you tried isometrics at ~30-50% of maximum exhertion instead of stretching? Seems to be about the right dose to promote tendon repair. 3 months to a year will do ya.

(Full protocol if you haven’t seen it is a ~30 second isometric repeated 4 to 5 times, twice per day)

Edit: I’ve not seen any other treatment published w/ peer review etc etc that demonstrates actual tendon repair. If anyone has seen others I’d love to read through the literature.

Glad you found some relief. But take note everyone! Running is probably not that good for you if you plan to live longer than average-lifespan-in-the-past! Cycling, swimming, walking are all low on joint damage. Running isn't.

That's Keith Baar; I looked it up.

Keith Barr focused on musical technology at MXR, Alesis and eventually Spin Semiconductor. His legacy is MXR pedal effects like the Phase-90, the MidiVerb digital reverb series and the Spin FV-1 digital reverb chip.

Thank you for the correction

Had a series of injuries from about 25-35, then changed things up due to concerns about aging. Lighter weights, actually following proper training plans/shoes for running, etc. No injuries since and I'm about to hit 50. Aside from raw strength, don't think I feel any different now than at my athletic peak in my early 20s.

Having lived in San Diego most of my life, I've routinely met people in their 60s doing Ironmans. When you're around that enough, it's clear the difference is training smart than simply training hard.

The loss of twitch/fast muscle makes it feel much different for me. Even if I work out and have strength, it's not to same kind of strength I had at 30 even if it's the same/higher weight amounts.

Same here. Started lifting weights around the same age. I am stronger than I have ever been.

I also run and so far I am able to keep improving my 10K results over the last decade. Probably these aren't my best ever but there is no barrier that I can feel other than putting in the training volume.

Its incredible isn't it? There is almost no point at which one just has to give up and say "Well I guess this is my life now". The body always responds positively to exercise and weight lifting.

Its happy doing what its designed to do

I weight trained until having a toddler and a new house at 50. 3 months later and I get up from a chair like I'm 75 and all my joints hurt.

Well start weight training again!

Your toddler needs healthy parents.

Happened to me too. First 10 years I was a wreck. Would recommend getting back on the horse asap, its a long way back if you leave it for to long.

If you don't already make sure to include optimizing for twitch/fast muscle development. I've noticed it's the hardest loss to overcome for me in my 50s.

I have thought about adding power cleans. I started with Starting Strength so squats, bench, deadlift, and still mainly do those lifts, press, and some other accessory lifts. All barbell or dumbbell. Never added the power cleans though.

I just recently (last 18 months) started seeing a lot of younger lifters doing power cleans. I had almost never seen them in the gym before. Not sure where the resurgence came from but some of these kids are moving a lot of weight.

Same here, though I think I started a bit younger. Now 58 and in the best shape of my life! The trainer who set up my program asked what my fitness goals were, and I said “I just want to be able to stand up from a chair when I’m 90”. He said, “we can do that”.

I had a similar experience. It really felt like my body became way more sensitive to my diet in my 40s.

I feel great when I eat clean.

I think there's a bunch of anecdata telling that once you start going with a healthier diet you tend to react strongly to eating less healthy food or alcohol.

How did you get the snoring under control?

I lost 30lbs. Gone, I sleep like a baby and more importantly so does my wife

Thanks, it’s good to hear that losing weight helped so much.

Can you give more details about what you did?

First thing I did was just get out of the house and go to the gym. I work remotely, it became a trap where I spent all my free time sitting in front of the computer. Prioritizing at least an hour a day 5x a week was huge. I just made the time.

I did that for about 2 years with good results. I was 240lbs. I looked big at 6’1 but had lots of fat. I snored all night long, affecting my wife’s sleep as well. About 1 year in I got on trt. Huge changes as far as energy levels, sex drive and confidence. Numbers soared at the gym but I was still 240lbs. Still stress eating after 8pm, easily 1200 calories in sugar a night.

In January I got on Glp-1 and am now 209lbs at 46 years old with a 405lb bench. I just stopped eating after 6pm on it. Weight came pouring off. I never experienced any of the side effects people mention. I can eat a whole large pizza if I want without issues, i just don’t.

I’ve since upped the testosterone im on so one can fairly say im on steroids (i am) plus I am an aggressive user of various peptides. I get my blood work done at regular intervals and feel good.

I just decided to take control of my body and do what works for me and not worry about what the medical establishment tells me to do but to do it with proper insight via regular blood tests.

Just got back from a family vacation and after the pool one day my wife asked if I knew that everyone stared at me when I walk past. Felt good. Funny thing is that at 6’1, 209lbs im not that big, im just lean whereas most people are overweight.

I don’t recommend my regime to anyone i just recommend throwing away preconceived notions of what you can and shouldn’t do and to get after being the you that you are proud of.

How long do you intend to be on trt? I hear the body returns back to its previous low levels on stopping.

The rest of my life, i see no reason to ever come off. I will of course cycle on and off the steroid level doses for health reasons but I intend to run testosterone in the range of ~200mg / week forever. I am considering doing the same for glp-1 medication. I’ve reached my goal weight but not sure if I see a reason to ever come off of a maintenance dose. I am not fully decided on that yet though. Im in the process of tapering down the glp doses and experimenting to see if the lack of diet control returns.

How do you get the Glp-1 now?

You can order it online from a variety of peptide sites.

Here is a site that tests and compares vendor purity that to the best of my knowledge is legit. I won’t recommend a particular vendor but this will get you started.

https://www.finnrick.com/products

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