Going back to the gym at 60, so I got my body (or what was left of it) back... and became great against all odds

Highlights: Going back to the gym at 60, so I got my body (or what was left of it) back... and became great against all odds. After several medical diagnoses that plunge her into misery, the journalist decides to turn her life around after years of physical inactivity. The gym... next to her home. "It's enjoying something you already knew and now it's twice as intense. It's incredible," she says. "You have to do strength exercises," her sister Espe, says via WhatsApp, "find a gym now"

After several medical diagnoses that plunge her into misery, the journalist decides to turn her life around after years of physical inactivity and discovers that the gym... next

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On the verge of the border of six decades, I recapitulate.

The 59 have had many good things, but also some that, ahem, are best forgotten.

In the health section

for example.

In November, two circumstances left me quite devastated: after a few weeks 'listening' to how my right knee uttered an agonizing "ññññññiqq" with every step, a short walk through the countryside (no, it wasn't climbing Everest), took me by surprise.

internal and external meniscus,

with

pain

unknown in form and intensity and that would last for weeks.

Come on, I was lame.

Almost simultaneously, my annual visit to the

rheumatologist

revealed that my

osteopenia

(decrease in bone mass that does not amount to osteoporosis) was galloping along the ascending curve of the

densitometry graph,

aaaargh.

If we add to the above that during my immersion at the Sha Wellness Clinic a check-up had revealed that the muscles in my arms had entered the

bye bye Fräulein phase,

we obtain what my interviewee Lola from the report on love at 60 calls

"the massacre",

the realization that your body is going downhill without brakes, in a sum, what I say, in a multiplication of ailments from which there is no room for turning back.

Downhill without brakes (or meniscus)

The tear of my beloved

meniscus

was, the traumatologist tells me,

"due to wear and tear"

and "there is nothing to do, because that cannot be operated on."

And is it going to continue to hurt like this? I ask, terrified.

"Not necessarily".

Wow, thank you, doctor, for your detailed explanation.

Osteopenia

for its part, is the result of the natural tendency of

bones

demineralize

I read in a scientific study that "

bone mass decreases

by up to 0.5% per year or more after the

fourth decade

of life, regardless of sex or ethnicity."

So osteopenia for everyone, what a consolation...

The aforementioned study continues: "There is evidence that reduced

bone mineral density

(BMD) is associated with an increased risk of fracture, leading to

functional impairment,

loss of independence,

chronic pain,

depression, and

increased mortality. "

The hip and spine are the sites most predominantly affected by fractures in aging, with the femoral neck accounting for almost half of all

hip fractures."

Does that sound terrible?

I'm going to cry.

"You have to do

strength exercises,"

my sister Espe, who knows a lot about this, says via WhatsApp, "find a gym now."

It turns out that today

strength

training

is the most recommended

exercise

modality

improve bone mineral density

and

prevent osteoporosis.

And because?

"It has been shown," they tell us from the aforementioned study, "that the

contractile activity of muscles

during low-impact exercises, such as

resistance training

, promotes positive effects on bone health. In line with this, various studies have highlighted

strength training

one

of the most effective non-pharmacological strategies to increase bone mineral density."

Chapter 1. The gym, a stone's throw away

I don't know if with my knee more sore than morale or the other way around, I put on the battery to go to the gym, like Famosa's dolls put on to go to the portal.

First good decision:

choose one that is exactly

a four-minute walk from my house.

Because I know myself.

I don't feel like going to the gym at all, and I won't want to go to the gym any more when I get home from work at seven or something in the afternoon and I can think of twenty thousand better activities than putting on some leggings and starting to lift

kettlebells

(those weights shaped like designer jug), for example, lying down on the floor.

Not to mention the day it rains.

Or the one that is freezing cold.

Or my foot hurts.

Or the one who is very comfortable hugging my dog.

Or the one that is a few rods away...Having the gym nearby makes you have fewer excuses not to go to the gym.

So I approach

Mood Training Studio,

a place that I have been seeing for years in my neighborhood without ever feeling the slightest temptation to enter it.

"Hello, very good. I'm in a mess. I need to be strong."

The owner, a tall, athletic man with black hair and a gray beard,

David Vicente,

invites me to a first

trial class

so that I can get to know the system.

I don't really know if it's about me trying the gym or the gym trying me.

In any case, I am very sad to tell you about my meniscus.

"I also have a torn meniscus. And my cruciate ligaments," he tells me, making light of the matter (over time I will discover that a high percentage of gym trainers go through life without menisci, like members of a strange cult of the sacred cartilage). missing).

David Vicente, trainer at Mood Training Studio.

In short, in the gym there is only the trainer, five machines and me with my tights and my appearance - I think - decrepit.

"What we do here is bodyweight training," David explains to me.

"The idea is

to develop strength

endurance

and

functional capacity

using the weight of the body as the main source of resistance. Therefore, injuries here are very rare, you never go too far with the weight."

"But I have torn my meniscus," I insist.

"Me too. Now, lie on your back on the machine, do squats, up, down, jump and shift your weight from one leg to the other, come on"...

Between exercises and exercises the explanations follow.

The advantages of this

'full body' system,

says the trainer, "is that in addition to working your entire body, you do it

with your own weight

(the inclination of the machine is what determines whether the resistance is greater or less), which which makes the

impact on the joints minimal

In addition, using these machines helps "to isolate the muscle much more when we do an exercise, which makes it more effective. The

movements are very controlled

and it is almost impossible to do it wrong and injure yourself."

In the background, the machines where strength training is practiced.MTS

Chapter 2. Decide not to make decisions

It's not the first time I've gone to the

gym

in my life.

In the '90s I had a time when I went every day, in fact.

I barely fall into

vigorexia

I have also practiced fencing, paragliding, rhythmic and sports gymnastics... and I was even a handball goalkeeper (basically because I was tired of not getting the ball passed to me and that was how I made sure that someone would do it, even if it was from the opposing team).

My sad current reality: apart from a specific excursion,

I haven't played sports for about 17 years

, like a high percentage of Spaniards (more than 40% according to data from the

Higher Sports Council).

That because?

Due to

lack of time

(34% of Spaniards say they have the same problem), or because the little I have I preferred to dedicate to other things.

So the idea of joining a gym where I alone have to decide what routine to follow, what exercise to do, with what weight, how, how many times... would be the direct path to one of these two places: the traumatologist's office or the sofa in my house.

If, on the other hand, there is someone who

tells you at all times what you have to do,

which is exactly what happens in Mood Training Studio, everything changes.

Instead of thinking about whether or not you feel like doing this, you do it and goodbye.

The coach decides if you can handle more resistance or not (you can complain, but it usually doesn't work).

And even when you are dying, with the typical twisted face (be careful if you get Botox, it will last very little with so much grimace) that you accompany with a moan coming from some hidden depth of yourself, it is the other who decides if you can finish the series of exercises or not.

And usually yes.

And oh, magic, it turns out it works.

Chapter 3. Choose a gym where you will be monitored

In this small gym where everything is white and blue and three trainers take turns in classes, there are five machines, so only

five people

can attend each almost hour-long workout at a time.

The clientele is very diverse.

Lots of people in their forties.

The best thing about the system, David insists, is that it adapts to you, and not the other way around.

"Our method is suitable for anyone, of any age and physical condition. We have people from 18 to 86 years old."

The latter encourages me a lot, of course.

Chapter 3. Choose that time passes quickly...

On my first day at the gym , the mere possibility of not 'measuring up'

gives me

immense shame .

First, upper trunk, three sets of five exercises (one for each muscle group: back, shoulder, chest, biceps and the much hated triceps), 25 repetitions each, (in total, 375 repetitions, it sounds like the name of a Boeing. ..).

Then, lower body: three sets of three exercises, 20 or 25 repetitions each.

And why so many repetitions?

Wouldn't it be more effective to work with a lot of weight?

Well no.

"To

gain muscle mass,

it has been proven that it doesn't matter whether you do many repetitions with little weight or a few with a lot of weight. In our case we go for many repetitions, so you gain muscle mass, you gain resistance and by doing so many repetitions you also do a little of cardiovascular disease," David instructs.

And I, err or err: "Okay, what about my meniscus?"

"You have to

strengthen the quadriceps

so that it supports your knee, and the bones don't 'miss' the cartilage, to minimize friction between them."

The realization of my

terrible physical shape,

I have to confess, does not manage to obscure the

rush

that comes from being able to complete the 50-minute class with 'a certain normality'.

Because I got off the bench almost crawling, but without losing my dignity.

Afterwards, I walked home stumbling, with trembling legs (I almost fell into a hedge and they gave me dirty looks) and when I arrived, without taking off my coat, I let myself fall into a kitchen chair in the attitude of Dying Gaul of the Capitoline Museums.

Chapter 4. Don't believe that the gym is addictive

"I don't know where they got this idea that the gym is addictive, because I'm still extremely lazy to go."

I tell this to my colleague

Marta Sotillo

on the way to the office three months after starting at the gym.

I would love for my

brain

to generate

endorphins

like there was no tomorrow, but the guy resists.

So, every Monday and Wednesday, the same refrain:

"Oh, how lazy to go to the gym today."

A lot of laziness, yes, but I haven't missed a single class.

Lazy, yes, but oh miracle, my knee and neck don't hurt (ah, I hadn't talked about my stiff neck...).

Very lazy, but I have grown muscles where there was before... nothing.

I even notice that my tone, and not just my muscle tone, has changed:

"My biceps are stagnant," I hear myself say one day to

Rubén Rodríguez,

another trainer, because I don't agree with the weight I am able to move with the aforementioned muscle four months after starting at the gym.

"It's just that I gained your weight when you weren't looking," he confesses to me.

That's how it cost me so much...

Fitness