The difference was 5% returns from their 20’s.
That’s all it takes to spread the gap. I’ll retire a multi millionaire, im 43 now, and some of my friend are just starting to save.
The math, If you save $500 a month from 20-29 and never invest again you will have 2-4 mil at retirement depending on returns.
If your start saving at 40 for the same numbers you need to save 10,000 a month until retirement.
My mind was preoccupied with other things in my 20s and 30s. Still is really.
depending on returns
All the “just save $X per month” advice hinges on this, but for some reason, finance “gurus” take our current longest bull run in history and pretend high returns are guaranteed.
Anyway, it’s funny that you call for $500 a month when, according to this article: 63% of workers are unable to pay a $500 emergency expense
If so many can’t come up with $500 for an emergency, what makes you think they’ll have $500 every month to save? What makes you think $2-4 million will be enough to retire on by the time, given the rate of inflation we’ve been experiencing?
I never said it was enough to retire on, just pointing out what compounding interest does, and how waiting makes basically impossible to catch up. If you can’t save $500/month in your 20’s, you won’t be saving 10k a month in the 40’s.
And you don’t need 500 a month in your 20’s. You can save $300 a month from 20-65 and still have 2.5 million.
It’s not impossible, that’s less than $100 a week. If you see a kid driving a new car, his average payments are 800 plus insurance. He could drive a used car for half the money and retire. That new car in your 20’s is basically saying you don’t want to retire. Unless you got it like that of course, but like you said most people don’t, and that will still choose a dumb decision. I had friends finance a 30k wedding in there 20’s. There goes that retirement. Or going on an expressive trip that costs 10-20k. That one trip is no retirement. It really adds up like that.
All the “just save $X per month” advice hinges on this, but for some reason, finance “gurus” take our current longest bull run in history and pretend high returns are guaranteed.
Most of the estimates I see are the opposite, they assume the worst such investing everything right before the 2008 Great Recession crash. As in investing $10k in the S&P500 on Jan 1 of 2007 (before the crash) would give you $75,670 today. That’s a 656.70% total return or a 10.65% compound annual growth rate. So yes, the great bull market is in there, but the start included is the absolute worst time to invest, but the returns are still good. Most projections are more conservative with only expecting a 7% return (over time).
Again, that’s assuming the “worst time to invest” will be followed by the greatest bull run in history. Now try a situation where the government and Fed aren’t pumping trillions of dollars to help the market.
Now try a situation where the government and Fed aren’t pumping trillions of dollars to help the market.
Sure thing, lets eliminate anything from the current bull market that starts at the bottom of the 2007 crash. Lets end in 2006, and begin 19 years early in 1987 (to keep the same sample length from the prior example).
The same $10k in the S&P500 on Jan 1 of 1987 ending in 2006 would be $91,857. This would be a 818.57% total return and a 11.73% compounded annual growth.
You’re welcome to run your own numbers. Here’s the simple S&P500 calculator I’ve used for our discussion here.
You’re missing the point. Ever since Reagan, “the economy” has been in service of the stock market and shareholder primacy has been the rule of the land. This isn’t something that should be assumed natural.
So basically, you’re saying I should have had rich parents? Darn! Where was this sage wisdom when I was a fetus choosing my parents?
$125 a week savings isn’t rich parents. Get real.
I really can’t understand what this comment had to do at all with the post. Though the idea that I had five hundred extra dollars a month when in my twenties is laughable.
Im in my 40’s, wealthier than ever and having spare 500 (in local equivalent) to save sounds unlikely. Also I’d be loosing money just keeping it in the bank with their fees and inflation.
It’s saying that people they knew in their 20$ are in different wealth brackets in their 40’s.
If they all made the median income their whole lives, they would be on different brackets if they saved in their 20’s versus the ones that didn’t.
They just purchased a couple of toddlers.
After high school or college the training wheels are completely off and the guard rails imposed by parents and schools are essentially gone. You’re no longer surrounded by people of similar socioeconomic backgrounds and especially age.
Nobody’s telling you that the “successful relationship” assignment is due by 30, “marriage” by 32, “kid(s)” by 35, etc.
You’re on your own. You don’t have to conform socially anymore, you can get away with ignoring rules. Maybe it works and you become a trendsetter, or maybe you end up in a tent under a bridge. A lot of what happens is luck, good or bad, and a lot of that luck is going to come from how well off your family was when you were young. You’re far more likely to be exposed to other people’s randomness, too, and that can push you up the ladder quickly or wreck you.
There’s variables that you can control and even more that are outside your control once the guard rails are gone that will make your life very different from your peers.
A lot of what happens is luck
I agree with this, there will always be a level of good and bad luck that is out of our control. However each of us has the ability to increase our footprint of good luck or reduce our footprint for bad luck (never to zero bad luck though). If the good luck of a job of a lifetime is available to you but requires you know how to speak French, then that is only good luck if you spent time earlier in your life learning to speak French. In this case, learning French in the past increased amount of good luck you could harvest in life.
Alternatively, if you have an asshole friend that likes committing petty crimes or picking fights, you increase your footprint for bad luck by hanging out with them. That drunk guy at the other end of the bar would have simply been a forgotten thought a couple of days later, but your asshole friend antagonized that guy and you ended up with bad luck getting sucker punched instead that night because of your asshole friend. In this case, choosing to hang out with asshole friend increased the amount of bad luck foisted upon you in life.
I agree, conditionally about the good luck.
Some people are going to have far less resources to expose themselves to good luck that can actually benefit them in way that can change their outlook. Unfortunately, “luck” for most of us is how much money we have and the social standing that money offers to expose us to lucky situations. So for some it may not always be “bad” luck, it’s just that opportunities to improve one’s situation just don’t appear often enough to be taken advantage of correctly.
And yes, surrounding yourself deliberately with other people that attract negative outcomes is absolutely a controllable factor.
Some people are going to have far less resources to expose themselves to good luck that can actually benefit them in way that can change their outlook.
I agree completely. That is the part that is out of our control that I referenced.
Unfortunately, “luck” for most of us is how much money we have and the social standing that money offers to expose us to lucky situations.
I could agree or disagree with you on this depending on how we are defining things here. If a person comes from money and social standing, goes to ivy league school law school, and is offered a great job at a prestigious law firm right out of school I wouldn’t call that luck, I’d call that systemic. I’d probably even say it was a forgone conclusion that someone in that situation got the job. The “lucky situation” here for this person wouldn’t be getting the job, it would be born into money/society.
For any of the rest of us, crawling through law school to ending up in a chance meeting to get offered that same job, the job offer would be the “lucky situation”.
Overall, I agree with your premise even if we put the definitions in different places.
it’s just that opportunities to improve one’s situation just don’t appear often enough to be taken advantage of correctly.
This goes to the heart of my main point. Each of us can positively affect the number of opportunities open to us that may be lucky with our own actions. You can’t plan for luck, but you can learn all kinds of things which, in some strange way in the future, make you eligible to take advantage of a lucky opportunity.
I can give you an example from my own life. When I was younger I poor and trying to cram as much video onto a writeable CD. I dived into learning video compressions methods so I could be cheap and save on CDs, putting more on each. Years later I at an employer, the company has a problem because they need video sent from a rural location back to the main office for analysis by engineers in a very short amount of time and the rural local only had a very very slow satellite internet connection (this was way before Starlink existed). I saw what they problem was. The video files were too big for the slow connection. I asked if they were willing to take a massive hit to quality to get the video files transferred. They were happy to! I gather the software and wrote a solution that they could use at the rural site to compress the videos before transferring using almost identical approaches to my writable CD compression methods. I got promoted an a $10k raise because of it.
Had I not tried to be cheap on CDs, I would have not have learned nor been lucky enough to take advantage and get that promotion.
I’m the guy who didn’t sleep right for the last 3 years. Anyone wants to trade? You get a lot of extra time that you don’t spend sleeping!
Same here. It’s now evolved into sleeping at random times. Not ideal.
I recently started getting much less sleep. When I can sleep i treat my self to some phenibut the evening before and then I can sleep for 10 hours straight.
Similar here. My nightmares wake me up when i want to sleep, until i am too exhausted to stay awake. Currently i am often afraid to go to sleep because of those IMAX-Style hyperreal dreams, which makes the problem even worse.
I have the superpower to be able to nap at almost any time during the day if I have time to lay down. But if I wake up too early in the morning, I can almost never get back to sleep to get the last hour or half-hour of my sleep time in before the alarm to get up.
I am an elite sleeper, I sleep less than most, but waste the extra time usually. I wile away with extra hours doing useless things like reading about the world.
Reading about the world isn’t wasted time - it learns you about the world!
Ah just like me then lol, i welcome you my brother
I’m old enough to remember selling Tupperware as a viable economy.
I remember my older sister getting laid off from the Tupperware factory.
At least somebody got laid
Me too, thanks
By the way, Tupperware is crap now. They deserve to go bankrupt. When a friend started selling Tupperware, I saw stuff that my mother still uses and I remember seeing at home when I was a kid. Now, we bought some stuff that two years later I had to throw away. It’s super shitty now. Not worth the money.
Enshittification!!!
MAKE. IT. SHITTY!
I can still vividly remember the flex and pop of the seal of the old stuff, and all the old colors, too
Now it’s all about Pyrex anyway.
Plus I won’t microwave anything plastic, even if it says I can.
Same. My wife scoffed at my suggesting she stop and when my doctor sister mentioned it at a holiday family event without my prompting she finally took it seriously.
I remember when you could make a living out of it…
All those old jobs are gone as a means of living. Al Bundy sold shoes. Door to door sales used to be viable
Al Bundy worked in a store, and they do still have Shoe Salesman.
It’s primarily for Work shoes though. Not enough spread in the plastic garbage these days to make an actual living.
Source: Was a literal shoe salesman.
I feel like Tupperware, Amway, and Mary Kay were the Ubers of 1980.
You forgot Avon.
40s and 60s were found to be the ages that saw the fastest aging
Yeah, 44 for me, and I hear it happens again ~65. There should be a PSA.
Am 43, can confirm.
52 now and I’m so glad that I picked up weightlifting as a hobby when I was younger. It’s like cash in the bank for when I get older.
One of my health issues is bad knees. Around your age I did get evaluated for knee replacements and the doctor recommended it. However he didn’t actually provide any useful info so I didn’t. Now I see that by babying my knees to reduce pain, my leg muscles have atrophied to the point where I notice as an issue. I wish the doctor had been willing to talk about things like that
So now I am trying to get started lifting, to see if I can recover, or at least see if I can be more ready for replacements
That’s good! Start slowly and build up. Body weight is perfectly fine at first.
Something I’ve noticed is that many doctors will tell you to stop moving if something bugs you, whereas physical therapists suggest the opposite.
Can confirm, 42 here.
Im 42 and im just happy i have Head full of thick, long, black hair without a single grey. And I look more attractive than I ever did. I hated looking younger when I was in my 20s and 30s but I love it now. I don’t think I have a wrinkle more than i did in high school.
Im poor as shit and hate my job, but I have my hair!
Wow, you’re the complete opposite of my partner. She’s 23 and has about 20% gray hair. Apparently runs in the family because her uncle was fully gray by his college graduation.
I love gray hair! Looks so beautiful
I know right! I think her silver streaks are so cool.
Your 40s are where your life situations and choices seem to catch up to you
In your 20s people largely look young and energetic, regardless of whether they exercise, how they eat, whether they smoke, etc.
By the 40s, the smokers look terrible, the people with poor diet and exercise aren’t no longer getting away with it as their metabolism slows, etc. These are the years where you start to see the trajectories diverge.
By the 60s, I see people who are as spry as they ever were, and people who are resigned to the end being near.
Slight correction, metabolism doesn’t slow in the 40s either. Though at least thats better than the slowing in 30s stereotype.
Metabolism stays the from 20s up to 60s, everything else is explained by lifestyle.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/surprising-findings-about-metabolism-and-age-202110082613
Sarcopenia generally progresses in your 30s to where a rule-of-thumb is the behaviors and muscle mass you make by age 40 is an indicator of mobility and bone density in late life.
Yeah, but that is very heavily effected by lifestyle choices rather than something completely outside of personal control like metabolism. Metabolism itself doesn’t slow down, the results of not taking care of their health are catching up.
The fact that there are enough people who fail to take care of their health that it has created a correlational relationship or a rule of thumb, doesn’t mean it’s something that it’s supposed to happen or outside of their control aka metabolism slowing down.
Propagating the metabolism slowing down stereotype creates a self feeding loop where people who still can do much to improve their health. Become complacent, because it’s something that’s supposed to happen anyway and the more people who succumb to that the more it strengthens that stereotype.
I thought this too until perimenopause LOL now I realize a lot of it is based on hormone levels.
It’s both my amigo.
But that’s the point. It’s not, that’s why i posted one of the biggest and most accurate study showing that metabolism doesn’t slow down until 60s.
Millennial: “Socialism is my retirement plan!”
[proceeds to participate in no direct action whatsoever]
As a 44 year old, I remember my aunt throwing Tupperware parties.
Also yes to all the branches of lifestyles. I’m single and enjoying my freetime consuming media. Meanwhile a mutual friend of a friend I know has 3 kids, a wife and pets, and a weekend timeshare out near the beach.
It’s p wild.
As if this isn’t true for pretty much every age group.
Being 12 is wild, people your age are living completely different lives. Some have loving parents, some are only children, some have divorced parents, some have known only abuse their entire lives.
It’s super obvious that Lemmy is predominantly elder millenial and gen X men lol
They’re admitting they’re realizing the world is a broad diverse place at 40s. So many in here right now are evidence of that. They’re not even getting it. They’re trying to beat the world back into the narrow box that fits into their conception of how things should be.
It’s super obvious that Lemmy is predominantly elder millenial and gen X men lol
The older internet demographic is primarily western upper class males.
We can pick almost any 12 year old in a developed country and know a lot about them. They go to school (unless they’re home schooled), they don’t yet have a job (though they might babysit or run a lemonade stand), and they’re at or near puberty, complete with all the things that come with it. Some may be further along than others, but they are more or less going through the same stage of life. None of them are getting married or taking an early retirement or what-have-you.
After a certain age, those similarities disappear. Although we were all on the same page as each other once upon a time, by 40 our paths have diverged in such extreme ways that looking at others of the same age can be surprising.
If you’re not old enough to relate, that’s fine, but it’d be silly to dismiss the experiences of others just because you’re not there yet. I’m not 40 yet, but I’ve seen enough by my mid-30s to understand what this post is trying to capture.
I love that your own examples came with a bunch of exceptions. The puberty one has exceptions too - puberty blockers, early/late onset puberty, and so on.
This is just a collection of high probability things. Same is true for people in their 40s, like most in their 40s probably don’t live with their parents, just as a random example.
You’ve just forgotten, or never realized, the disparity of life experiences of being a kid, and y’all like to imagine that being in your 40s is somehow unique or special as a way of coping with getting older
OK boomer
i’m actually a really smart baby communicating using neuralink
I did kind of groan when I saw this post because I don’t like being reminded that I’m just part of a demographic trend with a twitter-screenshot chorus always low-effort riffing on the mundane details of my aging process like it’s something special.
thing is, it is kinda special, you’ve accumulated a lot more life experience than i have, and i’m sure there are lots aspects to life that are different when you’re 40, and i’m genuinely interested to hear the perspectives of people who are there and to try and learn from it, but this post in particular is a little silly imo!
46 here. I just got engaged, never been married no kids. My bff is 47, her daughter graduates high school this year. His bff is 47, his kids are in elementary school. The oldest child of my friend group just graduated college, the youngest was born last year.
Mid-forties are a decision point. It’s when you decide to either get healthy, and stay healthy the rest of your life, or… you don’t.
Your body starts falling apart faster if you don’t maintain it. Unlike the years before, the health losses are forever.
Fair warning.
massively reduced alcohol consumption in my late forties, dropped 20Kg. significantly better for it going into my 50s. probably could do more exercise but I’m 80kg with 32" waist. I’m happy in my body now. 💯 decision time. I’ve seen friends who made the choice and those who didn’t and the difference is stark. one is dead and I didn’t think that would start happening to me in my 50s… RIP Paul
Your body starts falling apart faster if you don’t maintain it.
There’s a corollary here that I don’t see anyone talking about. If you set a good plan to maintain your body fitness from say your mid 30s on, one day you’ll be doing that same reasonable workout routine and then you hurt yourself because its too much. Yesterday it was fine, the prior 15 years it had been fine, but now its not, and you have an injury you need 3 to 6 months to recover from. You think its a fluke and, once healed, you go back to your fitness routine and you injury yourself in a different way. Another 3 to 6 months of recovery.
There appears to be a need to modify or abandon parts of your fitness routine as you get older, but there’s no guidebook on what to stop doing and when, nor what to be doing instead.
I feel like this is like tech debt, it’s usually a result of neglect in other areas that are easy to dismiss or overlook. Stretching, foam rolling, staying on top of rest and recovery, avoiding ego lifting, etc. I think you can definitely course correct but it gets harder to do so the further you stray.
My guess is as you get older, those support muscles that help keep everything in place also need work. Also, bad form habits are more likely to rear their head as time goes on.
So the people who didn’t perfect their form, the ones who use tricks to lift what they do (like a curl you can only complete if you start out my building up momentum on the lower part to get through the upper part), the ones who only work their major muscles, those are most likely to get hurt.
Though there’s also wear and tear on your non-muscle infra, like your bones, joints, tendons, and cartilege. If you keep pushing for heavier weights, you put more and more strain on those. They can improve somewhat with training but they aren’t like muscles where straining them to the point of failure and tearing encourages the body to build more and age doesn’t help there either, especially if you develop arthritis or something that further weakens that support infra.
Yeah, I’m in my very early 40’s now and after being really skinny for all my life, I’m suddenly getting a beer belly
Having some emotional hardships in the last 2 years didn’t help with that either.
So, my first step will be to stop drinking and smoking daily, and start to do some sport, with surfing on holidays being the motivation.But every time, I’m getting back from a (usually demanding) business trip, I can’t do anything, but lay flat.
Like many times, I’m now suffering with a fever and some sinusitis since a week as I got back home.Every fucking time, I’ve build up some physical condition, I’m getting sick with something and seemingly lose everything I’ve won.
This is really frustrating and I’m not sure, how I can break that cycle.
Obviously food (besides stopping to drink and smoke) has a major impact.
But as my wife is a vegetarian, everything I’m cooking is usually vegetarian and healthy already.
On business trips though, they aren’t those romantic business trips with good food, wine and just networking.
I’m working in industry warehouses and all the restaurants around are usually rather shit.I usually don’t have lunch, as it makes me too tired in the afternoon. So I tried to have something like Soylent (in my case, I stuck with Plenny + milk and fresh fruits instead of just water) and that felt better.
But it gets quite boring after a few months.I think, finding a goal, like being able to surf and not just die breathless on the board, is the way to go for me.
But every time, I start for such a regime, I’m getting sick and it feels like everything was for nothing, because all the condition I’ve build up is seemingly lost again…Would be very much open for suggestions, because I can’t really find a way out, but I have to.
I’m getting more and more unhappy with myself.I don’t know if it’s at all possible for you and depends on where you live and work, but I try to integrate “little sports” in my daily life. I try to cycle and walk to places as much as possible, instead of bus or tram. Try to use staircases instead of elevators. Etc. It can be small things, but easier to keep up than a real sporty regime.
Yeah, that’s a good thing!
By bike I’m much faster at the warehouse with by test station and during summer I do that.
Only in winter and with rain, I use the car.And you’re right, that already seems to make a difference.
Regarding your hint with the stairs:
Doing that already.
In hotels I’m using the stairs to train myself a bit and at home in only in the first floor (well, 1,5 because if the entrance stairs to the house)It sounds childish, but since if got a SmartWatch, it motivates me, that I can see the daily/weekly statistics of how many stairs I took.
Gamification really seems to work ;-)If gamification works for you, maybe give walkscape.app a chance. Looks cool, but my phone was too crappy
It sounds like you could be pushing yourself too hard and too often. I find that typically happens when I’ve trained hard for about 2 months without a proper deload period, where you continue to workout but reduce the effort by like 75%. Recovery is extremely important.
Diet can have a huge impact on your recovery and fatigue levels. You might be lacking in the nutrition area so its probably worth having a consult with a Dietician - not a nutritionist.
Also water, it can actually help with energy levels if you drink the correct amount of water that your body needs.
Stick with it mate, your body with adapt in time. Just take it easy on yourself and give yourself small goals that you can achieve without specific timelimits. Goals like, I’ll go to the gym twice this week or I’ll get to bed by 8pm etc etc - nothing huge but its more behavioural goals rather than saying I’m going to squat twice my bodyweight in 2 months or something.
Thank you!
Yeah, when we go surfing - the 1-2 weeks a year, when we’re able to travel - I’m really over doing myself.
I find it really hard to recover the older I get.
When I was younger, I had sore muscles as well, but a day going slower was usually enough.
Now I don’t think, I’m pushing myself, but the soreness builds up and I need days to recover.
And I can’t enjoy the sort in my holiday.This year, we plan to go in September.
So I’ll start training up with some back, hip and shoulder exercises, which I need for my back anyway.
And then start to add up step by step.
Hopefully that works out better :-)Diet-wise, I just need to get rid of the booze.
I really like my beer, but I think, the party’s over now…Edit: Apologies for the novel, might’ve gotten a bit carried away.
I dunno your lifestyle around alcohol, but if you really enjoy your beer for the beer of it all (and it’s not a problematic habit/drinking purely for effect), moderation and mindful nursing might be the move. Take the stuff below if it makes sense when being radically honest with yourself, toss it out the window entirely if it doesn’t.
Set one night a week (or longer interval) as beer night. Pay attention to what us other substance freaks call set and setting - go into it in an already good mood, in a space and set of circumstances that are arranged to be pleasing (for me, that’s out at a place I enjoy, preferably with something I like going on [live music, etc.]). If the set or setting (or, to quote Gen Z, the ‘vibes’) are off, do it some other time.
If the vibes are right, order/get one really, really good beer and a water. Your goal is to make that beer last at least an hour - you can have as much water as you want. So obviously, you should pick a beer that doesn’t taste like ass as it comes to room temp.
Take each sip very slowly - sniff it before you sip, let the beer sit on your tongue a bit, with a breath through the nose during, and sit with the finish after you sip for a little. Keep the ratio of beer sips to water sips at like 1 for every 4 or 5. Just make a mental note of stuff like the flavour, texture, finish as you’re drinking. Make note of any changes to those over the interval.
Once the beer is finished, have something else (preferably lower sugar - soda water with a little bitters and lime, hop water with a hop profile you enjoy, whatever you’d like from what’s available. If out, ask the bartender for a suggestion, some like the challenge but be mindful of how busy it is). You don’t need to make that last an hour, but try to enjoy it slowly. Once that’s finished, decide if you want one more beer, and if so repeat the process. End at max two beers, though you can close the tab (if your ideal setting is out at some place) on a not-beer-not-water drink if you want to stretch out your time in the atmosphere.
Life’s short, and filled with both horrors and moments of bliss. Little pleasures can enrich your time here, so long as you’re careful not to let their fingers wrap around your neck and become vices. Just have to approach them carefully with an eye to your larger goals and ideals.
Or, if you look at this and think “Naw dawg, if I tried this it’ll end in chugging multiple beers”, ok, let the beer go. There’s myriad other little pleasures you can integrate into your life, many of which are healthier anyway.
Edit edit: if you take the approach above and your ideal setting is out at some place, I usually follow a $1 per drink tip rule, and that calculation includes the water. It ingratiates you to the bar staff who might otherwise be peeved you sat there for two-three hours. I call it vibe insurance, lol.
Thanks for that thought-out input :-)
I’m having my fair share of substance experience as well and I don’t plan to go for a completely sober life.
But, have practically the same idea you proposed.
I wanna get rid of useless stress drinking and smoking, and get back to a hedonistic approach, that doesn’t senselessly kill me.For example with tobacco, I want to have a set of plants myself, so I can experiment with mixing different kinds and fermentation methods. And that would be the tobacco I can use for the year.
That would be fun, self limiting and I guess, I would appreciate the smoke much more.For alcohol, I’m currently doing it step by step, like with opiates.
For now I got rid of the hard stuff and we started shopping for alcohol free beer - there are at least 2 ok to good ones around here.
So, I’d drink a “real” beer at night, but then don’t drink on and empty the bag, but switch to the alcohol free ones.
That works usually quite well, but as with everything, there are some days with a fallback.
But that’s ok, I want to be drunk from time to time.And yes, making myself something like a treat calendar is pretty much the next step :-)
Thanks, seems we’re not too different ;-)
You’ve got the right attitude - its an investment in yourself that your future self with benefit from. Good luck on your journey.
Thank you :-)
I’ve already build up enough anger about myself in the last year (read: motivation for change), but due to tragic events in my family and often being sick always killed anything in the roots.
I’ve just written my wife, that I want to get rid of our “storage room”, which is just an excuse to hoard trash anyway, and make something reasonable out of it
I’m thinking a mix of book shelfs, a reading corner and the rest would be a place for a gym.
Should work out space-wise.
And getting rid of all the shit we hide behind the door is a win it itself.So, I guess, I have a summer project ;-)
You’re aware of all the changes you need to make, or at least you have a strong intuition. All of my lasting adaptations have been built on tiny increments gained over time, and only from a place of love. Be kind to yourself. Also, if you’re not already looking at it, strongly consider your sleep hygiene. Good, consistent sleep is the base of the pyramid. No lasting change, especially when it comes to one’s physical condition, can be sustained if your sleep is shit.
Thanks for the kind words :-)
Sleep is probably an issue as well, yes …
I’m often on business trips and my work schedule isn’t set in stone.
If a customer needs help, I’ll be up at night.
On business trips, I don’t have any free day and work through - and with often changed times, as I can’t change anything during production, but can only monitor.
So I need to do the changes at night and if I change anything on the weekend, I need to be there at Monday morning (5-6) to monitor the production start.I think, changing the stuff I do in my free time, could help me to handle this work life better.
I’ll start with little things now, as soon as I’ve got finally rid of this fucking flu…
Starting to lift was the best decision I ever made at 40
I really, really wish I could get back into it. I had some severe back injuries and now I have days where I can barely stand. Physical therapy helped a bit, but they have said that some risky (and very expensive) spine surgery is my best bet to get back to semi normal.
What are you looking at, disc replacement?
From what I understand, yes. I am not really onboard with that plan so I am just trying to continue doing what I can of the exercises that my physical therapist gave me and hope that it can alleviate a bit of the pain and periods of immobility.
That’s rough. I’m not sure what you can/can’t do safely, but in my amateur opinion building up your posterior chain is the best thing you can do to stabilize your back, especially if you sit a lot
I just started working out again, after an injury, but I do upper body in useful activities. I’ve so much heavy work I need to do, it would be wasteful to mindlessly pump iron or whatever.
I’m just doing like crunches and squats, and getting back into distance running, as of yet. Might add some planks and idk what else.
Careful with those knees, though
Romanian deadlifts and leg raises have made my once crippled back bulletproof
Thanks for the tip, I’ve had constant back problems as I switched to heating with firewood, and all the bending over just jacked up my back constantly. Better now for the moment, although crunches don’t help it, leg lifts without the upper body rising are mostly ok.
Problem is, it takes too long to max out on leg lifts, I can literally spend 8 hours doing them on and off, same as squats. For the latter I was going to carry a log on my back, I will look like an asshole if a neighbor sees me but still.
Honestly the leg lifts are kind of just a courtesy exercise. Bracing during heavy compound lifts does a pretty good job on the abs, I feel like it’s the slabs of muscle on my back and butt and hamstrings that just really stabilized my whole back/core. I saw neurosurgeon about my back and he said the muscle was preventing me feeling like a cripple and to never stop lifting
I will try bracing, I have a brace somewhere.
The other thing, I’ve been harvesting wild leafy greens to eat masses of. Stinging nettles as of now. That is the key to building strength and muscle, it has natural steroid like compounds your body uses. Popeye knows what I’m talking about.
Because of just sitting at the computer all day, I’ve developed a hollow back and often have back pains.
I’ve tried many different approaches of stretching and loosening muscle cramps and stuff, but just 3 weeks ago I’ve stumbled on this videos of treating such things with exercises to finally build up muscles - but also immediately releasing tension.
At least for me, they work really well
Shoulders/Neck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loqly-3g5xoBack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JCowqOSk_gHip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCJEx2kfK84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6BKBOt9hM
Seriously! I have the best physique I’ve ever had and look five years younger. It costs me three hours a week and a little effort.
Care to share your workout regime?
I have a real problem if keeping it up for more than 2 weeks…
3 hours a week sounds manageable though
I researched the shit out of various programs and you’ll quickly learn there’s a lot of advice, opinion, and lore in the world of lifting. What I concluded was that all I needed were dumbbells, a barbell (optional), access to a leg press, lat pulldown, and a seated row machines. All staples at any gym. For a home gym you can replace most of these machines with dumbbell alternates.
The last two work muscles you just can’t access as efficiently with free weights.
I started with whatever felt easy enough. My beginner dumbbell press weight was 20lbs, dumbbell fly was 5lbs, as examples.
I usually do these in 3 sets of 8 repetitions taking a one minute break between sets.
Monday – Legs + Abs
Squat (Quads/Glutes) 45+10 Weighted Lunges (Quads) 30+0 Weighted Hip Thrust (Glutes) 60+10 Leg Press (115+10) Declined Overhead Weighted Sit-up (Abs) 10+15 Standing Calf Raises (Calves) 135+25 Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift (Hamstrings/Glutes) 35+5
Wednesday – Push (Chest/Shoulders/Triceps + Abs)
Dumbbell Bench Press (Chest) 45-5 Dumbbell Overhead Press (Shoulders) 25-5 Dumbbell Fly 20-5 Dumbbell Lateral Raise (Shoulders) 15-5 Hanging Leg/Knee Raise (Abs) body weight Incline Dumbbell Press (Chest) 40-5 Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extension (Triceps) 40-5
Friday – Pull (Back/Biceps)
Lat Pulldown (Back) 100-15 Seated Row (Back) 100-15 Hanging Leg/Knee Raise (Abs) body weight Dumbbell Curl (Biceps) 30-5 Dumbbell Bent Over Row (Back) 45-5 Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift (Hamstrings/Glutes) 45-5 Hammer Curl (Biceps/Forearms) 25-5
If I didn’t know what an exercise was, I looked it up here.
https://fitbod.me/exercises/dumbbells
The numbers are the weight I will attempt first. The +/- means if too easy, add the weight on the third set. If too hard, remove the weight after attempting the new weight.
I try to always hit failure. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I only get five reps.
I don’t like all the silly programs 5/3/1 Faster, Stronger, Harder, or what not. I do these and occasionally try new lifts. That’s it.
You can do 2 sets of 6 reps at higher weights and get similar results as long as you hit failure, get enough protein, and sleep at least six hours.
Thank you very much!
Saved your comment and will probably build up some kind of similar training for my pre surfing workout, so I don’t look like an absolute idiot, who can’t even manage to get out to the waves ;-)You’re (at least?) the second one recommending weight lifting and barbells.
So I guess, there is something to itWill need to make some room in the apartment for it, as I’m not the biggest fan of going to the gym
Until it broke, I had such a thing to do pull ups at the door frame
Which was great to get rid of stress.
So I just did some pull ups during work, when I needed to get rid of the adrenaline - else I’ll just end completely tensed up in the eveningWe have a room full of stuff we don’t use and call it our storage room.
It’s a waste of space anyway. Maybe I can combine that 2 things and clean out the room, to make a little gym and reading room :-)Oh! Then get a good pair of adjustable dumbbells and a simple adjustable bench. That’ll take very little space. Replace that pull-up bar and you’re done. You can get the Power Block for about $300.
Just swap out any exercise I stated that needs gym equipment with a similar exercise using dumbbells. Reducing the reps from 3x8 to 2x6 will cut down the workout time significantly and yield almost identical results (if you reach failure.)
When I’m traveling I do this:
3x8 Walking lunges 25 lbs +5 3x8 Dumbbell Rows 25 lbs +5 3x8 Chest Press 25 lbs +0 3x8 Dumbbell Shoulder Press 20 lbs +0 3x8 Dumbbell Biceps Curls 25 lbs +0 3x8 Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 25 lbs +0
For an easy full body workout that only requires dumbbells.
Comment saved again, thank you
Will have quite some research to-do tomorrow, to get all the input of you guys sorted out.And, as now mentioned multiple times already in this thread, I’ll get rid of our fucking “storage room” of mostly trash and make some place for a little gym out of it.
Thank you so much for all your input!
All of you have really motivated me to actually do something about it :-)
Not who you asked but I think the absolute best bang for your buck would be a simple barbell program. 531 for Beginners you could run this program for a year and It will completely change your physique. To make a dead simple I would install the boostcamp app and use it to track your sets/reps/progress, it has instructions for the exercises which are easy to learn
Thank you very much for the input
I’ve never seen myself much as a weight pusher.
I do have some weights somewhere, but I always was a proponent of just using your body weight.
And although a part of the motivation comes from looking good naked again, it’s not so much about that - and that’s what I’ve always associated with weight lifting.But I’ll look into it.
Trying something new is always additional motivation anyway and my prejudice here is very probably wrong anyway.So thanks for that, will read into it :-)
No worries I’m always happy to help someone get started. I have always been skinny 165lb runner and cyclist. But I wanted to try lifting a barbell and a few years later I’m sitting at 220lbs with a powerlifting gym in my basement feeling better than I did in my 20s.
In this thread already some people mention weight lifting as being helpful
So, I’ll look into it
But I don’t really want to build up mass.
I always liked being skinny, but defined and with strength/endurance.I want the body to be able to do what I like.
So, going skiing or surfing and everything else.I always find those mountains of muscles some bodybuilders move around strange, because they don’t seem to be really functional for sport and reduce the ability to move, when they get extreme.
I’m thinking of getting back into fighting sports.
Did Hapkido for some time in my 20s and really liked it. But my joints are aching by just holding the phone to long.
So doing some painful levering on them during training doesn’t sound so wise…
I’m currently trying to get them better with some elastic band exercises and try to build up on that, by extending the movement to also include the shoulders.But obviously, this is more of a health exercise, than a real sport thing
Same but cycling. Stumbling into a workout that I look forward to was game changing.
That is me with running. I feel like I could do a zone two run forever. Just such a refreshing activity.
What is a zone two run?
Zones refer to heart rate. Zone 2 is 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.
Think a distance runner putting out light effort.
Ah gotcha, thanks! I’ve heard you should run at a pace at which you could still keep a conversation going. Probably gets to the same idea
I can only stay in zone 2 for a few minutes, but it’s amazing. Then it’s zone 3, which is fine… but within a mile of starting, it’s above that and I have to walk, let it drop and then start off again. I wish I could keep it in zone 2 or even 3.
I’ve been running for 12 years, 3-5x a week 3-5km a time and am not overweight… when does it get better/easier? I’m starting to think it’s just not for me, even though I enjoy it.
I ran. It took me a while, but I started to enjoy it. Then my achilles tendon and knee started to hurt and I stopped for a short while until it would get better.
That was over a year ago and I still can’t walk properly when getting out of bed. Friend said I need to lose weight to be able to run again. Well, yeah, how the fuck is that supposed to happen then?
Gotta work on that diet. Best way to lose weight.
Unless you’re already eating the perfect diet, then I have no idea. I suppose it would be time for a doctor at that point.
I would argue it’s the only way. Can’t outrun the fork.
Do some resistance training to restrengthen your legs, and start building stamina through cycling (standing or outdoor). Cycling is great because it’s possible to go from extremely low intensity (barely faster than walking pace) to vomit intensity with no change in impact.
Hey, I run a lot, but in the mornings when I wake up I have the achilles tightness. I get up and the first thing I do is stretch out my calves and my hamstrings. Just bent over on the night stand, or leg up on a stool on the bathroom when I’m brushing my teeth. I’ll notice that crepitus in the achilles while going downstairs, but after I’ve kind of “warmed up” for the day, it’s all gone. As far as I can tell, the condition itself is basically the only harm done, and that it kinda is what it is.
The knees, I tend to be more careful of. Had some ITBS recently, and so would do some post run stretching focused on that area that was helpful.
I was probably about 20lbs heavier when I decided to get back into shape. I’m now “not overweight” (what a goal!), but still have issues with the achilles, and so I just kinda shrug, is what it is. I will say, when I started to get back into running I’d have the normal shin/knee pains, and getting fitted for shoes at a local running place, and ultimately going with their suggestion, which was a pair of shoes I never, ever would’ve bought before, was helpful with my stride and not feeling pain while running. I’ve since put probably close to 1000 miles on the shoes and need to get new ones, but that seems to constantly end up being a tomorrow thing.
This happened to me and I was under weight at the time. It did eventually go away, but I’m not risking another couple years of painfully stepping out of bed. Brisk walking is fine.
Started in my mid 30s. I was never good at it, but I started to enjoy it, when my knee started to act up. Doctor said it was because of an old issue from a motorcycle accident and I could either have surgery with just a 50% chance of success or drop running. As I was doing (amateurish)Triathlon training at the time, I dropped running and focused on cycling and swimming. I enjoy this very much now and even get decent progress. I’m approaching mid-40s now and I hope I can do it much longer still.
44 is the average age we start to fall apart rapidly, then again at 60. There are periods of rapid deterioration compared to the 50s or 70s.
It’s the same thing as a growth spurt in your teens, except tragic and with crunching from the knees.
I’m lucky, mine started at 40. And then I had my first kid. Great combo!
Yeah, I’m at that latter age and my knees have been going for a while. However it’s just now that I’m noticing that by using my knees less I’m losing muscle fast.
I’ve completed the spending part of lifting weights. Last summer I cleaned out my garage to turn into a gym, then over winter got some equipment. Now I need to assemble. …… then see if I can develop the habit to actually lift
Thanks bro. Seriously
This arguably applies to a lot of adult ages. When you’re in your 20s, a lot of that is also true. Some of your friend group look like like they’d reminisce about The War, whereas the others appear younger than the iPhone 3G.
