So many middle aged Irishmen have let themselves go

Can you imagine the impact and consequences if someone had posted a thread titled…, ‘middle aged Irish women letting themselves go’….

misogyny or misandry, two sides of the sane coin surely 👀

We have it here too, no doubt but England is certainly further down the road.

About twenty years ago the last time I took a package holiday to Lanzarote you could not ignore the difference in physical appearance between the queues for north European flights and our flight back to Dublin. Nearly everyone in the north European queue was svelte, with lots of what appeared to be multi general families.

Now that flight to Dublin is not representative of all Ireland as I remember most of the adults were roaring drunk at the hotel bar everynight when we came back from sightseeing each day, but it was depressing to see two such contrasting queues and I was on the one full of people complaining about needing a smoke.

There’s also been plenty of threads over the years on Karen’s etc. You’d think from reading some of the posts here that the white middle-aged dude who lives in one of the wealthiest countries in the world is somehow the most downtrodden minority that has ever existed.

Do a search, plenty of these types of threads about Irish women on boards.

I totally agree, it's certainly not representative of the whole country, it's probably more a reflection of the package rather the destination. Although I think the queue next to us to north europe was also a charter flight for a package company.

It was in schools being off time and both had families with kids, but the manner and tone between the was very different. The other queue was calm and relaxed, our queue was restless and the kids hyper.

I had been on package holidays out of Ireland in previous years and it never felt as bad, but we were in the bertie bubble era.

Sometimes people who are judged to have let themselves go are just happy in life

Half the cnts here complaining are probably the type that jog on the spot at red traffic lights

The Podcast sphere - depending on how much stock you put in the PHDs who appear on those kind of shows - have recently been pushing back a lot on that notion that you need to be much more careful and scale back as you get older. Peter Attia, Andrew Hubermann, Gary Brecka, Paul Saladino, Gabrielle Lyon spring to mind just from recent memory but loads more all are saying similar.

Now of course what they are not saying is that old age slow down and acquired delicacy is a myth. So when I say they are pushing back I do not mean they are saying the notion is outright wrong or anything like that.

But there is - if I may paraphrase their collective messaging - a certain self fulfilling prophecy to it too. If we see our age as indicative that we should be scaling back our efforts and we therefore start to lose muscle mass and energy and endurance and flexibility and so forth - then those loses can lead to burn out and injury and falls and so forth in our old age. In fact according to some there is no bigger predictor in comparing longevity to age related issues and injuries than muscle mass. And a lot of men will credit the loss of testosterone with age as part of the issue but if you let muscle mass decline then that too is a predictor of loss of testosterone. So again the prediction of such loses leads people to do the very thing that causes such loses.

One of them, Brecka I think, defines aging with his tongue in his cheek as "The aggressive pursuit of comfort". Partially joking as I think he is - I think his point is that our perception of age can lead us to pursue the very things that might in fact be accelerating our aging.

It's all outside my pay grade so I do not mean to vicariously defend their positions so much as just to just mention they are out there. I can but speak for myself and so far (age 45) I am stronger, faster, more flexible, mentally and sexually more active, more capable, winning more medals and more full of general energy and motivation than any other point in my life and all of these things still seem to be on an upward curve rather than level or downward. And my testosterone and other blood panel results are better now than when I was 25 or 35.

Happy to let that continue as long as I can and whatever ultimately causes me to finally start slowing down - it wont be merely contemplating what year it is I hope! I love seeing the 80 year olds who are running marathons or breaking their pull up bar personal records or competing in Jujitsu or climbing mountains and so forth. More power to them :)

We all need to be careful of "overdoing it" you are right. Whether you are 5, 55, or 85. But it also pays to be careful deciding what "over doing it" means for us as an individual and ensure that we are basing that conclusion on much much more than notions we might have about what a 45 or 55 year old is meant to be capable of. I know 80 year olds doing things that would be "over doing it" for some 20 year olds :)

wait what's wrong with jogging on the stop at traffic lights? i just did this while waiting to run across the samuel beckett bridge on my lunchtime jog 😯

no i wear a knackered pair of asics with holes in them, need to change them actually

I think I do too much of a variety of things to be even able to "over do" any one of them. I guess if I was only doing one thing my obsessiveness would maybe lead me to overdoing it and injuring myself. But I do Jujitsu, Capoeira, Tai chi, Bo Staff, home gym, horse riding, archery with a heavy poundage, running, balance training, gardening and more. So I simply do not have the time for any one of those things to over do it before I go on to the next one.

Jujitsu, Capoeira and "knees over toes guy" stuff do help with flexibility. I do not play ball games very often. Hardly ever. I truly suck at any and all ball games. But my turns would be quite fast because of those three things feeding into them. If your turns are slowing and you have not already done so - check yourself out some Knees over toes guy :) Might just help.

As I said in an earlier post the main motivation for all my hobbies and health pursuits is also my depression and anxiety and low self esteem and self hatred. Most people who know me do not know I have these things. Because the way I live has basically buried it entirely. It will come back some day when I am too old to keep it buried any longer. So it is a war I will ultimately lose. But I fully intend to win every battle between then and now and keep it buried as long as I can. And right now I could not at all be happier I think. I can pratically feel the demons still in there dying to get out again. Especially if I slip in my discipline and routines. But they are not going to get me any time soon :)

Well, you certainly got rather vexed when others pointed out that using BMI to determine a healthy weight wasn't reliable, so I hope that helped.

This OAP isn't letting himself go

no, it is reliable, its just a bit of math, people seem a bit to thick to get that

I'll direct you to my first post on the subject

i'll leave you to your own vexation

we need some more pics before we can say if we'd tap that ass or not

Well apparently we’re all supposed to be wearing sunscreen, even in winter as sun damage is a major factor in aging skin.

the opening sentiment is probably explained by mother nature.We keep ourselves as good /attractive as possible during the procreation years and once they are past some people continue with their beauty regime and some say feck it ,why bother anymore.Neither is right,or wrong,just the way of the world.Doubt the numbers of those letting themselves go has increased,although I would think its mostly related to payback.If your a hunk and exercise /dieting keeps you a hunk you will probably keep it up,if you feel the payback is significant less for you with on going maintenance then chances are you will settle into that dad/Uncle BOD and focus your energies elsewhere.