Later Bloomer

By the time most of us reach age 50, we assume our athletic glory days are over. Not so!

Studies show that even people in their 60s and 70s who begin weight training can develop the muscularity of the average 40-year-old. They improve cognitively also.

Most of the following books and memoirs focus on running. But all agree you can enjoy a surprising level of fitness in your fifties and beyond. You just need effort and consistency.

Can you reach Olympic caliber? Nope. But isn’t feeling your body revel in its glowing health gold enough?

Enjoy!

The Grace to Race by Sister Madonna Buder

Sister Madonna Buder is 80-years-old, has run more than 340 triathlons, and doesn’t know what all the fuss is about.

She once questioned whether it was proper for a nun to compete in races, but not anymore. “You don’t need to apologize for the gifts you’ve been given. Only apologize for not using them.”

In The Grace to Race, she shares the no-nonsense spirit and deep faith that inspired her extraordinary journey from a prominent St. Louis family to a Catholic Convent and finally to championship finish lines all over the world.

What Makes Olga Run? by Bruce Grierson

Olga Kotelko is a 95-year-old track and field wonder who competed in eleven sports. She held more than 30 world records and won more than 750 gold medals in her age category.

Olga didn’t find her talent for track and field until age 77. Several universities tested Olga to discover her secrets. The studies confirmed that something had slowed Olga’s aging process, yet they didn’t know what.

Her biographer Bruce Grierson think it’s obvious. What Makes Olga Run? Her spitfire attitude!

Older, Faster, Stronger: What Women Runners Can Teach Us All About Living Younger, Longer by Margaret Webb

Author Margaret Web is a former overweight smoker turned marathoner.

In Older, Faster, Stronger, she runs with elite older women, follows a high-performance training plan devised by experts, and examines research that shows how endurance training can stall aging.

Is there an evolutionary reason women can maintain endurance into advanced years? Webb immerses herself in these questions as she as she trains to see just how fast she can get after 50.

Second Wind: The Rise of the Ageless Athlete by Lee Bergquist

Second Wind profiles people from age 50 through 80 who bike, run, swim, ski, and lift weights, and who can perform at or near levels they achieved in their youth. A small number, however, didn’t even start until their fifties.

According to Dr. Nicholas DiNubile, “Second Wind reminds us of the vast potential of the human body even as it ages, and that the clock can indeed be turned back.”

The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner

National Geographic Explorer Dan Buettner reports on health, fitness, diet, and aging, drawing on his research from extraordinarily long-lived communities—Blue Zones—around the globe.

He visits small towns and villages in Greece, Sardinia, Costa Rica, Japan, and California to see what their elders eat and how they “exercise.”

More often than not, they’re walking, climbing, fishing, and farming in the same way they have for decades! He concludes, not surprisingly, it’s all about real food and daily activity.