These days a person’s age is irrelevant and this is valid for both men and women. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You can feel strong and look great no matter what age you are as long as you exercise, keep a positive attitude in life and eat healthy, or as healthy as you can. Also you shouldn’t judge yourself on how others or someone else looks like. Aim to be the best you can be based on your age and body type.
These days due to proper training and better nutrition you see many athletes able to extend their careers into their mid to late thirties and some even into their early forties. That is quite an accomplishment considering that sports take a lot of dedication and commitment. Good genes do also play a part in this but proper training and nutrition are even more vital to their success and longevity.
There are also a lot of people who hit their thirties and once they do, they are overweight and their body is falling apart, unhealthy. There is no reason for this to happen. Your body is just like a machine or a car. If you don’t take care of it, it will fall apart. Feed it the wrong food, it will break down.
I am currently 56 years old yet I feel like I am 25 and people tell me that I look much younger. My secret is to eat healthy and to get lots of exercise and to continue to weight train hard. I believe in what I have termed High Intensity Weight Training. I used to think in my twenties and thirties that as I got older particularly when I reached my forties I would slow down in the amount of weight that I could possibly lift. I thought that the strength would not be there as I got over 40 but this I now know is entirely false and untrue. Every year for the last 10 years (throughout my forties) I have been able to progressively lift a little heavier safely and without any soreness, aches and pains as long as I stretch in between my sets and leave some time for my body to rest and recover, to recuperate. Now I wonder how much heavier I can go before I have to slow down a bit or retreat a bit. Currently, I don’t see that happening for a long time. Regardless, as long as my body tells me I am strong, I will continue to push myself hard.
The reasons why I can continue at this exercise pace has a lot to do with age itself, as you grow older you become more knowledgeable, you gain more experience. Weight training or any exercise has a lot to do with proper mental focus, proper breathing and proper stretching techniques (in-between sets and as a cool-down). It is not deal purely with brute force. It has been shown that pound for pound smaller people are able to lift more, the economic idea of diminishing returns can be applied here. Also, understanding your body and getting more knowledge about how it functions you actually obtain as you get older and gain more experience.
The same holds true for women. If you take care of yourself, you will look and feel the best you can no matter what your age or body type. Take for example Tiara Cameron, she is in her early forties. She managed to transform her life and now she is a 40+ year old fitness model and an author and a mom with 3 children. At one time she was overweight and unhappy with her body until she transformed herself and now she looks absolutely amazing.
Similarly, several years ago I was reading a book on yoga called Yoga Turns Back the Clock by Glenda Twining. It's always good to diversity, educate oneself and look beyond into different fields of interest plus I have always used some of the techniques and philosophy in Yoga in my weight training workouts. Anyway, when she wrote this book she was 50 and let me tell you, she does not look 50 at all! Unlike celebrities who turn to surgery, make-up and creams she attributes her youthfulness to Yoga. You can read more about her book and her here.
To conclude, in this day and age, it does not matter how old you are. The only thing that matters is how you feel and how you look in your own eyes. This can all be accomplished through exercise and a healthy diet in life, basically through lifestyle changes.