The PR Nobody Talks About: "Just Maintaining" Fitness After 40

Alex: Welcome to Practically Fit, Real Fitness Over 40. I'm Alex.

Abbie: And I'm Abbie.

Alex: And today we're talking about how fitness goals change as you age.

Abbie: Absolutely. I think this is something a lot of us hit at some point — realizing that the fitness goals that used to drive us just don't fit anymore. Maybe we've outgrown them and need something more challenging, but more often, as we age, it's that they're no longer realistic for where we are in our life or our fitness journey. This is something Alex and I have been reflecting on lately — the goals that motivated us in our 20s and 30s just don't hit the same anymore. Honestly, for me, that used to feel like giving up, but it's not — it's growth. So today we're digging into how fitness goals naturally shift as we age, and how to stop measuring yourself against the goals of your 20-something self, and instead focus on what actually matters and makes sense for you right now. But first, let's get warmed up.

The Warm-Up: Magnesium for Sleep, and Racing in Briefs

Alex: All right, let's start with the warm-up. The first article we're reviewing comes from the venerable New York Times: "Is Magnesium the New Melatonin?" Abbie, do you know anything about this subject?

Abbie: No — I had actually been researching magnesium recently, in relation to my mom, as a possible supplement for her, but I hadn't heard about it in connection with sleep.

Alex: Yeah, it's all over the place. According to the article, quote, "Some on social media claim that it offers a deeper, more restorative rest than melatonin, minus the morning grogginess." It goes on to say that in 2025, according to NBJ — the Nutrition Business Journal — sales of sleep supplements containing magnesium increased by about 17%, while sales of melatonin-containing sleep supplements rose only about 5%. So magnesium is seeing a lot of growth in the supplement market here in the U.S. However, the article goes on: quote, "Little research has been done on whether the mineral helps with sleep," according to a doctor quoted in the piece, and, quote, "the studies that do exist are not high quality." Pretty interesting — I've seen this a lot on social media, people talking up magnesium, but according to this article, there may not be as much substance behind it as people are claiming, and maybe people's impressions are just colored by their own experience. The article goes on to say that in a 2022 review of nine studies on how magnesium influences sleep, researchers concluded that while some research showed a link between magnesium supplements and better sleep, randomized clinical trials — which can actually prove cause and effect — had more mixed results. Kelly Glazer Baron, director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the University of Utah, is quoted saying it could help with sleep because the mineral may, quote, "influence certain sleep-related neurotransmitters in the nervous system in ways that increase feelings of calmness and decrease muscle tension and restlessness" — but she also says it could just be a placebo effect. I saw this on social media, Abbie, so it must be true that magnesium helps me sleep.

Abbie: Yeah, of course — if like 15 influencers say it on TikTok, it's basically fact.

Alex: So, interestingly, I actually took a magnesium supplement before bed last night, and what was funny is I took it after having had a little bit of alcohol — some whiskey. We haven't been drinking much lately, but with Labor Day coming up, figured it was a good night for a couple of drinks. And I slept really well. The supplement I took is similar to a lot of the ones out there — it's got magnesium, some L-theanine, the amino acid, and ashwagandha, the herbal supplement. A lot of the general magnesium supplements I see out there have that same combination. Actually, I know you bought some random drink powder once called Calm, and when I looked at it, it's basically that same combination. Have you actually tried that powder, or is it just sitting on the counter?

Abbie: We both tried it — remember?

Alex: I don't. Did it work for you?

Abbie: I didn't notice anything significant.

Alex: Yeah, it's definitely not like melatonin when you take these — I've tried it off and on lately. I've also tried some of those Recess drinks, which don't have ashwagandha but do have magnesium. I generally feel relaxed after those, but it's not like melatonin, where you feel yourself starting to drift off quickly. So, an interesting discussion out there. Back to the article — there are different tips on the types of magnesium to take, since apparently there are different formulations. Quick chemistry lesson: there's magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, magnesium oxide, and magnesium chloride. This part cracked me up: quote, "Most people prefer magnesium glycinate or magnesium L-threonate for sleep," Dr. Baron said, "because they aren't as likely to cause the gastrointestinal side effects — like diarrhea, nausea, and cramping — that magnesium citrate and magnesium oxide can." One of the doctors quoted in the article also suggests that if you're having trouble sleeping, maybe see an actual doctor first, rather than just turning to whatever sleep aid you saw advertised on Facebook or Instagram — though he didn't put it quite that way, that's me editorializing. But I think we're all guilty of that from time to time — see something on social media and think, hey, let's try that.

Abbie: Well, there are other benefits to magnesium too, right? It's not traditionally a sleep aid — like I said, I was looking at it in relation to brain function, and it's really good for that.

Alex: Yeah. And I did sleep really well again last night, but now that we're talking about this on the podcast, my stomach wasn't so great this morning. Huh, interesting.

Abbie: We also had fajitas, so there could be a combo effect there — and you went for a run outside in the heat.

Alex: A lot of variables in play. I do have a sensitive stomach. So that's our first article for the warm-up. Abbie, want to take the second one?

Abbie: Sure. This one's from Outside — you ever heard of that one, Alex?

Alex: It used to be a magazine, but I think it's mostly an online publication now. It's good.

Abbie: Okay. The story title is "A Pro Told Her You Cannot Run Slow in Briefs. The 39-Year-Old Mom Wore Them to a 10K Anyway."

Alex: Yeah, I thought that was a fun title.

Abbie: So basically, this article is about amateur runners adopting the kind of kit you'd see on professionals — in this case, showing up to local races in running briefs, sometimes nicknamed "buns." The author decided to try them herself after seeing more women showing up to races in them. She writes: "The idea for this harebrained middle-aged-mom race-brief challenge came to me this April as I stood on the sidelines of the London Marathon and noticed even more women outside of the pro and even sub-elite field racing in this style. A symptom of the wider professionalization of amateur running, in which mid-pack marathoners are wearing $300 carbon-plated shoes, choking down bicarb, and recovering in ice baths, the wider adoption of the brief comes with its own physical and psychological effects that I was keen to unpack for myself." So that's her quote, not my own take on amateur running. Of course, a lot of apparel companies are making these for women now, capitalizing on the trend. I actually looked up whether there's a men's equivalent, and it seems like this really is more a phenomenon on the women's side — the search only turned up regular running underwear for men. I think it's genuinely interesting how amateur-level runners are adopting approaches from the pros, and I'm curious how long until we see this at local 5Ks, or showing up as a joke on one of Alex's favorite Reddit communities, r/RunningCirclejerk.

Alex: Yeah, I'll be keeping an eye out for this at our next local 5K or 10K. I hadn't really thought about this as part of the broader running-gear trend — we're all guilty of trying carbon-plated shoes at this point, those have really become common. We've got a couple pairs ourselves. Research does show those shoes make a slight difference, though how much of a difference for the average amateur runner, I honestly don't know.

Abbie: And I think it's also pace-specific — actually, that was a suggestion from a listener, that we do a future episode on carbon-plated shoes, so we'll definitely dig into that down the road. But I do think some of this is a bit like people who have lucky socks or a lucky pair of pants they wear before something big. Professional marathoner Erika Kemp is quoted in the article saying they make her feel fast — like it's time for an all-out effort, because it's not something she typically wears outside of race day, so it gives that race-day aura. I think that's a really good point — if you have something you specifically wear for race day, whether it's a particular outfit or a particular pair of shoes, there's a real psychological benefit to it, because you associate it with giving your all, and it can genuinely make you feel faster.

Alex: Yeah, I thought that quote was funny — "aura" — she sounds like the younger crowd, they talk about aura constantly. But yeah, apparently there is a real psychological benefit some people feel running in these briefs. Pretty interesting too, if you read the article — it gets into the history. These apparently came about in the '70s and '80s, and some U.S. women's Olympic track athletes were wearing them, which is when they really became popular at the professional level. So, Abbie, should I show up to our next 5K in a pair?

Abbie: No, because they're just for women, babe — there's a reason they're not made for men.

Alex: I'm going to search again and see if I can actually find some for men. Kidding.

Abbie: No, please don't.

Alex: There's no way anybody wants to see that.

Abbie: Yeah, we don't need some kind of inappropriate public display.

Alex: That's right, we will not be doing that at the next race. Anyway, fun article — that'll do it for today's warm-up.

Reflecting on Age Milestones and Motivation

Alex: All right, let's dive into our main topic: how fitness goals change as you age. Like Abbie mentioned up top, this is something we've both been thinking about a lot lately, based on our age milestones this year. Abbie, should we talk about our actual ages? I've thrown mine out there before.

Abbie: You never ask a woman her age.

Alex: Well, I know, but it's kind of central to the episode.

Abbie: We could just say: as we've gotten older, we're not our 20-year-old selves anymore.

Alex: Right. We both had big age milestones this year, and those tend to make you more reflective. For me, like I've mentioned in a previous episode, you start thinking about your own mortality a bit — is my life halfway over? But mostly I've been thinking about my fitness motivation. What's really been important for me, motivation-wise, is staying healthy, and a lot of that goes back to watching my dad growing up. He had cancer in the mid-'80s and beat it, then had a stroke in the early 2000s. I've inherited some of his health traits — high blood pressure, borderline cholesterol — and for me, exercise, along with a mild medication, has been really important for managing that. Previous doctors have told me that if I didn't exercise as much, I'd probably need more medication, kind of like my dad did. So that's been a big motivating factor. But another thing that motivates me, and I think we're similar here, is competing with myself. With running, that shows up as trying to improve my pace in 5Ks — I've been pretty consistent with my times in recent years, which I'm proud of. Over this past summer, I've also been working on my mile time again, maybe partly because of the age milestone — thinking back to how fast I could run a mile when I was younger. I like picking a target, whatever it is — a race distance, track repeats — and trying to exceed it. Same with strength training. In the past that meant increasing the weight I was lifting week after week, which is unfortunately how you sometimes end up injured. More recently it's been about harder calisthenics movements, like working toward a one-arm push-up, which Abbie can confirm has also left me pretty sore this past week.

Abbie: Yeah, maybe some of these challenges aren't the right ones, babe.

Alex: Yeah, well, that's just where I find my motivation. And turning 45 this year — there's my age milestone — I've really been reflecting on whether I should be more sensible about this. Should I look for motivation in maintaining my current fitness level, instead of constantly chasing new PRs and metrics? I think it's a really interesting question, and we wanted to unpack it today. Abbie, how have you been thinking about this in recent years?

Abbie: Yeah, I think that last point is really important — it's hard to beat your PRs from when you were 20 or 30, so is that even the right thing to be chasing? For me it's a little different, though — I wasn't a sporty kid, didn't play a lot of sports, and I definitely didn't run. That's not something I even started until my late 30s. So I've got a different benchmark for a lot of this.

Alex: Yeah, that totally makes sense. But I think to some extent you are competitive with yourself and with others — we've talked before about how we get a little competitive with each other sometimes. I think I've noticed that you do like to compete and improve against yourself, and I just think that gets harder as we get older.

Abbie: Yeah, I wasn't disagreeing with that — what I meant is I don't have PRs from when I was younger to compare against, the way you talk about your PR from your youth. I don't have one, so there's nothing for me to push against in that specific way. That's not the same as saying I'm not competitive with myself.

Alex: That actually brings up an interesting question for people in general — if you like competing against yourself, are you competing with your current self, or with a younger version of yourself? I think a lot of people face that. For me, maybe there aren't as many PRs left to chase, but with the mile time, in my head I go back to running a 5:45 mile at 15 years old, and now I ran a 6:30 this summer. That feels pretty good — only 45 seconds off. Even though I'm probably not going to beat that 5:45, it feels good to be that close to a time from when I was so much younger.

Abbie: Yeah, that's amazing, you should be proud of that — that's incredible.

Your Pace, Your Race

Alex: We're going to look more at running paces in a bit, as a proxy for how fitness changes over time. But let's talk about this more first — if you have this drive to keep improving, say, your running pace, do you think that can be counterproductive at this age?

Abbie: I think it really depends, and it's so nuanced — especially because a lot of people come to running later in life. That's why I think it's important to compare yourself to yourself, or to others in a similar situation, because you can go down a hole on social media seeing influencers running these incredible paces and start thinking everybody should be running a 5K, or even more dangerously a half marathon or marathon, at that level — which, if you're a newer runner, is totally unrealistic.

Alex: Yeah, that's a great point. I saw a social media post the other day, I think on Threads — one of those ridiculous posts with a long list, something like "here are the 10 things every man over 40" — might've been 50, I'd have to check — "should be able to do." Nine of the ten things seemed pretty reasonable to me, like, sure, if you can do that, you're in good shape. But one of them was running a mile under six minutes, and people were piling into the comments saying everything else on the list was reasonable except that one, which is pretty unrealistic for most people over 50.

Abbie: Yeah, and like I said, I think it's so important to contextualize a goal — to think about a way of challenging yourself that's safe and appropriate for you, where you're looking to improve without pushing yourself in an unhealthy way. For example, I used to pace a couple of local races, and one of my absolute favorite memories was pacing a half marathon in Paris, Texas — not to be confused with Paris, France, like that show on Netflix, very different. I was pacing the three-hour half marathon, so not the speediest group, but still a long time out there. For almost the whole race I had a guy running alongside me who'd been morbidly obese — his doctor had told him it was a real clinical emergency, and he'd started running about 18 months earlier as part of his weight-loss journey. Pacing him across that finish line is one of my favorite running memories ever — he was so unbelievably proud of himself, as he should have been, and as he crossed the line his kids ran up to him. It was a beautiful moment, and that was an incredibly hard goal for him. Nobody should take that away from anyone — your pace, your race, I really believe that matters. There are a couple of people I follow on Instagram who are genuinely fast runners themselves but are all about that message: whatever pace you're running, as long as it's right for you and challenging you, it doesn't matter if it's a 15-minute mile, a 12-minute mile, or a 6-minute mile — they're all miles. I remember hearing Paula Radcliffe talk about marathon finishers, and how much admiration she had for people crossing the line at six or seven hours, because she said something like, I'm out there for just over two hours and it kills me — I can't imagine being out there three times as long.

Alex: Yeah, I've seen a lot of people on Reddit talk about how running a marathon in six hours is extremely challenging, psychologically and physiologically — the stress on your body over that much time. That's interesting, actually, pulling on that thread — sometimes you meet people who say, "well, I'm not a runner anymore." Do you think people look back at how they ran in their teens, 20s, and 30s, realize they can't hit those numbers anymore, and just decide they're no longer a runner?

Abbie: I think they definitely do, but I'd really challenge that — if you're out there running, whatever your pace, you're a runner. I think of it a lot like leadership: people say "I'm not a leader," and, well, if you're out there managing people, inspiring people, influencing people, you are one. Same with running. I think there's this stat — 95% of the population isn't active, or whatever the real number is, I'm not great with stats — but whatever the actual majority is, just getting off the couch for 20 minutes is amazing, and you should be doing it. You're a runner at whatever pace you're running. That's actually one of the things I love about the running community — I think it's a genuinely inclusive one. I think social media has damaged that a bit, though, because whenever I've been at run clubs or actual races, there's celebration for everyone, at every pace. Social media can make people feel more isolated, like you're only a "real" runner at certain paces.

Alex: Right, and the influencers are only showing you their good runs.

Abbie: They're not showing how long it took them to get there, or that maybe they're in their 20s, when it's easier to build pace quickly even from scratch — that's very different as you get older. Even just being able to still run at all is something. I was actually reflecting on this yesterday — I had a really hard six-mile run because it was so hot and humid, and even though I was drenched in sweat and it felt hard at times, there was a moment where I thought, I'm so thankful I'm able to run at all. I wasn't able to run for six months after neck surgery, and I'd faced this idea in my mind that I might never be able to do something like that again. I was just really thankful for my body, that I'm able to move it the way I want to.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely. I think the moral of that story is: yes, some people are physiologically unable to run — joint problems in the knees or hips, that's a different situation — but don't just decide you're "not a runner anymore" simply because you can't hit the paces you did when you were younger. Like you said, being able to get out there and move matters. And if that's the only reason you've stopped, why not try it again? Get out there, keep moving — we're going to talk about why that matters here in a bit when we look at running paces. One last thing on this, though, from the perspective of a couple who both love fitness and working out together — when you're thinking about goal-setting as you age, do you find it helpful or frustrating to have a partner with different benchmarks than you?

Balancing Different Goals as a Couple

Abbie: I think you have to be really careful not to compete against your partner. Personally, I know I'm never going to run the pace you run, Alex. We also just aim for different things — I lean more toward distance in running. Even back when we were cycling, you loved hills and climbing, and I liked speed and flat distance. So it's not the same thing at all. I think it's genuinely helpful to have a partner who's also into fitness — it's something I actually looked for in a partner, someone who liked being active outdoors. But you have to be careful not to adopt the other person's goals, or measure yourself against them.

Alex: Yeah, we talked about that back on the first episode of this season, so go check that out if you haven't. I think this past weekend was a good example — you're starting to train for a half marathon again, and I'm working on speed work. Honestly, the past several weeks I've really enjoyed just going out and running at whatever pace my body wants that day — I haven't been following a plan, I've been chatting with Claude about my running and it makes suggestions, but I don't necessarily follow them. Yesterday you went out and did that six-mile run in the heat, and I went out and did three miles at a tempo pace — we didn't even run the same route. But just the fact that we're both out there at the same time is motivating. I think lately we've found a good balance, having recognized our goals don't always converge.

Abbie: Yeah, absolutely, and I think you learn about yourself through whatever sport you do. I like running with other people socially sometimes — it's nice being out on the trails with Alex — but honestly, I think I enjoy running by myself the most, just because it's easier to focus in on myself and my own goals without getting distracted. Though I'll say, when I was younger and in the run club, it was actually helpful running with people faster than me, because it pushed me beyond my comfort zone. I wasn't following any plan back then, though. Now, with a plan, the plan itself is what pushes me toward the paces I'm working on. And I love running so much partly because it's a bit of a meditative state for me, so being by myself helps with that.

Alex: Yeah, we've really leaned into that lately, and I think it's been great.

The Data: How Running Paces Change With Age

Abbie: I think this has been a great discussion. As we were talking about doing this episode, we thought it'd be interesting to look at how key fitness benchmarks actually change as you age. So for this, we looked at running paces and how those shift over a lifetime, since it's an easy proxy for cardiovascular fitness. We'll also look at strength, since that's an important health and longevity indicator too. But let's start with running. We found average 5K paces for men and women runners across their lifespan — we picked the 5K distance because it's accessible and pretty reasonable for most people to actually run. I both love and hate the 5K, honestly, because you have to go out and run pretty fast right from the start — you don't get to build into it the way you would in a half marathon.

Alex: Yeah, people joke that 5Ks are easy, and sure, a 5K can be easy if you just jog it at a relaxed pace. Marathons and half marathons are very challenging in their own way, but 5Ks are challenging differently — I always find that last mile especially tough, and it's how I know whether I'm having a good day or not. If I'm able to accelerate in that last mile, it was a good day; if not, it's a massive mental battle. So yeah, we thought it'd be a good benchmark distance.

Abbie: The table we used comes from a site called runninglevel.com, so shout-out to them — easy to look up yourself. We had Claude look at the data and pull out some insights on how paces change over time, and it's genuinely fascinating stuff. The times are divided into categories: beginner runners sit at the 5th percentile, meaning faster than 5% of runners, and a beginner is defined as someone who's run for at least one month. Novice is faster than 20% of runners, run regularly for at least six months. Intermediate sits at the 50th percentile, run regularly for at least two years. Advanced is faster than 80% of runners, running for over five years. And elite is faster than 95% of runners, competing at a dedicated level for at least five years. So, Alex, what were the key takeaways looking at how people's 5K paces shift with age?

Alex: Thanks, Abbie, and thanks for that breakdown from runninglevel.com — again, worth checking out yourself. For this, we had Claude analyze the intermediate times specifically, since that's the good middle benchmark — faster than about 50% of runners, run regularly for at least two years. Let's start with peak. Your peak intermediate 5K pace, for both men and women, sits in your 20s and 30s — both show essentially zero decline between ages 20 and 30. Men at peak average about 7:15 per mile on a 5K, and that holds flat across the entire decade, which I consider genuinely fast — if you're running that pace as an intermediate runner, you should be proud, you're beating half the field. Women at peak during that same window average about 8:24 per mile, and that barely changes through age 40 — women actually show a bit more resilience through their 30s, clocking in at 8:38 per mile at 40, only 14 seconds slower than peak. For men, the first real step down comes at 40, dropping to an average of 7:38 per mile, about 23 seconds slower than peak. By 50, men are at 8:15 per mile — so across that whole decade of the 40s, roughly 37 seconds per mile lost. For women, the bigger drop comes in their 40s — by 50 they're at 9:24 per mile, about 46 seconds lost over that decade. After that, it's a gradual slope for both through age 70 — men lose roughly 18 to 30 additional seconds per mile every five years, and women follow a similar pattern. Real, but manageable. Then at 70, you hit more of a cliff. Men average about 9:50 per mile at 70, which I think is still quite good, 10:34 at 75, 11:42 at 80, and 13:28 at 85 — and I hope I'm running a 13:28 mile when I turn 85, that would be amazing. For women: 12:00 per mile at 70, 12:55 at 75, 13:59 at 80, and 15:45 at 85. Going back to our earlier discussion — if you're hitting those times in your 80s, you are absolutely still a runner. It's awesome.

Abbie: Absolutely — just being out running in your 70s at all is pretty amazing.

Alex: Abbie, I know that's a lot of numbers to digest, but how does this track against what you've seen in your own paces over the years?

Abbie: It's really interesting — like I said, I didn't run in my 20s or 30s, so there's nothing to compare against from back then. I started running in my 30s, after having my kids, as a way to get back into fitness. Before that I'd done a lot of hiking, and I'd been a horse rider, but I had to give up my horses — it was just impossible to manage everything at once with kids. My very first 5K, I think, was around 38 minutes, but that was only about three months after my eldest was born, so it was a very gentle effort. My PR was around an 8:35 mile at a race when I was about 40 or 41 — which actually isn't far off from that 8:38 average for women at 40, I was right in that range. And last year I hit an 8:55.

Alex: Nice. It's interesting looking at these numbers — my best 5K was back in 2019, seven years ago now, when I was 38, and my average pace was 7:36 per mile, basically dead on the intermediate average for men. But last year I ran one at 7:42 per mile, and one earlier this year at 7:43, both good performances. So honestly, I feel pretty motivated by this data — I feel like I'm holding up well against the averages. Strava, for whatever reason, thinks I can run a 7:12-per-mile 5K right now, so maybe I'll have a great race this fall once it cools off, since heat is such a big variable for us down here. I like comparing races I ran when temperatures were lower, since in Texas the weather has such a big impact. So this data was really motivating for me, and honestly it makes me feel good about some of the training changes I've made over the years — more intervals and tempo work, leveraging apps and training plans, but also sometimes just running for fun. I think it's helped me hold onto my speed over the past decade.

Abbie: Yeah, same for me — looking at this, I'm actually really proud of myself. My absolute fastest 5K was around 8:25 in my early 40s, but that wasn't a race, just a run in the neighborhood, and I'm a bit of a stickler about only counting PRs from actual races. Like I said, I ran an 8:55 last November — and I was 50 at the time, since Alex apparently wants to broadcast my age on this podcast — but you should be proud of that. The women's intermediate benchmark is 9:24, so I was a full 30 seconds faster than that. I'm really proud of it.

Alex: Yeah, I think looking at this data should be encouraging for everyone, whether you're already active or trying to get back into it, or starting for the first time — even in your 40s or 50s, you're typically only a minute-fifty to two-and-a-half minutes slower over a full decade compared to your peak. That's still really solid, and if you stay active, it's only a modest decline even through 70 — the real steep decline is still 20 or 30 years away.

Abbie: This reminds me of a conversation I had with a running friend once, where we joked that if we just held this pace, by the time we're 70 we'd be able to Boston-qualify.

Alex: I've had a very similar conversation with someone recently — "if we just maintain this, we'll be great." Hopefully this is motivating for people to get out there and keep training. I think the data really makes a strong case for consistent training as a way to stay on the gradual part of the curve longer — and if you weren't doing this in your 20s or early 30s, you can still improve from here. It's also interesting that even elite world-record times, by age group, follow the same kind of curve — elite athletes experience the same basic progression, just from a much higher starting point. I've even read about people picking up running later in life — I think it was a Spanish runner who didn't start running competitively until his 70s or 80s and ended up setting massive age-group world records; it turns out he has one of the highest VO2 maxes ever recorded, and he didn't even discover that until he was 80. So you can always improve, but I think the real takeaway for everyday runners like us is: run against your own age group, not your 25-year-old self. If you can stay in that intermediate class through your 60s or 70s, that's genuinely impressive, and a great goal to focus on. I found this really encouraging, and it may help me reframe my own training going forward.

Abbie: I'd also add — try not to attach too much value to the category itself. You don't have to be in the intermediate group. If you're newer to running, or coming back from something — like when I was coming back from my injury, I had to be really careful not to compare myself to where I was before, since I needed to rebuild fitness, and I was also just older. I still think just getting out there can be a goal in itself — I'm going to exercise three or four times this week, especially during what's likely the busiest season of your life, your 40s and 50s. I think sometimes we need to give ourselves a break too.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely — and I say this knowing I'm very competitive with myself by nature, but I agree 100%, that can be a great goal. And if you're new to running, just look at the beginner benchmarks, and if you do want something to be a bit more competitive against, compare yourself to that instead.

Abbie: Yeah, exactly.

The Data: How Strength Changes With Age

Alex: Well, Abbie, what about strength as you age? We talked about muscle loss on a previous episode — what do actual strength benchmarks look like over time?

Abbie: We found a study for this one, published in the Muscles, Ligaments and Tendons Journal — great one to subscribe to if you want a very specific journal — titled "Strength and Muscle Mass Loss with the Aging Process." Very straightforward title, for a very straightforward journal.

Alex: Yeah, that's what I liked about it — I didn't have to do a lot of interpreting. The study itself was complicated, but they just tell you exactly what it's about, no cute, overly clever title like you see with some studies.

Abbie: Yeah, exactly. The study includes a thorough literature review of what other research has found on the subject — the paper covers six major studies, and they tell a pretty consistent story with one key split point: age 70. From 50 to 70, strength loss runs at roughly 1.5% to 2.5% per year. After 70, that roughly doubles, to 3% or more per year. One study even found strength loss as high as 3.6% to 5% per year in people already in their late 50s at the study's start. The lifetime picture from another study is pretty stark — between ages 20 and 80, you can expect to lose 20% to 40% of your strength and 35% to 40% of your muscle mass, and that's just from normal aging, before accounting for any disease. The consistent theme across the studies is that the 30-to-50 window shows relatively small changes, and the rate of loss accelerates meaningfully after 50 — mirroring a lot of what we saw in the running data. I think that's especially interesting for us, because their own study specifically looked at before and after age 40, and gave some pretty stark statistics on how muscle loss accelerates. It really reinforces something we've talked about before, Alex — how important strength training is for maintaining muscle mass.

Alex: Yeah, one of my takeaways is that if you're already a trained person who's done strength work for years, you can still make improvements up through about age 50 — but past that, shifting into more of a maintenance mindset may really matter. What's also interesting is that if you haven't trained at all, you can still make big gains even in your 50s and 60s, so it's never too late to start. There's a real distinction between trained and untrained people here. But for me, the big takeaway was: around 50, just focusing on maintaining puts you in a pretty good spot as you age.

Abbie: Yeah, and I think it's important to think about that alongside the fact that you may face health conditions as you age — using this healthier window of time now to build up a buffer against those future challenges.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely. So that was all from the literature review portion of the study, which I really liked. Then they ran their own study, which was almost perfect for this episode, since it specifically compared strength before and after 40. They compared two groups — under 40, with a median age of 31, and 40-plus, with a median age of 54 — 26 people total, all matched on height, weight, and body mass index, so any differences would be attributable to age. Solid study design. They measured isometric leg strength using a dynamometer — I honestly didn't look up exactly what that is beforehand, but I'd guess it's specialized equipment that measures your exact strength at different joint angles.

Abbie: A dynamometer — I can barely say that word — is a device that measures force, torque, or mechanical power.

Alex: Yeah, basically what I said. What they found was that the under-40 group was significantly stronger at 60-degree knee flexion — the right leg showed a 37% strength decline between the two groups, and the left leg about a 25% decline, with strength loss ranging from roughly 16.6% to 40.9% across the two groups depending on the measure. That's a larger drop than the prior literature — the review we mentioned earlier — had predicted for that age range of 31 to 54. So the headline finding, really the researchers' own conclusion, is that the serious decline starts closer to 40, not 50, as most prior studies suggested. Might need to revise my own assumptions here — they hypothesize the accelerated process actually kicks in right around age 40. So maybe thinking about a maintenance mindset starting at 40, not 50, is genuinely important. Abbie, we've learned there are some pretty defined drop-off points as you age, both in running and in strength. Knowing that 40 seems to be when the decline accelerates — does that change anything about how you train? Or is 40 just a number, as people like to say?

Abbie: Well, 40 is a number in the distant past for me at this point, so I'm not focused on that specifically. What's interesting is I wasn't strength training at 40 at all — so I think I'm actually right in that spot you mentioned, where I'm just focused on where I am now and what I can do now, rather than comparing myself to a past I don't really have a benchmark for.

Alex: Yeah, and you're making real gains, which points to the fact that even if you haven't done this before 40 or 50, you can still make progress. It's a bit different for me — I've been strength training pretty regularly since my early 20s, so I think I need more of that maintenance mindset at times. Even this week I hurt myself practicing one-arm push-ups. I don't think I'm going to completely stop chasing new challenges, because I do like that part of it, but I think I need to be more accepting that I'm not always going to see big improvements now that I'm over 45.

Abbie: Yeah, and I think sometimes you need to stop chasing these increasingly extreme challenges — that's a good point about maintaining and being careful, especially since we also can't recover from injuries as fast as we could when we were younger. You have to have some of that mindset around pushing and challenging yourself, but not in ways that ultimately aren't healthy for you.

Redefining "Getting Better": Consistency Over Speed

Alex: Yeah, so if you can't outrun the data — if you can't beat your old PRs or keep pushing into new territory — what are you actually chasing? What does "getting better" even mean now, if it can't always mean faster or stronger?

Abbie: For me, it's really shifted toward consistency — chasing consistency instead of chasing speed. One thing I've really focused on with running lately is having more balance across my training week. When I was younger and newer to running, I just ran the same pace all the time; now I'm much more deliberate about running my easy runs genuinely easy, and mixing in tempo runs, intervals, and hills, with real balance across the week. This past year, I've been focused on just getting back to being able to run a half marathon at all — and it's hard, because I ran Cowtown, a great local race in Fort Worth, years ago, and it's hard to get out of my head the pace and time I hit back then. But actually just celebrating the fact that I could still cover that distance — at that point I hadn't run a half marathon in about seven years — celebrating that I can still do that at 50, I think that's really important, putting yourself back in perspective. So for me right now, it means maintaining what I'm doing with running, and with strength training, since that's newer for me, it's really about finding what I actually enjoy. That's something you get with age — I'm allowed to decide I don't like a particular exercise and just not do it, because I'm in charge of me. When I was younger, I used to go to Zumba classes and absolutely hated them, but went anyway because I thought it was the best thing for my fitness. Now I do strength workouts I actually love, choosing exercises I enjoy, and I love seeing how that's showing up in my body.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely — and I'll add, you ran that half marathon despite genuinely brutal conditions outside. That was a real accomplishment.

Abbie: Yeah, absolutely. That's actually part of why I love half marathons — and we should do a whole episode on different race distances sometime — it's a real challenge, and I'd argue more mental than physical for that distance. It's really about whether your mind, as a muscle, can manage through it too. Alex, you've said before that you struggle with the whole idea of "maintenance." Has anything we've talked about today shifted that for you? Can maintenance ever feel like enough for someone as competitive as you?

Can Maintenance Ever Feel Like Enough?

Alex: Yeah, I mentioned this earlier — I think this really could help me reframe how I think about all this as I age, and hopefully it helps some of our listeners too. If you think about maintenance as competing with your current self, then — since I'm a pretty numbers-oriented person when it comes to fitness goals — if I look at those intermediate running benchmarks and I'm able to maintain my current pace, in a way I'm still being competitive, still beating out some of those average numbers in future years just by holding steady. So for the way my mind works, being very goal-oriented, maintenance actually can feel like enough. It's really just a reframe — not measuring against my 25- or 35-year-old self, but focusing on the here and now, and recognizing that doing well for my age is genuinely worth something. Now, thinking about that 70-plus cliff we talked about in the data — does that make things feel more urgent, like "I've really got to get on this"? Or is it actually freeing, in the sense that we're already doing pretty well and in a good spot as we age?

Abbie: I really believe you should think about the future but live in the present. So yes, that 70-year cliff is out there ahead, but who knows what life will actually look like by then. I think you should focus on now, and honestly it was really reassuring to see where we stack up against those numbers today. We already prioritize fitness and health for ourselves, so I don't think we should put undue extra pressure on ourselves on top of that.

Alex: Yeah. Do you think the goal of "I still want to be doing this at 75" is actually a more ambitious goal than chasing a new PR?

Abbie: Yeah, I think that's an incredible goal. At one of our recent races, wasn't there someone in the field who was like 90? I remember thinking, oh my god, I'm honestly not sure I want to be running at 90 — I think by then I'd be pretty happy with a gentle stroll. But if the goal is "I still want to be running, or moving my body however I choose, at 75," that's a huge goal.

Alex: Yeah, I'll say, despite everything we've talked about today, this has genuinely been helpful for how I'm thinking about this — because turning 45 has been one of those milestones, kind of like turning 30 was for me, honestly. Forty didn't bother me much, but 45 has made me pretty reflective this year. That said, I still want to try for a PR this fall in a 5K — I think I do struggle to let that go.

Abbie: You really do struggle to let that go. And I think you really struggled with it in the last three races we did — you got frustrated about not PRing, and I kept pointing out you were comparing totally different race conditions. Like, one race was in cool weather, and you were still getting frustrated when you dropped off by three or four seconds in a race that was way harder, in much worse conditions. I think you need to be kinder to yourself about that — like that last 5K we did in June, right?

Alex: Oh, yeah.

Abbie: That one was brutal.

Alex: Yeah, that was one where, like we talked about earlier, I didn't have that burst at the end — I actually slowed myself down on purpose. I was dying by the last stretch, saw people walking, and thought, you know, it's fine if I slow down here, I'm still doing okay overall.

Abbie: Yeah, in my head for that one, my only goal was to run the whole thing without stopping to walk, and just get across the line. I still ended up in the nine-something range — I think mine was around a 9:15 or 9:20, which I was really proud of, given how hot and humid it was. Like you said, people were dropping like flies, and the last stretch even had a slight incline, which is always fun.

Alex: Yeah, based on the data we looked at today, I'd say that was a genuinely great performance, even in that heat.

Wrap-Up

Abbie: It was. Well, that's it for today's episode — if it's made you reflect on, or think differently about, your own future goals, like hopefully it has for Alex, we'd love to hear about it, so please feel free to reach out and share.

Alex: That's right, you can reach us at alex@practically.fit, or head over to practically.fit — if you register on the site, you can leave a comment on the episode. If this was your first time listening, make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcast platform so you don't miss what's next, and if you've got a minute, a quick rating or review helps other people over 40 find the show. So, Abbie, we're going to take a week off after this one, but we'll be back in two weeks — what's on deck for the next episode?

Abbie: Next time we're talking about fitness gear.

Alex: All right, what —

Abbie: What do we recommend, what could we not live without, and what have we regretted splurging on?

Alex: Yeah, there'll probably be some fun stories in that one, since some of us really love gear.

Abbie: And some of us love Amazon.

Alex: Yeah, that's both of us, honestly.

Abbie: Well, in the meantime, we hope you take what works for you from today's episode, and leave what doesn't. And remember, when it comes to fitness, you don't have to be perfect — you just have to be practical. We'll see you next time on Practically Fit.

Alex: Catch you on the next one.