ah to be 24 again
It's not exclusive to older people (teenagers can do it too but it's not recommended)
It's called "having a baby".
My daughter weights 28 Ibs now and I have to lift her a couple dozen times a day. My upper body has definitely improved.
But seriously, I've found staying fit is MUCH harder than it was 5 years ago but still possible. The hardest part is finding the time. I don't know many 30-somethings (especially in tech) that can work out for a half hour uninterrupted, nevermind an hour.
Sounds like a major lifestyle problem that needs to be solved before considering embarking on a fitness program. If you can't find a half-hour for a leisurely self-improvement activity, consider focusing really hard on making that change first.
If you don't have a kid, finding an hour to yourself every day should be no problem. If it is - consider improving your time management or just working less.
I'm only now starting to have a chance to go to the gym regularly again and am praying nothing changes!
I work full-time in tech, have a wife, two kids, two dogs, and work on my book [1] writing every single day. I still definitely have 30 minutes of free time every day to work out.
What I don't have as much of is will-power/discipline/execute function whatever you want to call it. I workout twice a week and run once a week and with that on top of working and writing I really do feel like I'm at the limit of what I'm able to motivate myself to do.
If I wasn't writing a book, exercising even more would be pretty easy.
Try tracking how much time you spend staring at your phone and/or the Internet. Cut that and you'll be very surprised how much long the day gets.
I didn't say I couldn't find an hour just that most people in their 30s I know in tech can't.
You also lowered the requirement from the hour the author and I said to a half hour. Keep in mind too unless you want to sit in sweat all day that hour does not include changing cloths and showering.
I also didn't say "ever" I said "reliably" and "uninterrupted" which are key qualifiers. One work out day where you have to spend two hours at the doctor's office and there goes you're whole routine.
Edit: autocorrect changed sweat to suite for some weird reason.
I think most people can. What's harder is summoning the willpower to use that hour effectively.
The focus on willpower is almost inherently demoralizing and absolutely not the best strategy. You should focus on building habits, even one at a time, so that you can let the habits take over without expending much in the way of willpower.
The building of habits is what takes energy, but once they've been built, they almost run on autopilot.
And on a different note, there's a difference between exercise and training. Training for a goal can be a much more productive use of your time and will probably get you better results in terms of fitness and body composition depending on the goal chosen.
> There's a famous story about a greek wrestler, back in the 6th century BC – Milo of Croton. He'd train by lifting up and carry around a newborn calf. Every day he continued doing so and as the calf grew into a bull, so did he. This is linear progression.
To give you another data point, I've started a similar exercise routine around 27 and have kept it up until ~29, and while it has gotten harder to maintain the same weights, I still feel great.
Certainly better than my younger self that did no exercise at all and led a completely sedentary lifestyle.
It follows the tree quote: the best time to start exercising was "x" years ago, the 2nd best time is now.
ETA: It can also certainly hurt too.