Our priorities change as we age – and our fitness can suffer as a result. By taking the time to assess what’s important as your life changes, you’ll keep your fitness goals relevant and achievable 

Why do you exercise?

It’s a question I’ve been thinking a lot about over the last year.  

Why?

Because I’m 39, my business is expanding, and in four months’ time I’ll become a father. In other words, my life is changing.

And there’s other stuff too. As well as work getting busier, my social life is still pretty hectic and I’ve noticed some extra weight around my stomach.  

All this has prompted me to ask a couple of questions:  

1. Should I be training more? After all, I own, manage and work in a gym – why is it difficult to find a suitable time to train?

1. Is putting weight on something that just happens when you get older and things get busier?

One thing I know is this: I need to stay fit. It won’t be long before I’m up all night looking after a tiny baby, and I don’t want to be an inactive father. Plus, I don’t want to look back at those photos of the early years and think, blimey, I looked exhausted! 

So, while it’s clear that I need to stay fit, the reasons why are changing.  

So here’s what else I’ve been thinking about: 

• Even though I’m still competitive, I can’t train as hard as I did in my 20’s or even my early 30’s.

• It now takes me longer to recover if I overreach in my training. Plus I don’t have time to wake up feeling sore and sluggish, I have more important things to do.

• I need to find the best way to get the results I want even when my life is very busy.

• My fitness should aid me. It should give me more energy and the vigour to support other areas in my life. So that if I want to do a charity bike ride or step in to play rugby at short notice, I still can.

• I need to work out the most successful way to stick to my goals

• Is it selfish to want to stay fit and healthy as I move into this new area of my life?

If any of these thoughts strike a chord with you, then keep reading. 

It's taken me some time to really get my head around all this and I’ve realised that I need to change my mindset. 

So to look at all this in a positive way, and work out where fitness fits into my life today, I’ve drawn the following five conclusions:

1. My training needs to suit the person I am now, not the person I was 10 or even five years ago. This means being realistic about I can achieve and adjusting my goals accordingly.

2. I can still make time to train for an hour three times a week (and the extra weight is disappearing!).

3. Regular training helps me manage other areas of my life too: it gives me energy to work hard and socialise, and time to think about other stuff – like fatherhood.

4. Even though I’m a fitness coach I need accountability. I need my own coach to keep me in check.

5. Making time to exercise isn’t selfish, but I do need to communicate my schedule better and explain to those close to me why it’s important.

It’s taken me some time to boil my thinking down into these five conclusions, and accept this new approach to training, but it’s definitely been worth it – and I wish I’d done it sooner. 

In doing this mental exercise I’ve had to realise that, in order to be available as a loving partner, committed to my job, a good friend and a prepared (or at least semi-prepared!) father I simply can’t train as hard as I once did.

And, actually, that’s okay.