Some effort and some planning is required to attain the level of fitness we need, but most people spend more time and effort toward other objectives much less important.
With the adult, there is always the question of “what can I accomplish at my age?” Many people have the idea that when the age of twenty-five or so has been reached, the body is going to deteriorate steadily until it fails completely, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is correct that during the growing years of six to twenty the body will respond most completely to muscle training, yet in the years above twenty it will also respond. As long as there is life in the body there is some degree of adaptability to stimuli or stress. It has been our experience that the man or woman can improve the physical condition to any objective desired up to the age of forty-five years or so.Some individuals will respond as well in the late forties and fifties as in earlier years.
From fifty to sixty years of age most people can reasonably expect to have their capacities for effort increased at least from 50 to 100 per cent and can make remarkable improvement in body mechanics as well.
In later years there comes a time, of course, when it is not possible for the body to improve further and we are happy to maintain as high a fitness level as possible. It is the personal opinion of the writer that most of us could be better physically at seventy years of age than most people are now at the age of forty. The state of fitness we will enjoy at the later years does not depend upon what we do in those years so much as on what we do before those years are reached.
In other words, the state of physical fitness we will have five years from now depends on what we do until that time, not what we do at that time!
Let’s not forget another important point to consider: muscle and nutrition