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Model-turned-actor Milind Soman has been around for so long, and if not for shades of grey in his hair it would be tough to guess his age. Soman is touching 50 and although he admits that he isn't too much of a "gym person" any longer, he still has an athletic and fit body. "There's no age as such for keeping fit, or for that matter, for body building. If you are up for it, then you will do it." Soman is in the glamour world where he needs to look good, but there are many others who are taking up body building after the age of 50 even if they are not in showbiz.
Mumbai-based sailor, Christopher Verma, is in his mid-50s but says that his body is that of a 30-year-old. Verma says that building muscles is about mind over matter. "It's about setting challenges and overcoming them," he says. He weighed 86 kg in May 2013, but in the last three months he is down to 73 kg. "For me fitness or body building, whatever you want to call it, is 15 per cent workout, 5 per cent genetics and 80 per cent diet," he says. Verma goes to Talwalkar's gym in Bandra seven days a week and never misses a workout session. He is planning to enter the Mr Universe Masters contest; so he is training doubly hard - two hours in the morning and another one-and-a-half hours in the evening. "It does tire me but it has become a passion for me." Verma's beefed-up body could give any 20-something a complex and he has achieved it after working hard over the last 12 months.
Mustafa Ahmed, a Mumbai-based personal trainer who has worked at renowned gym chains like Fitness First, says that it's heartening to see people not caring about age. "For that age group, the challenge is to get them mentally fit more than physically fit," says Ahmed. People above the age of 50 see youngsters sweating it out and sometimes get discouraged and demotivated. That's something which Umesh Matkari, a former income-tax officer, experienced. "Initially, I was skeptical and used to feel that people would think 'Hero ban ne aaya hai at this age'. But I realised that it wasn't about what others thought of me," he says.
Matkari is 49 and does weight training six days a week. "I don't do heavy-duty weights. Instead it's more repetitions," he says. While he was actively into fitness in his 20s, it was only six years ago that he gave it another go."I don't want to enter any competition, just remain strong and athletic," says the man who took voluntary retirement from a government job. Repetitions is something Verma stresses too. "There's no point doing 120-kg bench press just to prove a point. Do more repetitions and be comfortable with the weights," he advises. Matkari has added about eight kilos of muscle in the last 15 months and is now comfortable with his body.
Sharanjeet Singh, a member at Gold's Gym in Delhi, was never into body culture until well into his 40s. A back injury meant that he was bed-ridden for six weeks and put on a lot of weight. He enrolled in a gym and realised that body- building could be therapeutic. "It is fun, challenging and something which makes you feel good about yourself," says the 52-year-old Delhi businessman.
Verma is intensely into body- building whereas for someone like Matkari three days of weight training is enough. The other three days he concentrates on cardio and spinning. He also tried his hand at aerobics but now swears by spinning as the ideal way to keep his fitness levels up.
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However, after a certain age, body-building has to be approached with caution. "The metabolic rate of older people is slower than that of a teenager or someone in his 20s. So you have to be extremely careful with diet so as not to end up putting on fat instead of muscle," says Ahmed. It's more difficult for people who have never been to a gym but begin weight training in their 50s. Santosh, a former Mr Maharashtra and now a trainer at Talwalkar's gym in Thane, says that sometimes over-confidence leads to disasters. "With older people you have to be extra cautious as every movement causes pain. So the idea is to start with weights with which they are comfortable," he says.On an average, Santosh sees three-four 50-plus members coming and enrolling into the gym. Most of them, however, start off with great enthusiasm but it peters out after a few weeks. "Discipline is the key, no matter how old are you. We've seen that motivation levels do drop among our older members," he says.
Ahmed doesn't prescribe power movements like squats and dead lifts to people of a certain age. "I would rather ask them to get over the complex which they feel after going to the gym for the first time." Verma adds that there is no gain without pain. "I do feel the aches but then anyone who wants to have a fit body has to go through it," he says. "Why question it just because I am in my 50s?" he asks.
At that age, people are also set in their dietary habits and trainers can't just put them on a high-protein regime, as required in body-building. "You can ask a 20-year-old to drastically change his diet but not after 50," says Santosh. Matkari, on the other hand, is extremely conscious of his diet as well as sleeping pattern. One gets tired easily and not enough sleep leads to lethargy. "For me skipping a day's gym work isn't a big deal but I make sure that I am at the gym every morning," says Matkari, who spends at least an hour everyday at the gym. Matkari, due to a shoulder injury had to miss out on six months of exercise, and since then is more cautious.
These days Soman is more into running than weights. "I think I did my time," he says with a smile. But for others like Verma, Singh and Matkar, it is time to make up for lost ground. "I want to live till 90 and want to work out till my last day," says Verma. That's almost half a decade of weight training still ahead.
DO'S AND DONt'S AT 50
* Don't be conscious of what others will think
* Make sure you get enough sleep
* Don't concentrate on lifting heavy weights. Focus on mere repetitions and less on weight
* Diet is extremely important and don't tamper with it too much in order to bulk up
* Injuries are more common after a certain age, so know your limits
