Comment by nonameiguess
3 years ago
This can be quite difficult to sustain over the long run for a variety of reasons. First, these kinds of hobbies are quite time-consuming. Going mountain biking or outdoor rock climbing is likely to consume an entire weekend at least every time you do it. It's difficult to just do an hour a day every day. Second, you need consistent access to the places where it can be done. Live in Los Angeles? Great, you can surf, ski, climb Joshua Tree, thru-hike the Pacific Crest trail, mountain bike in the San Gabriels, all within an hour's drive. Live in Kansas City, now what?
There's also long term wear and tear. I've been a very historically active person and did a lot of these things. Outdoor rock climbing, open water swimming, bicycling, thru hiking, summitting <18,000 ft mountains in one day. But I'm really not sure which of those things I can still do. I've got ten screws in my spine now. Carrying around a pack and getting stuck on a mountain is not good. Bicycling really hurts. I developed some kind of elbow bursitis that won't go away no matter what and 20 minutes on a rock wall and my arm is absolutely throbbing now, for days. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to stop it.
Lifting, on the other hand, gives you near infinite options to isolate single joints in arbitrary planes of motion, in a controlled and micro-loadable manner, which makes it possible to work pretty much anything safely and work around just about any injury. I'd like to still do open-water swimming, which I don't think would hurt me, but I no longer live near any swimmable bodies of water. But I still have a garage and can put weights in it.
I've been managing to sustain climbing for over 20 years, i can fit a couple hours in at an indoor climbing wall in the winter, or go to various locations outdoors, local and far, depending on available time... yes sometimes I do weekend trips, sometimes week trips, but when you love it, you are happy to spend more time doing it because it's fun, you don't consider it time lost, you consider it time well spent and return home refreshed, satisfied, not merely "exercised".
It's true not each possible activity is going to be convenient or practical to everyone, but there will be enough that intersect your life circumstances that you can find something... but I feel on average, most people here are going to benefit from trying something a bit more adventurous and getting out into nature, if only for the life experience. Weights is very convenient but doesn't give you any of that.
> There's also long term wear and tear. I've been a very historically active person and did a lot of these things. Outdoor rock climbing, open water swimming, bicycling, thru hiking, summitting <18,000 ft mountains in one day. But I'm really not sure which of those things I can still do.
This is a real concern, once you become passionate about such a sport it's quite easy to over do it (and I have), but I'd argue climbing is one of many viable long term sports provided you take care of yourself. There are lots of "silver crimpers" in the climbing world which shows it can be done. Injury prevention in these more niche activities is also an emerging area, for climbing specifically i'd check out Dave McLeod excellent books... but this is only relevant when you are really pushing the activity, a lot of fun and good exercise can be had without risking injury from just rambling up some easy routes... That's what I aspire to in old age, to continue moving and having fun in new places. I think this probably transfers to most other actives too, so long as you find them intrinsically fun, you should be able to continue to do them without pushing yourself to the limit 100% of the time.
> I've got ten screws in my spine now. Carrying around a pack and getting stuck on a mountain is not good. Bicycling really hurts. I developed some kind of elbow bursitis that won't go away no matter what and 20 minutes on a rock wall and my arm is absolutely throbbing now, for days. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to stop it.
By the way sorry i completely skipped over these problems in my sibling comment, i realise that probably came off as insensitive and dismissive. I'm really sorry you're in that position, I was too focused on the more general advice.
These kinds of chronic injuries are sometimes unavoidable, and sometimes they are avoidable but very difficult to spot or know about before it's too late.. I suppose it's a risk, and some people are simply luckier than others. However some chronic injuries can be remedied if the source of the issue is in how you approach your sport, rather than a more permanent issue.
Shoulder, elbow and finger injuries and pain are extremely common in long term climbers, and can usually be substantially improved or eliminated by improving your technique and form. I would highly recommend reading Dave McLeods book on injury prevention. It's the very opposite of a quick fix book and can be quite dense in places, but it's also enlightening and completely destroys the fallacy that these types of sports are only for the young - in short, you are always hurting your body in some way when doing exercise, you were just less aware of it when younger and had a larger sink before it became apparent, when some people reach the limit of that sink they give up, others find ways to continue. More generally If you can manage the rate of stress with the rate of recovery, then you can establish an equilibrium and it's possible to safely continue as you get older, I'm still learning this (will probably always be learning this) and trying to figure out how to be more aware of different aspects of my body and the hidden stresses it's putting up with.
Even if it's not climbing you are interested in continuing, there is a lot to learn about the deficiencies in more niche sports in general from this book and Dave's research.