Comment by tomxor

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.