The first week of September. The first week of the school year. This can only mean one thing. No not just the return of Strictly and X Factor. 60th birthday celebrations. I have a date in my diary for the first of the many ways my peers will be marking this landmark birthday. Some will prefer to keep it low key, others will party and a few will stretch the celebrations over a number of weeks. But whether they choose to ignore or embrace it, it is here.

It is still difficult to believe that we have reached sixty years of age. It hardly seems no time at all that I started training to be a nurse as an eighteen year old. And now I’m thinking about retirement. Or to be precise drawing my pension and looking to do something else. Not that I can retire for at least a couple of years. Note to the wise. Factor in the university years when considering late childbirth. 

I do love my job. I have been so lucky to enjoy what I do. I never get that heart sink Monday morning feeling and I know that what I do is valued. But life is short. I want to do something different to finish off the last few years of my working life whether it is two or twenty years. 

One of the great benefits of spending time with different people is helping you crystallise ideas. Throw in a mountain and you are nearly there. I know that I want to do something in health and fitness. I started my career caring for ill people. I want to end it by helping people to stay well. I want to focus on older people. And I want to encourage people to look pass the barriers (real or imagined) to looking and feeling fitter. 

A significant part of studying to be a personal trainer is recognising these barriers and the interventions to remove them. If you are working in a gym you can only have a limited impact on addressing those issues that get people through the door for the first time. You are, however, in an excellent position to keep people coming through the door. But many older people will never get to first base which is fine as long as they were being active outside of the gym environment. But many aren’t. 

Only 20% of men and 17% of women between the ages of 65-74 are hitting the recommended level of activity. After the age of 70 a third of women are unable to walk a mile unaided. Physical inactivity is the 4th leading risk factor for global mortality accounting for 6% of all deaths. To say nothing about the loss of enjoyment in life that having a healthy body can bring.

But the reasons for not being active are complex and become increasingly so with age. Age can bring a fear of being active. ‘I won’t be able to do it’, ‘I may hurt myself’, I will look foolish’. There is also a prevailing social pressure to slow down as we get older. And it is very hard not to give into such pressure however independent we think we are. We know what we should be doing but it is often the social and psychological that stops us.

So back to my crystallisation. I spent some time last week with a friend that is completing a nutrition coaching course. It sounded fascinating. It started me thinking how I could use the Professional Coach Certificate I’m starting later this year to support older people to overcome the barriers to becoming fitter and healthier. 

I was also encouraged in the direction of my thoughts by an article in the New Scientist. I do occasionally go a little high brow. The title of the article was ‘Mind over Matter- simply changing your attitude could make you fitter, slimmer, less stressed and even younger’. Robust research that suggests that the mind can have a placebo effect on our health and fitness. People that view ageing positively live 7.5 years longer than those that associate it with frailty and senility. Ageism can kill but it is deeply engrained in our social media obsessed culture. I’m starting to see my niche.