Did you start exercising after the age of 40 and did it change your life?

[OhioOhioOhio]

I'm thinking of starting yoga. But honestly I'm so fat and getting divorced and feel terrible. It doesn't seem worth the bother.

Can anyone inspire me?

Did bits and bobs in the past but nothing I had stuck at for over a decade
Family health scare when I was about 42 couples with a “if I don’t do it now I never will” attitude to losing a stone and a half of baby weight (said baby was 9 at the time ) made me start
Did my gentle version of couch to five k and started doing some weights and resistance stuff at the gym
Started VERY gently as in the past I’ve gone mad and then given up
Also got myself a bike and started walking a lot more
I now go the gym 3 times a week have run a couple of ten k and two half marathons
The baby weight has stayed off and my mental health is hugely better for exercising
Mind you I’m still one to over indulge in occasionally hence lying on the sofa this afternoon mumsnetting

I started C25k (running) and joined Slimming World in January 2016, when I was 40.5. I weighed more than 20 stones & was very sceptical about my chances of actually changing anything.

2 years later I weighed around 12 stones (I’m tall so that’s a reasonable weight), and could run 10k without any trouble at all.

Now, another year on, I’m still fitter & healthier than I’ve ever been in my life.

You can do it . Honestly, I was so unfit - arthritis, back problems, everything. If I can do almost anyone can.

A friend of mine has
She was 45 and feeling tubby so changed her diet and started an exercise routine (and cur all her hair off)
She looks fantastic

I started yoga a couple of years ago - i wasn't overweight, but i do feel like i started in the nick of time. When i started i wasn't quite as flexible as i thought i was (had been when i was younger). I also had a really achy shoulder that i had got used to, until i realised that at 42 i should mot be accepting shoulder-ache for the rest of my life. I now have no achy shoulder. I don't enjoy doing it (unlike the whole of the rest of the class it appears), but i am always glad afterwards.

I'm 50 and just started exercising. Sick of creaking and aches and pains for no reason! Yoga is amazing for aches and pains. The creaking has stopped. I'm forcing myself to go twice a week. And now adding in weight lifting to tone. I can't say I like doing it but I'm loving the results. Also makes me feel like I've achieved something each week other than work and wine.

That said I intend to give it all up at 70 and become the old lush drinking sherry in the afternoons and slurring her words at a nice pub where young drinkers will treat me like the pub pet old lady.! Lol

Started running at 50 and did a half marathon 5 months later. Felt fit and firm but actually I decided I hated it too much and joints were complaining

Being the pub pet sounds like fun. Especially if you wear quirky outfits because of all of your hard work now!

Can anyone recommend a place to start with yoga?

Running for me as well. When my marriage broke up I needed something to do when the dcs weren't here so on a bit of a whim I joined a running club (I had been a not very regular parkrun plodder before that). First time I hated it. Second time I got chatting to some lovely people and loved it. I'm now captain of the vet ladies, volunteer with the couch to 5k, have got a drawer of medals from races I never thought I could do. Im not a sporty type at all but I'm the fittest I've ever been, my mental health has improved no end, my self esteem has crept back and best of all I've met some of the loveliest people. This I morning I went for brunch with a group of people I didn't even know 2 years ago.

Give it a go, it might be a bit shit, but it might also be absolutely brilliant.

Yep, started with pilates and now do a general fitness thing too. Do feel better for it - I was the least sporty child ever and was always embarrassed by how inept I was but the good thing about being older is I don't care as much. I can't do a dance class because I've got zero coordination and I've accepted that if there's some prancing about in my fitness class I will get it wrong but I really don't give a damn and nor does anyone else

Yes - I joined a gym and started swimming regularly
It hasn’t changed my life!
Dieting on the other hand did - lost 7 stone so far only 1 and a bit to go
I got bored with the gym but still swim regularly
When I get to my goal weight I would like to try a personal trainer more to tone up and get advice about how to target specific areas
I’m 54

I used walking the children to school as my exercise for a long time. Then when the youngest didn't get into our village school and I had to drive him to nearby town to school decided I needed to do something more. Started aged 41 with pilates and occasional swimming. Did the 30 day shred dvd for a while then hurt my leg so stopped! Last year aged 44 I started doing more weight bearing exercise using kettlebells following a Rebelfit mission. Joined a Beginners running course last September and went from a total beginner to running 5km by November. Now a regular at Park Run and have signed up to a 10k race in April.
My tummy is flatter and I feel good physically. I find the mental relaxation either with the monotony of running or the concentration needed for pilates is good. I was partly spurred on by the difference between family members who have been more active and those that haven't now they are getting older. Do it while you can!

I started road cycling in my late 50's and running at 60. I'll never win any races but really enjoy both - to my amazement as not at all sporty in my younger days

I started running with the aim of doing a 10k on my 42nd birthday. Got the running bug and carried on.

Yes, it changed my life as I'd never been very sporty at all. Within 2 years I'd joined a running club and made lots of new friends there. Also started winning medals (usually came in top 3 of women in my age group). Expanded my running to do half-marathons etc. Fab.

Now, I'm 18 years on with crippling arthritis in my right hip and looking at a replacement soon. I can walk, but only with pain killers. I walk the local park run on a Saturday morning. I can't rule out that the intense running has exacerbated and speeded up the progress of my arthritis tbh.

Yes, I decided five years ago when I was nearly 42 that I neede to get fit and lose weight. I started doing the couch to 5k and joined Slimming world. I lost three stones and I stopped going to Slimming world almost three years ago and I’ve kept it off through running.

I’ve done a 5k, eleven 10k’s, four half marathons and a marathon and run 3,274 miles in the last five years. Totally transformed me.

Running for me too. The benefit of starting to run late is that I have the joints of a 20 year old, not the arse though!

Benefits aren't only the weight/shape thing. Of course, that's great. But it was the confidence, the feeling that my body could get better over time, the running upstairs instead of groaning, the feeling of power. I was running recently and feeling tired. I thought I'd do a few more intervals. But it got dark and I was in a scary, unlit place. So I sprinted through. And I could. Three years ago there was not a hope in hell. I couldn't run for a minute without feeling dreadful.

And I was an absolutely classic exercise refusenik. No one would have imagined me running. Honestly, my friends are incredulous.