to take up a competitive sport at age 45?

[ChamomileLawn]

clearly I’m a little bit old to be good at gymnastics or hurdles, I don’t want to spend hours trundling up and down a pool.
i’ve never got the hang of team games like football or hockey. I skived PE from age 13 onwards. I have dabbled in a little slow running previously until knackered tendons put paid to that.

I am now 45, quite fat and very unfit but I do feel I need an actual go at a commonwealth/Olympic medal.

so what sport can I take up? Archery? Bowls?

I took up clay shooting at 40, and now have two county caps!

Slightly flukey I admit but still worth doing. 😊

Archery. Really easy to become a competitor. There are a range of competitions and lengths. It's nothing like the Olympics. Most comps have a long line of archers on a shooting line. Also clubs run their own competitions. All rather jolly and friendly. There are lots of styles to learn. Suggest recurve and do a beginner course at your local club. From that you can go barebow or go onto compound or longbow or some of the horsebows. Every club has a 'Terry' who is the chap who knows EVERYTHING and has all the kit but will help you out no matter what.

@TiredSloth I am so envious of you. This is my ultimate dream but atm I am an overweight, unfit 36 year old with low muscle tone. @Wanderingowl how did you get started?

@Truthlikeness Had you done anything like that before? I'm mid-forties with a hankering to learn tumbling.

I had an obese BMI in my late 30s, when I decided to address my diet as I had a fear of turning 40 so out of shape, as I figured it would only get harder to change as I got older. I lost weight through diet, mainly cutting out processed foods and sugar, and walking more. It took about 8-9 months to get to a healthy weight but I wasn't fit. I had yo-yo-ed a bit in the past by getting overweight, eating healthily until I was a healthy weight and then slowly letting it slip until I weighed more than ever. So I figured I needed a lifestyle change, the idea of 'exercise' with the goal of exercise seemed boring so I decided to try something that I always wanted to do. I have an adult class near me, so I started it and fell in love with it. I had done a few gymastics classes as a child but, tbh, my parents couldn't afford the classes, so I never learned anything much. Though I've always been fairly flexible for a normal person and, I think, stronger than I looked.

Now I am fit and healthy because I want to keep my body in the best shape possible for as long as possible because I do not want to lose this. I even enjoy what I used to think of as boring exercise like weight-lifting, intensive bodyweight training, hours of steady state cardio and bursts of high intensity cardio, because I just love how it makes me feel and how it helps me grow my acrobatic abilities. I'm pretty good at it, I'm not excessively amazing or anything. Anyone with a real gymnastic/dance/circus background would know instantly that I didn't grow up doing this. But at the same time, I can do things that I never thought would be possible for me.

To train to be a power lifter is it just basically lifting more and more weight or do you need to do whole body weight training? Reckon that’s a great sport for the approaching menopause woman with helping to retain muscle

I was going to suggest tennis. It's a great sport for people of all ages and abilities, and is something you can play well into your 70's or even 80's.

But then I saw that you want to win a medal. Never mind.

There was a Japanese rider I think that took up horse riding not long ago and competed in the Olympics in his 70s.

HOWEVER, I imagine he had a lot more money and sponsors than op could ever dream of.

Realistically op anything using your body only, you're too old to even bother. Shooting, archery and horse riding are your only realistic options, unless you happen to be a fantastic rower or canoeist, but even those I'd say you're too old.

Unless you're brave too, I wouldn't go for horse riding. The horses are very difficult to ride and often very reactive, plus if you want to do jumping you're talking 1.60m jumps, or galloping at solid objects. Dressage would be more realistic, but you will need a lot of money, and discipline.

Shooting or archery are your best bets, shooting being more likely.

They do lawn bowls in the Commonwealth Games.

I think there are competitions for amateur adult gymnasts.

Totally GOLF - it’s brilliant! I was only a wee bit younger when I started to play.

You need to take something up that not many people do so they have to select you. My friend chose Wushu and got pretty good at a national level. That was 20 years ago though- probably more popular now.

No advice on sport, but Cool Running about the Jamaican bobsleigh team, and the film based on Eddie the Eagles story are always worth watching.

I might be good at canoeing. I don’t know. I’ve never tried. unlikely but not impossible.

i can’t do golf. The dog steals golf balls regularly so I couldn’t show my face there. And it’s all a bit hearty and club for me.

maybe I should try a boat.

Canoeing and rowing do take a lot of body strength mind, and if you aren't already fit, you've got a long way to go to get fit enough for that level.

It's not impossible but very difficult.

Fencing - Commonwealth Veterans (O40s) is open entry as we're not a Commonwealth Games sport.

You can get decent results as a late starter, there's a super friendly circuit of open events and the veterans events are friendly too. European Individuals is also open, and there's a whole circuit of events in various European cities as well.

Quite a number of the over 60 and over 70 world champions started fencing with their kids or in their 40s or so.

It's fairly physical but mostly "sprints" rather than endurance but you need some leg strength and willingness to deal with pain in the early days. Tactics and timing are the main things though.

For comparison's sake my best parkrun is around 28 minutes and I've just snuck under the hour for 5k so I'm a below average runner, but really enjoy fencing.

www.cffc2022.com/

Link to the commonwealth championships - there's a live stream for the later stages if you want to scout out the opposition for 4 years time!

A crossfit gym will teach you how to lift badly.

Find a weightlifting club. Go on the British Weightlifting page

britishweightlifting.org

And at weightlifting, you absolutely could go to the Commonwealth Games taking it up later and being older. Plenty of categories.

I’m tempted by football right now. Bloody marvellous.

Well, that's debatable. By all means, pick your gym/box carefully but a sweeping stereotype is not helpful.

The CF coach who taught me to lift is a National level coach with one of the home nations. He's probably got people who train at that gym currently competing in Birmingham...

Bloody brilliant. Probably saved my life joining a CF gym. I've moved on now & do gentler stuff but there's a difference between detained & untrained.

She was clearly kidding! 🤦‍♀️

I play low level football and many women's teams are happy to welcome complete beginners and you'll have a good time. I'm hoping there might be some veteran leagues in the future, though, I'm already 20 years older than many of the players on the team :-)

i can’t do golf. The dog steals golf balls regularly so I couldn’t show my face there.

Have you considered dog sports? Canicross? Agility? Flyball?

Okay, no medals (well, there are in canicross) but plenty of rosettes to win.

And you don't need to be fit at all.

Not for those of use with painful knees 😫I might looks into walking tennis.

How about golf?

Someone I know is the over forties national shot put champion (or something like that).

My parents took up lawn bowls in their 60s. It's taken them all over the country and given them a social life. You can play singles or in teams. Most clubs lend you kit to start you off.

maybe I should try a boat.

Definitely. Learn to sail; clubs often do racing with handicaps so different types of boat can compete against each other. You may or may not win a medal but you'll have a lot of fun.

@MVision whole body because the three power-lift scored lifts ( dead lift, back squat, bench press) are compound movements that recruit a lot of large muscles. On top of training those three with variations to improve various parts of the movement and address weaknesses) you’d also do accessory work to train smaller muscle groups used for stability.