DH 51 - what level of cycling / exercise is too much?

[sportswife]

As someone who just does Pilates and the odd jog, I am fully prepared to accept my perspective may be a bit limited. But is this 'normal' for a man now in his early 50s -

• Cycling probably 200-300 miles per week, inc going out at 5am
• In the gym or similar nearly every day
• martial arts basically all Saturday and possibly a half day in the week as well
• boxing training one afternoon or evening per week, sometimes more
• eats foods in a certain order

Wouid you be concerned about this? Also he does a 'big' bike ride at least once a year too eg. London to Malaga. There are other competitions and more sporadic activities he does too and even when he's on holiday, he literally can't sit still and goes diving, windsurfing or rock climbing or paragliding whatever he can possibly find on offer in the area.

I think there's a fine line between healthy and obsessive and am worried he may be crossing it and what to do if so?

Because this is mumsnet, where bogeymen and dickheads lurk in every corner.

That's a lot of time spent exercising, and it sounds as if your DH has some obsessional or addictive behaviours around exercise, but it's not dangerous or even all that unusual and if it's not compromising your relationship or family life and the inevitable kit expenditure isn't blowing the budget I wouldn't worry about it.

I don't know if it's OK, op. But I do know in my village he would fit right in

I think it's brilliant, he's only 51 fgs! Love the Dad fell running in his 70's! Give me that any day over some fat bloke stuck in front of the telly or down the pub every night! As for the affair suggestion, dear god.. .

My dad would have been like this in his 50s if he hadn't had so much work and DIY to do.
Even in his 70s his ideal week would have 3-4 bike rides of about 10-30 miles each, 3-4 games of tennis of around 1-2 hours a day, a golfing morning and time practicing his martial arts on the lawn (he doesn't do it formally any more but used to do 3 times a week in a tough discipline one). Between doing that he'll be gardening or doing DIY. He likes a quiet half hour sit down in the garden at lunch time and might sit and listen to a CD in the evening-while he does some woodcarving or drawling/painting.

Thankyou for all the comments. It seems DH is quite normal then. To the pp, yes the eating foods in a certain order is about insulin spikes (so I'm told). Maybe there's something in it? I take all your comments on board (except the affair one)!!! Thanks!

I’d probably encourage him to go for an annual health check/MOT if he is doing so much exercise but sounds fine to me

"Normal"? No of course not. But that doesn't mean it's necessarily a problem. It's certainly better than sitting on the sofa stuffing your face all day.

I would worry more if my DH did not exercise.

Extreme exercise isn't good for the heart. It's hard to tell if what he is doing is extreme but maybe worth a check up?

Friend of ours had a heart attack at 50 and had to attend classes on heart health at the hospital. They told him there's a point at which extreme endurance exercise actually causes harm.

@BinMe would that include marathon running

I think that's great. I'd love it if my husband exercised and lost weight.
He won't though, it's his choice, lucky I love him 😊

Doesn't sound excessive to me. If he was a labourer or builder he'd be getting more exercise than that all day.

If he likes cycling so much tell him to sign up to do deliveroo. He might as well earn a very crappy amount of extra cash whilst doing the exercise.

I even have a referral code if you want me to PM it to you. 😂

I don't know @Spck . I've never run more than 5km . No exercise is the worst thing you can do! I don't think they have a vast amount of evidence - but friend who had the heart attack was on the heart health (nhs) course and told us about it. I would imagine it would have to be pretty extreme. Not having rest days isn't good for your body so I would imagine as long as you're resting and not overdoing it it's fine.

If there are no worries about the exercise impacting his job or your family life then I wouldn’t be concerned at all. I race internationally for my age group in multi sport which involves cycling, and as the ladies go off second, I end up overtaking the male 80-84 category. Respect to them! The male 50-54 category is one of the most competitive categories, so plenty of fit 50 year olds around!

I agree with @BinMe

OH put on a cycling podcast in the car yesterday and the discussion was about heart disease in older 50+ cyclists. Too much extreme exercise trying to maintain personal bests (PB’s) into your 50s can lead to palpitations, atrial and ventricular issues, drops in pressure which could lead to cardiac arrests and the fact that all this extreme excercise doesn’t give the heart muscle the chance to recuperate (and don’t forget also your heart is working 24 hours a day for life).

There was a 50+ off road cyclist (champion in his age range) who also did cross country skiing in the winter, who was now having terrible heart issues and now gets cardiac episodes (feels like fish flopping madly) in his chest (heart beating erratically and pressure fluctuations).

OP your OH should consider having a bit more rest time during the week to help his aging body cope with what he is subjecting it to, so he doesn’t drop dead of heart failure or stroke due to over exercising.

Is he actually cycling or having an affair/second family on the side??

How very Mumsnet

Is he actually cycling or having an affair/second family on the side??

Ha! This is ridiculous. But also impossible, because Strava.

(And there is no way that this guy trains like this and is not on Strava!)

Orthorexia ??

look it up.

and signs of eating disorders in men. Sounds like obsession to me bordering on eating disorder

ps men of all ages can have eating disorders, just like women

Apologies OP, I had missed the strava bit and was just grumpy a a family member has been doing just this. Sport/hobby to cover an affair. But if it was my DH doing teh cycling I would absolutely believe he was nothing but cycling.

I don't think he's doing anything excessive.
Some people see exercise as semi-regular moving around and others see it as training towards some goal and the two groups often seem to just not get the other.
If he's not neglecting some familiar duty, leave him to it.

It’s obviously not normal in the sense that most people don’t live like this. But if he’s happy with it, it’s not crazy.

But just to be sure that’s it is not an affair, do follow him on Strava OP. You can’t be too careful 😔. Be careful to drill down into the data to look for unexplained dips, and then spikes in his heart rate. He may well use sex for further exercise.

After all - every 30 year old woman i know is hopelessly attracted to fit 51 year olds in Lycra.

And he’a just a man and won’t be able to resist their youthful charms. It’s how we are wired.

I think it sounds fine and healthy. If you want to be competitive at a sport you need to rack the hours up. Cycling is not as high impact as running (I find it much easier and my heart rate is lower when cycling). So that mileage isn’t that high. The other stuff he’ll need for strength.

As long as he’s fuelling correctly, isn’t too tired and is having recovery days (this can be active recovery). Most people don’t do enough exercise.

As you get older you lose muscle mass. I find I have to do more strength work to be able to run injury free.