Do you think there's a limit to fitness for 'normal' people?

[PaperBagsAreUselessInRain]

I have been pondering this for some time. I'm no athlete and I was crap at sport at school. I just don't seem to get fitter or faster or more able past a certain point. I can now run a 5km distance but can never get quicker than 33mins. My average time is 35mins. I've tried interval training, i've tried running slower, running faster. I'm not particularly interested in getting quicker but I have tried over many decades and it just doesn't happen. I'm perfectly happy at around that pace but now that I'm about to get to 50, it does make me wonder whether I just had a natural 'limit' to my fitness.

It's the same with bike riding and swimming. I can do a certain amount but just no faster and no longer. I recently went on holiday for 2 weeks and did nothing more than long walks and when I came back and went for a short, slow run, my muscles hurt like I had never done a run before. The same happened when i hopped back on the bike. It's as though my body is so crap at sport, it has to relearn all the time.

Just interested whether others feel the same way. As mentioned, no interest in becoming an athlete at such but enjoy keeping fit for health reasons!

I feel the same. I have quite a weak upper body and have been working on my strength for years. Still totally rubbish at press ups. It’s maybe the amount of training as much as natural ability - I do something most days but I guess would need to do long sessions every day to really improve. On the other hand I’ve been working on my core recently and have seen real improvements.

33 minutes? I’ve never got below 35 minutes. But there was a point in time I couldn’t run for 20 seconds, so there is obviously an improvement somewhere.

I think if you can do what you did yesterday, that’s all you need to do. Trying to beat PBs is for the youngsters!

I'm the same. I started park run 5 years ago and then started running 2-3 times a week but never really got any better/faster. I now run 5k once a week with some weeks better than others but always need to stop for a walk a couple of times. I also swim twice a week, gym once a week and a couple of classes too. I'm definitely fitter than this time last year probably due to the high intensity classes I do but I don't think I'll ever be a great runner. I should add, I am also quite lazy so will sometimes just do the bare minimum!

I think there will be a limit but most people won't reach it easily, you do get to a point where you have to do more of something to get better at it. If you don't have the time or energy to fit this in then you will stabilise even if you are fit.

I cycle a lot but only see improvements when I up my weekly mileage no matter what pace I ride at although some intervals can help.

Also more walking won't make you fitter for other sports. To get better at running you need to run more often and the same with cycling. I could cycle 60-80m in a day and aim for about 120m - 150m a week but if you ask me to run 5k I will struggle as I haven't run for years.

I think you hit a point where without quite targeted input you won't get any better.
I do similar to you, as did a friend. She is very driven and has made changes to diet, kit, getting a coach, strict training plan etc. Things that I could do; although I make excuses about time and money the truth is I'm just not as committed to it! Happy with what I'm doing.

We are similar ages, late 40s and I think it needs real focus and input which most people can't manage, but it is achievable!

I think that unless you do specific stuff like interval training then you will stay pretty consistent. You can do more and more but at some point that may cause injury and you're back to square one. Have you tried running either with someone else or else without a watch and seeing what happens?

Everyone's got their limit. Elites have a benefit of natural ability plus dedicating their whole lifestyle to it with professional support. For the rest of us, life gets in the way to varying extents and it's easy to plateau out into routines, start later and struggle to shift a gear in training.

I first got a sub 29 min 5k in 2016 then couldn't seem to get back near it for a few years. Then in 2021 shaved about 20s off it in a couple of runs through the year. That's probably fairly close to my potential if being well trained is resulting in smaller and smaller gaps between pbs. Plus getting older and away from that optimum age anyway. Then there's the issue of how much are those seconds worth impacting the rest of my life. I don't want all runs to be targets by beeps on a garmin, I want some bimbling soul runs to enjoy too.

I think most of us can improve further, and you probably could too with the right input. But also I think there is a point beyond which it becomes unhealthy, physically and mentally.

Thanks - I don't know why it's taken me till now to have this realisation but it has made me feel a lot better about myself lol.

I agree that once you get a bit older, really you want to make sure you're enjoying it rather than feeling like you're constantly killing yourself as you're more likely to carry on going!

@Funkyslippers I also stop and walk sometimes too. I'm at peace with that now but when I was younger, I'd really try and push myself to carry on going!

@mewkins I'm too slow for any of my friends but I do regularly run without a watch. I usually go off too fast and have to finish early but tbh it doesn't bother me. For the first time in a long time I am actually starting to enjoy exercise! Probably because I don't care any more about PBs etc.!

But we do tend to slow down with age - hence the age-sex calculators. Have you tried comparing your current self with your younger self? runbundle.com/tools/age-grading-calculator

If you have maintained roughly the same pace over decades, you are doing well!

I'm 43 and still feel there's room for improvement in the sport I do (swimming). Whether I can dedicate enough time to realise that potential is another matter but I still feel I'm limited by the quantity of training I can fit in rather than physical limits

But aging aside - I think the low hanging fruit are easy(ish!) and then we tend to plateau unless we train specifically and in a focussed way. Same with strength training, which is my main thing. If you want five good clean push ups, you have to train specifically for them. I'm in my 50s and am getting stronger with fairly serious training. But running, nah - I'm happy to stay the same or even slow down - I'm getting the main health benefits (mental and physical) of running for best part of an hour 2/3 times a week - I could train to increase pace but I don't want to!

@mynameisnotkate on the contrary. You need a day in between to repair and build muscle otherwise you won't get gains. It's why people do leg day, arm day etc at the gym, to rest those muscle groups

@PaperBagsAreUselessInRain I'm getting worse not better. When I first started parkrun I was routinely sub 35 minutes, now I'm lucky to scrape 40. So never fast, but now slow - I never wear my 100 t shirt anymore as I'm too embarrassed.

Ditto gym classes - have recently started on some at my gym and really enjoying them, but I appear to have no core.

To be honest if I lost a stone, I suspect that would make a bigger difference than more training but at 52 it's hard to do.

I think there's different kinds of fitness and what you focus on is what you get better at. When I was a teenager I swam at county level (no prospects beyond that, I wasn't that good or that committed). I think its safe to say I'll never swim as well as I did then. But in those days I never went near an elliptical and now I can run 5k on an elliptical no problem (I don't run the ground because of hypermobility). However, this week I went on a 3hr hike with 2 friends who don't go to the gym but regularly go climbing, and it was hard. I was tired. Not the kind of tired you get from interval training, but the sheer endurance of it. I was ready for those fields to end!

I think everyone does have a natural limit - even competitive athletes eventually reach theirs. The gains become more and more attritional as you improve.

However, I also think that specifically training for something will result in improvements you might not expect. And training correctly. I thought I knew what was needed for push ups and I tried for, literally, years, with no success. I hired a trainer and he showed me what I actually had to do. Six months later I got the push up. A year after that I could do them weighted. Same with pull ups - I don't think I'd ever had achieved that goal without a trainer.

I'm in my 50s and I know I am capable of a lot more with the right training. I came to fitness in my 40s and was rubbish at all things physical at school.

I think its safe to say I'll never swim as well as I did then

I was a county level swimmer age 13, I beat the times I set as a 13 year old at age 40. I'm aiming to get county qualifying times for a 14 year old this year :-)

I think there is room for improvement in all of us especially if you didn't reach your full potential when younger. But I think you've hit the nail on the head @PaperBagsAreUselessInRain when you say 'i'm not particularly interested in getting quicker' as you have to want it and work hard.

I turned 50 late last year and managed to get a 5k life time best of 23:08. That took a serious amount of work though! I think there are still faster times in me but the improvements are getting smaller.

Try a HIIT bootcamp and see if that helps the running results.

Doesn't matter what Matthew Syed says, some people are obviously inherently genetically naturally more athletic. They don't have to work as hard to reach my mediocre standard (which I worked very hard to achieve & feel very proud of). Line a bunch of 4 year old boys up for a 100 yard race, they all secretly totally think they can win & yet some are naturally hugely faster than others. There is such a thing as natural ability.

I'm under no illusions that my achievements are anything more than mediocre compared to most people who made similar effort.

I always had low muscle tone as a kid, I worked super hard to gain stamina & get to a mediocre standard. This has paid off hugely, but I'm still slow & weak, and always will be. it's fine. Mediocre was huge amount of work for me to achieve, so I can be very happy about it.

I'm sure there is a limit and age is obviously a factor but if you want to get faster you have to work on getting faster consistently over a fairly long period of time. Just doing a few interval sessions won't help much - you have to stick at it.

I joined a running club in november 2021 and it took me around 6 months to really see any improvement after the weekly focussed training sessions.

I'm going to borrow this @lljkk "Mediocre was huge amount of work for me to achieve, so I can be very happy about it." Mind you even mediocre would be shooting high for me. But I enjoy exercise and I hope it's doing me some good, so I still continue.

Yes! I have this argument with dp a lot! He thinks that everyone has the ability to become equally good at everything with practice. I think people have natural strengths and abilities and that some people will always be better at some things than others

Yes, I see this in weightlifting, where your numbers are very much in your face because you just loaded them on the bar!
Months of work to put on maybe 5kg on my deadlift or 2.5 on my bench press.

Then the kids bring home a virus or I get injured (martial arts habit), a week or two off and I'm back to square one... or lower. Frustrating!

Everyone has their limits, and we all have things were a little bit more gifted at. But a lot of people also aren’t realistic about the work and time involved to actually see a decent level of improvement. I’m at the level I would like to be with strength training, it took about six years to actually get to that level without going too hard and damaging myself. It isn’t something I’m naturally ‘gifted’ at (part of that is ethnicity) others may have achieved my level within 3–4 years. I am however a good runner and have generally always had a decent level of stamina, where as others would struggle to achieve five minutes of running.