Exercise for the (ahem) middle age

So I'm not yet ready to admit that I have reached my middle age, even though if you double my current age you get an age that would have satisfied even the Queen Mother.

But I have noticed that as I get ... ahem ... older  my attitude towards exercise has changed. I'll admit that I exercised through my 20s 30s and half of my 40s for looks. I really wanted to wear those skinny jeans, or to get a bikini body, or whatever.

Then I started to work as a PT and started seeing a plethora of clients who, in their 60s, want to play with their grandchildren, but don't have the energy. They feel terrible when they get up in the morning, and they struggle to go from sitting to standing (and don't even mention getting up from the ground).  But ... and this is important to remember ... they are not always (or even usually) hugely overweight. They've just not been consistent with exercise through their 30s 40s and 50s. Many (but not all) are women who have devoted their lives to their families and never taken anything for themselves.

So now when I exercise I do it because I know that, even now, on the wrong side of 45, I feel better and can do more than most women my age. And when I eventually get to be a grandparent I will be fit and well enough to give them the energy they deserve. If I look okay as a result that's great  if not, I'm going to take advice from the cartoon below and wear that bikini anyway.