Macon Magazine

December 2025/January 2026| maconmagazine.com 81 I recently hit a significant age milestone – I turned 40 (whew!). With that, I also embraced the realization that I am middle-aged. Yes, at least according to U.S. metrics and statistics, you're technically middle-aged by the time you hit your upper-30s. Just saying. As a child, 40 seemed to be knocking on the door of "senior citizenry," at least until my parents turned 40. Now that I'm 40, it doesn't seem old at all. Reaching this milestone caused me to reflect on life, health, and what I desire out of my body. I decided long ago that I wanted to always be able to run, jump, sprint, play sports, and generally do whatever I wanted to do with my body, and that I also wanted a long "healthspan" – quality, disease-free health over a long lifespan – which leads me to the main idea of this article. For the most part, we assume that human health and fitness follow a certain pattern with age. We assume that we can do whatever we want to do and still be youthful and healthy in our twenties, that it starts catching up with us in our thirties, and that by our forties, we'll start complaining about aches and pains, taking regular pills, and watching the "young folks" have all the fun. Don't get me wrong; life does change in the adult years. We take on careers and business life, we own homes and pay bills, and we spend time taking care of the many other responsibilities unique to adulthood. Our bodies change, too. We've fully exited the adolescent years where our bodies are still developing, when our Growth Hormone and other hormone levels are at their peak. We require warm- ups before significant physical exercise. We're more susceptible to age-related bone and muscle loss (osteopenia and sarcopenia, respectively). We notice gray hair – or even hair loss – changes to skin, and so on. Shawn McClendon is an ACE-certified personal trainer and owner of Back to Basics Health and Wholeness LLC, an organization dedicated to empowering people to take control of their health and avoid lifestyle disease. He runs a YouTube health and fitness channel, writes on health and fitness topics at shawnmcclendon. com, speaks on health and fitness, and has authored several health/fitness books. R e i m a g i n i n g w h a t ' s p o s s i b l e f o r y o u r h e a l t h a n d f i t n e s s i n 2 0 2 6 With all of this, however, what I have personally noticed is that many of us do not experience great health in our bodies around 40 and beyond largely because of what we thought we would be able to do, rather than on what our bodies are actually capable of doing. We're largely unaware of our abilities to maintain health, form, and capacity well into older age when consistently provided with the proper environment and necessary raw materials. Because of this, we never actually think about what we want out of our bodies. What do you want out of your body? I challenge you to pause now and think about this. You may even want to journal about it. Do you want to be able to move around without aches and pains? To be able to get off of the floor on your own? To be able to run and jump and play with grandkids? To take on a new sport or pick an old sport back up? To become an avid hiker, run 5Ks, or to compete in fitness competitions? You can! The key is to think less about your perceived obstacles and more about what you desire for your life and health, because the body is a lot more resilient and adaptive than you may realize. In one study from the journal Aging, several patients experiencing cognitive decline due to early Alzheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, or Subjective Cognitive Impairment experienced reversals in cognitive decline and were able to recover reading ability, musical abilities, and return to work. This was after following BY SHAWN MCCLENDON a rigorous program that included healthy diet improvements, exercise and better sleep. A review from the Sports Medicine journal included a study that showed that even very elderly study participants – 80 and over – were able to significantly increase their muscle strength, as well as whole-muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth) after a consistent routine of resistance training. This shows that our bodies can recover, even after decades of disrepair and dysfunction. To add, athletes of our time such as LeBron James and Tom Brady have shattered prior perceptions that sports were only for those in their twenties and thirties. Not only have they continued sports into their forties (with LeBron still in the league at the time of this article), but they have continued high level performance. How? Through meticulously healthy lifestyles, emphasis on recovering well from games and workouts, and most importantly, the mindset that they could continue their sports. If you're willing to embrace a mindset that the very best of health is available to you, no matter your age, then the sky is the limit for your fitness and health in 2026. You can be fit, healthy, and pain free with the body that you desire. On top of that, we're fortunate enough to live in a place like Macon that has many resources to support you on your journey, from parks and recreation centers, to gyms, markets, and health food stores. The resources are here. Will you believe? F I T N E S S C O R N E R

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