I N T R O D U C T I O N I wrote this book with one goal in mind: to empower you in the best half of your life to take control of your body and master how it ages. No matter what your age or ability level, you were designed to move, and it is never too late to start. Now is the time to maximize your performance and fitness, whether this means simply taking your first steps off the couch or ramping up to win your race age division. Your tool is exercise and sound fitness principles. We want to keep you in the game if you are active or get you into the game now if you are not. If you have picked up this book, you are at least thinking about what living a fit life would be like. No more huffing and puffing on the stairs; no more longing for energy. You would feel vigorous and have the oomph to do the things you want, not to mention looking strong in your clothes.

Living this life starts from the inside out, and the key is fitness through exercise. I want you to understand--before you think I am simply another workout cheerleader in an orthopaedist''s clothing--that I realize there can be real barriers on the road to healthy aging. I understand being busy, getting pulled in 20 directions at once, having family obligations, and dealing with financial constraints. I understand the dozens of other very logical (and some not so logical) reasons my patients offer up every day in my office. Here are some of the top excuses I''ve heard from my patients--and my replies: * "I run around all day. Isn''t that enough exercise?" No! Your heart rate must be elevated for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. * "I can''t afford to exercise." Turn off your cable and use the money to join a health club and watch TV there.

* "I think about it all the time, but I don''t know where to begin." Read this book and get up off the couch. * "We have a treadmill and an elliptical machine, but they are covered with clothes." That is the most expensive clothes hanger I ever heard of. You know what to do. * "Even though I haven''t exercised in 20 years, I used to be a Navy SEAL and do incredible physical feats. I can''t bring myself to start exercising like a beginner." After 20 years off, your body is like a beginner''s.

Let''s go. * "The dog ate my sneakers ." One of my patients actually told me that his dog had eaten his sneakers when he''d run out of excuses for why he was still sitting on the couch. He was one of my favorite patients, and he said it with a straight face. For an instant, I considered him seriously before a smirk settled in and we both burst into laughter. He wanted to be one of those svelte older men who looked and felt younger than the age on his driver''s license, yet he had not made a move to get there. The truth is that 78 percent of people over 50 years old cite exercise as the key to aging well, but only 28 percent are currently doing anything about it. No matter what your excuse or excuses may be, the fact remains that unless you take the time to invest in active aging now, it is likely that you will be forced to take the time to deal with illness in the future.

Therefore, let''s just put some of the major exercise barriers out on the table and hash them out. The three most common exercise barriers in my patients are "couch addiction," injury, and osteoarthritis. BARRIERS TO EXERCISE Couch addiction. Am I serious? Well, not entirely, and yet the habit of spending our lives as couch potatoes is a serious threat. I understand the issue, the lure of sinking into the soft sanctuary of the sofa after a hard day of work. In fact, during the beginning of my residency, I specifically bought my couch with napping in mind. At the local department store, I took flying leaps onto the laps of couch after couch, seeking the perfect place to take my naps. After 36-hour work days, my couch was the perfect relief.

The problem is that too much of a good thing can kill you. According to some of our nation''s top physiologists, physical inactivity is a serious health threat and will lead to premature disability or death in more than 2.5 million Americans in the next ten years. There are 35 common diseases that are made worse if people are physically inactive, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. In addition, women who spend two hours a day in front of the TV have a 23 percent greater chance of being obese compared to women who do not. I wish there was an easy way to tell you how to break the habit of spending hours every evening sitting on the couch watching TV. You simply have to make a real commitment to "just do it!" (as the Nike advertisement says). If you are a hopeless TV addict, then outsmart the problem and make your living room a home gym.

Regarding other barriers to exercise, it is true that those of us over 40 who exercise, and even those who don''t, face the increased challenge of injury and arthritis. The number of people suffering from these problems is exceeded only by the products on the market promoting pain relief. Yet these two real and troublesome barriers to active aging do not have to be barriers at all. My entire career is about teaching athletes and active agers over 40 to be smarter as they avoid being sidelined. I not only treat their injuries but work with them to prevent injury and move past the aches and pains of arthritis. I look forward in the following chapters to sharing some of the information I give to my aspiring and inspiring patients. Fitness After 40 , however, is not just about exercising: It is about awakening the champion--the winner--that is within you. It represents years of research (my own and that of other experts) that can mean the difference between simply letting the aging process master you as opposed to making the next 40 years the best yet.

Many of the commonly accepted stereotypes of aging are simply the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, not about real aging at all! Getting older does not mean being worse. Yes, there are changes. The truth is that no matter how fit you were at 20 years of age, there is a new you after age 40. You are simply not the same person you once were. However, not only can you still feel the strength and vigor of youth: You can perform nearly as well physically--and perhaps even better--than you did 10 or even 20 years ago. Based on my research with Senior Olympians and as director of PRIMA(tm) (Performance and Research Initiative for Master Athletes) at the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine, your best may be yet to come. Last week, a group of adult onset exercisers (AOEs)--formerly couch potatoes--finished participating in one of our 12-week exercise programs aimed at helping them get off the couch and finish a 5K walk/run. In our twice-weekly sessions, they received much of the same information found in this book.

They exercised together twice a week and individually two to three times per week. To our joy, seven of the participants rose above their expectations of finishing the 5K race and actually medaled in their age divisions. Talk about feeling vigorous! There is nothing like raising the bar of your personal best to make you feel alive. These AOEs, like you, had the benefit of the experience and wisdom that comes with age. By putting aside their past excuses for not exercising, they took control and got into great shape. THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD There is good news and bad news when it comes to remaining or becoming active after age 40. The good news is that increasing numbers of people over 40 are seeking ways to remain youthful by exercising. A recent survey of baby boomers--those born between 1946 and 1964--conducted by ThermaCare Arthritis, a company that sells a heat pack that becomes warm when applied to the skin, found: * 40 percent were living healthier lives and were more physically fit than when they were in their 20s * 67 percent felt 11 years younger than their chronological age * 57 percent reported being more physically active than their parents were at their age * 33 percent boasted that they could beat their children in at least one sport The people surveyed were either beginning to exercise for the first time (that is, they were AOEs) or were continuing programs they were already doing (active agers and athletes).

The bad news is that as we age, our bodies change, and these changes mean we are more vulnerable to injury. Injury is the number one reason people stop being active and the number two reason (after the common cold) why people go to the doctor. These same baby boomer survey participants revealed that: * 67 percent suffer from muscle or joint pain weekly * 73 percent say muscle and joint pain is a bigger annoyance than making sure they remain physically active * 69 percent claimed that they were willing to work through their pain to remain active You will find as you go through this book that I don''t believe in the mantra "No pain--no.