June 11, 2024 • 31 mins
How old is too old?
How late in life is TOO late in life to get fit, change your life, and improve your health?
Or is the answer, it’s never too late?
Well, these are the questions we’ll be covering on this episode of Optimal Aging, where we discuss the business of exercise, healthy living and wellbeing for people 50 and over. Each week, we explore what healthy living means for millions of people in this lucrative, yet underserved market, with a focus on communications, content, and making powerful connections.
Gwendolyn Bounds tackles this question head-on in her inspiring new book titled “Not Too Late: The Power of Pushing Limits at Any Age.”
In it, she tells her own remarkable story of transitioning from deconditioned news executive in her 40s to competitive obstacle course racer in her 50s. A veteran Wall Street Journal reporter and editor, Wendy also interviewed experts in longevity, philosophy, athletic performance and more.
It’s a compelling true story of how Wendy changed her life, but it’s also much more than that, as I think you’ll see from this discussion. So many will relate to her story – even if they have no interest in running obstacle course races. Wendy is a terrific writer and storytelling, and I know you’ll enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
Online Resources
Gwendolyn Bounds
Spartan Race
Prime Fit Content – Engage the over-50 market
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How old is too old?
How late in life is too late inlife to get fit, change your
life and improve your health?
Is it 40, 55, maybe 70?
Or is the answer it's never toolate?
Well, these are the questionswe'll be covering on this
(00:21):
episode of Optimal Aging, wherewe discuss the business of
exercise, healthy living andwell-being for people 50 and
over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living means for
millions of people in thislucrative yet underserved market
, with a focus on communications, content and making powerful
(00:42):
connections.
Content and making powerfulconnections.
And I'm really excited about myguest on this episode, because
Gwendolyn Bounds tackles thisquestion head-on in her
inspiring new book titled NotToo Late the Power of Pushing
Limits at Any Age.
In it she tells her ownremarkable story of
(01:03):
transitioning from adeconditioned news executive in
her 40s to a competitiveobstacle course racer in her 50s
.
A veteran Wall Street Journalreporter and editor, wendy also
interviewed experts in longevity, philosophy, athletic
performance and more for thebook philosophy, athletic
(01:25):
performance and more for thebook.
And it's a compelling truestory of how Wendy changed her
life.
But it's also much more thanthat, as I think you'll see from
this discussion.
So many of your prospects andclients will relate to this
story, even if they have nointerest in running obstacle
course races.
Wendy's a terrific writer andstoryteller and I know you will
enjoy our conversation as muchas I did.
(01:48):
Here we go, gwendolyn Bounds.
Wendy, nice to see you.
It's so good to be here withyou, jay.
Yeah, I am delighted by yourstory and your book and by all
the great things that we'regoing to talk about today.
We've enjoyed a sort of apregame warm-up here and this is
going to be a good conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
We have a lot in common.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, okay, I want to dive right into a little bit
about your background, somewhatsimilar to mine, coming from
newspapers and getting into thisfitness space a little later in
life, but you have such a greatstory about what the spark was,
so go ahead and tell us that.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Sure, you say a little bit later in life,
getting into the fitness space alot later, right Age 45.
I am a journalist by profession.
As you noted, I spent the firstchunk of my career at the Wall
Street Journal as a reporter andeditor, later moved to a brand
called Consumer Reports productreviews and ratings Many people
probably know it where I oversawtheir content and then just
(02:52):
recently, have pivoted and amworking at an internet startup,
a media startup called SmartNews.
It's a news aggregator app.
All of which to say, jay, isthat, as a lot of sitting and a
lot of screens and a lot ofhands uncalloused pecking on a
keyboard, and not a lot of beingout pursuing your fitness or
(03:13):
not.
A lot of focus for me onexercise.
I did enough to justify my gymmembership, but that was about
it.
And I was the skinny kid lastpicked for sports teams growing
up, right.
I never got that positivefeedback that you know.
Oh, I should be an athlete, Icould be an athlete, right.
I got positive feedback abouthow I put words together right.
(03:35):
So that's the direction I wentin.
So for me, age 45, as youalluded to, I had a pretty big
wake up call in all places.
At a dinner party, I overhearda old, older man, well into his
gin, ask a young girl you wantto be?
What do you want to be when yougrow up?
Normal question, you ask a kid.
(03:56):
But she just was like Jay.
She was so full of, like, allthese incredible things, one
after another, none of them,which none of them had anything
to do with the next right Aveterinarian or a computer
programmer at Apple, or anartist.
And that phrase just stuck withme the whole night and into the
(04:16):
next morning when I woke up andI was a little bleary eyed and I
was just churning in my headand it I realized.
You know, in middle age andmidlife, we people stop asking
us what do you want to be whenyou grow up?
But, more importantly, stopasking ourselves.
And that is what sent me toGoogle sitting screens again,
where I still, to this day,don't know why I typed it.
But I typed in the phrase whatare the hardest things you can
(04:40):
do?
And the algorithm popped upwhat are the hardest physical
things you can do?
And I saw something calledobstacle course racing, spartan
racing, and I was like what isthat?
And I clicked on it and Istarted reading about this and
we can get into what it is, butthis crazy sport, I thought at
the time, and that is what setme off on this journey to that
(05:01):
was five, six year journey totransform from being really this
unathletic news executive intoa competitive age group athlete
who's been in two worldchampionships in Spartan racing.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So that's the, that is the catalyst, and that is
just great story because we allrelate to that.
A lot of people have had thatmoment where they think, oh gosh
, what do I want to do?
Who am I anymore?
Where am I going to be for thenext 20 years, 15 years,
whatever?
And it's the how we answer thatquestion, you know with
enthusiasm and curiosity or withkind of dread and resignation.
(05:34):
So I love generally yourresponse.
I love specifically yourresponse because these obstacle
course races are on my bucketlist.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well they're not going to be long, because I'm
coming to Atlanta and I'm goingto take you on a Spartan race.
We're going to do it together.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I can't wait.
I hope you're not just sayingthat, because I will take you up
on that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That is going to happen, and if anybody any of
your listeners who haven't doneone have been thinking about it,
we should all do it together.
Right, let's get a bunch ofyour listeners First timers.
We'll all do it together.
We'll cross the finish linetogether.
We'll make sure everybody getsthrough it.
Let's do that, I would lovethat.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I would love that Tell the folks a little bit.
I'm sure most people listeningto this have a fairly good idea
but what it is and why youdidn't just run screaming for
the hills when someone suggestedyou do this or the Google
suggested you do it.
Because it's pretty extreme.
It seems extreme.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
It can be, and I think.
Well, my mother still thinks Ishould have run screaming from
the hills, particularly when shesees me crawling in the mud
under barbed wire.
But that said, it is.
In essence, it combinesendurance running with
hunter-gatherer, military styleobstacles carrying heavy buckets
of rocks, heavy sandbags,scaling walls, climbing a rope,
(06:51):
crawling under barbed wire allof things that are very basic to
the functional movements weneed in life.
To be honest, jay, these arethings that you want to be able
to bend down and get the dog'sball out from under the bed,
right, and not put your back out.
You need mobility to be able toget down on all fours, hence
the barbed wire crawl.
If you want to put yoursuitcase in the airplane's
(07:13):
overhead bend and not have toask the flight attendant for
help, right, that's.
Can you get a sandbag up onyour back, right?
These are all.
I didn't know this at the time,but as I have come to love this
sport and to think about it aspart of my own longevity, I have
come to realize just howcritical these movement patterns
are to us aging.
(07:34):
Well, and I think for many ofthe people who are your
listeners, these are probablymany of the movements that they
advocate or support in the workthat they do.
So what I would say is that youcan start quite easy, easily
easy being a relative terms but5k, 3.1 miles, there are both
(07:54):
sort of non competitive heatsthey call them open races where
you can go out with your friendsthis is what we would do with a
team of people.
You can help each other overthe obstacles.
You can do the penalties if youwant no one's there to enforce
them.
You're not racing for a podium.
Then that's where I started, Imean, that's where I just sort
of that's where I began, knowingnothing.
And then you can scale intocompetitive racing either in
(08:17):
your age group, which is what Ido.
I'm in the 50 to 54 categorywhere you are competing for a
podium slot and you are held tothe same standards as the even
the elite pro racers who arecompeting in many cases for
prize money.
But you again, like you, haveto do your penalty loops or your
burpees.
If you are in, a burpee is atype of movement which many
(08:40):
people may be familiar with,very punishing but had been a
long time penalty part ofobstacle course racing in
Spartan.
But you can start small and youcan scale up and I think that
training for something like this, however you are training for
it is, as we were saying, reallygoing to put you on a better
(09:02):
path for aging and all, and tobasically fight the decline that
is inevitably coming for all ofus.
Jay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yes, it is, unless we take action to prevent it.
And there's so much we can do.
One of the things that I havebeen so excited to learn in the
last few years, since I've beenfocusing on this fitness over 50
, is uh, it seems to me thatanyone sort of like I'm 60, I
remember when fitness becamecommon, and that means I
(09:32):
remember when it was not, youknow, when there weren't
Nautilus studios on every corner, and back when Jane Fonda was
just a movie star.
It was a different world.
My parents never exercised,your parents didn't.
You know that generation didn'tgo work out.
That just wasn't a thing thatpeople did, and people thought
muscles meant Olympicbodybuilders every four years on
(09:53):
TV.
I don't think there's that realawareness that fitness,
athletic performance, strength,agility, endurance, that these
things are essential for healthylife and for autonomy as we age
.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And not just to be a competitive athlete right.
Yes, that's know.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yes, that's right.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Right, it's worth underscoring that to participate
just in basic daily life taskssome of the things we were
talking about picking up a bagof mulch at Home Depot and
things like that but alsocognitively.
I know you know this, but theresearch out there now shows we
can get these tremendous,tremendous cognitive benefits
(10:33):
from exercise and movement,which protects our brains and
therefore anything that we loveto do, whether it's painting or
fly fishing or singing right,this can help us stay engaged in
that.
So movement is certainly anecessary prescription if you
want to be an athlete of anysort, but it is a necessary
prescription if you just want tobe an athlete of life, right?
(10:55):
If you just want to stayengaged in those things you love
.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That's right.
That's sort of the main themeof my stuff is staying engaged
in the things you love.
I don't care what you like todo, I just care that you're able
to do it as long as you want to, rather than being limited in
your mobility and feeling bad.
Gardening is such a great thingfor people to do.
It's a good physical workout,it gets you outside, it's
(11:19):
creative, it involves your brainand it's hard so you can
actually go to the gym and getstrong so that you can enjoy
working in the garden for longer, and that's going to prolong
your quality of life and yourautonomy and everything.
So we're talking about someonewho is now a competitive athlete
in this kind of crazy soundingsport of obstacle course racing,
(11:41):
and the book opens in Abu Dhabiat one of the championships
that you went to.
You don't have to go to allthose extremes to just have a
better life.
The title of your book kind ofaddresses that it's not too late
the power of pushing limits atany age.
How did you come upon this kindof drive to go into it?
(12:02):
I understand the spark of thedinner party and the little girl
, but you went way beyond that.
What was that journey like foryou?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I do think there's a reckoning coming for all of us
at some point in midlife.
You know where we ask thequestion is this all there is?
You know, is this all I am orcan be?
And this was my moment ofreckoning.
And had I not gone down thisrabbit hole of obstacle course
racing, not sure what the, whatmy quality of life would have
(12:34):
been like?
I was not deeply unhappy, but Iwas called up in a cycle of
inertia, doing the same things,same work challenges, same
chores, monday through Fridayroutines.
It felt like something slippingfrom a major to a minor right.
I just wasn't waking up withthis drive and this profound
(12:55):
will to live that I think youhave more acutely when you're
younger.
And so for me, it was theday-to-day process of starting
to become a student again, tolearn and to unlearn things in
order to engage in this sport.
Because I had no idea what Iwas doing.
I started off by waking up 45minutes to an hour earlier for
(13:19):
my job at Consumer Reports.
I would go downstairs, it wasstill dark, I was bleary eyed,
I'd go out in my yard and Iwould do the.
I was getting these freeSpartan workouts of the day and
I didn't even know what half thestuff was, jay.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I didn't know what a bear crawl was so I'd have to.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Google it, watch it on YouTube and then try and do
it in my frozen yard while myneighbors drove by and were like
oh my God, is she okay Like?
she looks like a wounded animal,like down there with her
middle-aged limbs.
As I did these things day afterday, then I would go to work
and I'd feel a little bitdifferent.
Right, I would need a secondbreakfast because I had worked
(13:58):
out so hard in the morning andthat felt kind of powerful in
its own way.
Right, I would be sitting in myfirst meeting and know I had
done this thing.
It was like a secret identitythat was developing alongside
being a media executive.
Baby calluses soon started toemerge on my hand and I would
touch them under the conferencetable while somebody was on
(14:21):
slide 83 of some monotonousPowerPoint presentation about
marketplace challenges and itjust it gave me this.
I would go home.
It would be what I would thinkabout when I was going to sleep.
I would have, instead of Idon't know, scrolling through
social media, I would watchvideos of people climbing ropes.
It took me forever it took likesix, eight months to begin to
(14:43):
learn how to climb a rope, but Igot excited.
Right, I would go to bedthinking about something other
than, oh, I got excited.
Right, I would go to bedthinking about something other
than, oh, that annoying thing mycolleague said.
Or my Amazon list.
I have to order, and that waschanging the chemistry of my
brain.
It was igniting this will tolive, and it wasn't until I
began reporting this book, Jay,that I really understood the
(15:03):
data behind having somethinglike this in your life and what
it can do for our longevity.
There's a woman named BeccaLevy at Yale, and she did
research showing that people whohave positive perceptions of
aging live 7.5 years longer onaverage than those without, and
(15:24):
part of that is will to live andhaving these pastimes that
excite us and a reason to get upin the morning.
I don't know about you, but I'dtake 7.5 years.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Absolutely, it makes such a difference.
And also a lot of older people.
The spouses might have passedaway, the children might be
grown and living far away, andwe learned this in COVID.
A lot of older people are aloneand isolated and the social
interaction that fitness canprovide having a sport, having a
(15:54):
hobby, that social interactionis really key for older folks.
So did you find communityimmediately, or did that take a
while, or what was that?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
like I did and I love this question.
I'm going to answer it in twoparts.
The first part is not going tobe about me.
The first part is mymother-in-law, who just what you
were saying.
My father-in-law passed awayabout a year ago.
My mother-in-law had to have aheart surgery prior to that.
When she was done, she washaving trouble just walking to
(16:27):
the mailbox, right.
But she joined a gym for thefirst time.
She's now 84 and got a personaltrainer and she is to the point
where we just got back with heron it from a trip to Greece
where she was able to climb thestairs and walk and see.
You know this was a.
You know I don't love the termbucket list, but it was a bucket
(16:49):
list trip, something she wantedto do, and and that was
powerful, right?
Not only did she have thecommunity of being at this gym
and having this trainer andhaving a reason to get up, but
she saw how her body changed,even in her eighties.
So when I say not too late,like, it's not just 40s, 50s,
60s, but I'm talking up intoyour 80s, and for me this opened
(17:13):
up a whole community and worldof people I would have never
crossed paths with yourselfincluded.
Right, I had trainers who wereyounger than I am.
People who could have been mydaughters were training me.
I learned so much from them.
But, even more importantly,they never let me use age as an
excuse and I tried sometimesright, to get my training done.
(17:35):
They just wouldn't hear it andbecause of that I shifted my own
perception.
So, between my coaches, thepeople I met in the gym where I
trained for a while I mean stillsome of my coach there, some of
the closest people that I thinkabout when I something I'm
struggling with in a life, right, like these are people I'm very
close to now.
And then the tangential peopleI see at races and I hug, and
(17:59):
they're the ones who you know ifthey're passing me, they're
giving me.
You know, let's go, let's go,let's go.
That is.
I wouldn't have had any of thatand it's a whole separate life.
That is not.
It's adjacent to the life Ihave now, but it makes the life
that I had and that I do havenow far more rich.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yes, and I think so many people experience things
like that.
I know I have.
I've been going to the same gymhere in Atlanta for probably 20
years and there are people Isay hello to and we chitty chat
and haven't seen you in a whileand how you've been, and
vacation this, and I might notknow their last names.
I'm not saying that these areintimate friends, but they are
part of the community and theydo keep me going back.
(18:40):
I look forward to seeing them.
That kind of thing that'sreally important the older we
get, I think.
Tell me about your trainingregimen.
What are you doing to reachthis level of excellence?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It's changed a lot.
In the very beginning, and Ithink what I'm going to say is
important for anybody who justwants to get started, you know,
at first I was sort of paralyzedby what gym do I need, what
coach do I need, what fancywatch do I need?
And finally I just kind of gaveup and started doing and trying
things, as I mentioned to you,like in my yard, in my house,
(19:16):
and the internet will provide alot of information to get
started.
But ultimately I neededstructure and I do think having
teachers is important to somedegree, particularly if you want
to keep learning.
Think having teachers isimportant to some degree,
particularly if you want to keeplearning.
So I found a local fitnesscenter that really specialized
in the types of movementpatterns and skills you need for
(19:37):
obstacle race training.
They had hanging rings andmonkey bars in the gym, they had
sandbags and we kind of workedand hit a high intensity
interval training at that gym.
We kind of worked and hit ahigh intensity interval training
at that gym and that's where Ireally was pushed by a lot of
younger people, as well as mycoach, who was older than I am,
but they called him we stillcall him podium Pete because of
(19:59):
how many podiums he had and hewas in his sixties and he really
drove me and helped meunderstand that, even though it
was one of the older people inthe class, like there was more,
he saw something and I think hehelped me believe that I could
evolve from, you know, kind of amiddle of the pack, last of the
pack, place finisher, intosomething more.
(20:21):
So I was at that gym for awhile until COVID hit and then
we were all at home and, as youwell know and experienced
yourself and people listening tothis, I had to figure out how I
could train on my own in myhouse, you know, and so I got
the requisite equipment I needed.
I have a pull up my basicallyI've converted my garage into a
(20:41):
gym and I have a pull up bar, Ihave kettlebells, I have
sandbags, I have a rowingmachine, I have a, you know.
It essentially is what I needfor working out.
Now it's all the equipment,resistance bands, things like
that I trained there.
And then, after my first theterm people use in the industry
is DNF, when you did not finish.
I did not finish a very coldrace in New Jersey because I was
(21:04):
getting close, I think, tohypothermia and it would really
could have gone a couple of ways.
I could have quit, I could havebeen really like, well, I'm not
cut out for this.
But I Googled again and I foundtwo coaches that I work with
now online, one of whom is aformer Olympic runner in Canada
and the other one is a eliteobstacle course racer, and I
(21:24):
signed up with them and I'vebeen doing online training with
them ever since.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Tell me if you have any examples of maybe positive
or negative interactions you hadfrom people in the fitness
industry saying you're too old,you're too deconditioned, just
stick to your day job, honey,don't try something this crazy.
What's wrong with you?
I ask because I talk to gymowners all the time and gym
(21:52):
goers all the time and there isthis gap between how gym
employees and gym managementwill interface sometimes with
older people and you'reinvisible to a large portion of
the population after a certainage and I've seen older people
be ignored by front desk helpand I've seen them treated like
(22:16):
royalty and the difference istremendous in getting their
business and helping themachieve their goals.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So tell me, if anything comes to mind, I think
this is a fascinating question,particularly because I also used
to be a Wall Street Journalreporter, so the industry side
of this sparks my interest.
So I know and believe what youare saying to be true.
What you are saying to be true,I think there is a real gap in
(22:44):
how people who are aging infitness are treated in the
industry and how younger peopleare being treated.
But I'll say, Jay, I think thatgap is closing and here's why
Because the market for people40s, 50s, 60s and up is such a
rich market and potentiallylucrative market that I think
very savvy people in the fitnessindustry are dropping that
(23:05):
sensibility and recognizing thepower of what this market can do
for them.
And I think they're also seeingjust how incredibly hardworking
people in middle age and beyondare when it comes to fitness,
how disciplined they are, theyshow up right, they're patient,
they're persistent, they haveperspective.
(23:26):
So these are great people totrain and to market to right.
They have disposable income tospend on personal trainers and
gear and the like right.
So I actually think theindustry is shifting in a very
positive direction and I likeseeing that.
I got very lucky that the gymowner that I went to he was 60.
And he again, he didn'tremotely think that that was a
(23:49):
limit, because it hadn't been alimit for him.
You know, he had been quiteoverweight.
He was an investment banker andhe used to eat in New York City
and watch people in a gymacross the street doing all of
these obstacle course racetraining movements until one day
he finally just like stoppedeating lunch and he went over
and he tried a class and he saidhe almost like died during it
(24:11):
but he thinks he would not bewalking at this point, Like he
would have been so unhealthy hadhe not done that.
And yet he was consistentlyplacing first, second, third
place in the 60 plus age groupwhen he was coaching me.
So he did not treat me that way.
I have gone into other gyms,right, when all there'll be a
class going on and you knowit'll be a lot of younger people
(24:34):
and they're kind of sweating itout on bikes or whatever it is
they're doing.
And I was in a gym in LongIsland, New York, recently.
That was happening and I wasn'tpart of the class and you know,
I was just kind of over on theside and suddenly I was doing my
own training and I went andclimbed a 17 foot rope up to the
rafters and rang a bell.
Everything stopped Right andlike the guy stopped the class
(24:56):
and said could you please joinour?
Like he wanted me in the classbecause of that and the younger
people were sort of like, oh,okay, Right, it just proves not
only can you at any age dothings that you maybe even
couldn't have done when you'reyounger.
I don't even know if any ofthose other people could have
climbed that rope, but it justshows you can close the gap,
(25:16):
Perceptions can be changed andthen you can be somebody that
people want you to be with them.
So I just think there's a lotof ground that has been covered
and that we can still cover inthis Jay.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Oh, I agree.
That's what two things exciteme the most about this business
that I'm doing with Prime FitContent, where I provide
material for gyms to reach morepeople in this market, where I
provide material for gyms toreach more people in this market
, and that is that, that themessage is taking hold and it is
changing, not as much as Imight like it to, but it is
evolving because it just makesgood sense.
(25:48):
You know, when I started this,people would say, oh, that's
nice.
And I'm like you know, screwnice.
I'm not suggesting you be nice,I'm saying you're missing out
on an economic opportunity here,because baby boomers want your
help and they'll give you theirmoney.
It's not just baby boomers, butthat's a good sort of core for
it.
But then the other thing isthese stories are just so
(26:10):
amazing.
As a writer, I am moved andfascinated and compelled by all
the different variations thatpeople bring to the classic hero
story.
They're going along in thestatus quo of their life and
then something happens.
It doesn't have to becataclysmic you overheard a
conversation with a little girland that got your mind thinking.
Or maybe your doctor saysyou're pre-diabetic, or maybe
(26:32):
your grandbaby won't play withyou because you can't get down
on the floor.
Something gets you started andyou find a way to improve your
life through taking better careof yourself.
And the name of the book is NotToo Late the Power of Pushing
Limits at Any Age by GwendolynBounds.
I want to ask you to tell usabout the book and how it came
about.
It's available June 18th, whichis any minute now.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yep Available for pre-order up until then.
I actually have there's apre-order bonus for people.
You can find it on my website,gwendolenboundscom for people
who order the book before June18th.
So I would encourage people tocheck that out.
But it will ship on June 18th.
It's available at any majorretailer, any major book
(27:17):
retailer.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Now Wonderful how did it come about?
What made you think gee, thisisn't just something I'm doing,
this is a book.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
The people around me and even strangers who would
meet me, and then the obstacleracing journey story would come
up somehow.
They all wanted to know how?
How did you manage to fitsomething that you weren't good
at into an already busy life?
What were the tools and thetactics you used to do that?
(27:45):
How did you break the inertia,this cycle of sameness that you
were in and make this happen?
Because you didn't just go, Ididn't just go out and run one
race.
I have now run 50 races and Icontinue to have this open
journey in front of me.
And so enough people wereasking me how, what were the
(28:07):
time tactics you use?
What were the motivationaltools?
How did you do it?
And it often would end with oh,you should write a book about
that.
And enough people say that thatit sticks in your head, and so I
wanted to write a book that youknow not only used my journey
as a narrative arc and a peg tohopefully encourage people to
(28:28):
know like, yeah, yes, you can dothis if you're over 45, but
also I wanted to help peoplehave it.
Do it better than I did.
Right, I went and interviewed alot of very smart people.
I used my journalistic skillsscientists, longevity doctors, a
philosopher, performanceexperts, elite athletes and I
used their wisdom to essentiallyhelp other people understand
(28:54):
how they, too, could have thetools and the tactics they need
for whatever pastime they mightchoose, to really engage and to
begin to integrate it into theirlife.
So that's how it came to BJ.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Wonderful.
Okay, I'm going to say it onceagain.
The name of the book is not toolate the Power of Pushing
Limits at Any Age by GwendolynBounds.
You can pre-order it now atgwendolynboundscom and as of
June 18th, you can get iteverywhere.
It's very exciting.
I'm so glad that we connectedand you've inspired me on a few
levels today, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Well, I'm so glad to have been here and I would say
for anybody thinking about howthey're going to push themselves
in whatever aspect of theirlife, I think we have to get
comfortable looking foolish alittle bit.
Right, we get in midlife to aplace where we think, oh, I need
to be the master of my universe.
Right, I have to do the thingsI'm good at.
(29:49):
That's what people expect of meand I think if you let yourself
be willing and open to kind ofnot knowing things and to not
being the smartest person in theroom, not being the one who has
all the experience and thestories to tell, but somebody
who's willing to be a studentagain, to make your brain young
in that way, and to again to beokay failing in front of other
(30:12):
people, that is how you're goingto cross this Rubicon.
That is how you're going totransition into building a new
part of yourself into your life.
If I hadn't been willing to dothat, I wouldn't have gotten to
where I am.
I had to fall off of ropes, Ihad to be.
People tell me you're just,you're not strong enough, Like
over and over again.
It's humbling, but it wasthrough that humility that I now
(30:36):
don't humility, that I nowdon't like that little girl,
that I was right.
I don't have regrets about thatanymore.
I have solved that piece of thepuzzle and become something
that I think I always wanted tobe but didn't think I could.
But I had to be willing to looka little dumb and to be into
fail to do it.
So I just want to leave peoplewith that, because I think
(30:56):
that's such a critical piece ofthis, Jay.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Great lesson.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Thanks for wrapping up with that 100% and let's get
10 to 20 people who are yourlisteners.
Let's find a Spartan race.
They have them in Atlanta.
We'll come down.
We'll get everybody throughthat race together, Jay.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Well, I can't wait.
I'm so excited.
Okay, thanks, wendy.
Thank you, jay.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Thank you for listening to Optimal Aging.
I hope you enjoyed it and Ihope you'll subscribe, tell a
friend and write a review.
All of that helps me grow myaudience.
You can learn more about me andmy content business at
primefitcontentcom.
You can send me an email at jayat primefitcontentcom.
(31:41):
That's jay J-A-Y atprimefitcontentcom.
I'm also on Facebook, linkedinand Instagram so you can find me
anywhere you like and be intouch.
And again, thanks for listening.
Join me next time.
How old is too old?
How late in life is too late inlife to get fit, change your
life and improve your health?
Is it 40, 55, maybe 70?
Or is the answer it's never toolate?
Well, these are the questionswe'll be covering on this
(00:21):
episode of Optimal Aging, wherewe discuss the business of
exercise, healthy living andwell-being for people 50 and
over.
Each week, we explore whathealthy living means for
millions of people in thislucrative yet underserved market
, with a focus on communications, content and making powerful
(00:42):
connections.
Content and making powerfulconnections.
And I'm really excited about myguest on this episode, because
Gwendolyn Bounds tackles thisquestion head-on in her
inspiring new book titled NotToo Late the Power of Pushing
Limits at Any Age.
In it she tells her ownremarkable story of
(01:03):
transitioning from adeconditioned news executive in
her 40s to a competitiveobstacle course racer in her 50s
.
A veteran Wall Street Journalreporter and editor, wendy also
interviewed experts in longevity, philosophy, athletic
performance and more for thebook philosophy, athletic
(01:25):
performance and more for thebook.
And it's a compelling truestory of how Wendy changed her
life.
But it's also much more thanthat, as I think you'll see from
this discussion.
So many of your prospects andclients will relate to this
story, even if they have nointerest in running obstacle
course races.
Wendy's a terrific writer andstoryteller and I know you will
enjoy our conversation as muchas I did.
(01:48):
Here we go, gwendolyn Bounds.
Wendy, nice to see you.
It's so good to be here withyou, jay.
Yeah, I am delighted by yourstory and your book and by all
the great things that we'regoing to talk about today.
We've enjoyed a sort of apregame warm-up here and this is
going to be a good conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
We have a lot in common.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, okay, I want to dive right into a little bit
about your background, somewhatsimilar to mine, coming from
newspapers and getting into thisfitness space a little later in
life, but you have such a greatstory about what the spark was,
so go ahead and tell us that.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Sure, you say a little bit later in life,
getting into the fitness space alot later, right Age 45.
I am a journalist by profession.
As you noted, I spent the firstchunk of my career at the Wall
Street Journal as a reporter andeditor, later moved to a brand
called Consumer Reports productreviews and ratings Many people
probably know it where I oversawtheir content and then just
(02:52):
recently, have pivoted and amworking at an internet startup,
a media startup called SmartNews.
It's a news aggregator app.
All of which to say, jay, isthat, as a lot of sitting and a
lot of screens and a lot ofhands uncalloused pecking on a
keyboard, and not a lot of beingout pursuing your fitness or
(03:13):
not.
A lot of focus for me onexercise.
I did enough to justify my gymmembership, but that was about
it.
And I was the skinny kid lastpicked for sports teams growing
up, right.
I never got that positivefeedback that you know.
Oh, I should be an athlete, Icould be an athlete, right.
I got positive feedback abouthow I put words together right.
(03:35):
So that's the direction I wentin.
So for me, age 45, as youalluded to, I had a pretty big
wake up call in all places.
At a dinner party, I overhearda old, older man, well into his
gin, ask a young girl you wantto be?
What do you want to be when yougrow up?
Normal question, you ask a kid.
(03:56):
But she just was like Jay.
She was so full of, like, allthese incredible things, one
after another, none of them,which none of them had anything
to do with the next right Aveterinarian or a computer
programmer at Apple, or anartist.
And that phrase just stuck withme the whole night and into the
(04:16):
next morning when I woke up andI was a little bleary eyed and I
was just churning in my headand it I realized.
You know, in middle age andmidlife, we people stop asking
us what do you want to be whenyou grow up?
But, more importantly, stopasking ourselves.
And that is what sent me toGoogle sitting screens again,
where I still, to this day,don't know why I typed it.
But I typed in the phrase whatare the hardest things you can
(04:40):
do?
And the algorithm popped upwhat are the hardest physical
things you can do?
And I saw something calledobstacle course racing, spartan
racing, and I was like what isthat?
And I clicked on it and Istarted reading about this and
we can get into what it is, butthis crazy sport, I thought at
the time, and that is what setme off on this journey to that
(05:01):
was five, six year journey totransform from being really this
unathletic news executive intoa competitive age group athlete
who's been in two worldchampionships in Spartan racing.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So that's the, that is the catalyst, and that is
just great story because we allrelate to that.
A lot of people have had thatmoment where they think, oh gosh
, what do I want to do?
Who am I anymore?
Where am I going to be for thenext 20 years, 15 years,
whatever?
And it's the how we answer thatquestion, you know with
enthusiasm and curiosity or withkind of dread and resignation.
(05:34):
So I love generally yourresponse.
I love specifically yourresponse because these obstacle
course races are on my bucketlist.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well they're not going to be long, because I'm
coming to Atlanta and I'm goingto take you on a Spartan race.
We're going to do it together.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I can't wait.
I hope you're not just sayingthat, because I will take you up
on that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That is going to happen, and if anybody any of
your listeners who haven't doneone have been thinking about it,
we should all do it together.
Right, let's get a bunch ofyour listeners First timers.
We'll all do it together.
We'll cross the finish linetogether.
We'll make sure everybody getsthrough it.
Let's do that, I would lovethat.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I would love that Tell the folks a little bit.
I'm sure most people listeningto this have a fairly good idea
but what it is and why youdidn't just run screaming for
the hills when someone suggestedyou do this or the Google
suggested you do it.
Because it's pretty extreme.
It seems extreme.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
It can be, and I think.
Well, my mother still thinks Ishould have run screaming from
the hills, particularly when shesees me crawling in the mud
under barbed wire.
But that said, it is.
In essence, it combinesendurance running with
hunter-gatherer, military styleobstacles carrying heavy buckets
of rocks, heavy sandbags,scaling walls, climbing a rope,
(06:51):
crawling under barbed wire allof things that are very basic to
the functional movements weneed in life.
To be honest, jay, these arethings that you want to be able
to bend down and get the dog'sball out from under the bed,
right, and not put your back out.
You need mobility to be able toget down on all fours, hence
the barbed wire crawl.
If you want to put yoursuitcase in the airplane's
(07:13):
overhead bend and not have toask the flight attendant for
help, right, that's.
Can you get a sandbag up onyour back, right?
These are all.
I didn't know this at the time,but as I have come to love this
sport and to think about it aspart of my own longevity, I have
come to realize just howcritical these movement patterns
are to us aging.
(07:34):
Well, and I think for many ofthe people who are your
listeners, these are probablymany of the movements that they
advocate or support in the workthat they do.
So what I would say is that youcan start quite easy, easily
easy being a relative terms but5k, 3.1 miles, there are both
(07:54):
sort of non competitive heatsthey call them open races where
you can go out with your friendsthis is what we would do with a
team of people.
You can help each other overthe obstacles.
You can do the penalties if youwant no one's there to enforce
them.
You're not racing for a podium.
Then that's where I started, Imean, that's where I just sort
of that's where I began, knowingnothing.
And then you can scale intocompetitive racing either in
(08:17):
your age group, which is what Ido.
I'm in the 50 to 54 categorywhere you are competing for a
podium slot and you are held tothe same standards as the even
the elite pro racers who arecompeting in many cases for
prize money.
But you again, like you, haveto do your penalty loops or your
burpees.
If you are in, a burpee is atype of movement which many
(08:40):
people may be familiar with,very punishing but had been a
long time penalty part ofobstacle course racing in
Spartan.
But you can start small and youcan scale up and I think that
training for something like this, however you are training for
it is, as we were saying, reallygoing to put you on a better
(09:02):
path for aging and all, and tobasically fight the decline that
is inevitably coming for all ofus.
Jay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yes, it is, unless we take action to prevent it.
And there's so much we can do.
One of the things that I havebeen so excited to learn in the
last few years, since I've beenfocusing on this fitness over 50
, is uh, it seems to me thatanyone sort of like I'm 60, I
remember when fitness becamecommon, and that means I
(09:32):
remember when it was not, youknow, when there weren't
Nautilus studios on every corner, and back when Jane Fonda was
just a movie star.
It was a different world.
My parents never exercised,your parents didn't.
You know that generation didn'tgo work out.
That just wasn't a thing thatpeople did, and people thought
muscles meant Olympicbodybuilders every four years on
(09:53):
TV.
I don't think there's that realawareness that fitness,
athletic performance, strength,agility, endurance, that these
things are essential for healthylife and for autonomy as we age
.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And not just to be a competitive athlete right.
Yes, that's know.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yes, that's right.
No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Right, it's worth underscoring that to participate
just in basic daily life taskssome of the things we were
talking about picking up a bagof mulch at Home Depot and
things like that but alsocognitively.
I know you know this, but theresearch out there now shows we
can get these tremendous,tremendous cognitive benefits
(10:33):
from exercise and movement,which protects our brains and
therefore anything that we loveto do, whether it's painting or
fly fishing or singing right,this can help us stay engaged in
that.
So movement is certainly anecessary prescription if you
want to be an athlete of anysort, but it is a necessary
prescription if you just want tobe an athlete of life, right?
(10:55):
If you just want to stayengaged in those things you love
.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That's right.
That's sort of the main themeof my stuff is staying engaged
in the things you love.
I don't care what you like todo, I just care that you're able
to do it as long as you want to, rather than being limited in
your mobility and feeling bad.
Gardening is such a great thingfor people to do.
It's a good physical workout,it gets you outside, it's
(11:19):
creative, it involves your brainand it's hard so you can
actually go to the gym and getstrong so that you can enjoy
working in the garden for longer, and that's going to prolong
your quality of life and yourautonomy and everything.
So we're talking about someonewho is now a competitive athlete
in this kind of crazy soundingsport of obstacle course racing,
(11:41):
and the book opens in Abu Dhabiat one of the championships
that you went to.
You don't have to go to allthose extremes to just have a
better life.
The title of your book kind ofaddresses that it's not too late
the power of pushing limits atany age.
How did you come upon this kindof drive to go into it?
(12:02):
I understand the spark of thedinner party and the little girl
, but you went way beyond that.
What was that journey like foryou?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
I do think there's a reckoning coming for all of us
at some point in midlife.
You know where we ask thequestion is this all there is?
You know, is this all I am orcan be?
And this was my moment ofreckoning.
And had I not gone down thisrabbit hole of obstacle course
racing, not sure what the, whatmy quality of life would have
(12:34):
been like?
I was not deeply unhappy, but Iwas called up in a cycle of
inertia, doing the same things,same work challenges, same
chores, monday through Fridayroutines.
It felt like something slippingfrom a major to a minor right.
I just wasn't waking up withthis drive and this profound
(12:55):
will to live that I think youhave more acutely when you're
younger.
And so for me, it was theday-to-day process of starting
to become a student again, tolearn and to unlearn things in
order to engage in this sport.
Because I had no idea what Iwas doing.
I started off by waking up 45minutes to an hour earlier for
(13:19):
my job at Consumer Reports.
I would go downstairs, it wasstill dark, I was bleary eyed,
I'd go out in my yard and Iwould do the.
I was getting these freeSpartan workouts of the day and
I didn't even know what half thestuff was, jay.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I didn't know what a bear crawl was so I'd have to.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Google it, watch it on YouTube and then try and do
it in my frozen yard while myneighbors drove by and were like
oh my God, is she okay Like?
she looks like a wounded animal,like down there with her
middle-aged limbs.
As I did these things day afterday, then I would go to work
and I'd feel a little bitdifferent.
Right, I would need a secondbreakfast because I had worked
(13:58):
out so hard in the morning andthat felt kind of powerful in
its own way.
Right, I would be sitting in myfirst meeting and know I had
done this thing.
It was like a secret identitythat was developing alongside
being a media executive.
Baby calluses soon started toemerge on my hand and I would
touch them under the conferencetable while somebody was on
(14:21):
slide 83 of some monotonousPowerPoint presentation about
marketplace challenges and itjust it gave me this.
I would go home.
It would be what I would thinkabout when I was going to sleep.
I would have, instead of Idon't know, scrolling through
social media, I would watchvideos of people climbing ropes.
It took me forever it took likesix, eight months to begin to
(14:43):
learn how to climb a rope, but Igot excited.
Right, I would go to bedthinking about something other
than, oh, I got excited.
Right, I would go to bedthinking about something other
than, oh, that annoying thing mycolleague said.
Or my Amazon list.
I have to order, and that waschanging the chemistry of my
brain.
It was igniting this will tolive, and it wasn't until I
began reporting this book, Jay,that I really understood the
(15:03):
data behind having somethinglike this in your life and what
it can do for our longevity.
There's a woman named BeccaLevy at Yale, and she did
research showing that people whohave positive perceptions of
aging live 7.5 years longer onaverage than those without, and
(15:24):
part of that is will to live andhaving these pastimes that
excite us and a reason to get upin the morning.
I don't know about you, but I'dtake 7.5 years.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Absolutely, it makes such a difference.
And also a lot of older people.
The spouses might have passedaway, the children might be
grown and living far away, andwe learned this in COVID.
A lot of older people are aloneand isolated and the social
interaction that fitness canprovide having a sport, having a
(15:54):
hobby, that social interactionis really key for older folks.
So did you find communityimmediately, or did that take a
while, or what was that?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
like I did and I love this question.
I'm going to answer it in twoparts.
The first part is not going tobe about me.
The first part is mymother-in-law, who just what you
were saying.
My father-in-law passed awayabout a year ago.
My mother-in-law had to have aheart surgery prior to that.
When she was done, she washaving trouble just walking to
(16:27):
the mailbox, right.
But she joined a gym for thefirst time.
She's now 84 and got a personaltrainer and she is to the point
where we just got back with heron it from a trip to Greece
where she was able to climb thestairs and walk and see.
You know this was a.
You know I don't love the termbucket list, but it was a bucket
(16:49):
list trip, something she wantedto do, and and that was
powerful, right?
Not only did she have thecommunity of being at this gym
and having this trainer andhaving a reason to get up, but
she saw how her body changed,even in her eighties.
So when I say not too late,like, it's not just 40s, 50s,
60s, but I'm talking up intoyour 80s, and for me this opened
(17:13):
up a whole community and worldof people I would have never
crossed paths with yourselfincluded.
Right, I had trainers who wereyounger than I am.
People who could have been mydaughters were training me.
I learned so much from them.
But, even more importantly,they never let me use age as an
excuse and I tried sometimesright, to get my training done.
(17:35):
They just wouldn't hear it andbecause of that I shifted my own
perception.
So, between my coaches, thepeople I met in the gym where I
trained for a while I mean stillsome of my coach there, some of
the closest people that I thinkabout when I something I'm
struggling with in a life, right, like these are people I'm very
close to now.
And then the tangential peopleI see at races and I hug, and
(17:59):
they're the ones who you know ifthey're passing me, they're
giving me.
You know, let's go, let's go,let's go.
That is.
I wouldn't have had any of thatand it's a whole separate life.
That is not.
It's adjacent to the life Ihave now, but it makes the life
that I had and that I do havenow far more rich.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yes, and I think so many people experience things
like that.
I know I have.
I've been going to the same gymhere in Atlanta for probably 20
years and there are people Isay hello to and we chitty chat
and haven't seen you in a whileand how you've been, and
vacation this, and I might notknow their last names.
I'm not saying that these areintimate friends, but they are
part of the community and theydo keep me going back.
(18:40):
I look forward to seeing them.
That kind of thing that'sreally important the older we
get, I think.
Tell me about your trainingregimen.
What are you doing to reachthis level of excellence?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
It's changed a lot.
In the very beginning, and Ithink what I'm going to say is
important for anybody who justwants to get started, you know,
at first I was sort of paralyzedby what gym do I need, what
coach do I need, what fancywatch do I need?
And finally I just kind of gaveup and started doing and trying
things, as I mentioned to you,like in my yard, in my house,
(19:16):
and the internet will provide alot of information to get
started.
But ultimately I neededstructure and I do think having
teachers is important to somedegree, particularly if you want
to keep learning.
Think having teachers isimportant to some degree,
particularly if you want to keeplearning.
So I found a local fitnesscenter that really specialized
in the types of movementpatterns and skills you need for
(19:37):
obstacle race training.
They had hanging rings andmonkey bars in the gym, they had
sandbags and we kind of workedand hit a high intensity
interval training at that gym.
We kind of worked and hit ahigh intensity interval training
at that gym and that's where Ireally was pushed by a lot of
younger people, as well as mycoach, who was older than I am,
but they called him we stillcall him podium Pete because of
(19:59):
how many podiums he had and hewas in his sixties and he really
drove me and helped meunderstand that, even though it
was one of the older people inthe class, like there was more,
he saw something and I think hehelped me believe that I could
evolve from, you know, kind of amiddle of the pack, last of the
pack, place finisher, intosomething more.
(20:21):
So I was at that gym for awhile until COVID hit and then
we were all at home and, as youwell know and experienced
yourself and people listening tothis, I had to figure out how I
could train on my own in myhouse, you know, and so I got
the requisite equipment I needed.
I have a pull up my basicallyI've converted my garage into a
(20:41):
gym and I have a pull up bar, Ihave kettlebells, I have
sandbags, I have a rowingmachine, I have a, you know.
It essentially is what I needfor working out.
Now it's all the equipment,resistance bands, things like
that I trained there.
And then, after my first theterm people use in the industry
is DNF, when you did not finish.
I did not finish a very coldrace in New Jersey because I was
(21:04):
getting close, I think, tohypothermia and it would really
could have gone a couple of ways.
I could have quit, I could havebeen really like, well, I'm not
cut out for this.
But I Googled again and I foundtwo coaches that I work with
now online, one of whom is aformer Olympic runner in Canada
and the other one is a eliteobstacle course racer, and I
(21:24):
signed up with them and I'vebeen doing online training with
them ever since.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Tell me if you have any examples of maybe positive
or negative interactions you hadfrom people in the fitness
industry saying you're too old,you're too deconditioned, just
stick to your day job, honey,don't try something this crazy.
What's wrong with you?
I ask because I talk to gymowners all the time and gym
(21:52):
goers all the time and there isthis gap between how gym
employees and gym managementwill interface sometimes with
older people and you'reinvisible to a large portion of
the population after a certainage and I've seen older people
be ignored by front desk helpand I've seen them treated like
(22:16):
royalty and the difference istremendous in getting their
business and helping themachieve their goals.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So tell me, if anything comes to mind, I think
this is a fascinating question,particularly because I also used
to be a Wall Street Journalreporter, so the industry side
of this sparks my interest.
So I know and believe what youare saying to be true.
What you are saying to be true,I think there is a real gap in
(22:44):
how people who are aging infitness are treated in the
industry and how younger peopleare being treated.
But I'll say, Jay, I think thatgap is closing and here's why
Because the market for people40s, 50s, 60s and up is such a
rich market and potentiallylucrative market that I think
very savvy people in the fitnessindustry are dropping that
(23:05):
sensibility and recognizing thepower of what this market can do
for them.
And I think they're also seeingjust how incredibly hardworking
people in middle age and beyondare when it comes to fitness,
how disciplined they are, theyshow up right, they're patient,
they're persistent, they haveperspective.
(23:26):
So these are great people totrain and to market to right.
They have disposable income tospend on personal trainers and
gear and the like right.
So I actually think theindustry is shifting in a very
positive direction and I likeseeing that.
I got very lucky that the gymowner that I went to he was 60.
And he again, he didn'tremotely think that that was a
(23:49):
limit, because it hadn't been alimit for him.
You know, he had been quiteoverweight.
He was an investment banker andhe used to eat in New York City
and watch people in a gymacross the street doing all of
these obstacle course racetraining movements until one day
he finally just like stoppedeating lunch and he went over
and he tried a class and he saidhe almost like died during it
(24:11):
but he thinks he would not bewalking at this point, Like he
would have been so unhealthy hadhe not done that.
And yet he was consistentlyplacing first, second, third
place in the 60 plus age groupwhen he was coaching me.
So he did not treat me that way.
I have gone into other gyms,right, when all there'll be a
class going on and you knowit'll be a lot of younger people
(24:34):
and they're kind of sweating itout on bikes or whatever it is
they're doing.
And I was in a gym in LongIsland, New York, recently.
That was happening and I wasn'tpart of the class and you know,
I was just kind of over on theside and suddenly I was doing my
own training and I went andclimbed a 17 foot rope up to the
rafters and rang a bell.
Everything stopped Right andlike the guy stopped the class
(24:56):
and said could you please joinour?
Like he wanted me in the classbecause of that and the younger
people were sort of like, oh,okay, Right, it just proves not
only can you at any age dothings that you maybe even
couldn't have done when you'reyounger.
I don't even know if any ofthose other people could have
climbed that rope, but it justshows you can close the gap,
(25:16):
Perceptions can be changed andthen you can be somebody that
people want you to be with them.
So I just think there's a lotof ground that has been covered
and that we can still cover inthis Jay.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Oh, I agree.
That's what two things exciteme the most about this business
that I'm doing with Prime FitContent, where I provide
material for gyms to reach morepeople in this market, where I
provide material for gyms toreach more people in this market
, and that is that, that themessage is taking hold and it is
changing, not as much as Imight like it to, but it is
evolving because it just makesgood sense.
(25:48):
You know, when I started this,people would say, oh, that's
nice.
And I'm like you know, screwnice.
I'm not suggesting you be nice,I'm saying you're missing out
on an economic opportunity here,because baby boomers want your
help and they'll give you theirmoney.
It's not just baby boomers, butthat's a good sort of core for
it.
But then the other thing isthese stories are just so
(26:10):
amazing.
As a writer, I am moved andfascinated and compelled by all
the different variations thatpeople bring to the classic hero
story.
They're going along in thestatus quo of their life and
then something happens.
It doesn't have to becataclysmic you overheard a
conversation with a little girland that got your mind thinking.
Or maybe your doctor saysyou're pre-diabetic, or maybe
(26:32):
your grandbaby won't play withyou because you can't get down
on the floor.
Something gets you started andyou find a way to improve your
life through taking better careof yourself.
And the name of the book is NotToo Late the Power of Pushing
Limits at Any Age by GwendolynBounds.
I want to ask you to tell usabout the book and how it came
about.
It's available June 18th, whichis any minute now.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yep Available for pre-order up until then.
I actually have there's apre-order bonus for people.
You can find it on my website,gwendolenboundscom for people
who order the book before June18th.
So I would encourage people tocheck that out.
But it will ship on June 18th.
It's available at any majorretailer, any major book
(27:17):
retailer.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Now Wonderful how did it come about?
What made you think gee, thisisn't just something I'm doing,
this is a book.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
The people around me and even strangers who would
meet me, and then the obstacleracing journey story would come
up somehow.
They all wanted to know how?
How did you manage to fitsomething that you weren't good
at into an already busy life?
What were the tools and thetactics you used to do that?
(27:45):
How did you break the inertia,this cycle of sameness that you
were in and make this happen?
Because you didn't just go, Ididn't just go out and run one
race.
I have now run 50 races and Icontinue to have this open
journey in front of me.
And so enough people wereasking me how, what were the
(28:07):
time tactics you use?
What were the motivationaltools?
How did you do it?
And it often would end with oh,you should write a book about
that.
And enough people say that thatit sticks in your head, and so I
wanted to write a book that youknow not only used my journey
as a narrative arc and a peg tohopefully encourage people to
(28:28):
know like, yeah, yes, you can dothis if you're over 45, but
also I wanted to help peoplehave it.
Do it better than I did.
Right, I went and interviewed alot of very smart people.
I used my journalistic skillsscientists, longevity doctors, a
philosopher, performanceexperts, elite athletes and I
used their wisdom to essentiallyhelp other people understand
(28:54):
how they, too, could have thetools and the tactics they need
for whatever pastime they mightchoose, to really engage and to
begin to integrate it into theirlife.
So that's how it came to BJ.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Wonderful.
Okay, I'm going to say it onceagain.
The name of the book is not toolate the Power of Pushing
Limits at Any Age by GwendolynBounds.
You can pre-order it now atgwendolynboundscom and as of
June 18th, you can get iteverywhere.
It's very exciting.
I'm so glad that we connectedand you've inspired me on a few
levels today, so thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Well, I'm so glad to have been here and I would say
for anybody thinking about howthey're going to push themselves
in whatever aspect of theirlife, I think we have to get
comfortable looking foolish alittle bit.
Right, we get in midlife to aplace where we think, oh, I need
to be the master of my universe.
Right, I have to do the thingsI'm good at.
(29:49):
That's what people expect of meand I think if you let yourself
be willing and open to kind ofnot knowing things and to not
being the smartest person in theroom, not being the one who has
all the experience and thestories to tell, but somebody
who's willing to be a studentagain, to make your brain young
in that way, and to again to beokay failing in front of other
(30:12):
people, that is how you're goingto cross this Rubicon.
That is how you're going totransition into building a new
part of yourself into your life.
If I hadn't been willing to dothat, I wouldn't have gotten to
where I am.
I had to fall off of ropes, Ihad to be.
People tell me you're just,you're not strong enough, Like
over and over again.
It's humbling, but it wasthrough that humility that I now
(30:36):
don't humility, that I nowdon't like that little girl,
that I was right.
I don't have regrets about thatanymore.
I have solved that piece of thepuzzle and become something
that I think I always wanted tobe but didn't think I could.
But I had to be willing to looka little dumb and to be into
fail to do it.
So I just want to leave peoplewith that, because I think
(30:56):
that's such a critical piece ofthis, Jay.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Great lesson.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Thanks for wrapping up with that 100% and let's get
10 to 20 people who are yourlisteners.
Let's find a Spartan race.
They have them in Atlanta.
We'll come down.
We'll get everybody throughthat race together, Jay.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Well, I can't wait.
I'm so excited.
Okay, thanks, wendy.
Thank you, jay.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Thank you for listening to Optimal Aging.
I hope you enjoyed it and Ihope you'll subscribe, tell a
friend and write a review.
All of that helps me grow myaudience.
You can learn more about me andmy content business at
primefitcontentcom.
You can send me an email at jayat primefitcontentcom.
(31:41):
That's jay J-A-Y atprimefitcontentcom.
I'm also on Facebook, linkedinand Instagram so you can find me
anywhere you like and be intouch.
And again, thanks for listening.
Join me next time.
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