I agree, I'm 48 and I feel keeping in physical shape is the most important thing to do. It's easy to become complacent after age 40 and to settle. My thyroid crapped out, even with meds it sucks, physical recovery is much harder even my skin is a concern due to the sun and lack of hair. Internally who knows, I could have arteries ready to slough off a chunk of goop that will kill me.

Even though exercise is important gyms feel alien with loud current pop music, ever-present perfume/cologne, intimidating healthy younger people seemingly at will, current slang words and gym fashion. Even the smells of hair products and cologne are alienating, in my heyday it was CK-be and CK One. The experience can be a strong deterrent to be so isolated generationally.

Certainly the only thing to do is to mitigate since you can't reverse aging. At least with your body there is a possibility if you don't have and age-related diseases. But it seems almost impossible to exercise your brain and if so how would you know it's getting better or maintaining?

>Even though exercise is important gyms feel alien with loud current pop music, ever-present perfume/cologne, intimidating healthy younger people seemingly at will, current slang words and gym fashion. Even the smells of hair products and cologne are alienating, in my heyday it was CK-be and CK One. The experience can be a strong deterrent to be so isolated generationally.

Sorry, but it's like you've made a list of several insignificant things, going out of your way to feel alien (40 something here myself).

You make it sound like gyms are some kind of German techno dungeon clubs...

Sorry, but you've responded to a surface detail, going out of your way to be unempathetic. Gyms can be alienating to anyone at any age. So can smells, music, etc.

Any number of small things can add up to make a person feel like an outsider, and prolonged feeling like an outsider can ruin previously enjoyable activities (and can have other more serious effects).

>Sorry, but you've responded to a surface detail

Well, sorry but the parent only mentioned surface details.

>Gyms can be alienating to anyone at any age. So can smells, music, etc.

That's a general statement, and it doesn't say much. So? One could always find another gym. Gym practice is even more difficult and alienating than bad playlists and too much cologne for most people -- maybe one should focus on that?

Besides, if we quit every time there was something remotely alienating, even more so if it was "smells" and "music", we wouldn't go very far. Sorry, but this is one of "oh, the humanity" kind of situations.

Think of it like a bug report: the user only knows how to describe the surface symptoms, but they indicate a deeper problem.

Yeah, it could point to a deeper issue.

But it might help to point that the surface manifestations of it are not really convincing as important -- because in most cases such issues are not some impossible to overcome medical/psychological issues, but just personal hangups if not excuses.

Weird about the gym. 200 pounds will always be 200 pounds. If the younger crowd bothers you that much try going at a different time. My gym is full of people of all ages, although time of day will dictate what age is there in force. The early morning crowd (7am or before) is almost always older people.

If I were you I'd look around at different gyms or physical activities until you find something you enjoy. There are tons of different options (to name a few: yoga, climbing, mountain biking, swimming, power lifting, running, that thing I sometimes see on TV where you competitively try to chop wood faster than other people, etc...). Try a bunch of stuff out and I bet you'll find something you enjoy going to more than the type of gym you described. Many also have mental aspects, while not a replacement for keeping yourself more generally cognitively engaged probably help with that to some degree as well

>But it seems almost impossible to exercise your brain and if so how would you know it's getting better or maintaining?

I've heard that some people practice solving puzzles for this.