Why do most adults tend to exercise less as they get older?

Because they don't have anyone to impress anymore.

I still excercise, have to do it before I go to bed when kids and wife are asleep. Used to train during lunch hours at work but gyms in Australia are expensive, at least compared to the one I used to go to in Japan. It's a matter of wanting to.

Because in Japan a lot of people spend 10 hors at work and then need to travel home.

This leaves little time to "exercise".

Than again, 12oz or 355ml curls on the weekend do count.

actually the older I get the more I want to go to the gym. 3 times a week now and thinking of adding another sport.

Actually there are more OLD people at the gym in Japan than back home. Maybe I joined the wrong gym but its full with oji en oba's here. Guess the question doesnt count for my gym heh.

It's easier when you are single and young. In my 20s, I used to play tennis, soccer, go cycling, bowling and swim. But after getting married, it becomes harder to find time to do any of that. One of my friends in his 50s, who is married, gets up at 5 a.m. every morning to be at the gym by 6 a.m. That's the only time he can find time for exercise. But getting up that early requires a lot of will power, especially in winter.

As others have said above, it is all about the amount of free time we have. When I was younger and single, I had all the time in the world. Now, even though I do enjoy running and playing other sports, the difficulty is trying o find enough time to do it. It isn't that I don't have the energy, as exercising gives me more, it is making enough time. When you work close to 10 hours to 12 hours a day, that doesn't leave a lot of free time.

I am with smartacus.

When younger I exercised a lot(MA training, daily swimming in the apartment pool, Gym, etc). Even after the marriage we continued to exercise, my wife also took up MA training.

Came to kind of a grinding stop after the son was born as she was busy full-time and I was told that my MA training takes up too much family time. Still was out there every morning at 05:00 putting in 2-3hrs daily and when I could get other times.

Now with son being older, still on reduced MA training time(increasing slowly) as he is now old enough to train alongside me and we can visit my Instructor together.

But Kids and family do put a squeeze on the time, unless the family can exercise as one unit or use the same time-slot for different exercises.

there are more other things to do. muscles need more time to recover. some people can't exercise as they get older.

You have to adjust as you get older. A daily 30 minute fast pace or regular pace walk is all you need. If you do this on a regular basis, you will stay healthy. You don't need to buy any equipment to to this.

Cant be bothered, too tired, too busy, too cool!! Dont need to!

It actually becomes a matter of choice, either you choose success or 6-pack abs. Both require time and unfortunately life provides us with enough for one. And if you believe it to be false then you are not living, you are just going through the routines.

cnc.

Way more ways to exercise than the 6-pack(which you only get when your BFI drops below a certain level).

Lots of successful people that exercise, lead a happy family-life and are doing good in business.

so who exercises less...

Mostly by the time we hit our late thirties, our time is completely consumed on family matters,office matters or even a very demanding wife/hubby that completely drains the adrenolin that we really need to hit the gym.

Zenny id hate to break into your house and meet your family, everybody doing MA, I wouldnt be able to get out in one piece heh :)

because team sports become less feasible and most solitary exercise is boring.

I'm too busy making money to exercise. I can do that when I retire in 12 years at 50. I find that I'm too busy to drink anymore, as well.

I don't necessarily take time to exercise just to exercise, but I run around with kids, throw/kick a ball, hold my 13kg princess and walk, run upstairs/downstairs with a laundry basket, etc... I don't see a point why I'd have to PAY or TAKE TIME for just exercising... I get plenty of daily exercise just to be around with kids and do my routine housework ;)

Why do most adults tend to exercise less as they get older?

Pure laziness. People can come up with all the excuses they want. But it boils down to, if exercise is important to you, anybody can take at least 45 minutes out of thier day to do an exercise of thier choice like running, dancing, weight training, aerobics, etc.

Okinawamike at 08:14 AM JST - 7th January

...Than again, 12oz or 355ml curls on the weekend do count.

I call'em, "Kirin Curls"

This questions seems to imply that younger adults/children excercise more than older ones, which I argue isn't necessarily true.

I know 20 something Japanese/foreigners who have bodies that more closely resemble someone who's in their 40s.

I wouldn't worry about the older generation - we understand the value of work and exercise. I'd worry more about the younger generation who spend all their time in front of TV or playing video games or eating sweets!

Maybe because most have to work from 8AM to 11-12PM?

"either you choose success or 6-pack abs"

Really? First of all, health is a form of success. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that health trumps wealth any day.

Second, if we're defining "success" as material riches, I'd argue that people who have the motivation to work hard at their jobs carry that over to their health as well.

I call'em, "Kirin Curls"

I call it, "getting hammered on the weekend"!

Harder on the joints. Which is why I stopped boarding and started snowshoeing.

A certain hormone level goes down with age.

Gurukun, dead wrong and said like a young, single person. Choosing what's important and laziness are two different things. Some people, like legal, financial or medical professionals, work 60+ or more hours per week. If they get married and have young kids--say a 2 year old, 4 year old and 6 year old--they are in a scramble from dawn to drop, often short on sleep, and there is no "45 minutes a day" that can be used for exercise. If there is any "extra" time, then in these core child-raising years, there are going to be higher priorities than regular daily exercise. The kids will need ferrying around to classes and events. If you have a bilingual family, you need to help them maintain the 2nd language and learn to read/write it. You might want to have conjugal relations with your spouse...simply can't be done when the kids are awake. You might want to chat with or write to family/friends, pay bills, do taxes, clean or fix car or bikes or home. There is a huge to-do list waiting for you. These people are not "lazy". In fact, compare an older person with a job and kids to a young, single, fit person who makes a priority of exercise and study. In most cases the young person is the one who will exhibit signs of what we might call laziness. Taking naps, staying out late then sleeping till noon on weekends, watching tv/movies, playing video games, finding and listening to music, trolling for dates, reading novels for pleasure, going on vacations, etc. So I call BS on your excuse/laziness rap. Your thinking on this point is lazy. OK, now back to my job and kids.

I agree with fishy. You can easily put some fitness into your everyday routine even if you are really busy. You don't need to do a 45 minute workout or go to the gym everyday to stay in decent shape. Just walking a few extra blocks or walking up some stairs on a regular basis can help keep your body fit.

If you don't have kids, it should be no problem to find some time to be active during your week. If you do have kids, do something active with them! Leading an active lifestyle really isn't that difficult.

older is too vague. im thinking 80ish, but itll probably be more like a 100.

A bad back and knees will deter most of us in the end.

Doing something active with kids doesn't work if your job requires 10+ hours per day and you get home after 7:30, and only then eat dinner. Their bedtime is around 8:30. You've just enough time for a short romp, then read them to sleep. You're lucky if you can stay awake past 9:30 yourself. Remember, without fail, one or all of them will wake up around 5:50 am and start jumping on your head. This system is in effect until the last of them passes maybe 7 years old. I've been doing it for 5 years already and have another 5 to go. One of the first posters in this thread was right. Older people who've raised kids deplete themselves doing that. Exercise is actually a bourgeois luxury when you think about it. What generation, what people throughout all of human history had the affluence, freedom, time and luxury to buy and wear special "exercise" clothes, maybe to go some place where they pay money to work out, like a gym or sports club, or run through a municipal park. Most people throughout history, and plenty of people today, even laborers and high-pressure professionals in first-world countries, are working themselves to the bone. "Exercise"...please. Don't get me wrong. I'm still in shape and do what I can when I can. But this notion of getting regular daily exercise is a sort of white middle-class American fiction that has been foisted on the world and is now fueled by marketing, consumerism and lifestyle-image factors. A lot of the stuff people do to get fit is actually slowly tearing down their joints and spine. I know. I did it all, was a cross country and triathlon guy, a nordic skier, a snowboarder, a weight-workout guy, a swimmer. All of these things kept me very "fit" but wore out my joints. I have lots of joint and other problems now. Now someone will post that I must have been doing it wrong or that I should get a personal trainer to show me the safe way to do it...actually, I was a personal trainer too and got a cert in sports medicine and rehab. That was after my 2nd knee surgery of course.

Seems to me most Japanese people hate exercise. I think people in general feel that exercise is work or there is nothing to be gained immediately and after doing a full day's work, don't want to do more or don't want to take the necessary steps to incorporate exercise into their daily routine. Many people also try to "hit a grand slam with the bases empty," as I like to describe it, by starting at a level too hard for their previously sedentary bodies (Billy's Boot Camp, anyone?) when they first start off and quickly overdo it and lose interest or get hurt. I, for one, love exercise because it gives me loads of energy, tones the body and reduces stress. I do just as much as I did 20 years ago. Not to mention I stand too close to my refrigerator daily so it helps keep me from looking as if I'm about to give birth to a rhino. Gotta go...time for my daily workout.

Harder on the joints.

This. If Japan had better over the counter painkillers, I'd exercise more.

Take care of your knees, kids. And your back. Mind the shoulders, too - that clicking noise gets really irritating after a while. I could go on.

Less free time, less available energy outside of work and family.

Absolutely not true! Adults do exercise in the form of love making. Its a great cardio exercise.

I exercise much more regularly,almost every day now, than I was younger since I know more about the value of exercise on one's own mental ,physical , even spiritual well-being.

badmigraine, blah ,blah, blah. I've heard it all before. Excuse after excuse. If exercising isn't your cup of tea, then so be it. But don't deny that there is not at least 40-45 minutes out of anybody's day to exercise.

ctually, I was a personal trainer too and got a cert in sports medicine and rehab.

Really? And you still say there are those that don't have the time to exercise? I find it strange that you said you have many injuries and opt for not exercising due to injuries, other commitments and family. I would think that a person that had a cert in sports medicine, would be exercising more often to tend to these injuries. And FYI, I am 40+ years old, also a licensed personal trainer and I hit the gym everyday. However, now days, I exercise more for my family then myself. As a fellow personal trainer, it's strange that you do not comprehend this and state that I am wrong.

Lazy? And I guess, you know, once you are out of college, get married etc..you are not trying to stay in shape to go out looking for babes on the weekends, more like, you just want to stay alive, keep healthy to see your loving children grow up and hopefully one day your own grandkids too.