Tim Plewman - Fitness for Old Farts

This book would not have been possible without the generous advice of Cliff Meyerson who pushed me beyond my limit, and my wife Cathy who suffered through the entire process of fat to fitness, then had to read, check and support my writing. I know there were times when aching muscles, empty stomach and feeling exhausted made me grumpier than usual and you both took it in your stride. Thank you.

Id like to thank my readers Paul, Mike, Judy, Cliff, Cathy and Anja for always giving me their honest opinion whether I like it or not.

To Linda de Villiers and her team at Random House Struik, particularly Cecilia Barfield and Helen Henn who encouraged, edited and designed a unique book. Thank you for all your advice and hard work.

To photographers David Penny and Sean Calitz, its true, a picture is worth a thousand words, especially in a gym where the majority of words used should not be printed.

To Nick Mallett who manfully admitted to Old Fartness, I thank you for your fine foreword and generous spirit.

To my dear and greatly missed friends, Bill Flynn and Jonathan Rands, Old Farts of note, who would be most amused at having caused all the sweating, grunting and groaning that went into this book. I see you on every page.

And finally to all those who read this book and join the club, I say welcome, I hope you enjoy it and wish you all a fitter future.

Published in 2013 by Struik Lifestyle
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)
Company Reg. No. 1966/003153/07
1st Floor, Wembley Square 2, Solan Road,
Cape Town 8001
PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
www.randomstruik.co.za

Copyright in published edition: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2013
Copyright in text: Tim Plewman 2013
Copyright in gym photography: Tim Plewman 2013
Copyright in food photography: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and the copyright holders.

Publisher: Linda de Villiers
Editor and indexer: Cecilia Barfield
Design manager: Beverley Dodd
Designer: Helen Henn
Photographers: David Penney (gym), Sean Calitz (food)
Food stylist: Brita du Plessis
Food stylists assistant: Leila Padayachi
Proofreader: Anja Grobler

ISBN 978-1-43230-091-3 (Print)
ISBN 978-1-43230-219-1 (PDF)
ISBN 978-1-43230-218-4 (e-Pub)

S

Tim and I remet, unsurprisingly, in the Grayston gym, where both he and I were working out in a rather desperate attempt to retain some semblance of our youthful bodies. After reading through Fitness for Old Farts, I realise that the onset of old-fartness is all too prevalent. But it neednt be a life sentence.

As you will see for yourself, Tim discusses the necessity of regular excercise and a healthy diet as important factors in avoiding an early death. Both he and I know, that while this is true, it is actually our male vanity and stubborn pride that drives us to face a sweaty 90 minutes of excercise three to four times a week in the frantic hope, King Canute-like, of delaying the ravages of Father Time! Recognising a fellow foolish Old Fart in his 50s, Tim asked me to write this foreword.

My rugby coaching career all around the world, has fortunately allowed me plenty of time to visit gyms. I have found a pretty good system that works for me. Three to four times a week I follow this regime:

This 90-minute workout, while crushingly boring, works! I defy any adipose to adhere to a body part (in men, the gut!) if you are disciplined enough to stick to this or any of Tims far more professionally produced fitness programmes and healthy diets. After living in France and Italy for 15 years, the only thing I am not prepared to do without is wine. I feel that this book will be of tremendous assistance to anyone wanting to maintain a healthy weight if you, like me, enjoy a bottle of wine a day during weekdays and a minimum of two bottles a day on Saturdays and Sundays.

Good luck with the workouts and healthy diets, my fellow Old Farts!

NICK MALLETT

2013

Its the gradual deterioration that fools us. Lets face it, if you put on 10 kg overnight youd get up in the morning, look in the mirror and think, Oh lord, Im a pig! and do something about it.

But going up by half a kilo a month (or less), is a problem. You see, nothing is blatantly obvious and so we can hold onto that subconscious belief that this gradual change is not our fault, its the way things are and its bound to get better if we ignore it. You know what Im talking about. The change from: Wow, these trousers are a little tight, to the Well, Ill go up one size for comfort sake until I can get around to doing something about it, kind of change.

The only problem is, a year down the line nothing has changed except those comfort trousers are now way too tight and youve gained the 10 kg.

Okay, you tell yourself, one more set of slightly bigger comfort trousers with an extra-large T-shirt and then, thats it! We stand in front of the mirror and think to ourselves, Come on, its not too bad, for someone of my age, with big bones and a slow metabolism and How many more excuses can we come up with?

And so it goes until one day, aged 50-something, you realise that putting on a pair of socks and breathing at the same time have now become impossible. You realise the biggest challenges in life are now all related to your body getting out of bed with those bad knees, standing up with that sore back, walking up stairs, opening the jam jar. You find yourself hoping that medical science will make some leaps and bounds in the rejuvenating pill department.

Youre engrossed by TV ads that tell you to take this pill and lose the fat, or Plug in this appliance, switch on and shock your abs into shape. You want to believe that by exercising your wallet you can look like the 20-something-year-old body builder in the ad.

In fact, money is no object, as long as getting into shape does not mean having to get off your couch. Anyway, picking up a cell phone, dialing, talking, reaching around to your back pocket and digging out a credit card is exercise.

And who are you going to blame when the pills and the Elizabethan shock therapy treatments dont really live up to the advertised promise? When the creams, lubes, lotions and poultices youve applied before bedtime have no effect, when the secret roots from the Amazon and the oil squeezed from a bulb only known to San trackers in Namibia have squeezed the fat from your bank account, but done nothing for your body?

Blame it on yourself, you Old Fart, and welcome to the Old Farts Club. Yes, weve all been there, done that and have the T-shirt that doesnt fit anymore, but we can do something about it.