Why Fitness Is Ageless

We start 2023 with the inspiring story of Air Marshal P.V. Iyer, who stays fit, active and raring to go at 93!

'It is around the age of fifty that we sometimes tend to fall into a defeatist state of mind, a feeling that it is too late to get back to a vigorous state of health. It is important to realise that it is never late to regain your fitness.'

93-year-old former Air Marshal P.V. Iyer should know. His bout with fitness started at 47 and continues well into his 90s, despite suffering from severe osteoarthritis. The author of Fit at Any Age: A Practitioner's Guide, Air Marshal Iyer, walks the talk and works out five days a week at the gym. He also runs eight kilometres daily. Over the years, his fitness journey has included more than 20,000 kilometres of running, including 42-kilometre marathons and a 240-kilometre ultramarathon from Agra to Delhi. Iyer says fitness and diet are essential to the body's maintenance and sustenance. Excerpts from an interview with him:

Q. Tell us about your fitness journey and how did it start?

When I was young, I didn't know much about fitness. I only realised more about it when I was stationed in Moscow as the Air Force attache. One day I noticed that my pulse was 60 or 50. Usually, it should be 72. I went to the doctor, who said, Mr Iyer, this is good for you. You have an unnaturally low heart rate. It means that your heart is strong and can do all the work with lesser effort. That gave me the idea that there is something more to fitness. Later, at 47 years of age, the Indian Air Force introduced a new policy of annual fitness tests. I had to run a mile in seven minutes. So I started practising and found that I could jog without discomfort and quickly run a mile in seven minutes. I continued my journey and became increasingly interested in fitness, reading books and articles about fitness.

I increased my mileage-- from normal one or two miles, I started running four or five miles. I fashioned a five-kilo belt of my invention. In the Ganges in Kanpur, the sand dunes are 15-20 ft high each. I would run barefoot on the dunes and work out for an hour this way. You can imagine the kind of strength that I would have through these activities. Within six months of this workout, I participated in the Asian veteran's athletic race. Milkha Singh, the Flying Sikh, was our captain. I ran the 5000 meters race and won the gold medal. After that, I competed in Singapore. Japan, China, Malaysia and other countries.

So this way, I became more and more interested in fitness. I have run more than one lakh kilometres in the last 40-50 years. For context, one marathon is 42 km. A 1000 marathons make 42000 km, and I have run three times that. Very few people in the world would have run so much. I've been able to do it, and I attribute my fitness to that kind of activity that I carried out. But everyone doesn't have to run so much to stay fit. Twenty minutes continuously is excellent, which is good enough for all kinds of problems. 

Q. What are the key things to remember while training to stay fit at an older age?

We need to remember that there is strength in every individual, whatever age. Strength is the most significant factor in fitness. It's a force multiplier. First of all, you need strength to move your legs. You need strength to maintain your body's metabolism, so you don't put on weight.

You need strength to keep your thoracic organs fit and protect your heart, lungs, kidneys and liver. In addition, strength is essential for stability. But, unfortunately, strength starts reducing from the age of 30 and then by 10 per cent every decade. So by the time you're 50 or 60, you have only half the strength unless you work to improve it. That's why I can do pull-ups even now, which even a younger person finds difficult unless trained. 

Q. Many people feel they haven't exercised their whole life, so it is too late. Is this true? 

It's essential in human physiology and fitness that what you are today depends on what you have been doing during the last three months. It is a physiological fact. Supposing you had a fracture and you're bedridden for a few weeks, it's common knowledge that the muscles will wither within those weeks. So you need physiotherapy to get back to normal strength. But the opposite is also luckily true. This means if you've never worked out or done any physical activity, if you work out for three months, you become as fit as the next person. 

That is one of the big messages I've tried to convey in my book. You are what you have been doing during the last three months. 

Q. Any tips on how to start?

Start slowly, and consult your doctor if you have any medical problems. Then, you start walking and jogging with the doctor's permission (and only after that). Alternate between walking and jogging. Don't jog all of a sudden; one minute or half a minute of jogging is good enough. Then you walk again. Slowly and gradually, you'll realise within the first six or seven weeks you are becoming fitter, and you're totally fit within three months.

"Fitness should be valued. In my 80s, I had to consult an ENT for a nosebleed once. I wanted to be assured that there was nothing wrong with me or any major illness. He asked me to relax and accept whatever came along since I had lived a full life. The doctor had completely missed the point. I did not go to him for compassionate advice. I went to him to be cured." 

Q. Any funny anecdotes you wish to share with us?

My mother-in-law was admitted for surgery in a Nagpur hospital, and I visited her. She was sleeping, so I decided to lie in the empty next room. I had woken up early for a run, so I dozed off. Suddenly I found somebody putting a thermometer in my mouth and counting my pulse. I tried to tell the person that I wasn't a patient when she suddenly let out a big cry as she found my pulse as low as 39! She raised a big alarm, rang the emergency bell, and doctors came running in while I tried to get up. I had to explain to them that I was an athlete who had gone for a 20 km run that morning, and my pulse was naturally low. And all this while I was trying to get up from that hospital bed! Finally, one doctor understood and let me go, but this incident remained funny. 

All photographs courtesy: Air Marshal P.V. Iyer

Fit At Any Age is published by Bloomsbury India and is available at Amazon and in bookstores around you.

Share your fitness stories with us below