At what age did your body start to betray you athletically?

[Anonymous]

I expected fall off after college, but at that point I was playing flag football, 3v3 basketball, and club ultimate frisbee so those were ending after graduation. After college I picked up dicgolf and went all in. I throw in the field 6-10 hours a week after work and play 2 rounds on the weekend in the spring/summer. In the colder seasons I throw into a driving net lightly and practice putting in my home basket to keep in rhythm. This spring though I physically can't keep up with the 10+ hours per week of disc golf. I basically live on Tylonel to help the back and shoulder pain I used to be able to manage just to keep up my routine.

[WhiteSteve]

I’d say early 30s. I played semipro football in my 20s until I was 33. The difference between rolling out of bed the morning after a game at 25 and at 33 was definitely noticeable, haha. Went from bouncing right up to “aaaarrrrgggghhhhh, I’m fuckin’ sore”, lmao. I was never really a speed guy but I noticed some drop off in my already unremarkable wheels.

I’ve switched up to hockey now, and it’s tougher to gauge since there’s a learning curve with a new sport and no younger self to compare to, like I’m not sure how often I’m getting “out-youth’d” than “out-athlete’d”, to make up a couple of words, haha. I’m also ten years out of football, or doing anything competitive, I’ve just stayed in the gym, but everything else had stopped. People seem impressed by my progress in a relatively short time, so I’m not completely cooked athletically, but for example, I feel like in a straight away race skating, a couple guys I keep pace with or slightly lose to who are like 15 years younger than me, I think if you put 25 year old me up against them, I’d dust them. But it just feels like it takes longer to build up to that next gear. I did get in a fight with a 26 year old goalie in my league a couple months ago though, and he’s smaller than me, I’m not pounding my chest over it, but I made pretty short and easy work of him without even dropping my gloves, so maybe I at least have some of that “Old Man Strength” coming in😂

Did the same thing to the guy who tried to deny me a Senior Discount at IHOP

[Guy13]

I’m still playing University level soccer ⚽️ in serious man’s adult leagues. In fact, we’ll scrimmage high school and university teams. We have spots for them in off Season.
My Dad…”62 retirement age” Dad gift was knee replacement

[OnTheLevel]

It hit me around 40 - 45 with a noticeable decrease in performance and much longer recovery time

[CubaPirate]

Around 38 but played on until 40 I just had to get to that milestone

[UniquelyBasic]

Like age 16

[Asker]

I'm 28 now so I guess I'm lucky it is just annoying I need to deal with constant pain to keep doing what I'm doing.