Turning 28 in a month and in the past year everything has gotten drastically worse.
Is this just a normal part of aging or am I unlucky? I mean I am almost 30 but it just seemed kind of sudden idk.
Like for example my varicose veins have gotten exponentially worse this year, I feel like my skin is sagging a lot over my whole body, and I feel like I’ve lost muscle mass, like significantly. To be fair I wasn’t as active as usual but in other similar situations I was never looking this way.
Doctors said I’m fine btw. I’m just so exhausted and it’s depressing seeing this shit.
Keep doing exercise, don’t. Ever. Stop.
I’ve stopped multiple times over the years and it gets progressively harder to get back in shape. Just stay in shape and even then, yes, your body will deteriorate over time, just a lot less
It’s less that “everything goes to shit at 28” and more that “as you age your body becomes worse and worse at recovering from shit it used to shake off like it was nothing”
Allergic reactions, pains from being sedentary or from doing exercise wrong or from overwork, drinking and hangovers, obesity, genetic conditions you were always prone to – Stuff that as a younger person wasn’t so much of a problem even if it was there, start being more and more of a problem. And more and more of a danger.
Breaking a leg as an 18 year old and breaking a leg as a 30 year old are radically different experiences.
The better you take care of your body, the less bad it is. But well. You’re aging.
The trick is taking care of your body more like how you take care of your car than how you take care of the ant hills in the cracks of your sidewalk.
Wait for the service light to turn on then ignore it for months until you hear a grinding sound?
Doesn’t work on me, my car is all banged up and I don’t give two shits about it as long as it remains road-legal.
Are you sedentary a lot? If so, that’s the issue. Start by just getting on the floor and stretching. Get a feel for your body, what makes you uncomfortable, learn about what you can and can’t do. Then start working on addressing stuff by stretching and simple things like planking. Then move into outdoor walks and go from there. But don’t get straight into exercise mode without preparing your body and mind first. Then everything else will fall into place.
I had to learn that nutrition and sports (cardio) are essential to health
Roughly the same age here. Sure, some minor issues start to accumulate. I broke some stuff that will probably haunt me forever. My teeth had some issues earlier. But everything else? I finally started doing enough sport, and the effects are visible in just weeks. No, you should not fall apart, and if you do, it is high time you fix it.
You broke some stuff?
I did some stupid things, broke a few bones. It is mostly fine, but mostly fine is not 100% fine, and some days I notice. Things accumulate. But that is not an excuse. I had a boss once that looked like he’d be able to bench-press half the office and complained about too many women hitting on him. I had a teacher who was at least approaching 50 and whose ideal holiday was spending more time on a bike than off. It’s never too late for that.
Im 45 and im fine, i do hard physical labour without much stress. No (big) health issues. The trick is to not be overweight, and have a decent lifestyle. And it’s not like im some kind of health guru, i smoked until i was 36, i never played any sport, sat around gaming… It honestly doesn’t take that much to be healthier. So really all the people complaining that things go downhill after you’re thirty are full of shit. There is no reason why you can’t grow muscle, endurance, and generally condition yourself way into your 50s. If your body is breaking down after 30 you either have physical problems or you aren’t actually living healthy in earnest.
Genetics play a role as well. Not to brag, but my siblings and I still look young for our age even though we are in our thirty’s. One of my friends also still looks good.
What you say overall though is correct that lifestyle plays a massive role. In my friend group, only me and my said friend still look great for our age, and perhaps because our jobs are more physically demanding. The rest of my friends have office jobs or working from home, so they do not get more physical exercise and gained weight severely. But having office jobs is not really even much of an excuse not to exercise. I work on shifts but I exercise when I get days off. To be honest, I find that too many people can be hedonistic and gets turned off by slight feeling of discomfort, which is why they don’t exercise.
No it’s not normal.
How are you eating habits affected? Is your skin more pale or yellow? Are you overworking consistently? You ever take a vacation, maybe recently? Do you drink or smoke regularly? Have you been hiking or exposed to a lot of insects lately? Do you eat a lot of sugar and have a family history of diabetes?
It could be a lot of things, but I’m betting you’re doing something wrong habit wise and it’s just starting to catch up with, or a nasty tic bit you.
Idk it’s not like I’m working that much either I just feel like I’m dying. I did take a vacation and felt better for like a week after lol. But I was also tired during the vacation cause I had to walk all day everyday and my legs were in crippling pain due to my varicose veins. I feel like that vacation might’ve been what made them significantly worse ngl. Didn’t help that my abusive ex wouldn’t help me or let me sit
Abusive ex didn’t let you fucking sit? That’s a lot to unravel and the likely source of your trouble. Like if you have anxiety or trouble relaxing physically or mentally you should talk to a therapist about it and do some research. I also recommend doing light and soft exercise like yoga and stretching to help with you blood flow and legs. Improving that seems tricky but very doable with some time, focus, and kindness.
I mean, as with all manipulators it’s never that simple. He would basically throw a fit 24/7 and we never got to do anything I wanted, he would ditch me on our trip with zero way of getting anywhere, and uncomfortable shoes, and no access to the Airbnb… I needed to lie down, put my legs up, take a break, change my shoes … eat something
He ditched me so many times on that trip he couldn’t care less if I died
That’s no good.
Stress can have a severe impact on your health
Short answer, no, it is not normal unless you have some kind of illness.
28 years of age is usually too young for your body to fall apart. It is enough time that your bad habits begin to show results, such as muscle loss, muscle imbalances, etc. This is usually caused by your life style. As you get older, its more important for you to do maintenance on your body and watch what you are consuming.
If your life is too stationary, then you will start to see yourself falling apart. The old saying of “If you don’t use it, you lose it” starts to hold true with time. How “aged” your body feels really depends on how active you are with it, to an extent. There are people twice your age that are in fantastic shape, that is because they put in work to maintain their bodies.
It is time to introduce some good habits to your routine. Eat a bit better, move around more, more active activities, etc. You will start to feel better again before you know it. Good luck.
Seconding. Early 30s, went to the doc with a set of strange new pains. Turns out I’ve been too sedentary and much of it started to improve with just a couple hours of walking every day
10 years older than you and just got a thrombosis in my arm from doing pull ups. Take care of yourself, take it easy or your body just desinegrates.
Your young enough that everything should be working fine
Change your diet to not be hostile to your health
- remove sugars
- remove alcohol
- keep your blood glucose as low as possible all the time
Get some sunlight exposure everyday, on your bare skin
Do some level of daily exercise, walking, stairs… anything to get your body moving and the blood flowing
If you want more guidance you can see a functional medicine doctor and get checked out, or explore more extensive eating pattern improvements like a ketogenic diet.
I am assuming as low as possible means not eating huge amounts of sugar, not going into hypoglycemia regularly ;)
s/huge/any/
Unless your diabetic, you don’t really have to worry about hypoglycemia, not eating sugar/carbs is the single biggest thing people can do for their health.
I started to develop a gut for the first time around the same age (after being so skinny people would comment about it). I think you’re probably noticing regular aging, but you can probably slow the trend via a healthier lifestyle. Get active, improve your diet, maybe check with a different doc just to be sure.
This is what I was going to say.
Falling apart at 28 isn’t normal, but what is normal at 28 is having your body suddenly stop giving you a hall pass. That’s very relatable.
Get 8 hours of sleep a night, walk and bike when you can, eat your greens, etc. and you might notice a difference.
having your body suddenly stop giving you a hall pass.
Great way to put it. I’m close to OPs age, and while I won’t say I’m “falling apart” to the extent they are, things definitely are starting to have consequences. Sleep deprivation was the most shocking; used to be able to get 4-6 hours of sleep for several consecutive days of activity, then sleep on over the weekend and be completely fine. Now, if I get less than 7, chances are pretty good that I’m not gonna have a great day tomorrow.
The 30’s are supposed to be the decade where the “check engine” light finally comes on.
Stretch your arms and legs, go take a walk outside for 30-60 minutes nearly every day, and get some steps in. Make that the new thing you do now. Eventually work in some more exercises. You can at least avoid being a heart disease statistic by doing that.
I was starting to go that way in my late twenties. Started training in the gym. Thirties now, looking and feeling better than at any other point in my life. I beat my high school time for the 1 mile run by 30s recently, I couldn’t believe it.
I’ve seen people much older than you or I totally turn their lives around. I think for most people, it’s not getting older that is the problem, but rather, being sedentary over the long run is just way more destructive than we realize. Even just daily long walks makes a night and day difference
Yup I didn’t get back to a healthy weight until after my kid was born at 40. Really till he started running around so closer to 42-43.
Then I got Covid just before the vaccine was available for our ages and have been underweight since. Just finally started gaining back decent muscle this winter but still having trouble keeping weight on (I’m 6’3 and 170-175lbs (~190cm ~78kg)).
Was around 200lbs (90kg) while my wife was pregnant.
How long? Is an hour or so ok or is that not long?
An hour is great.
Anything at all is vastly better than sitting around all day.
No this doesn’t sound normal. Do you have any other symptoms, including things you might think are normal but that other people your age don’t deal with, joint pain or fatigue for example?
I thought I was just someone with the knees of an 80 year old, but then I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which is almost certainly a misdiagnosis of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Severe varicose veins at a young age is a known symptom of vascular EDS, not something you want to take lightly, I’d suggest trying to rule it out if you do have other symptoms as it’s life threatening.
I have no reason to diagnose you, so don’t take my suggestion of EDS that way. It’s just worth taking things seriously if your quality of life is being impacted because it might save you a lot of pain in the future. Hence be on the lookout for other problems and consider that they may be related. You should also be careful of doctors dismissing your symptoms as it’s extremely common for illnesses like this to be dismissed as “all in your head” especially if you’re a woman.
Regardless of other symptoms, I’d still suggest you take it seriously and be sure your doctor is doing the same and not just declaring you healthy for no obvious reason.
Here's a list of other symptoms I have
- Non restful sleep (I wake up feeling exhausted)
- I sleep with a body pillow because my body is too uncomfortable to support itself
- Insomnia
- Brain fog
- Extreme fatigue
- Tendons that like to dislocate (clicky/crunchy joints)
- Constantly getting injuries from light exercise
- Joint pain from everyday activities (it’s physically painful to use my phone while I write this)
- Regular muscle twitches
- Widespread aches and pain
- IBS
- Acid reflux/heartburn
Do you sit around a lot? Do you play games instead of being active? Do you eat sugary foods and a lot of soft drinks? What sort of exercise are you doing?
I’m 48, I work in computers, but I’m in about the same shape now than I was at 28: I weigh the same if not a little less, I eat well, am active, and when I’m not working, I stay the fuck off of computers, games, and other shit that keeps my ass in a seat.
Exercise increases energy levels, improves mood, and makes you healthier.
Honestly it’s hard for me to exercise cause my downstairs neighbours are psycho, outside is polluted af and I can’t afford a gym membership. My life sucks honestly
Yes. Having excuses can be a major part of the problem too.
I suggest to make ‘having excuses’ one of your former habits now.
Squats. Push-ups. Pull-ups. Dumbells. Yoga. Sit-ups. Crunches.
Sorry to hear your life sucks. Most of us feel that way. You can make small, incremental improvements if you’re motivated to change.
Good luck.
Exercise for it’s own sake sucks. Find something physically challenging and fun. Kayaking is a great example, and not the crazy fast rapids type. Hiking is great exercise as well. Dedicate a pack to it and keep modifying it untill you’re carry what you want and need. LOL, mine’s about 25lbs. with beer and a little shotgun. You get the idea, even if those things aren’t your jam.
You might be surprised what you can find on maps! Zoom out and see what’s out there. Found a park by the Navy base that few locals know exists. Been exploring this area for years and there are still places close by I’ve never been.
This is me. I’m a pragmatic guy, don’t really have serious body image issues (don’t get me wrong I have notes, but I’ve never felt the need to look “muscly”). For those reasons I’ve never been great at working out just for the sake of being active. The only things that seem to motivate me are exercising via fun sports like bouldering, longboarding, or biking, or doing some calisthenics at home specifically to improve my stamina when I’m out bouldering, longboarding, or biking. So find physical hobbies!
Get a friend to do exercises with. Do calisthenics at a friend’s house. It’s very hard to work out by yourself, but very easy with a buddy.
If your life sucks, that can be exhausting. I agree with orbituary - do yoga and calisthenics.
