In March 2025, I turned 65. On that occasion, I looked at myself in the mirror and didn’t like what I saw: a man who wasn’t ageing very well, slightly stooped, with, like many men over 40, a nice little pot belly that was just waiting to get bigger.
I decided to take control of my life.
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First step: join a gym
Signing up isn’t the hardest part. I’ve done it before, several times. But without going regularly and without goals, it’s a waste of money.
Set myself a specific goal.
I set myself two
– a very specific one: lose 10 kilos
– a more vague but motivating one: be like my nephew Lucas by the end of the year.
This goal made my daughter laugh, before I explained it to her. Because Lucas is an athlete. He’s a sports coach and has an extremely muscular body with no visible fat. So it seems like a totally unrealistic goal, and it is. It’s impossible for my 65-year-old body to become like Lucas, who is 30. But I explained to my daughter that I wanted to look as much as possible like what Lucas would probably look like at 65.
Developing a realistic programme
Using the machines in the gym, I used ChatGPT to design a training programme focusing mainly on the upper body, with different routines for Day A and Day B.
For four months, I stuck to these routines every day, seven days a week. I started with very low weights on all the machines (12 kilos) and gradually increased the weights on the machines where it was too easy. I did three sets of 20 repetitions. I did this from April to July and lost 10 kilos. In reality, I lost more than 10 kilos of fat, as I significantly increased my muscle mass.
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The programme:
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That was the basic work to lose weight and belly fat. And as you can see from these screenshots of the tracking app, I increased the weights from the initial 12 kilos, but not on all the machines, because there were certain types of exercises that I found difficult. The goal was to go as far as possible without injuring myself, especially my back.
Then I moved on to the second phase.
Sculpting my body
Once I had laid the foundations, I changed to the programme I am currently following:
Building muscle by sculpting my shoulders and arms and reducing my stomach as much as possible (not easy at my age).
To do this, I now go to the gym a little less often, four or five times a week, but on the days I don’t go, I play golf. In any case, even on fitness days, I go to the beach every morning, swim a little and do some stretching. Then, after coming back for a snack, I go and practise golf for at least 2 hours. So, 5 times a week, I go to the gym in the afternoon.
The programme:
I use the same machines as in the first phase, day A and day B, but only one set of 12 repetitions on each machine, with much heavier weights designed to fatigue the muscle. Apparently, this is the best way to gain volume and strength. I am careful not to go to complete failure so as not to injure myself because I recover less well now. As you can see, I have added floor exercises to the machine exercises, mainly to work on my stomach.
This is where I am now after seven months of training.
My assessment today
I haven’t completely achieved my goals. My stomach isn’t perfectly flat yet, especially in the upper part, and my weight isn’t stable enough. My weight fluctuates between 95 and 96.5 kilos. The goal would be to get below 95 kilos and stay there (I started at 105 kilos in March).
But I have made progress in many areas:
– I much more appreciate the image I see in the mirror
– I have regained the distance I had lost on my golf shots
and above all:
– I have become much more flexible
- for the first time in my life, I can sit cross-legged
- I can squat
I still have time and a lot of progress to make between now and the end of the year. To be continued...