“I was in the gym this morning,” says 77-year-old Lawrence Nunn, as he sits in a comfortable chair drinking the one coffee he allows himself every day.
He tells me we have all the time in the world to chat. “I was talking to one of my friends there, Rob. He’s younger than me. He’s in his 70s, so he’s younger, but he looks older. He walks and moves older, and it was interesting watching the way he moves.”
Lawrence pauses to take a sip of his coffee which he savours before saying, “Rob said to me, ‘you know what it is? It’s down to genes. Your genes are different to mine.’ And that’s the thing, we’re all different people. So, you never really can expect what’s going to happen at this time of life.”
Lawrence spends an hour in the gym at the council leisure centre at least four days a week. He exercises his whole body – leg and upper body exercises, weights, and aerobic and abdominal exercises in line with support and guidance from his trainer.
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“The reason I do it is to reverse the ageing process and to give me flexibility to do things at home,” he says. “Gardens and houses need maintenance. Exercising gives oxygen to my brain first thing in the morning. I do think I could do it in the evening, but in the morning, it gets me kickstarted.”
Physical activity is known to improve a person’s quality of life, wellbeing and mood, and has positive implications for tackling loneliness with the potential for increased social engagement.
Lawrence laughs. “I joked to Rob this morning, I said to him, ‘I think we’re alright’, but I looked at myself in the mirror and I thought, ‘God, you look good’. It’s a positive mental attitude. It makes me feel good.”
Between the ages of 30 and 60, Lawrence recalls very little exercise on his part, except perhaps cycling. It is in the past 15 years that training his body has become a priority for a multitude of reasons. “My body parts are beginning to creak,” he says. “For example, my feet pain me a lot. I am compensating for this by religiously going to the gym five days a week, working rigorously on my instructor’s training course.”
In an attempt to avoid surgeries, Lawrence focuses on supporting the parts of him most at risk. An accident at 19 that damaged his knee has slowly caught up with him. He is concentrating on building the muscles around his knee to avoid a knee replacement. Lawrence is very pragmatic about his health, maintaining routine check-ups and appointments to keep him on the right side of the charts and numbers, and believes his exercise regime to be an important aspect of his physical and mental health. “If you keep it up throughout your life, then you maintain a good core, you maintain good muscle strength,” he says. “For example, one of the exercises I do is standing on one leg and that is to strengthen my ankles because with older people, if they fall over, bones break more easily. And those bones don’t mend as quickly as when you’re younger. I try and strengthen my ankles, so I don’t fall over.”
Healthy ageing means ageing with enduring dignity, wellness and fulfilment, and addressing the quality of those years. Goal-setting is important in midlife and beyond to maintain determination and perseverance in living consciously and authentically. Nat O’Connor, senior public affairs and policy specialist at Age Action, is conscious that there remain substantial social, economic and health barriers that limit or prevent older people from living fulfilling lives.
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“Often, a low income, lack of transport or lack of access to information (especially offline) can prevent someone from getting involved in events or activities,” he says. “In rural areas, the availability of transport is hit or miss, and many older persons say they have unmet transport needs. While modern buildings are much better, many older buildings have stairs and are not physically accessible to some older persons. Something as simple as the lack of an accessible toilet can mean that someone misses out on an opportunity to do something they would enjoy.”
It is not only the physical that can cause barriers, but the “relentless push to have everything online” which can block some older people who may not have the necessary digital skills. O’Connor specifies that it is important to have accessible phone numbers and offices where an older person can talk directly to someone if they want to buy a ticket or find out about activities. Further issues such as mandatory retirement have been known to limit and harm those who would have wished to stay in paid work beyond the retirement age.
A recent study in BMC Geriatrics highlighted three main themes which older adults focus on when setting goals – “activities and experiences” were the most mentioned goal opportunities with “health and wellbeing” and “social connections and engagement” also highly rated. Additional goal themes included finance and employment; home and lifestyle; and attitude to life. Interestingly, men tended to rank “social connections and engagement” higher than “health and wellbeing”, specifically exercise or physical fitness, which may be due to older-age men already addressing this goal by being physically active, as suggested by additional research. Similarly, women tend to place greater emphasis on “health and wellbeing” as a primary goal over “social connections and engagement” as women may already prioritise their social connections and community engagement.
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Although Lawrence is no longer able to go cycling or play badminton to the same level as before, considering walking can be painful, he says, “My age doesn’t prevent me from learning languages.”
He recounts his other goals, including learning Irish when he moved to Ireland with his wife Siobhán in 2008 and how he is currently learning Spanish and Italian for an upcoming travel itinerary. Having sailed around the Atlantic with Siobhán for two years on his retirement, Lawrence knows sailing is off the list of goals for the moment because of balance, but he considers the idea of making time to write a book about their two-year voyage as he rereads the logbooks of their adventures.
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For Lawrence, a strength of older age is not making the same mistakes again and again. He acknowledges the benefits of considered decision-making and using the knowledge and experience gained throughout one’s life to make those decisions and enjoy the changing seasons of life. With 16 raised beds and several apple trees in their walled garden, Lawrence says that his job after we speak is to mend some of the beds that need reinforcing.
“I don’t think of my age,” he says. “It’s only a number. And yes, there’s certain bits and pieces of me that are slowing down but my mind is still buzzing with new ideas and I’m excited for some new adventures.”
