There is a certain type of fitness content online that makes you feel like you are failing at life because you are not doing a 90-minute tactical athlete workout at 5am, followed by sunrise hill sprints, a raw liver smoothie and a motivational speech into your phone.
Usually filmed by a shirtless 20 year old in Dubai.
This is not that.
This is about something much less glamorous, but far more useful: consistency.
Especially after 40.
At this stage of life, most of us are not short of intensity. We have work, family, responsibility, bills, stress, ageing joints, random aches, and at least one body part that now makes a noise when we stand up. In my case, both knees and my left shoulder have apparently formed a complaints committee.
What we are usually short of is rhythm.
That is what a morning routine gives me.
Not a magic fix. Not a transformation challenge. Not a “look at me, I am an influencer now” performance.
Just a simple daily anchor.
Why I Stopped Chasing the Hero Session
When I was younger, I could train hard, skip the warm-up, do something stupid, have a few pints, sleep badly, then somehow wake up ready to go again.
And again.
And again.
That version of me seems to have retired without giving notice.
Eventually I realised the problem was not that I had lost all discipline. The problem was that I was still expecting myself to train like I had no job, no responsibilities, no stress and no miles on the clock.
I kept thinking a good training week had to be built around big sessions: heavy gym work, hard runs, long workouts, pints and pints of sweat, and the kind of effort that makes you feel heroic for about 30 minutes and broken for three days.
Those sessions still have their place. I still believe in training hard. But over 40, hard training works best when it sits on top of something more boring: repeatable basics.
I used to hate that stuff. Stretching. Warming up. Mobility …
I am now starting to enjoy it. Which is worrying. I may finally be turning into a grown-up.
The WHO and NHS both recommend regular physical activity, including strength work at least twice a week, aerobic movement and less time sitting still. The important word is “regular” and not “destroy yourself”.
That is the bit I used to ignore.
I would read guidance like that and think, “Right, I’ll do more days then. Five days. Heavy weights. Smash it.”
Which normally ended with me feeling great for a day and then moving around like I had been pushed down a hill in a wheelie bin.
A routine you can repeat beats a beast session you abandon by Wednesday. I know it is not cool or trendy, but it actually works and importantly it is FREE!
So What Do I Actually Do?
My current morning routine is simple.
It has to be, otherwise I will find a way not to do it.
I wake up and take a few minutes to get my head straight. Nothing mystical. I just think about what I want to do that day, what matters, and what needs my attention.
Then I do:
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Simple stretching
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Push-ups: 3 sets of 10
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Sit ups (crunches) 3 sets of 20
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Bodyweight squats: 3 sets of 10
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Supplements
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A pint of water with Baja salts
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Ice bath for as long as I can handle
That last bit sounds much more impressive than it is.
Some mornings it is less “warrior mindset” and more “middle-aged man in his boxers, standing in the garden, questioning every decision that led to this moment”. yes I know my poor neighbours!
And yes, I know. Ice baths.
I get it. They are everywhere now. Every other person online looks like they have just discovered cold water and decided to make it their entire personality.
I did not start there. I started with cold showers. That was enough at first. Actually, that's not true I started in the sea and lakes, swimming! I just didn't join the dots up but yes, the North Sea is very cold.
I then read Becoming the Iceman by Wim Hof and became more interested in cold exposure. Over time, I moved from cold showers to a cleaned-out wheelie bin, then to a huge wine barrel from Spain — no wine included, sadly — and eventually to a proper filtered ice bath.
I do believe cold water helps me. It wakes me up, sharpens my head, and gives me a small win before the day starts asking for things.
But I am not claiming it fixes your hormones, melts body fat, cures stress or turns you into a Norse God by breakfast.
I can only hope.
Cold exposure also needs common sense. Cold water shock can increase breathing rate, heart rate and blood pressure, and the RNLI warns that sudden cold-water exposure can be dangerous, especially for people with heart, blood pressure, breathing or circulation issues.
So, obvious caveat: this is not medical advice.
It is my routine. If you have any health concerns, speak to a qualified professional before copying anything involving cold water, supplements, salts or exercise, anyway enough of that.
Why I Keep It Equipment Free
The main reason I use push-ups, sit ups, squats and stretching is simple: there's no friction.
No gym.
No gym bag.
No commute.
No waiting for equipment.
No app telling me I have failed because I missed a badge.
No need to find matching socks, which is where many good intentions go to die. I blame my deranged dog for most sock-related problems in our house.
Push-ups, sit ups and squats are not glamorous, but they are always available. At home. In a hotel room. On holiday. Travelling with work. Wherever.
That matters because the routine does not need to be impressive. It needs to be repeatable.
The fitness industry loves complexity because complexity sells. But most people do not need more complexity. They need something they will actually do when life is busy, sleep has been rubbish, and motivation has gone missing.
A simple routine removes the debate.
I do not need to decide whether I am training.
I just start.
The Mental Side Is the Real Win
The physical benefits are useful: movement, blood flow, mobility, strength endurance and a better start to the day but let’s face it it’s not going to propel me into the next light heavyweight champion of the world, 'you can relax, Dmitry Bivol'
But for me, the mental benefit is just as important.
A simple morning routine tells your brain: I have done something. I have kept a promise to myself. I have taken control of the first part of the day before emails, meetings, traffic, family chaos or whatever else turns up.
That matters.
Especially because some mornings I really do not want to do it.
That is part of the point.
It is not about pretending every morning feels amazing. It is about proving to yourself that you can still show up when you are not in the mood.
There is decent evidence behind the link between physical activity and mental health too. A large 2023 review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found physical activity was beneficial for reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological distress across adult populations.
That does not mean 30 push-ups replaces therapy, medication, sleep, proper support or speaking to a professional.
It does not.
But movement is one of the tools.
For me, it is one of the most reliable ones.
Sometimes the smallest routine can stop the day starting on the back foot.
Forget Motivation
The biggest lie in fitness is that motivated people train and unmotivated people do not.
Motivation is unreliable.
It disappears when you sleep badly. It disappears when work is heavy. It disappears when it is freezing outside, stupidly hot, or when your knees feel like they belong to an 80-year-old carpet fitter.
Routine is better.
Research from University College London found that habit formation is not the old “21 days” myth. In one study, the average time for a new behaviour to become automatic was around 66 days, with a lot of variation depending on the person and the behaviour.
That is actually good news.
It means you are not failing if a new routine feels awkward after two weeks.
You are just early.
The goal is not to wake up every morning feeling motivated. The goal is to make the routine simple enough that you can still do it when motivation is nowhere to be found.
That is why my structure is basic:
Wake up.
Think.
Move.
Stretch.
Hydrate.
Cold exposure.
Get on with the day.
Nothing fancy. Nothing that needs a ring light. Nothing that requires me to perform discipline for strangers on the internet.
Consistency Over Carnage
There is still a place for hard sessions.
Heavy lifting matters. Conditioning matters. Running, rowing, martial arts, sport, mobility and strength work all have their role.
But over 40, I think the bigger question is this:
Can you keep going?
Can you train in a way that supports your life instead of wrecking it?
Can you build something that survives busy weeks, poor sleep, family pressure, work stress and the general nonsense of being a grown adult?
That is where consistency wins.
A brutal session can make you feel good for a day.
A simple routine repeated for months can change your standards.
That is the bit I care about.
Not perfection.
Not punishment.
Not pretending I wake up every morning like a disciplined statue carved from granite.
Some mornings I do not fancy it. Some mornings the ice bath looks personally offensive. Some mornings the squats feel like an HR complaint from my hips and knees.
But I still do something.
That is the standard.
Start Smaller Than Your Ego Wants
If you are trying to build your own routine, do not start with the version designed to impress imaginary people or satisfy the 20-year-old in your head.
Start with the version you can actually repeat.
Try this:
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10 push-ups
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10 squats
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2 minutes of stretching
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A glass of water
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One minute thinking about what matters today
Then build from there.
If cold showers interest you, start carefully and gradually. If ice baths interest you, do your homework, understand the risks, and do not treat social media as medical guidance.
The win is not suffering.
The win is showing up.
That is why I built Form & Fortitude around the long game.
Training over 40 is not about pretending age does not matter. It does.
Recovery matters more. Warm-ups matter more. Mobility matters more. Sleep matters more. Consistency matter more. Sensible progression matters more.
But standards still matter too.
That is where the journal, the strength reset plan and the mobility work fit in. Not as magic downloads. Not as some dramatic reinvention. Just tools to help you build structure, track what you are doing and keep yourself honest without overcomplicating everything.
Because the aim is not to train like a 22-year-old with unlimited time and no responsibilities.
The aim is to keep building.
Form first. Fortitude always.
Not done yet.