Running in Your 50s: 6 Ways a Man's Body Changes, and What You Can Actually Do About It
- Jul 24
- 25 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Written and published July 2026 | Andy Hood, ultra runner, 25 years of running, cancer survivor
Tired legs, tight Achilles, and an increasingly urgent relationship with hedgerows. If you're a bloke in your 50s who still laces up, this one is for you.
The short answer: running in your 50s gets harder for seven measurable reasons. Testosterone falls by around 1 to 3% a year. Muscle mass drops 1 to 2% a year and strength faster still. Aerobic capacity declines around 10% per decade. Recovery between hard sessions stretches from 48 hours to 72. Bone density falls, with one in four men over 50 going on to suffer an osteoporosis-related fracture. The gut gets less reliable, affecting somewhere between 30 and 90% of distance runners. And fat redistributes to the waist, though not because your metabolism has slowed, since research shows it stays stable from 20 to 60. The good news, and it's substantial: trained men lose aerobic capacity at roughly half the rate of untrained men, and strength training is proven to slow muscle loss. Most of what gets blamed on ageing is actually detraining.
🏃 Key takeaways
The changes are real, and they are not in your head. Testosterone, muscle, bone and aerobic capacity all decline from around 50. Every single one of them is measurable and well documented.
How fast they decline is largely up to you. Trained men lose aerobic capacity at roughly half the rate of untrained men. Strength training is the only thing proven to slow age-related muscle loss. The trajectory is the bit you get to influence.
Accept some. Act on the rest. You will not get your 35 year old body back. You can absolutely build a 50-something body that is stronger, more durable and better fuelled than the one you had at 40.
Get things checked. I am a runner, not a doctor. Persistent fatigue, changes in bowel habit, or symptoms that worry you belong in front of a GP, not a blog article.
The 7 changes at a glance
What changes after 50 | Roughly how much | What actually helps |
Testosterone | Total falls ~1.6% a year, free testosterone ~2 to 3%, steeper after 50 | Eat enough, sleep, limit hard sessions, see a GP if symptoms persist |
Muscle mass and strength | Mass down 1 to 2% a year, strength down 1.5 to 3% | Resistance training, 2 to 3 sessions of 30 minutes a week |
Gut and bowels | Affects 30 to 90% of distance runners; 62% have stopped mid-race | Low fibre pre-run, practise fuelling, loose kit, hydrate |
Recovery and tendons | Hard sessions need 72 hours, not 48 | Warm up and cool down every run, build mileage 5 to 8% a week, max 10% |
VO2 max | Down ~10% per decade untrained, ~5% if trained | Keep some intensity, build Zone 2 volume, stay consistent |
Bone density | 1 in 4 men over 50 suffer an osteoporosis-related fracture | Lifting and impact work, calcium and vitamin D, less alcohol |
Fat distribution | Metabolism is stable 20 to 60; fat shifts to the waist as testosterone and muscle fall | Lift, protein around 1.0 to 1.2g per kg a day, sleep |
Contents
Why I'm writing this
I'm a runner in my early 50s and I've definitely noticed some biological changes in my body. I've been running for around 25 years, so I'm pretty in tune with how my body works and responds to an active lifestyle. Cancer in 2021 and the chemotherapy has likely magnified some of the changes, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't account for all of them.
Tiredness is a big factor. I sleep more. I feel I need to rest more. My days of fast pace seem to slip away into a distant past that even Professor Brian Cox couldn't locate. I have earlier nights, later mornings, although I do still get up at 4:30am for a speed interval session as I did this morning. But those early starts are not as frequent, and often not as early.
And then there are the Achilles, which every morning feel like they have run 100 miles in the night. They are tight and take a few minutes to warm up. Coming down the stairs, avoiding three cats under my feet, takes a little more thought and reassurance from the bannister.
And if we are going to get really personal, then finding a tree or bush mid run has definitely become a thing. And we are not just talking about a quick pee behind the bush. My bowels are not as rock solid as they once were.
Strength training has featured in my running programme for the past few years. I knew the body was not as flexible as it was even in my 40s, and I was more prone to injury.
So it got me thinking. I can't be the only runner in his 50s who experiences these issues, and as I am incredibly open about the challenges I go through, a blog article seemed a good bet. You may find it reassuring and useful.
With a little research I've come up with the top six, maybe seven, I am at an age where I can change my mind often about things, areas where the bodies of us men change as we age. And more importantly, whether we just have to accept it or whether there are positive actions we can take.
Spoiler: it's mostly the second one.
It ended up being seven, by the way. I did warn you about the changing my mind thing.
1. Low testosterone in men over 50: the quiet one
Let's start with the hormone everyone has heard of and almost nobody talks about at parkrun.
Testosterone falls with age at a pace that is remarkably predictable. Research suggests total testosterone drops by roughly 1.6% a year and free testosterone by around 2 to 3% a year, with a noticeably steeper decline once you pass 50. That's not a cliff edge, it's a slow slide, which is exactly why so many men never spot it happening.
The reason it's the quiet one is that the symptoms look exactly like "getting older". Low energy. Reduced strength. Lower libido. Mood changes. Every one of those gets shrugged off as a busy job, poor sleep, or simply the calendar. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't.
There's a running-specific wrinkle here too, and I want to be honest about it. There is decent evidence that long-term endurance training can nudge testosterone lower, particularly where there's high volume, chronic under-fuelling, poor recovery or a lot of life stress in the mix. One of the larger studies on male distance runners suggested that years of endurance training may effectively reset the body's hormonal thermostat to run at a lower level.
Before you throw your trainers in the bin, the same research is clear that running is not inherently bad for your hormones. The problems cluster around extreme volume, overtraining and not eating enough for the work you're doing. Balanced, well-fuelled running is part of a healthy life, not a threat to it.
And here's the finding I found most encouraging of the lot. A randomised controlled trial in men aged 50 to 70 compared testosterone treatment against exercise training. Exercise came out on top for aerobic fitness, muscular strength and fat loss. The researchers went as far as suggesting that for men in this age group with low-normal testosterone, exercise should be considered the anti-ageing intervention of choice ahead of testosterone therapy.
Read that again. The thing you're already doing beats the thing being sold to you on Instagram.
What you can do: eat enough for your training load, protect your sleep, keep the truly hard sessions to a sensible number, and if the symptoms are persistent and affecting your life, go and talk to your GP and get a blood test rather than self-diagnosing from a forum.
2. Muscle loss and sarcopenia: the change that catches runners out
This is sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, and it's the single biggest reason I'd tell any runner over 45 to get into a gym.
Muscle mass peaks in your 30s, then declines by roughly 1 to 2% a year. Strength falls faster, around 1.5 to 3% a year, and the rate of decline gets steeper after 50. Sarcopenia typically starts making itself known around age 50 and accelerates from there.
Here's the part that catches runners out, and it caught me out too. Running does not fix this. Aerobic exercise is brilliant for your heart, your head and your waistline, but it is not effective at maintaining and building muscle. Resistance training is the only activity proven to slow the progression of sarcopenia.
I'd already worked this out empirically, the hard way, on a 170-mile coast path. I knew my body was less flexible than it had been in my 40s and I was picking up more niggles. The gym fixed that. I just didn't realise at the time that I was also doing something rather important for my long-term health.
The reassuring bit? You do not need to become a powerlifter. The research points to two or three 30-minute strength sessions a week being enough to make a meaningful difference. I do one focused session a week with my coach plus a plyometric session at the weekend and daily banded ankle work, and that's plenty alongside the running.
If you want the detail on what I actually do in the gym, I've written a full guide on strength training for runners.
What you can do: two strength sessions a week, on your easy or non-running days. Compound movements, progressed sensibly. Enough protein to actually rebuild what you're breaking down. Start today rather than next January.
3. Runner's trots and changing bowel habits: yes, we're going there
Right. Deep breath. Nobody writes about this properly and I think that's a shame, because it affects a lot of us and it makes people feel like they're the only one.
You are absolutely not the only one.
Estimates suggest somewhere between 30 and 90% of long-distance runners experience gastrointestinal symptoms. One frequently quoted study found that 62% of long-distance runners reported having to stop mid-race for a bowel movement. Sixty-two percent. That is the majority of the field, quietly not talking about it.
So what's going on? The Mayo Clinic points to a combination of factors: the physical jostling of your internal organs, reduced blood flow to the intestines, changes in hormone secretion in the gut, new or increased food intake, and plain old pre-race nerves. Food also moves faster through the bowels of people in training.
The blood flow point is the one that surprised me most. During hard running, blood is diverted to your working muscles, and delivery to the intestines can drop by as much as 80%. Your gut is essentially running on a skeleton staff while you're pushing the pace. It's little wonder it occasionally files a complaint.
Now, the honest caveat. This is a running issue rather than strictly a 50s issue. But for those of us in our 50s it tends to layer on top of other digestive changes we're already noticing, and for me personally, cancer treatment and losing an organ or two along the way has hardly helped matters. The result is the same either way: a heightened awareness of where the next bit of hedgerow is.
What you can do: the practical advice is well established. Limit high-fibre and gas-producing foods for a day or so before a long run or race, then eat them afterwards. Go easy on caffeine and fat pre-run. Wear something that isn't tight around the waist. Stay properly hydrated. Some runners find a short trial of a low-FODMAP approach helps, and sports nutrition guidance increasingly suggests avoiding anti-inflammatories before a big effort.
And this bit matters: a persistent change in bowel habit is not something to train around or write off as runner's trots. If it's ongoing, if there's blood, if anything has changed and stayed changed, please go and see your GP. I found my cancer because I checked and acted on something that had changed. Do the same.
4. Slower recovery, stiff Achilles and injury risk
This is the one I feel most in my day-to-day life. Ageing brings reduced muscle mass, slower recovery and decreased joint elasticity, all of which affect speed, endurance and injury risk.
The recovery piece is the one that stings. Where you might once have gone hard on Tuesday and again on Thursday, the guidance for masters runners is that you may now need 72 hours between hard sessions rather than 48. Coaches working with older athletes also suggest building mileage by around 5 to 8% a week rather than the classic 10% rule, spending longer on your aerobic base, and using speed work and hills more sparingly.
That's the theory. In practice it looks like this: I still get up at 4:30am for intervals, just not as often, and my training block currently has "rebuild slowly" written all over it. I'm not afraid to hit pause mid-session and take an extra recovery interval if my heart rate hasn't come down. It's my programme. There are no prizes for destroying your body.
Then there's the Achilles. Every morning, tight as a drum, protesting like they've been out running all night without telling me. Tendons become less elastic with age and simply need longer to warm up and get going. Three cats on the stairs does not help the situation.
Which brings me to the thing that has quietly become the most important change to my week: warm ups and cool downs are no longer negotiable. In my 30s they were the bit you skipped when you were running late. In my 50s they are the bit that keeps the whole show on the road. I do them every session, without exception, and I can tell within a mile when I've rushed one. If you take one habit from this entire article, make it this one.
Now for the good news, because there's a lot of it, and it directly contradicts what your non-running mates keep telling you at the pub.
Running does not wreck your knees. In one study, the rate of arthritis among runners was around 10%, which matched the non-running control group exactly. Reviews of masters runners conclude that the evidence linking recreational distance running to hip and knee arthritis is far from conclusive, and some studies have found lower rates of arthritis in runners than in the general population. One likely reason: runners tend to carry less excess body mass, and excess weight is a major arthritis risk factor.
The honest nuance is that extreme volume and intensity of the sort elite athletes do has been linked to higher arthritis prevalence, and age itself is a risk factor for things like meniscal wear. But recreational running, done sensibly? Your joints are fine. Better than fine.
What you can do: treat recovery as part of training, not the absence of it. Warm up properly, especially those tendons. Sleep like it's a session in your plan. Build slowly. Get a sports massage. And listen when your body starts talking, because in your 50s it tends to go from a polite word to a full complaint faster than it used to.
When you are choosing a running training plan select a plans that matches where your body is now, and builds you from there.
5. VO2 max decline: why easy runs feel harder after 50
If you've ever finished a steady run thinking "that should not have been that hard", this is why.
VO2 max, your body's maximum capacity to take in and use oxygen, declines by roughly 10% per decade after age 30 in people who don't train to maintain it. Reference values for men show the shape of it clearly:
Age | Typical VO2 max, men (ml/kg/min) |
20s | ~47 |
30s | ~40 |
40s | ~35 |
50s | ~29 |
60s | ~25 |
70s | ~21 |
These are population medians, not targets. Trained runners sit well above them.
The mechanics behind it are mostly plumbing and wiring. Maximum heart rate falls by roughly one beat per minute per year, which reduces how much blood your heart can move at full effort. Add reduced blood delivery to the working muscles and declining mitochondrial density and function, and there's your slower 10K.
But hold on, because this is the most empowering statistic in the whole article.
Trained men decline at roughly half the rate of untrained men. About 5% per decade instead of 10%, because consistent aerobic work preserves stroke volume and capillary density. The practical implication is enormous: a substantial chunk of what we blame on ageing is actually detraining. Endurance-trained men in their 60s routinely post VO2 max scores above the median for men in their 30s.
Let that sink in. The decline is real, but the person who keeps showing up ages at half the speed of the person who doesn't.
What you can do: keep some intensity in your week, even if it's less of it than before. Zone 2 volume becomes your friend. Stay consistent through the winter, through the busy period at work, through the bit where you can't be bothered. Consistency is the intervention.
6. Bone density and osteoporosis in men: the one nobody talks about
I nearly left this one out, which is precisely why it deserves a place. Osteoporosis is widely thought of as a women's issue. It isn't.
Up to one in four men over 50 will experience an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime. Bone loss in men frequently goes undetected until something breaks, and men face notably worse outcomes after fracture than women do. Men have historically been under-represented in osteoporosis research, which has led to under-screening and under-diagnosis.
There's a direct link back to section one, too. Men with low testosterone tend to have lower bone mineral density, and low testosterone is associated with higher osteoporosis risk.
So where does running fit? Running is weight-bearing, and the impact of your feet hitting the ground does stimulate bone formation. That's genuinely in our favour. But it's more nuanced than "running builds bone". The bone strains generated by distance running are lower than those from high-impact sports or lifting weights. And high-volume running combined with inadequate fuelling, low body fat and insufficient calcium and vitamin D can push things the wrong way. Under-fuelled endurance athletes can and do lose bone density.
So the recipe here is not "run more". It's run, and then add the things running doesn't give you.
What you can do: resistance training and some higher-impact work such as plyometrics or hill sprints give your skeleton a stimulus that steady running doesn't. Eat enough, including adequate calcium and vitamin D. Go easy on the alcohol, don't smoke. And if you have risk factors, a history of fractures, or low testosterone, talk to your GP about whether a bone density scan is appropriate for you. That's a conversation for a doctor, not a decision to make off the back of a blog post.
7. Changing metabolism and where the fat goes
Here's the one I added last, because it's the one I feel every time I look in a mirror.
My fat distribution has changed. It's gone to the stomach and the waist, and running alone doesn't seem to shift it. And before anyone reaches for the obvious explanations, I don't drink alcohol and I don't eat very sugary foods. So we can rule those out.
If you've experienced the same thing and quietly blamed your metabolism, I've got news that genuinely surprised me.
Your metabolism is not slowing down
In 2021, a large international study published in Science measured daily energy expenditure in more than 6,400 people aged eight days to 95 years old, across 29 countries, using doubly labelled water, which is the gold standard for this kind of measurement.
What they found upends the received wisdom. Metabolism peaks in infancy, declines through childhood, then plateaus from age 20 all the way to 60. It doesn't start declining again until around 60, and even then by less than 1% a year. The researchers were explicit that the thickening waistlines of midlife exist, but a changing metabolism isn't the reason for them.
Read that again if you're in your 50s, because it means the excuse most of us have been leaning on isn't true. Your engine is burning fuel at much the same rate it did at 35.
So what is going on?
Three things that actually are going on
Muscle loss, which we covered in section two. Muscle is metabolically expensive tissue. Lose it and your resting burn drops, not because your metabolism has broken but because there's less of you doing the burning. This is why the scales can stay identical while your shape changes. Same weight, less muscle, more fat.
Testosterone, which we covered in section one. This is the big one for where the fat goes. Testosterone influences fat distribution, and lower levels are consistently associated with more fat around the middle, particularly visceral fat, the sort that sits deep around your organs rather than sitting under the skin.
The evidence here is strong. In a 12-month randomised controlled trial of non-obese men aged 55 and over with low-normal testosterone, those given testosterone gained less visceral fat and preserved more skeletal muscle than the placebo group. Notably, the change in visceral fat tracked the change in testosterone. That's about as close as research gets to saying the hormone is steering where the fat lands.
There's also an unhelpful feedback loop at work. Visceral fat tends to lower testosterone further, which encourages more visceral fat, and round it goes.
Energy compensation, which is why running alone doesn't fix it. This is the bit most runners have never heard of. There's evidence that when you increase your exercise, your body quietly claws some of the energy back. One analysis of 14 human studies found that on average only around 72% of the calories burned during exercise showed up as an increase in total daily energy expenditure. Roughly 28% was offset elsewhere.
A 2026 study from Tel Aviv University found the compensation didn't come from people eating more, which was the assumption. It came from the body becoming more efficient, with energy-hungry organs shrinking slightly and daily non-exercise energy expenditure dropping.
I want to be honest that this is contested. A recent study from the University of Alabama compared sedentary people with ultra runners covering more than 70km a week and found a straight line, more activity meant more calories burned, with no evidence of compensation at all. So the science is live and being argued over right now.
Either way, the practical message holds: running is not a reliable tool for changing body composition on its own, and you cannot spot-reduce your waist by running further.
So what actually helps
Three levers, and none of them involve running more.
Lift. Resistance training preserves the lean mass that keeps your resting burn up, and there's some evidence it produces less energy compensation than aerobic work alone, which makes it particularly useful for body recomposition. If you take one action from this whole article, this is the one that pays into sections one, two, six and seven simultaneously.
Eat enough protein, and spread it out. Expert groups such as ESPEN and the PROT-AGE group recommend around 1.0 to 1.2g per kg of body weight per day for healthy older adults, notably higher than the UK's general recommendation of 0.75g. Research also suggests older bodies need roughly 25g in a sitting to properly trigger muscle building, three times a day. A UK study of older adults found fewer than 15% were hitting the higher figure. Most runners I know are fine at dinner and hopeless at breakfast.
Sleep, and stop treating it as optional. A single night of total sleep deprivation has been shown to reduce muscle protein synthesis by 18%, raise cortisol by 21% and lower testosterone by 24%. Cortisol in particular encourages visceral fat storage. Which means all that extra sleep I've been feeling guilty about isn't laziness. It's doing actual work on the exact problem I'm complaining about.
One reassurance and one word of caution
The reassurance: some change in shape is a normal part of ageing and is not a moral failing or evidence you've gone soft. A bloke of 53 who runs consistently, lifts twice a week and sleeps properly is in an excellent position, even if his waistband has opinions it didn't used to have.
The caution: waist measurement is a more useful guide to visceral fat than what the scales say, and visceral fat is the type with real health implications. If your waist has changed noticeably and it isn't shifting, that's a conversation worth having with your GP, along with anything else in this article that rings true. Don't take nutrition targets from a running blog, mine included. If you want a plan built around your body and your training, a registered dietitian or sports nutritionist is the person to see.
So do we just accept it? The truth about running in your 50s
Here's where I landed after all this reading.
There are things to accept. My fastest times are behind me. My recovery is slower and always will be. My Achilles will need their morning warm-up ritual for the rest of my running life. Fighting those facts is a fast route to injury and frustration, and I've watched too many runners in their 50s break themselves trying to be 35 again.
But look at the pattern across all six areas. In every single one, the size of the decline is heavily influenced by what you do:
Testosterone: exercise beat testosterone treatment in a randomised trial of men aged 50 to 70
Muscle: strength training is the only proven intervention against sarcopenia
Gut: mostly manageable through fuelling strategy and practice
Recovery and joints: runners have no more arthritis than non-runners, and recovery habits are entirely within your control
Aerobic engine: trained men decline at half the rate of untrained men
Bone: resistance and impact work plus proper fuelling directly protect bone
Fat distribution: your metabolism hasn't slowed, so muscle, protein and sleep are the levers that work
Seven for seven. That's not a coincidence, it's the whole point.
The way I look at it now: I've got less to work with, so I'm going to be smarter with what I've got. Assess it, reframe it, adjust it. That mindset got me back to running after cancer and again after emergency surgery this year, and it works just as well for the slow creep of a birthday count.
What I'd actually do if I were starting today
If you take nothing else from this, take these seven things.
Get two strength sessions a week into your programme. Not "when I have time". In the plan, with a name and a slot.
Add something that jumps. Plyometrics, hill sprints, skipping. Ten minutes a week does more for your bones than another easy 5K.
Treat sleep as training. It's where the adaptation happens, and we need more of it than we used to.
Eat enough, and get enough protein. Under-fuelling in your 50s hits hormones, muscle and bone all at once. This is not the decade for training on fumes. Most of us are fine at dinner and hopeless at breakfast.
Extend your recovery between hard sessions. 72 hours, not 48. Build mileage at 5 to 8% a week.
Practise your race-day fuelling in training. Every gel, every drink, every pre-run breakfast. Your gut needs rehearsals.
Warm up and cool down every single time. No exceptions, no "I'm only doing four miles". This is the cheapest injury insurance available to a runner over 50.
Go and see your GP about anything persistent. Fatigue that doesn't lift. Changed bowel habits. Low mood. Symptoms that worry you. Men are famously rubbish at this, and I speak as someone whose life was saved by getting something checked.
How I fit it all together, and why I use Runna
Reading a list like the one above is easy. Actually building a week that contains strength work, plyometrics, easy miles, some intensity, proper recovery gaps and a warm up and cool down every session is where most of us fall over. It's a lot of plates to spin, and spinning them badly is how you end up injured or exhausted.
I'm a Runna ambassador, and I want to be upfront about that, but I also want to explain why the app suits a runner of my age specifically. It isn't the marketing. It's that the app quietly handles most of what this article has been banging on about.
Every session comes with a warm up and cool down built in. Not as an optional extra you scroll past, but as part of the session. For a bloke in his 50s with Achilles that need a proper conversation before they'll cooperate, that structure matters more than I can tell you. It removes the decision, and removing the decision is how a habit survives a wet Tuesday in February.
The strength library is properly comprehensive. Upper body, lower body, weights, Pilates and yoga. You can dip into them as standalone sessions when you fancy it, or have them built into your weekly programme so they sit alongside your running rather than competing with it. Given that resistance training is the single most effective thing any of us can do about muscle loss and bone density, having it woven into the same plan as the running is exactly the right way round.
And the plan flexes. It's tailored to your goal, whether that's a 10K, a marathon or an ultra, and it manages your load so you're not stacking hard days on top of each other. Which, as we covered in section four, is precisely the mistake that catches out runners in their 50s.
That combination of running, strength, mobility and recovery in one place is why I use it. It's comprehensive in its approach to improving the runner in me, rather than just handing me a set of paces and wishing me luck.
If you want to try it, I've sorted readers a double-length free trial, two full weeks of Runna Premium instead of the usual one.
👉 Download the app and enter code ANDY2, or click here: https://web.runna.com/redeem?code=ANDY2
Set up your running plan, then go into the strength section and build a couple of sessions into your week. Your 60 year old self will be extremely grateful.
FAQs: running over 50
Why is running getting harder as I get older?
Mostly because your aerobic engine is shrinking slightly and your recovery is slower. VO2 max falls by around 10% per decade after 30 in untrained people, maximum heart rate drops by roughly one beat per minute per year, and muscle mass declines from around 50. The same pace therefore costs you more. The important caveat is that trained runners decline at roughly half that rate, so a big chunk of what feels like ageing is actually lost fitness that can be rebuilt.
How much slower should I expect to get after 50?
There's no single number, and it depends enormously on how consistently you train. What the research does show is that untrained men can be 30 to 40% below their peak aerobic capacity by their mid-60s, while trained men lose about half as much. Endurance-trained men in their 60s regularly record VO2 max scores above the median for men in their 30s.
Does your metabolism slow down after 50?
Not according to the largest study on the subject. Research published in Science in 2021, measuring more than 6,400 people across 29 countries, found that metabolic rate stays stable from age 20 right through to 60, and only then declines by less than 1% a year. Weight and shape changes in midlife are real, but a slowing metabolism isn't the cause. Loss of muscle mass and falling testosterone are the more likely culprits.
Why am I gaining belly fat even though I run a lot?
Two main reasons. Falling testosterone shifts where your body stores fat, pushing it toward the abdomen, and lost muscle lowers your resting energy burn. On top of that, there's evidence your body partially compensates for the energy you burn exercising, so running further doesn't produce the result you'd expect. Running alone is not a reliable tool for changing body composition, and you cannot spot-reduce your waist by running.
How much protein does a runner over 50 need?
Expert groups including ESPEN and PROT-AGE suggest around 1.0 to 1.2g per kg of body weight per day for healthy older adults, which is above the UK's general population figure of 0.75g. Research also points to roughly 25g per meal, three times a day, to properly trigger muscle building in an older body. For a plan built around your body and training load, speak to a registered dietitian or sports nutritionist rather than taking numbers off a blog.
Is it too late to start running in your 50s?
No. Research comparing masters runners who trained all their adult lives against those who took it up after 50 found no difference in training intensity or age-graded performance between the groups. Starting late does not doom you to being slow.
How many days a week should a runner over 50 run?
There's no universal answer, but the pattern that shows up repeatedly for masters runners is fewer hard days and more easy volume, with 72 hours between hard sessions rather than 48. Many runners in their 50s land on three to five running days plus one or two strength sessions. Build mileage at around 5 to 8% a week rather than the traditional 10%.
Should I get my testosterone tested?
That's a conversation for your GP rather than something to decide from an article. If you have persistent symptoms such as fatigue, low mood, reduced strength or low libido, take them to a doctor and let them decide what's appropriate. Be wary of anyone selling you a solution before you've had a diagnosis.
Does running lower testosterone?
It can, in some athletes, particularly with very high volume, chronic under-fuelling and inadequate recovery. Balanced, well-fuelled running is not the problem. If you're running a lot and feeling flat all the time, look at your fuelling and recovery first, then speak to a professional.
Will running in my 50s give me arthritis?
The evidence doesn't support that for recreational runners. Studies have found arthritis rates in runners similar to, and sometimes lower than, non-runners. In one study the rate among runners was about 10%, matching the non-running control group. Very high volumes and intensities are a different conversation.
How much strength training do I actually need?
Two or three sessions of around 30 minutes a week is the figure that shows up repeatedly in the research on age-related muscle loss. One well-designed session plus some daily band work is a solid starting point.
Why do my Achilles hurt every morning?
Tendons lose elasticity with age and need longer to warm up. Morning stiffness that eases within a few minutes of moving is common in older runners. Stiffness that persists, worsens, or hurts during and after runs is worth getting looked at by a physio.
How do I stop needing the toilet mid-run?
The standard advice is to limit high-fibre and gas-producing foods for around 24 hours before a long run or race, go easy on caffeine and fat beforehand, avoid anti-inflammatories, stay hydrated, and wear kit that isn't tight around the waist. Practising your exact fuelling in training rather than trying something new on race day makes a big difference. If a change in bowel habit persists, see your GP.
Is running good for bone density in men?
Running is weight-bearing and does stimulate bone formation, so it helps. But the bone strains it produces are lower than those from lifting or high-impact work, and high-volume running combined with under-fuelling can work against you. Resistance training and some impact work such as hill sprints or plyometrics give your skeleton a stimulus that steady running alone doesn't.
The bottom line
Your body at 50-something is not the body you had at 35, and pretending otherwise is how runners get hurt. The tiredness is real. The tight Achilles are real. The hedgerow situation is, regrettably, extremely real.
But the research is remarkably consistent on one point: how quickly these things progress is largely down to what you do about them. Strength work, sensible recovery, proper fuelling and simple consistency don't just soften the decline, they can halve it.
I'm not chasing PBs anymore. I'm chasing another 25 years of lacing up. On the evidence, that's a far better goal anyway.
If any of this rang a bell, drop me a comment or a message. I'd love to know I'm not the only one negotiating the stairs with three cats and a bannister at 5am.
Lace up and enjoy your miles.
This article shares my personal experience and publicly available research. It is not medical advice. I'm a runner, not a doctor. If you're experiencing symptoms that concern you, please speak to your GP.
Sources and further reading
Journals of the American Physiological Society: testosterone and exercise in men aged 50 to 70
Springer, Hormones: low testosterone in male endurance-trained distance runners
University Hospitals and UT Southwestern: age-related muscle loss and resistance training
Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine: preventing runner's diarrhoea
Sports Performance Bulletin and UW Medicine: ageing, running and joint health
Cooper Institute and FRIEND registry reference data: VO2 max norms by age
ScienceDirect: exercise and musculoskeletal health in men with low bone mineral density
Pontzer et al., Science (2021): daily energy expenditure through the human life course
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism: testosterone, visceral adipose tissue and skeletal muscle in ageing men
Tel Aviv University and University of Alabama: the ongoing debate on exercise energy compensation
ESPEN and PROT-AGE protein recommendations for older adults
Physiological Reports: acute sleep deprivation, muscle protein synthesis and hormones
About the author: Andy Hood
Andy Hood is an ultra and endurance runner, cancer survivor, and unapologetic advocate for men's health. After a diagnosis tried to take his running shoes off, he laced them back up and turned the experience into a mission: designing bold, attention-grabbing ultras each year to raise awareness and funds, particularly around testicular cancer.
That mission includes his cheeky-but-serious menswear brand, Check Ya Balls, kit with a message that quite literally saves lives.
Follow his runs, read his race reports, and grab a pair of Check Ya Balls at runningwestwardho.co.uk.
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