There are things you begin to notice as you reach a certain age that never affected your wellness before; bending down to tie up your shoelaces is tricky, getting a full night’s sleep is difficult, and let’s not even mention trying to climb a flight of stairs. However, these things aren’t a problem for Tim Plewman, a South African actor, writer and director who has now written the aptly titled book Fitness For Old Farts.
When most people get older, they let themselves go and don’t try to get it back. Plewman, on the other hand, actually went out, lost the weight and then wrote about it. He explained, ‘It was a perfect storm. I’d been fit for most of my life, I’d been an athlete, a dancer, in fact, I played the Gene Kelly role in Singing in the Rain with 22 dance numbers, but as you get older, you neglect yourself. It’s relativism, when you’re 20, 15 years is forever, when you’re 50 the last 15 years have passed in a flash, paying bills, getting kids to school, and you think, “what the hell happened?”’
Plewman noted that giving up smoking and doing more and more writing led to his weight gain. ‘I went from being fit and strong to fat… and then tore the meniscus on my knee,’ he said, adding that the deaths of three lifelong friends – acclaimed actors Bill Flynn and Jonathan Rands and Grahamstown theatre manager Roydon Paynter – also led to the book. ‘It’s an absolutely serious subject, but it was vital that it was fun.’
The book revolves around five different regimes for five different personality types, which are a composite of friends Plewman has trained with over the years. Plewman commented, ‘The book’s about the fears and concerns of older guys and trying to solve them from their perspective.’ Hence, Plewman’s book is filled with his own brand of honest humour, including before and after pictures tracing the journey from love handles to washer board stomach.
‘Your sixties should be about being fit, fun and flexible and being able to enjoy life, rather than being grumpy and moaning about your knees not working,’ Plewman said. ‘There’s things that start coming back when you get fit and lose weight, your peripheral vision for one, your serotonin levels – the stuff that makes you happy – everything works, your digestion, your blood flow.’ He added that the book is ‘perfectly timed for Father’s Day and if nothing else, it will make a great coaster. But in all honesty, I’m hoping that there’s a bunch of guys out there who will use it as motivation to turn their lives around.’