John Hobby: My name is John Hobby I'm an attorney in Brooklyn, NY and I'm 50 years old.

Interviewer: How does that make you feel?

John Hobby: [moan] Growing up I played lots of different sports. I played a lot of basketball. I played baseball and football. For the most part now I run long distances usually 2, 3 times a week. I do some weight training 3 or 4 times a week and whenever I can I get out on my bicycle. When I can't get to working out, whether it be weight training, running I feel bloated, I feel grumpy and I feel like I'm missing something.

Lisa Cohen: There is sort of this broad cultural trend to feeling you shouldn't be held back by limits and this can lead to a number of problems. One of which is a hard time accepting the reality of aging.

Robert Gotlin: You sometimes have a catch 22, how much is too much? We have a problem with our body breaking down and trying to keep our body going forward.
Well the Boomer population is at a shortfall because they don't recover as quickly as a younger person. Their muscles aren't as strong as they used to be, their not as flexible as they were and their bones and ligaments don't hold them up as they used to - they don't see that.

John Gotlin: I've had numerous injuries, but I've had a lot of injuries from probably getting older and over doing it. I've had some knee problems; I thought I might need surgery at one point, but luckily didn't have to do that. I've had a foot problem that kept me off running for about 6 months and that was, that was very rough. There's something that keeps you coming back to running, cause it's not gleeful and it's not something you do joyful while you're doing it, but at the end of a run, particularly a long run, which is why I think I like longer runs, you feel a sense of euphoria, you know everything is cool whatever that problem was you had when you started running it some how it's gonna work out. It's a really good feeling and the fact that you get it naturally [laughter] makes it all the better.

Robert Gotlin: There are some of those who just come in and say fix it. I want to do this next week-fix it. I've had patients 3 times a day that just tell me "if it's a broken piece take it out and give me a new one."

Lisa Cohen: So you can ask whether Baby Boomers are kind of in denial about the long term consequences of the choices they make now about not recognizing the implications of their actions for their bodies overtime for their health overtime and denial is a bit of a tricky word, because on one hand to say I am not going to be limited it does open up opportunities, but the downside is it can be flat out total denial to say there aren't consequences in my kind of refusing to be frustrated in the short term isn't going to hurt me in the long term.

Robert Gotlin: I don't want anybody to think that we're saying you should not be a Boomer and be motivated and dedicated to work out and to go to the next level, we want you too, but use common sense. If something hurts for more than a few days it's probably injured and not sore. If you can't walk for a week or two there's an injury, there's not just a limp, if your back hurts and you have leg pain, there's not just a pull there could be nerve problem, just use common sense and be smart and then go see a physician, a clinician, a trainer, a therapist, somebody to help you work this out and keep you going, because if not you will get injured and will suffer.

John Hobby: That's the thing, I don't, it just doesn't make any sense to me. For some reason and I don't know if I'm alone in this generation, but being 50 is not something that happens to people like me. [laughter]