“Man, I used to be such an athlete.”

“You don’t get it—I used to be a beast.”

I hear some version of this all the time. Usually it is half joke and half truth.

The problem is that your brain still remembers the athlete you were 20 years ago.

It does not automatically account for the fact that you have not sprinted, cut, trained your legs, jumped, or moved laterally in years. It does not consider the 40 extra pounds, the reduced ankle and hip mobility, or all the time spent sitting.

Then you step onto a basketball court, soccer field, or tennis court. Your brain tells you to go full speed, but your current body has to manage the acceleration, rotation, and MAXIMUM deceleration.

When it does not end well, you assume you are simply too old.

The demands of the activity jumped far ahead of your current capacity. Getting back into sports means rebuilding the bridge between the body you have today and the athlete you still picture in your head.

If you are returning after surgery, a significant injury, or unexplained pain, that process may also require guidance from an appropriate medical professional.

Your brain remembers the athlete. Your body remembers the layoff.

Playing a sport requires more than being generally “fit.”

Your body may need to:

That is very different from getting on an elliptical, walking on a treadmill, or doing the same controlled gym exercises every week.

You can be strong in a narrow range of movements and still be completely unprepared for the forces and positions your sport requires. Strength remains the foundation, but your training must prepare you for more than lifting.

Start with an honest assessment of your current body.

Basic strength and mobility are almost always my first priorities.

Before worrying about maximum sprinting, aggressive cutting, or high-level plyometrics, I want to know:

Together, these tests reveal whether you have enough strength, mobility, balance, and control to progress. They also show why an assessment should come before blindly copying a workout or returning immediately to the sport you played in your twenties.

My free Athletic Ability Assessment can help identify the qualities your current training may be missing.

Rebuild the qualities your sport will demand.

1. Basic strength

Strength is the foundation.

Build strength in your legs, hips, calves, feet, core, and upper body. Learn to squat, hinge, push, pull, carry, crawl, and move your body through space.

You should also be able to create tension and control your body on one leg. Nearly every field or court sport repeatedly asks you to produce and absorb force from one side at a time.

You do not need powerlifting numbers before you can play a sport. You need enough strength to control the positions and forces you will encounter.

2. Mobility you can actually control

Mobility is more than passively stretching a muscle.

Can you access a position and produce force there?

Adults returning to sports commonly need to restore usable motion through the ankles, hips, shoulders, and thoracic spine. Reinforce that mobility with strength through the available range.

More range without control is not the goal. The goal is being able to move into different positions and remain strong there.

3. General conditioning

If you are barely walking, start by increasing your daily steps.

If you already walk consistently, start power walking, using an incline, climbing stairs, or adding appropriately structured conditioning.

EVERYONE benefits from having enough aerobic capacity to recover between hard efforts. That will translate to almost everything you do.

You do not want to be strong in the gym but completely out of breath after one trip down the basketball court.

4. Landing and deceleration

Before you worry about jumping higher, learn how to land.

Before you try to cut at full speed, learn how to slow yourself down.

This could begin with:

Maximum deceleration is one of the most demanding actions in sports. It should not be the first time your body experiences meaningful force in 20 years.

5. Gradual exposure to the sport

General training gives your body a better foundation, but eventually you need the specific skills and forces required by your activity.

A tennis player needs lateral movement and rotation. A basketball player needs jumping, landing, acceleration, and change of direction. A jiu-jitsu athlete needs strength, conditioning, mobility, and control in unfamiliar positions.

The activity determines the final layer of preparation. Do not skip every layer beneath it.

Stop treating all impact like it is a problem.

“Low impact” has become a permanent training philosophy for many adults.

Low-impact exercise has a place. It can help someone build general activity and conditioning without overwhelming their current capacity.

But low impact forever does not prepare you for a sport—or a life—that contains impact.

You need some appropriately dosed impact.

Impact gives your bones, muscles, connective tissues, and nervous system a reason to adapt. It teaches you to absorb force, produce force quickly, and catch yourself when something does not go exactly as planned.

In a 12-week randomized study of older men with an average age of approximately 69, age-adapted plyometric training increased maximum strength by 23 percent while also improving jumping and stair-climbing performance. This matters because power—the ability to produce force quickly—is often one of the first qualities adults feel they have lost. (Vetrovsky et al., 2020)

Impact may be especially important for maintaining strong bones.

In the LIFTMOR trial, postmenopausal women with low bone mass completed eight months of supervised high-intensity resistance and impact training. Their lumbar-spine bone mineral density increased by 2.9 percent, while the low-intensity group experienced a 1.2 percent decline. The training group also maintained femoral-neck bone density while the comparison group lost nearly 2 percent. (Watson et al., 2018)

The practical takeaway is simple: impact belongs in adult training when the dose matches the person’s current ability.

For one person, that might begin with stairs, quick marching, or stepping from a low box and controlling the landing. Someone more advanced may be ready for repeated hops, broad jumps, or depth drops.

Chronological age does not determine the starting point. Current capacity does. From there, intelligent progression determines how far someone can go.

Impact is a training stressor. Applied progressively, it helps build stronger bones and a body that can absorb force, produce force quickly, and remain capable as it ages.

Plyometrics do not have an expiration date.

One of my clients, Rick, is 73.

He can perform depth drops, depth-drop jumps, maximal broad jumps, and lateral hops without a problem.

We did not start there.

He gradually built the strength, mobility, landing ability, and confidence required to perform those movements. That progression is the entire point.

Your starting level might be stepping off a low box and holding the landing. Someone else might begin with pogo hops, jump rope, low bounds, or faster stair climbing.

There is no single plyometric exercise that everyone must perform. There is also no birthday where everyone should suddenly stop using impact.

A sensible return-to-sport progression.

The exact exercises will depend on the individual, but the general progression may look like this:

Stage 1: Restore basic movement

Increase daily activity and rebuild the ability to squat, hinge, push, pull, rotate, balance, and move through useful ranges of motion.

Stage 2: Build strength and control

Strengthen the legs, hips, calves, feet, and core. Add single-leg training, strength through range, carrying, crawling, and controlled lateral movement.

Stage 3: Introduce speed and impact

Begin with appropriate landing drills, low-level hops, faster concentric intent, eccentric strength, and basic deceleration.

Stage 4: Prepare for the specific sport

Gradually add faster acceleration, harder deceleration, change of direction, reactive drills, repeated efforts, and the specific skills your activity requires.

Advance based on movement quality, recovery, confidence, and current capacity—not simply your age.

Active adults still need preparation.

I train clients in their sixties and seventies who play tennis and pickleball, ski, and play padel.

I have clients in their forties who play basketball, golf, practice jiu-jitsu, and run. Many of them never completely stopped being active.

I still see people develop problems because they never addressed basic strength, ignored mobility restrictions, or performed the same movements for years without exposing their bodies to different directions, speeds, and levels of force.

Playing a sport does not automatically correct your weaknesses. Sometimes it repeatedly exposes them. Your training should fill the gaps that your sport and lifestyle leave behind.

You do not need your 20-year-old body back.

The goal is to build a capable body now.

Start slowly. Progress intelligently. Build your strength, mobility, conditioning, landing ability, and tolerance for impact. Then gradually expose yourself to the speed and skill your activity requires.

You may be surprised by what your body can still learn and regain.

You might even become a more complete athlete than you were when you were younger—because this time, your training actually addresses the entire body.

If your goal is broader than returning to one sport, read more about how to become more athletic as an adult.

If you are not sure which qualities you should work on first, take the free Athletic Ability Assessment. It will give you a clearer picture of what your training may be missing and where to begin.

For individualized programming, learn more about online athletic training for adults.

Your current capacity can catch up.