I'm 45 and recently picked up wrestling (U.S. folkstyle) through a class, and am loving it. I'm not great at it but am improving steadily. I'm also thinking of training occasionally with a club that has an adult group, as my schedule (full time job and two young kids) permits. It feels very Mustachian: it's a huge amount of physical work, is complex and mentally engaging, involves minimal spending (just for shoes and class/club fees, generally pretty low), and is socially interactive.
I'd wrestled in my younger days, but never on a team or in a serious way, focusing instead on other sports. It's unusual in the United States, where I live, to wrestle past school/college age (not so in some other parts of the world where wrestling is a big part of the culture and people even do it in parks and other public spaces). It's considered a youth sport here. I'll grant that my body needs more recovery time after practices than it would have needed were I in my 20s or 30s. There's also the fear of an injury. However, I'm not looking to compete and, when drilling, we don't typically go 100 percent, so the risk of injury is much lower. I also tell myself the health and mental benefits outweigh the risks if I were NOT being so active. (As far as other forms of exercise, I could run or swim instead, but those activities get boring to me and the former is hard on the joints. I do lift weights to maintain strength.) I also can't deny that, in my mind, wrestling has a badassity factor that gives me an internal confidence boost.
My only regret is that I didn't start doing this much, much earlier in life, but I want to continue doing this at least through my early 50s, or as long as my body permits. Are there any other adults who formerly wrestled or are interested in picking it up as a sport? I'd really like to promote the sport as a great activity for all ages, and would like to see the sport become more popular. Am I crazy? Who wants to join me in participating and help get more older folks out there?
