Is it possible to be as fit in your forties and onwards as you were in your thirties? Perhaps even fitter? Yes it is, say fitness experts: there are plenty of people in their forties and even fifties who are in better shape than they were decades earlier. So what is the key to their success?

It’s partly down to a shift in mindset, says Hans Degens, professor of muscle physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University. We all need to accept that our bodies change as we age and, as a result, working out as we did in our twenties and thirties won’t produce the same results later in life. “Ageing is a phenomenon where things do slowly deteriorate at a random pace,” Degens says. “In