I never have to go surfing for fitness news, all I have to do is stop in on Sports Geezer, which linked to the L.A. Times blog of basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, who promises a series of posts for over-50 athletes.

Today, over-50 athletes are not only common, but they are often in better shape than some of the people they’re playing with who are half their ages. The main difference between them and their younger competitors is the recovery time after playing. The younger players may ache for a few hours, maybe even into the next day, but the older players never stop aching. They have chronic pains in the shoulders, knees, elbows, hips and places they didn’t even know were part of their bodies until they felt pain there. You see them arriving at the basketball court or softball field with wraps and braces and Costco-size jars of Advil rattling in their sports bags. But they show up. They play hard. And many times they’re still standing when the younger players are huffing on the sidelines gulping Gatorade.

See, now that’s why I avoid team sports (that, and an uncanny inability to make my hands go where my brain tells them).

Read more of Kareem’s post for some sample exercises.