Ageing is a real pain in the neck. . .

Mark Liszt, a catering specialist, has had operations on both knees and a toe. A doctor has suggested a total replacement of his right knee, but he’s afraid it will affect his ability to play basketball. At 59, Mr Liszt can’t stop. On Tuesdays and Fridays, he plays with men who are sometimes half his age. On Saturdays, he hobbles around all day with serious knee pain. Friends and family have referred him to doctors, but he’s stayed away. “I don’t want to be told what a fool I am”, he says.

Like many in his generation, Mr Liszt wants to be more active than his father, whom he says he can’t imagine playing sport at this age. Playing basketball, he says, makes him feel young and keeps him in shape. His inspiration is an 81-year-old teammate, Moe, who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and is still a force on the court. Mr Liszt tells his doctor, who recommended the knee replacement, that he will keep playing until he can’t. “I want to be like Moe.” So for now, he’s decided to live with the aches and pains.

For men approaching midlife, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Stephanie Siegrist, has some good news: You can stay active and feel younger, but you’ll have to put some work into it. “I encourage patients not to think, I’m getting older, I’m deteriorating”, she says. Instead, she urges them to think, “As I get older, I must invest more time and effort into maintaining my resilience.” Then, rather than diagnosing your own aches and pains, says Siegrist, author of Know your bones: Making sense of arthritis medicine, you should seek out doctors who “understand your viewpoint” and will help you to maintain a realistic level of physical activity.

Why ageing brings aches and pains

As you age, the ligaments and tendons that hold your joints together become “stiff and leathery”, says Siegrist. At the same time, osteoarthritis can cause the cartilage in a joint to wear away. Both processes can lead to aching, soreness and pain. The best way to feel younger, she says, is to condition your body in ways so that if you need to run to catch a bus or play sport, your body “doesn’t feel overwhelmed by the challenge”.

Dr Alan Hilibrand is an orthopaedic surgeon and spinal specialist. He tells us that arthritis can be especially debilitating in the back. While almost everyone over the age of 60 develops arthritis in the lower back, some develop degenerative disks as early as their 20s and 30s.

Men run into problems when they fail to recognise their bodies are not as resilient as they once were, says Dr Michael Schafer, a specialist in orthopaedic surgery. This is the “weekend warrior” syndrome: The man who sits at a desk all week, then plays rugby and ends up rupturing his Achilles tendon.