I'm 54 and have been training for 40 years. Elbows and hips now giving a lot of trouble. Luckily my back and knees are OK. I hate holidays or going on course for work. If I don't train for a week, I start to stiffen up and get all sorts of aches and pains. That said, looking outside the martial arts, at those who did it with me and dropped out, or say lads I played rugby with, who all stopped around the age of 35. If , as most did, they stop all training (!) within 5 years all those injuries we'd picked up came back to haunt them. So, a question, is the constant training suppressing the effect of injuries ? Now look out beyond those who train, to those who don't train. I work with loads of people far younger than myself, who continually complain about their aches and pains, how things aren't working properly inside them ! A better example my wife's knees and hips are causing her so much pain she may need surgery. The reasons for this, nothing - she has done nothing, no training or activity of any kind. It's just age. So, we all age. We will all get aches and pains. May be they even interfere with what you can now do. The difference is how you can look back. If it's just age and you've done nothing, you look at the aches and pains and see nothing but the aches and pains and the age - and what they now stop you doing ! Me, I can look back at my aches and pains and say. 'Boy was it fun getting 'em !'