What It Means To Be Fit At 40

As he nears his birthday and hits the home stretch of a year-long knee rehabilitation, entertainment personality (and all-round nice guy) Paul Foster is on a mission to redefine what it means to be fit at 40.

- Mitchell Oakley Smith

When Paul Foster tore his anterior cruciate ligament (one of the connectors that helps stabilise the knee joint) playing netball last October, he knew it was bad. But that he would still be undergoing rehabilitation a year after having surgery—all in the lead-up to his 40th birthday this December—was a wake-up call. “I was playing the game as if I was really fit, but in actual fact I was quite out of shape,” he admits. “When I injured myself I was probably the heaviest I’ve ever been—not overweight, but heavy—and also the weakest that I’ve ever been, and I think both of those factors contributed to me blowing out my knee.”

For four months, Foster had been hosting the reality television series No Sleep, No Fomo in which various celebrities took part in a series of 60 challenges within 60 hours. “It was fun and exciting, but during that period I wasn’t training, I had sleep deprivation, I wasn’t eating well,” he explains. “Quite simply, I got out of shape, because I am usually really active and try to keep healthy, but the show took a physical, mental and emotional toll. The situation became my catalyst for change.”