The Comeback Trail

Greetings. I’m glad you found this blog. I’ve been looking for it all afternoon. My name is Chris Nerney.  I’m a certified personal trainer (National Academy of Sports Medicine) and longtime professional journalist. I live near Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with my wife and three children.

I’m 54 years old and have been physically active my entire life. I’m a competitive runner, I bike regularly, I snowshoe in the winter and routinely lift weights. I even still play touch football with my family every year at Thanksgiving, stupid as that sounds. (I have a 64-year-old brother who also still plays, though his years of being a “deep threat” are far behind him, as are most of the people he covers.)

I’ve never been overweight (I’m now 10 pounds more than I was in high school) and my diet is reasonably sound, if not strict. But conditioning is relative, and there have been plenty of periods over the years when I’d find myself trudging up the stairs, feeling old. In fact, that “trudging” feeling is what usually would prompt me to get back in shape. For as long as I can remember I’d refer to my renewed commitment to fitness as “getting on the comeback trail.”  And it’s always helped motivate me. I’m not sure why; I guess I’m a sucker for cheap drama and implied heroics.

Whatever the reason, The Comeback Trail has served me well over the years. Now I want to bring The Comeback Trail to others, cheap drama and all. Hence this blog, and the following brief mission statement:

The Comeback Trail is dedicated helping and encouraging people to become more fit and active. While the blog’s content should be of interest to anyone who wants to get or stay fit, it specifically targets men and women who are 40 and older.

I’ll be adding a lot of content over the next few weeks and am looking forward to helping inspire others to get and stay in shape. Fitness is a quality-of-life issue, especially as you get older. As the 54-year-old father of a 5-year-old boy and two daughters in middle school, no one knows this more than I. Which is fine, because I plan to stay on The Comeback Trail. I hope you join me. It’s well worth the journey.