For me the 4 things that get challenging to say the least are:
#1. Getting enough sleep. This wasn't such a big problem when I was younger and I simply slept better than I do now, and it even became tougher to get enough sleep when I got married 18 months ago since my wife works days and i work nights, so being a light sleeper, I tend to wake up when she's getting ready for work and moving around the house making noise with things like her hair dryer. This happens at time in the morning that's really too early for me to be getting up, so my sleep gets broken up during the day. That can't be doing me any good.
#2. The mere high costs of gear itself. Add the cost of supplements to that, and it gets very tough for me to maintain.
#3. Lack of support. My wife doesn't even workout nor perform any exercise at all, so not only does she often cook things that aren't really great from a nutritional standpoint and that I have to turn down, but she's always bringing junkfood from Taco smell, Burger Queen, and Spendy's into the house as well as cookies, ice cream, and various chips, so I have to work hard at having an iron will power and do most of the cooking and food shopping for myself. ON top of that, because of our clash of lifestyles concerning fitness, I cannot let her know when I spend $$ on gear. She would NEVER understand and her family would make trouble with negative comments about that once she told them. So I have to be on the defense concerning the gear use and be discreet about it. If she ever came out and asked me about it, then I would come clean, but due to her ignorance about it, it would never dawn on her regardless of what shape I'm in.
I would have to blow up Like Lee Priest or Kevin Levrone with 20+" arms 55" chest for her to ever suspect gear use. And that obviously will never happen with me.
#4. My occupation plays a role and presents another challenge at times. SB1 mentioned Ronnie Coleman being a cop during the beginning of his Mr. Olympia reign. But occupations like being a police officer aren't physically demanding on a regular basis. The only time cops' jobs are strenuous is when they have to break up a bar fight, or subdue a gang member or drug dealer during an arrest. But that often ends with a taser or pepper spray anyway, and it isn't a daily occurence for most cops, and it certainly isn't all day long either. It's over with in a minute or two. Their job is stressful, yes, (since they never know when/if they will get blown away) but not very physically demanding on the majority of work days they put in.
My job being an aircraft mechanic is one of those jobs that gets physically demanding and is demanding on my bones and joints since it includes lots of repetative motions on a daily basis, ( ie. swinging the sledgehammer to knock-in steel bushing into a magnesium gearbox housing, applying 140 ft/lbs of torque to threaded fluid fittings, using manual arbor presses, and turning ratchets all day long). The older I get, the more these daily employment activities take their toll and serve to be a hinderance to my workout recovery.
