What scares you the most about growing old? Is it Alzheimer’s, dementia, cancer, or a devastating neuromuscular disease?
Then there’s age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, hearing loss.
There’s a long list of age-related diseases we can acquire or succumb to as we age. But there is one thing that we can do: avoid general deterioration.
I spend a lot of time watching older people and observing the daily activities at the residential facility where my 97-year-old mother lives. And there are things that stand out for me.
Movement—
I am taken aback and saddened by the tremendous loss of mobility.
A large number of them use walkers. They slowly move from elevator, to dining room, back to the elevator, hunched over their four wheels, in hopes that they don’t teeter over, fall, and break a bone.
The longer they use the walkers, the more they hunch, the more they move with their legs in a splayed out position, shuffling more than picking up and swinging their legs in a natural gate.
They spend far too much time sitting in a chair, watching television. So often it’s the only mode of entertainment they have.
And the lack of activity contributes to a steady decline in strength and mobility, flexibility and balance. Muscle tone deteriorates to the point of no return.
Flexibility is compromised.
Fat to muscle ratio changes, with muscle coming out on the losing end.
All of that deterioration leads to a decrease in balance, an increase in falls, and more loss of mobility.
And sadly, all of that inactivity also increases your chances of suffering memory deterioration and dementia.
A different picture—
And then I go to the gym and see elder adults in their seventies, eighties and nineties trying to maintain whatever they’ve got in order to stay mobile and flexible and strong so they can enjoy life more. They tell staying strong and mobile is what motivates them to exercise.
And I wonder which camp I want to end up in, or am more likely to.
I know from experience that the more and longer you sit and spend parked in a chair or on a couch, the more likely it is you will deteriorate. I’ve been stunned how quickly it’s happened to me over the last year. Before I realized it, nearly a year had elapsed without my adhering to the regular exercise program I’d been following for years.
And I’ve paid a price for it. Now I’m trying to slug my way back to strength, flexibility and mobility. It’s tough. But I’m determined to ward off the walker as much and as long as I can.
What you can do—
It isn’t complicated. And it isn’t expensive. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here’s some things you can do to:
- Daily stretching exercises. Harvard Medical and Mayo have some great suggestions on their websites.
- Join a gym and do some light weight lifting. If you can’t do that, then buy some small weights to do upper body exercises at home. Learn how to use your body weight as resistance for muscle strengthening.
- Buy a DVD that teaches you tai chi, a great activity for people into their senior years. It increases breathing, strength and balance.
- Take yoga for its breathing, strengthening and flexibility benefits. It’s also a great social activity, although I wouldn’t endorse the spiritual aspects of it.
- Take daily walks.
- Increase your protein consumption. Recent research indicates seniors need more protein.
The important thing is to pick out something you can do to keep moving and stick with it.
Maybe you can put off buying a walker a little longer than the average person.
Until next week,
Keep moving!
Andrea
“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien