Look After Your Legs

@primroseteapot a few of the instructors where I go are late 50s and over, and in good shape too!

Avoiding injury isn't all on them, we know our bodies best and have a responsibility to speak if we want advice and go elsewhere if they're not up to scratch

I don't use a gym. But I am curious: How many gym instructors do you find who are over 50, for example, or over 60? I know client range can vary - my friend's mother started lifting weights in her 80s - but it is interesting how many leave the industry by the time they are in their 50s, as a result of injury. A doctor pointed this out to me. I have found younger people taking classes for older people to be remarkably ignorant of how easily they can injure their pupils.

Not every gym is like that @NoisySnail and there's places to do exercises besides gyms, tho you might pay a bit more.

I understand about your experience tho, inclusiveness could be done a lot better in a lot of places. The reality is everyone is only competing with themselves, not each other. Someone else doing worse doesn't improve our own efforts and we're in the same position compared to someone else 🤷‍♂️

😂

Someone should invent moisturising socks, which we can put on before we leap up elegantly from the floor.

I struggle with moisturising. My skin doesn’t feel dry, so I don’t enjoy slathering cream on. And it really draws my attention to how hairy my legs are 😂

Most people probably can't get up without using their hands, its something to aim for though. You get and remain fit and strong until the end. A certain amount of decline happens, but not as much as you think is inevitable. Check out running records for a 5k by age category as an example

Lucy Wyndham Read has lots of very short and gentle workouts for people who are not very fit. Lucy is lovely - not over-enthusiastic or shouty like many online trainers. Do check her out on YouTube!

If you have physical impediments to working out, have a look at Dr Jo, also on YouTube. She is an experienced physiotherapist who has posted loads of videos over the years. I think she has covered just about every issue at least once, and her explanations are very clear. I also like her personality....... and her dog!

As you get older the skin on your legs gets dryer and thinner, less flexible that makes them vulnerable to injury.

It's easier for them to get infected, or become ulcerated especially as the circulation in your lower legs can be quite poor.

I’ve missed the moisturising legs bit. Please could someone enlighten me?

Im not saying that. I just think a lot of older women think they’re ’past it’ or it’s not for them. Actually you can always start something if you want to. My mum started in her 60s and she’s super fit now. She just keeps going with whatever she can. I’m so proud of her.

lots of inspirational people! Thank you!

I'm glad you said that. I'm very overweight and unfit (chronic fatigue) but I picked up an Asian squat and find it really practical for things like loading the washing machine and accessing low kitchen cupboards. It saves your back vs bending over and it doesn't require tension or balance like a western squat. Maybe not one to start if you have hip or knee problems, and my version is incredibly inelegant. I think is because of my weight. But the inelegant is often comfortable!

I think this thread is awesome - so many different ideas and wisdom for people to pick out at whatever level suits them. I think "performance" is much more variable/more peaky than people think. I don't leave the house most days because my fatigue is so overwhelming and yet I actually can do a plank - not for very long or very well, but something. We all have our own set of challenges and strengths and it's great to hear stories from people who are living the "use of or lose it" mantra successfully. This thread has built into a great toolkit for people to draw on, at a range of different levels.

Brilliant, just goes to show what little changes we can all make!

@BogRollBOGOF That’s so encouraging, and what a sensible measured attitude you have.

I'm 70 and taught myself to do the 'Asian squat' just a few years ago!

Along with push-ups, wall sits and press-ups using 10kg dumbbells. And much else besides (viz. Caroline Girvan 😎)

I also love Growingannanas for cardio/HIIT.

I was reasonably fit already and I appreciate that not everyone can do this. But if you are still fairly young and in reasonably good shape, you can get super fit.

Even if you are less fit, physically impaired or just 'old', you can still improve through exercise.

I recommend Lucy Wyndham Read if you are unfit, or Dr Jo if you are physically impaired.

All the online trainers I've mentioned are free on YouTube.

Ultimately it's nudging your comfort zone from where it is now, whatever that is now.

I posted about my motivations regarding arthritis a few pages upthread. My logic is the better that I maintain my muscle and bone density in my 40s and going forwards, the more I have to work with as I age.

I am fit. Objectively and for my age. But that's been earned by prioritising it.

I had SPD when pregnant to the point of being offered a mobility scooter as I hauled my heavily pregnant body through the supermarket car park on a pair of crutches (I politely declined as I was hoping the effort might trigger labour by that stage 😂) That was an improvement on first time around where I was fobbed off about my "pregnancy aches and pains" and couldn't leave the house independently in the last month. Second time round, the SPD lingered post-natally. With the help of an ostepath and following the rehab exercises I managed to address the ongoing pain. I then realised that I was pain-free but limping. 9 months of constant pain had changed my gait and it was a habit and with a couple of weeks of very conciously trying to even my gait, I was walking normally. I then took up C25k because I was fed up of panting around. A year later I did a HM and was in love with running.

I had the advantages of being early 30s and the condition being recoverable, but I chose to work with the pain and improve my health. I literally started with 100m walks with walking poles and going to bed to recover (so that took more out of me than running a marathon!) and then 15 min pilates videos. I chose to keep it up when I went back to work using late nights/ early mornings, and the weekends for longer sessions. I'm in a good position now but those early stages were physically hard, and logistically hard. It was worth it though because my body is stronger and faster now than 20 years ago.

Every step along that way has been listening to my body and nudging its capabilities a bit further. The outcome looks very sporty today, but those foundations were very modest

I've had relatives die prematurely from lifestyle related conditions. I've seen relatives have long lives with long, frail old-age stages. I'm mortal, but I'm hoping that looking after my body now maximises quality of life for as long as is feasible. If nothing else, "using it" is fun and interesting in there here and now than minimal activity levels (despite my PE teachers' best efforts at convincing me that I was lazy and entirely non-sporty)

Progress is usually just doing a little bit more from where you're at. Sometimes you get new results, sometimes it's maintaining where you are.

I think it’s called the Asian squat. It’s the norm in lots of cultures and I have at times attempted to achieve it.
I think you can start with blocks under the heels, and use progressively smaller ones.

I wish I’d trained my dc in it so they’d have the ability!

@TeaAndStrumpets
My op wasn't a total knee replacement, it was the prescursor to that, called a tibial osteotomy, so I have my old knee but re-engineered you might say. It's true I'm carrying quite a lot of metal around nowadays!
I can do squats but not deep enough to sitting, I can't do lunges yet, everything wobbles. I admire your friend's capabilities and would love to be able to do that, not that I need to in my daily life 😊
But it's interesting that in some jobs or cultures it's possible to keep this level of mobility well into older years. Use it or lose it is a logical conclusion to make. There's a scene in the programme I'm watching where rows and rows of quite elderly men are kneeling in the mosque to pray, and in Turkey I'm always impressed in the markets where the locals are sat like your friend whilst they make bread.
I seem to be developing kneeling envy 😂

Here are Dr Jo's post knee replacement exercises:

@ThisOrdinaryLife

You will soon be Wonder Woman with your new knee! Can you do squats at all? I try to squat quite low with my feet flat to the floor and it doesn't hurt my knees. I can only get down so far though.

I was always terribly impressed by a friend who could basically sit flat-footed on his heels...he said all the men in his family could sit like that for extended periods when required, rather than kneel to do something. It was a legacy of working down the pit. They needed to crouch a lot and had nowhere comfy to sit underground to eat their snap!

That's encouraging to hear @TeaAndStrumpets and a good way to add it to a daily routine. Perhaps I'll put Barry on the backburner for the time being! I too have a mental block and yet know that if I don't get around that soon I will have missed the window of opportunity.
It's so difficult isn't it that in doing one exercise/movement it actually causes an issue in another part of the body - I'm also finding my shoulders are complaining even when getting in and out of the bath, as they're having to do more work because my knee is, quite literally, not pulling its weight.
I agree with the OP that for some of us we're having to focus on functionality and that in doing so fitness is hopefully going to improve.

I have been following the advice to sit on the floor to put on/remove my socks for the last few days. I think I must have had a mental block about it at first, as I was sure I couldn't get up off the floor, even with hands.

I tried the Barry method and gave myself terrible cramp trying to rotate one foot to keep it flat. It was so painful that without conscious thought I leapt up using the other leg! I did rest on my hand though. Since then I am having more hits than misses when I try to get up. My body obviously remembers how to do it! Spirit willing, obviously.

I'm not going mad because it's a bit too much on the wrist and shoulder but if I achieve leg muscles like steel hawsers then it will be a doddle.