Whoa!!! Something odd has happened and I can’t get my legs apart!!!

[Thistlepicker]

Not like I used to anyway! I had to climb over a low fence yesterday, just above knee, and I couldn’t lift my legs high enough!!! What’s going on? I haven’t injured myself, I’m 50, is this old age?

I got over the fence in the end but I was far from gazelle-like...

Yoga and pilates. I have (had) a gym membership that allows me to go to lots of classes. I started because my once-excellent balance was shot after an injury, and I was amazed at how fast things came back. Also much more flexible.
My knees still hurt sometimes, though.

I’m 50 and also climbed over a style today. I got up on it fine, and then couldn’t make myself jump down, but it was too high to lower myself one leg at a time. I could’ve been stuck there hours 😂 not sure what I though would happen, my hips would dislocate or something ridiculous 😂 I contorted myself and did it some weird way in the end.

But I’ve lost nearly 5 stone since last summer and without that I probably wouldn’t have even been on the walk! (dc call it Boris-A-Cise)

This thread is a tonic

Boris-a-Cise

That climbing over a fence thing was the first sign of my arthritis in my hip. It started around the age of 49/50. I had a hip replacement in October last year. I can now nip over fences again.

Yoga.

My mum is 56 and can do the splits and all manner of crazy things as she does so much yoga .

You need to increase joint and muscle mobility

If its arthritis, then no amount of yoga is going to allow movement where spurs have grown inside joints. My hip was bone on bone and the surgeon said he had to chisel off the stalactite type spurs I'd grown that were encapsulating the ball of my hip before he could re line it.

You will know if you have tight hips by how easy you find sitting crossed legged or try a pose like this picture. If these are very challenging and your knees are high you have tight hips

@Bestoption my knees are also fucked, and my running teacher said it’s almost always a hip/hip flexors problem. A turning point was when she recommended lying on a tennis ball, like examples 4,5 and 7 in this link: www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1085668/tennis-ball-stretches/

I haven’t done it for a while, actually, and my knee pain is coming back...

I can think of no reason I would even attempt this

I agree that yoga is your friend here. I get a bit bored sometimes but in the back of my head I have the mantra ‘practice yoga today so you can practice yoga tomorrow’.

I did a Skype yoga class today with my adult daughter. Even though I’m nearly 30 years older I am as flexible as her thanks to regular yoga practice. It also helps me sleep well.

Doadeer I can sit cross legged totally fine.

Re jumping down from stiles, I notice I land MUCH heavier, as though I have no bounce, and I seem to have lost the ability to land balanced. So hopping over things which were recently no bother at all, are now a great big bloody death-risk drama. With a bit of wee.

Hmm. I’m hyper mobile and can still put my hands flat on the floor with my legs straight, downward dog, and all the bits of sun salutations apart from the kneel/lunge forward cos my giant knockers get in the way.

^^

Shameless stealth boast

How come everyone is leaping over styles? Aren't you lot supposed to be indoors?

Managedmis lmao at stealth boast!

We live out in the Rural England bit. There are styles and streams and stuff. She shopping is shit and the WiFi is dodgy so you can’t have everything I suppose

I’m 53 and discovered the other day that I can’t hop on one foot or skip any more.

Oh don’t steps are dreadful now any high stools or chairs forget it.

@Thistlepicker. How I mourn the lack of bounce. For ages I thought I was buying really crap trainers until I eventually realised that the trainers were fine but I had developed really crap feet.

When we grow up we are told we will get wrinkly as we age and I was smug because I am pretty much wrinkle free but then I realised I was also bounce free and had jowls like my granny’s bulldog. I had aged but aged in unexpected ways. Luckily I live in Greater London so I haven’t had to test myself on stiles.

@Balloonsandbunting thanks for that. I think I’ve got a tennis ball in the loft. (Half my life is in the loft as I’m renovating downstairs!) I watched the video all the way through. It’s quite tempting to sign up. But re the exercises,I tried a foam roll but I can’t hold my body up with my arms like that?! Even when I was young,slim,fit & doing gymnastics I couldn’t. It has always (even as a child) felt like my arms are just too short And I haven’t got the length in them to lift my bum off the floor. Add 40 years & 40 kilos I simply cannot do the swing through my arms.

@wasnotwasweregood. Thank you too!!

I’ll look into all suggestions so far. 😊🌷

As for getting up off the floor without my hands. I consider it a major bonus if I can get up using my hands! You don’t realise how much you kneel to do things -until you can’t!!😢

@PenelopeFlintstone. Thanks for the timely reminder why it’s Not A Good Idea to have a Bath right now. I haven’t had one in ages either, but living alone it’s safest not to while I can’t call anyone to come & haul me out should I get stuck and with the ducked knees on top of the weight- it’s a silly risk. I’ve survived this long without a bath I’m sure I can last a few months more.

Fortunately for everyone’s nose I have plenty of showers 🤣

I’m 55. Sometimes I sit down on one of the seats dotted around shops for a rest when we’re out and about (obvs not currently).

I saw a shopping trolley the other day and thought 'that looks handy'.

Bounce?

Yep that’s a dearly departed too. We used to spend hours playing elastics and despite being the shortest by a long way I was always good at it and gymnastics.

I can’t jump at all now -which is a bugger as I’d like to be able to skip whilst we are in lockdown.

Mine started with ankle problems (always ‘gone over’ on them a lot,even as a child, but as I got older the numerous twists/sprains/whatever have come back to haunt me (tendons/ligaments?!) too stretched and not supportive of ankle joints apparently, then a horse threw me off years ago and I damaged my ilum & took my Lhs anterior cruciate ligament out in a skiing accident. It’s all just coming back to haunt me!!

I usually walk a lot though and the hour a day isn’t quite cutting it. Let alone if that’s banned or if I feel it’s unwise. (Being over 50 with high blood pressure, diabetes & obesity is making me super scared of the CV I’m really wanting to be a county away from people, let alone 1-2 m) and not being sure about how long it’s lingering in the air I’m feeling reluctant to go out now)

@managedmis - in the UK we are still ‘allowed’ to go out for an hours exercise per day (solo or with others who live in our house).

A sentence I never thought I’d utter in my life. God it’s all so unreal.

OP if it’s not flexibility then it’s strength. Can you lie on your side and lift your top leg?

@thenightsky That's interesting. My hips have been really painful lately and I think it might be the beginning of arthritis! Since we have been on lockdown I haven't been walking and they don't hurt as much. Silver lining!

I'm afraid 'use it or lose it' is all too true. But you can get some of it back, although you need to be careful about joints. When I was about 50 I started doing more exercise, tried running but found that pounding tarmac really hurt my hips. The only place I'll ever break into a slow jog now is a grassy towpath.

But I did Jillian Michaels for a couple of years then, always walk in the countryside so stiles (including getting a dachshund over some of them) never dropped off 'normal' activities and I do Pilates normally. Also, because I'm short, using a chair or stool to reach my top kitchen cupboards is routine.

I really must find a YouTube Pilates or yoga routine.

I have fibromyalgia - welcome to my world! Bwahahahaha. Ouch.
My mum is 75 and turned to give me an odd look when stepping over a low fence. She could just step over it. Me - I either have to use my arms to help my bad leg go first then my good leg can make it or my good leg goes first and I run the risk of not being able to lift my bad leg high enough, catching my toes on the fence and falling over.
I suspect there's more going on with my left hip and knee, but I'm 39 and considered too young for arthritis.
If confronted with a stile I'd probably make an utter tit of myself.