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...

@BestOption I have dodgy ankles too and a yoga teacher told me that practicing balancing on one leg every day is very good for them . 30 seconds each side is enough and it seems to be helping. I hope so as I am fed up of face planting in public whenever I catch my foot on an uneven paving stone.

I've heard that balancing can be useful for dodgy knees too (probably depends on why exactly they're dodgy, of course). I think the idea is that this helps strengthen the muscles, maybe the smaller ones.
There was a section in weekend woman's hour yesterday on over 50s fitness which may be worth a listen.

Obviously if you're at all wobbly do balancing with support available, the last thing anyone wants to do right now is fall.

I've just had a quick look on the Exercise board - there may be some threads there with useful links to Pilates videos etc. But I'm just wondering if it would be an idea to have something like an Over 50s exercise thread on there?

I’m 66 and can bend with straight legs and put my palms flat on the floor. (That’s a real boast, not a stealth one.). But I’ve always been flexible, can nearly still do the splits. However I was losing strength in my legs so started weekly ballet classes and using the leg press in the gym. The difference even within a few weeks was phenomenal. You need strength in your legs to lift them, and to balance properly.

@ErrolTheDragon I bet you’re glad you didn’t get a St Bernard instead!

Yes balancing is good, as is standing in the edge of a step and lowering yourself down then up and a few others. I need to write myself a plan and start doing it. I was doing it at the gym along with leg press & I Orr body stuff but I stopped going in Feb as it’s in a local Resudential Village (but they allow a few over 50’s who live locally to join -it’s perfect for me) but I stopped because I didn’t want to take any risk of taking the virus in there. None.

I can’t really do Pilates or Yoga much at the moment as I can’t get up & down all the time. I can get down once,so a bunch of exercises then get up (but it’s difficult when you can’t kneel on either knee at all).

I can still do the leg lifts relatively easily and I’m ok on the leg press, just have to be careful not to over do it, especially on the singles.

Wishing I’d bought the weights (small set for arms) that I was going to buy now.

Need to write a plan & start actually doing it!!

Pilates is mainly mat based so you don't need to come up and down a lot.

If you don't want to be up and down in yoga just don't do vinyasa style, you can do some standing poses eg warrior 2, 5 point star, wide legged forward fold, lunge (if balance permits), triangle pose, pyramid forward fold and hold each for 5 breaths, do some easy balances (I always stand in tree pose with my foot on my calf when I do the dishes), then come down to the mat for some stretching, it doesn't need to be up and down, there's a lot more to yoga than sun salutations

Or a basset hound! There's a reason why the dogs you see at the top of mountains are generally (a) the types which can leap a stile and (b) ones small enough to be lifted. While many stiles have a handy hole or 'dog gate', a few walks we (normally) do have drystone walls with ladder stiles - they need a 'lifter' and a 'catcher'.

Not being able to kneel on either knee must be a real nuisance. I can get into a low squat and up from there but that sort of manoeuvre would probably strain dodgy knees too I suppose.

Small weights can be made from half litre drinks bottles. You can make them heavier by filling with sand or gravel and then filling the remainder with water - obviously make sure it's a strong bottle, ones from carbonated drinks are tougher than water bottles.

When the escalators break down at a train station I use, I have to get the lift.

I can't step up high enough to manage the escalator steps.

I can't jump either.

I can't do some of these either.

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

Yep.

My Dad has grab handles in his bathroom and a higher toilet and I love having a wee there.

This is a good booklet for exercising with arthritis, there are some examples at the very end.

www.versusarthritis.org/media/1310/keep-moving-information-booklet-with-poster.pdf

The woman's hour segment referred to 'functional fitness' iirc - searching for something like 'functional fitness women 50' might throw up some ideas.

Just to reassure Managedmis , like the OP and a few other posters (style jumpers), we live in a rural area, middle of nowhere and nestled between three farms with public footpaths through many of the surrounding fields. In fact we go out of our drive and don’t need to walk on a ‘proper’ path to get to the first public footpath.

All last week on our (permitted exercise) walks we saw two other couples at a distance and a couple of sets of two cyclists at a distance. We haven’t come anywhere near anyone else let alone within 2 metres, we have walked miles and miles. Going early/mid afternoon which I think is a good time as we miss all the dog walkers.