Exercise for old folks

Back in prehistory i was a superfit international. A few years ago my team mates decided to plan a 50yr anniversary row-over to celebrate one of our wins. One member had died and one was too crocked to take part but 2 wiling subs from our era joined in the plan.

We all went back into a degree of training on rowing machines and , with due allowance for age, I was doing well compared to the rest. Most of us carried on with the workouts afterwards with plans for a 55yr anniversary repeat and I used the local gym 3-5 evenings a week.

With lockdown looming I bought my own rowing machine and I've been carrying on at home. However since end Feb I've found that 10K has become harder to manage and even a 2 days break from using the machine sets me right back to taking 3-4 days daily use to recover the time I can complete 7.5K.

My point being that age is obviously affecting speed of muscle degeneration (perhaps more in me than others) and I've recently bought some weights to use at home since the gym remains a poor option for our generation. It's the bit I was missing and (so far - early days) I see a slight improvement.

I'd encourage everyone of my vintage to work on keeping balance and strength functional - hence the use it or lose it.

pgk

Quite agree. My wife and I dance a lot and I have found it takes more effort these days to maintain flexibility especially in Tango where there is a lot of twisting or, in dance terminology, contra-body movement

David

Same here; Having arthritis in my spine for some time now & having recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes ( just gone over threshhold of 50 mmol/mol... don't ask.. ?? ) I now have the task of increasing my excercise level & dietry management. I now try to achieve 1000 + steps per day by walking around the estate, so far I'm managing 2000 steps but beyond that my arthritis starts to tell me 'that's your lot mate'!. So far a mile a day isn't bad considering, like many others, between a rock & a hard place or, if you want, a catch 22 situation. Keep well all.

George.

get yourself a log stove, a sharp saw and a log splitter - keeps me active !

Mechman48

I also have arthritic problems with my spine such that walking is OK but trotting or running causes compressions that really hurt. Paradoxically I can manage the rowing machine OK and even more strangely i find wood splitting with an axe helps it... likely improves muscle support of the damaged area. My point being that it is often a case of finding a form of exercise that you can do to get that heart rate up and burn some calories (safely). if swimming pools re-open that may be another option.

If your result was truly 50mmol/l then yeah, diet and exercise are way overdue.....

pgk

Cycling and swimming are both good because they don't jar your joints.

Plus any exercise is better than no exercise.

Neil

I used to row and always thought it a very sensible sport as one does it sitting down.

Several friends use cycling systems that allow virtual racing and excercise in both 'real' and simulated locations. I think this with a full virtual reality headset should become the new way of tourism to avoid flying. Also incorporate treadmill for the inside parts of the tour.

I do have an excercise bike that is now pressed into service in conjunction with the other excercises; as you say 'owt is better than nowt' tha' nah's

George.

Two suggestions.

Increase activity: get a dog. You can talk to it too, and it will listen.

Satisfy competitive urges: target shooting. It's the art of keeping still.

Bicycles should come with a health warning! I bought one some 15years ago figuring the exercise would do me good. On the second trip home from work I was hacking it up-hill when I felt the tearing of an inguinal rupture followed by a couple of days in hospital....

One of my fields is a good 30 degrees... plodding up that in wellies is a good thigh-burner. It's like climbing a twelve storey flight of stairs with ankle weights.

Sadly had to part with my ancient hound last month and worry now about getting a new one that might outlast me. On the lookout or a suitable secondhand dog. I don't have the same access to spare pets now I've retired....

pgk

Day before yesterday, started decorating the hall and stairs, my plan is to tackle it in small manageable lumps. Woke yesterday after the first days action and realised that painting walls was not the best exercise for one who has a spinal problem, thank goodness for modern medicine and painkillers, I’m no stranger to them, however now I have started I am determined to finish, it should be easier each day. I used to go swimming for exercise but had to give up when I had an operation and had to recover, perhaps take it up again sometime in the future when the pandemic is over, if I live that long.
Dave W

Many rescue/adoption organisations have great difficulty finding new 'owners' for senior dogs. Could fit your circumstances and be a two-way benefit.
DaveD

My past career leaves me fully aware of all the options.

I'm pleased to report that investing in my own weights has already brought benefits. the last 2 sessions on the rowing machine were the best times for 3 mths. it reflects how things deteriorated for me after the local gym closed. Hopefully I'll get back to pre-Covid era performance over the next weeks and perhaps shed the extra 5% in lockdown weight....

pgk - sorry about the loss of the hound, always a grim time. I agree with DaveD though, and a older resue would be a definate worth consideration. They tend to be more difficult to place with new owners and people can get put off thinking they may have medical proplems (as many of us older people do) however many reputable re-homing organistaions can offer assistance i.e. insurance cover at reduced terms etc.Retired greyhounds suprisingly enogh are ideal for older owners and don't need vast amounts of exercise.

Dog working is good physical exercise and with the bonus of getting you out and about in the fresh air (and pelting rain often!) which is good for your mind and general well-being. I always found an exercise bike just bored me after a while and the motivation drained away. Whatever you end up doing - enjoy & take care. Regards Mike

The lockdowns have played havoc with my fitness program, the loss of the walk down the pub and lifting pints has left me completely out of shape, hopefully we will soon be able to restart My fitness program. I have noticed that many friends who have enjoyed sport have knee trouble, especially footballers and runners. A friend who was junior cross country champion of Yorkshire and ran for the Army now has knee trouble but it was not long ago that a lady in the pub recognised him as the chap who ran past her while she was out on her bicycle, rather like Billy Whizz he runs to the pub and then runs home. Sport at even an amateur level seems to take a toll on the body as well as benefiting us.

Mike

Arthritis then two total knee replacements - one in 2018, the other in 2019 - knocked a lot of my fitness and also suppleness back quite badly. I can't kneel fully now, so getting down on the floor and rising again are not easy.

As I found yesterday evening when trying to fit two small brackets to the workshop floor in a cramped space behind the horizontal mill. (The brackets anchor parts of a frame to hold the machine's motor and drive I need build - and a right so-and-so of what should have been a simple task, it was, too.)

I used to be able to walk miles at quite a rapid pace but still manage much more gentle walks locally, with the bonus of finding places I had never seen before, within a mile of home, in a area I have lived in since 1959! It now takes me twice as long to walk to town two miles away as it used to, even using an asphalted former railway that cuts off a big corner in both azimuth and elevation.

Though never a very good caver, counting myself as experienced but not skilled over 40+ years of it, I certainly can't visit the sort of caves I have in the past but when pandemic restrictions allow I'm still involved with a particular cave "digging" project on the Mendip Hills. Not digging the cave as such but creating a route through boulders blocking what we hope is the way into a significant cave. Over 150 feet down so far, and still digging... The oldest member of the team is 70, in fact I think 73, but a darn sight fitter than me!

I even found a small cave in a very unexpected spot near home, back in June. Since it is small and I was on an Officially Approved Lockdown Exercise Walk when I spotted it and managed to crawl in for my full length, so that's not far, I christened it Exercise Cavelet. This in an area providing very attractive walks by the sea.

I deliberately use a corner shop some distance away as well as the Nisa (ex Co-Op: same company) about 100 yards from home, to give a walk of perhaps a mile, but often extend that by various detours.

Cycling? I have considered buying a second-hand cycle again but it would have to be a small one, possibly a ladies' bike with step-through frame, as most cycles are much too high for me and I cannot swing my leg over them even with the aid of a high kerb. Those acrobatics on the move most cyclists use, were always impossible for me. The deterrents are first a busy, uphill main road not safe for cycling, and secondly, having nowhere sensible to keep it. I have a large shed but someone's gone and filled it with hefty machine-tools and a part-built third-scale steam-wagon. (My executors are going to have an interesting problem there...)

Swimming? I can't swim because I only just float in sea-water and not at all in fresh.

So, yes, keep exercising. As well as we can, however we can; both physically and mentally.

You might consider an ebike if budget allows. Not so much for using the 'e' as for e-assistance up hills and the folding options might suit your knee restrictions as well as allowing town/city fringe car- parking if you have need to go there. Just the caveat re my experience of inguinal rupture....

pgk

My friend the runner took up cycling but has now invested in a Peloton machine, this seems to me to be a good way the avoid the nutters on the roads and the weather that makes cycling unpleasant like very hot, very wet and the worst when the air seems full of foul tasting bugs.

Mike

The bane of my rural life is folk that drive out here with bikes strapped to the back of their car for a days cycling. Even when the family tries and stays in single file on these winding roads it's common to be stuck behind them at sub20mph for several miles 'cos unsafe to overtake with enough wobble room and poor forward viz when some yahoo might come from the other direction in an ancient 3 series exceeding the national limit.
I'm all for encouraging cycling but the days of cars and pushbikes on the same tarmac should be over.

pgk

Is there a solution to this? I'm a cyclist as well as a motorist. I live in an inner city, and to get out into the countryside on my bike I have to get through a large chunk of suburbia first, which is where most of the road rage incidents against me have occurred, for no other reason than the motorist's impatience. I almost never put my bike in my car and drive out to the countryside first, I just ride out there from home, but there is a lot to be said for doing that.