I’m 61. I have three children, and, because my life hasn’t taken the typical course, the oldest is seven. So I really think about the effects of aging.
In the last year I’ve started to take exercise seriously, and I was amazed at the difference it makes. It makes a lot of difference. I wake up without stiffness, my muscle tone is perceptibly better (and the muscles are bigger, not that I’m in this for the cosmetics), and my flexibility is way better. And I’m not even a gym rat – this is just from working a bit every day with those rubber-band things and riding a bike rather than taking the subway.
So I fully expect to be one of those old dudes getting up and down easily. Assuming a taxicab doesn’t take me out on my way to work.
But yeah, this. And there’s no exercise that will help with deteriorating eyesight.
This may sound silly, but my problem is getting my underpants off without having to bend over to pick them up. I let them slip down to my feet, get off one foot and kick them in the air to catch them with the other. I’m getting better at it.
On the other hand my 83 yo wife floored me yesterday. We got back from shopping yesterday and I saw her bend down and loosen the laces on her shoes, then stand up and pull the shoes off one at a time. I don’t think I could ever have done that.
IIRC women’s hips are built differently enough that doing that movement is inherently easier. Net of individual variation of course.
Made-up example: with locked knees an ordinarily flexible 30yo male can touch his fingertips to the floor next to his toes. An ordinarily flexible 30yo female can touch her palms flat to the floor next to her toes. More exercise and stretching can improve both their abilities from different baselines.
I’ve been lazy since COVID* and now can just get fingertips to the floor w locked knees & bare feet. A couple years ago when in shape I could get palms on the floor. Being scrawny so there’s no tummy in the way helps.
What gets me the most is the new rules my body imposes on me, without the decency to let me know that they’ve been imposed.
Caffeine after 4? You ain’t sleeping tonight.
Salsa? You’re fine. Salsa with chips? Still fine. Salsa with chips and sour cream? Still good. Salsa, chips, sour cream, and even a hint of guacamole? Yeah, let’s contemplate intestinal death.
Body: You want to sleep with your arm outstreched across the bed like you’ve done for fifty years? Yeah, no more. Here’s some shoulder and wrist pain for you.
Yeah, I’ve gotten to the age where if you don’t use it you lose it, so I’ve started exercising. I stretch my Achilles tendons every morning when I get up. I do a fairly serious bout of upper-body and core strength exercises every week. I work on my upper-body flexibility regularly. And the most bang for the buck – I noticed my balance was getting wobbly, so every day I put on my socks while balancing on the other foot. I had to work up to that one, but it only takes me an extra … minute a day, maybe, and it’s made an enormous difference in my balance.
lol, individual variation indeed. When I was in elementary school I realized this was a thing some people could do. Me? Not even close. I practiced for weeks and weeks in elementary school, trying to touch my fingertips to the floor. I did it exactly once.
But my hips are quite flexible when my legs are bent, so I CAN put my foot in my mouth. (something y’all may have noticed…) Anyway, it’s because I’m so insanely inflexible in that direction that I stretch my calves and Achilles tendons every morning. Mostly because it I don’t, I get pain.
I hate exercising, by the way. But at my age, it’s better than the alternative.
I’m not a doctor or anything, but it’s possible to lose your lactase production later in life. So… maybe try Lactaid milk, or lactose tablet(s) and see if that helps? If not, I got nuthin’.
If my stand-up career ever launches (jk), I’m going to have a routine about a fat guy dropping a ten dollar bill, looking at it on the ground for a moment, then saying “fuck it” and walking on.
What’s that? You’ve been a solid sleeper all your life?
Not any more! You’ll now be rising at 4-5am, a dark and useless time, to be sure!
You don’t like it? Hah! Wake up angry every day and see how impossible it is to go back to sleep. Enjoy angrily stomping around in the darkness, and wanting a nap, every day at 3pm.
I get more done before 6am than most folks do all day. The key is to have something useful to do, even if that’s just enjoying coffee and the predawn birdsong. You can kill a lot of email or admin crap in those early hours before all the interruptions start.
Hell, you can use it to get the last word in on a bunch of 'Dope threads and yak with the Aussies & Kiwis in near real time! What’s not to like?!
Wow! At the age of 61, I may have just developed a new allergy – band-aid adhesive! I have a rash across the back of my left hand and around the pinkie which set in two days after I took off the bandages. Gorry, don’t it itch!
No. Hamstrings vary from person to person. My family has short hamstrings. Despite being on the college gymnastics team on my youth, I’ve never been able to do more than just barely touch the tips of my toes. Certainly exercise will help with range, but only so far.
