What You Don’t Use You Lose
Does physical ability diminish with age? About 50% of the physical decline associated with aging may be due to a lack of physical activity. Without regular exercise, people over the age of 50 years can experience a range of health problems, including: Reduced muscle mass, strength and physical endurance. Reduced coordination and balance.
I still remember after major neck surgery when had to be tube feed for two weeks and had not much physical activity. After that period of inactivity, I tried to get out to care for our garden. I tried to step over a small bush and lost my balance and fell on my back. I suffered severe back pain and had to rest and use ice packs to the hurting areas of my back.
What is the most common physical effects of aging? With age, bones tend to shrink in size and density, weakening them and making them more susceptible to fractures. You might even become a bit shorter. I noted that my father used to be taller than me when I was in my 20s. He became shorter than me when he was in his 70s. Muscles generally lose strength, endurance and flexibility — factors that can affect your coordination, stability and balance.
I learned to roller skate in the early 1960s in Mountain View College. Many of the American missionaries’ children sold their roller skates to children of college faculty members when they returned to the US. It did not take long for a good number of local kids to have their own skates.
As kids, it was a lot easier to learn to skate by watching each other. Many of us learned to skate backwards, sideways and jump over obstacles. The type of skates we had quad wheels, whose frame attached to the soles of leather shoes, with rubber brakes in front part of the sole.
Years later, in my mid-thirties on church skating parties, I noted I could still do some of the moves I used to do. Fast forward in my sixties my grandkids went to a skating rink in Albuquerque. I went along with the family. When I saw them having fun, I decided to rent a pair of skates too, thinking to show my grandkids some moves I used to do.
I put on the pair of skates and when stood up could barely hold my balance. In my mind, I still knew the moves to speed around the rink, but my body would not respond as it did. I slowly got around the rink but I could not get back to form, so I abandoned the futile attempt, realizing I didn’t want to end up with a broken hip.
While writing this story reminded me of an event in 1974 when I was working in Midland Memorial Hospital ER in West Texas. The paramedics brought in a gentleman in his late 50s from a motorcycle accident. He came in on a stretcher with a traction splint device on his right leg.
At 75 years sticking to safer forms of exercise
I ask him what happened? He replied, “My son came in with his new motorcycle and I decide to take a spin on it and lost control and fell.” I asked, “When was the last time you rode a motorcycle before this accident?” He smiled sheepishly as he answered, “In my early 20s and I thought I still could ride the bike.” After x-rays showed a broken femur (bone in the thigh), I consulted an orthopedic surgeon who took him to surgery.
Yes, even top tiered athletes, like the boxing great Manny Pacquaio, soon discover that age is a factor that hard to contend with. So many of us who belong to the average crowd, like me, need to save whatever we have before old mother time snaps it away.
Mayo Clinic advises us on simple steps to slow down the effects of aging:
1. Include physical activity in your daily routine. Try walking, swimming or other activities you enjoy. …
2. Eat a healthy diet. Choose vegetables, fruits, whole grains, high-fiber foods and lean sources of protein, such as fish. …
3. Don’t smoke. …
4. Manage stress. …
5. Get enough sleep…
No matter what your age is, I wish you happy aging. Remember, it is just a matter time that the inevitable aging process is going to catch up with you. You may not be able to stop it but you could delay the it and enjoy a longer life.
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