Enjoy this great video of Stephen Jepson showing how he turns exercise into play. This TOJ really likes his mix of balance, agility, fine motor skills, and endurance.
Too often exercise recommendations for older adults are not very challenging. Older adults are treated like delicate porcelain vases ready to break at any moment. Jepson sees it differently, and shows how it can be done.
He understands that an older body, just like a young one, has muscles with motor units that are ready to go with a little stimulation and practice.
You've heard TOJs need to develop power, not just muscle mass. This can be hard to accomplish in the conventional weight room because power is developed by rapid movements that are not easy to perform safely in a gym environment. Here's a good, cheap, power workout you can do in your backyard.
What's good is that these exercises involve every muscle from your toes to your fingertips. You'll tap your Type II fast twitch fibers, the ones that cause the release of human growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor, both of vital importance to TOJs.
Go to your local Home Depot and get 30 feet of 1.5 inch rope. Pick one that feels okay to your hands. You can also wear gloves if you prefer.
Grab a couple of weight plates. In the picture below I tied on a 35 and 45 pounder. You want it to be enough weight that you have to pull hard, but that you can still pull fast. If you don't have plates, a sand bag, backpack stuffed with rocks, short log, or other heavy object that will slide on grass will do fine.
Prior do doing any of these exercises, try them first slowly and with a lighter weight to make sure you don't have any pain or other limitations, e.g., old injuries, surgeries, severe arthritis, etc.
Take the rope and walk away as far as it will go, where it's taut. In the first exercise, you face the weights in a basic athletic stance with feet shoulder width and knees slightly bent. Brace your core. Alternating hands, pull the weights towards you as fast as you can, pumping your knees and rotating slightly at the hips as needed. Do this 3-5 times.
Next, again holding the end of the rope, stand sideways to the weights. Brace your core. Pull the weights with both hands a few inches apart, keeping them close to your torso, and passing the hands and rope across your lower ribcage. Think about your two hands on a rail travelling from left to right. Finish the pull with a full rotation so your body is facing away from the weight at the end of the movement. Then turn and reach far down the rope for your next pull. Do this 3 times on both sides of your body.
Finally, lay down on the ground with your feet towards the weight. Brace your core, then using both hands, alternating one in front of the other, reach down the rope and pull the weight in. Your hands will stop close to your chin. Arms should be bent, not stiff and straight. Keep your torso on the ground. Do these 3-5 times.
Remember these exercises are to build power. Really put some force into the pull. Because you are in different postures and multiple-planes, afterwards you'll feel how this type of exercise is different than standard weight routines.
The more I observe other TOJs, the more I realize that to progress, we need to regress.
Remember when you crawled around on the floor as a child? Or rolled your body across the grass? Or doing short sprints and agility drills in high school physical education? For most of that, those movements are in the distant past, and it's to our detriment.
As we grow up and age, very steadily we reduce both the range and velocity of movement. Once we're out of school at whatever grade level, we sit more, maybe walk or run, or lift a few weights, do some activities of daily living, like mow the lawn or vacuum, but no more crawling on all fours or hopping sideways or skipping or jumping or quick lunging. Adulthood in industrial societies becomes an inexorable process of steadily forgetting body movements.
This TOJ thinks that this is a mistake. We become fragile because we act fragile. Our society cues us that we're delicate and vulnerable. Yes, it's part of the natural process of aging for your bones to gradually become more brittle and the muscles, ligaments, and tendons to lose strength and be less flexible. However, by accepting and living the stereotype of the old and fragile, we accelerate this process and grow old before our time. I see it all around me in our spectator culture.
If you're an older TOJ, now's a good time to rethink how you exercise. If you've been limiting yourself to any one activity like endurance running or pumping iron, break out of the rut and think back to agility drills you did for high school football or basketball. Get on the ground and do a commando crawl. Get in a push up position with only your hands and toes in contact with the ground and do a crab walk. Dribble a ball while moving forwards and backwards.
The reason older people can't do many movements is because they just stopped doing them a long time ago. The muscle motor units still remember, but they've gone to sleep from sitting in front of the television or a computer. You can wake them up. You need to wake them up.
Once you did these exercise routines to prepare for competition. Now's a good time to revisit some of those routines to prepare for the rest of your life.
Start slowly. Obviously you need to be mindful of vulnerabilities if you've had injuries or surgeries. You'll feel awkward. Sometimes you'll quickly fatigue. It can be a sobering reminder that you've aged.
But if you persist, you'll get stronger and more flexible than you ever thought you could. Your joints will feel better. Your energy will increase.
Will you be as young and strong as the good old days? No, but you're body will become functionally younger in the only time that counts - right now. Question or topic you'd like addressed? tuffoldjock@yahoo.com
I knew there's something special about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The scrappy 80 year old woman is not only a brilliant lawyer, she's also a TOJ.
Recently she fell in the bathroom, cracking her ribs. A two time cancer survivor, in the days following this injury, she didn't miss any of her demanding duties as a justice. Not only that, she got right back to the gym to lift weights to keep her small bones strong. No wonder the wimpy Justice Alioto is so afraid of her.
This TOJ may have been hit in the head too many times to be able learn much from her about how to be so mentally sharp at her age, but she's got a lesson to teach on bone health.
Like everything else in our bodies, bones are mind-blowing in their elegance and complexity. As we age, they gradually lose strength and flexibility, especially if we don't use them because we spend our time plopped on a chair watching TV or a computer screen.
While subtle bones losses start to occur after our mid-30's, they get more pronounced around 50 years of age. While these changes have several causes, perhaps the most concerning is bone density. This loss, known as osteoporosis, is most threatening because it can cause bone to fracture too easily. It's more common in women, especially smaller ones, but it also occurs in men.
All kinds of research shows that bone density improves with physical loading, i.e., stressing the bone. If you want to understand the science of improving bone health, read this excellent research by Katarina Borer.
Being highly intelligent and motivated to maintain her high performance on the bench, Justice Ginsberg uses resistance training to develop and preserve her bone health. Simply placing additional pressure on the bone stimulates it to grow stronger.
This loading can also be accomplished by doing 60 jumps twice a day at least five days a week. These can be jumps, hops, or skips.
Don' be fooled by her friendly smile, Justice Ginsberg is tough to the bone. Resistance exercise isn't just for the good old boys.
After a circuit class at our gym, this TOJ was talking with Dennis Jennings, a fellow TOJ, about how hard it is to find a suitable workout regimen if you're a male and older. Most of the group classes at the gym have dance elements and just don't incorporate stuff that's very athletic. Although the classes can plenty challenging (in circuits you get out what you put in), something's missing in the other ones.Gyms are careful not to over-tax the old people to prevent injuries and heart attacks.
As I described what I thought it is and what exercises needed to be added, he got a smile on his face, knowing just what I meant. He thought old guys would like a workout like that. He suggested, tongue in cheek, that we should form a group called the Black Knights, named after the hilarious scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail. I went home and watched it again (101st time) and agreed.
TOJs are just like the Black Knight when he says his classic line, "It's just a flesh wound." We probably don't have a much better handle on our actual physical capabilities than the Black Knight, but, like him, we keep at it against all odds. He doesn't quit, whine, or hesitate. He fights on, despite his steadily vanishing capacities and mortal condition.
Don't forget that the only reason the Black Knight didn't skewer King Arthur was that he was exhausted from his previous fight. Swinging broadswords really takes it out of you. He needed a few minutes to restore the ATP in his muscles.
The Black Knight has inspired me to design a workout routine in his honor. It will be hard, a full body workout with agility drills, plyometrics, strength, power, and cardio. It'll start with a dynamic warm-up, and go immediately into high intensity sequences to enlist every muscle in the body, deep down into the core.
Designing a program like this will be a challenge because TOJs were always physically active, so they have muscle or joint vulnerabilities and limitations from old injuries or over-use. You have to find ways to work around these.
But the Black Knight shows the way. If worse comes to worse, you hop around on one leg. It's better than nothing, and you're still in the battle. Aging is just a flesh wound.
TOJs can learn something important from Lebron James, a remarkable basketball player and athlete - how to safely fall.
In the NBA flopping refers to the practice of intentionally falling down to try to draw a foul. Lebron James recently got fined $10,000 (the equivalent of $1 to the rest of us) in a playoff game for an awesome flop.
The video below shows Lebron doing a series of flops. Watch carefully and notice as he goes down how he first slows the fall by reaching out with his hand and relaxes and rolls his body, when possible, as he hits the court.
Also watch flop #1 in the link below. His body is flexed, not rigid. Yes, that's an incredible display of reflexes and strength, much more limited in a TOJ, but the principles remain the same.
This TOJ has talked about why it's important to know how to fall before. It's only slightly less important than knowing how to swim because it can help avoid serious injuries.
I'd run across some of these Lebron clips over a week ago. Seeing him flop reminded me I had't practiced falling in awhile, so after a workout, I got on my knees and took a couple of forward and sideways falls onto the mat. I practiced just like Lebron, reaching out as I approached the mat, dropping to my hip, and lightly rolling onto my shoulder.
Ironically, just yesterday I was out for a nice run on the Deschutes River Trail. The temperature was just right and I was feeling energetic, though starting to fatigue after over 40 minutes into the run. I had just passed through a rocky section, where I was careful, and picking up the pace when my right toe caught on a small rock I didn't even see. Down flew this TOJ with a groan and a cloud of dust.
It could have been much worse. Because I'd had some recent practice, I got my left hand down and mimicked Lebron. The left knee shared the force with my entire left side as I rolled across the dirt.
Severe injuries happen when all the force goes to one place, as when the hip hits first. I was able to avoid that, though my best running shirt got trashed.
TOJ's dont need to go slamming themselves against the ground. But some practice and physical training makes all the difference.
The physical training part is very basic. You get in the upward position for a push up and then descend very slowly towards the ground. Think of it as a push-down. This is an eccentric muscle action where you are decelerating. The ability to quickly decelerate is the secret to agility. Work up to sets of 15 reps a couple times a week.
Also do some yoga cobra poses and hold them for a minute. Throw in some side planks as well. You never want to fall with your arms locked as in the side plank, always have the elbow slightly bent. However, the plank will strengthen your core, which help keep everything supported when you hit the ground.
At least you'll be able to flop like Lebron, even though you don't get paid as much for doing it.
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A long time TOJ friend emailed me that some of his body parts are acting up with strange pains here and there.
He gave me a rundown on his activities, which still included basketball, skiing, and line dancing. What caught my attention was his very short list of training exercises he does routinely that he probably learned back in high school, including a few upper body lifts and good old-fashioned ab crunches.
He's going to get some opinions from a physical therapist, which is a good idea. He's in his 60's wants to keep doing what he enjoys, so it makes sense to figure out what he needs to do next.
Hearing what he's doing (and not), this TOJ surmised there could be all kinds of causes for the pain, like aging combined with quick movements on hard surfaces causing compression on nerves. But some of his maladies likely have a simpler explanation.
What his list of exercises revealed was that he's doing a minimal number of exercises that aren't well matched to what his activities are. Missing in action were exercises focused on the core. In the old days the core was synonymous with ab crunches. However, these are of limited benefit because they are isolated to only the rectus abdominus muscle and there are better, safer exercises even just for it.
Training your core is more important than ever as you age because it enables good posture, provides lumbar stability, and, for people doing athletics, is the link for dynamic movements in the muscles of the lower and upper body.
Think of your core as a ring of strength from your lower rib cage down to pelvis. The rectus abdominus muscle is just a bit player in what makes the core function. The real core is composed of several layers of muscles, in particular the transverse abdominus, multifidi, quadratus laborum, internal oblique, diaphragm, and muscles in the pelvic floor.
In many blogs about aging I rant about how important it is to activate Type II fast twitch muscle fibers by doing some exercises that require speed and power. Not today. The core is an exception.
The core is mainly composed of Type I slow twitch fibers that need to be exercised as well to develop their endurance. The best exercises to do this are isometric exercises such as the Plank, Side Plank, and Bird Dog. The video below nicely demonstrates how to do the Bird Dog.
Core exercises should be performed a few times a week. It's surprising how many physical problems, starting with low back pain, disappear when your core is strong. As if by miracle, your performance vastly improves, whether in a sport or activity of daily living.
Many of us Boomers learned old school exercises like the ab crunch. Now it's time to graduate to newer, more effective ones based on current exercise science.
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For the first time in many, many years, this TOJ won't be joining a wave for the Bolder-Boulder, the coolest 10K race there is. It's not because of an injury. Or the fact that I now reside in Oregon.
It's more basic than that. My long endurance runs are fewer and fewer. Over the past forty years, I've logged thousands of miles, much of it on trail runs in beautiful mountains. I've enjoyed the adventures, like my encounter with three mountain lions, and always felt a discernible runner's high afterwards.
Just yesterday I went on a run along the Deschutes River. It felt great to be outside, though it was a little warm. I felt a great sense of satisfaction churning up the dust. But a few hours later, I noticed something. My hips and knees were sore. That's nothing new because both knees have been scoped and my legs have always felt sore the next day.
However, I've been busy learning other types of exercise the past couple of years. During that time of not pounding my legs almost every day, I've discovered how good and strong they can feel. The post-runnning soreness is not due to bad shoes or difficult terrain. It's the collective toll of the repetitive motion of running for decades.
This TOJ's brain, which loves those running endorphins, says it's time to let my distance running legs out to pasture. They're tired of slow plodding through spectacular scenery. The slow twitch Type 1 leg muscles used in running will only get a spin, maybe once a week.
Entering their sixties, TOJs become prime candidates for osteoarthritis in places like the hips and knees due to overuse. A few blogs ago I mentioned a book by Lee Bergquist entitled Second Wind: The Rise of the Ageless Athlete, a collection of inspiring stories of athletes who are continuing to compete into their old age. But there was also a consistent, discouraging pattern to most of them - they suffered from painful, sometimes debilitating, overuse injuries, e.g., swimmers with shoulder problems, weightlifters with back problems, bikers with knee problems, etc.
In my ACE training, the experts divided physical capacities into two groups. The first was those that are health related, including aerobic capacity, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility and body composition.
The other group are skill related - power, speed, balance, agility, coordination and reactivity. I believe these are much, much more imporant to develop at this stage of life. I've got enough aerobic and muscular endurance, maintained by high intensity exercises that are short and sweet. I spend more time with weights, bands, stability balls, ladders, jump ropes and Bosu balls.
The legs still get plenty of work. The fast twitch Type 2 fibers in my legs are coming back to life. They can still jump, sprint and hop. They feel ageless.
In all the exercise focus on heart health, other parts of the body are largely forgotten. True, if your heart stops for very long, you're dead. But if your ankles and feet don't function well, you might as well be dead because you're going to be limited in what you can do and lose your independence much earlier.
Most TOJs are a little ahead of their sedentary peers, but depending on the type and frequency of the exercise they do, their lead might not be as large you might think. Hours running or riding a bike or hitting the weight room don't guarantee strong, responsive ankles and feet. What good is a super strong heart in a rickety body?
Remember that all your physical power starts from the ground up with the action of your feet and ankles. They propel you forward, keep you level, and help protect from shocks, like when you recover from tripping on a rock instead of falling.
If you've survived to TOJ-dom, through all those years the 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles in each foot/ankle have done their job. You might have some old damage, but you're still pretty mobile. However, around age 50, the muscles, ligaments, and tendons inevitably start to lose some of their youthful elasticity. You see downward progression when you see frail people take flat footed baby steps and shuffle their feet to turn around. The end point of this progression is loss of balance and falls.
To maintain mobility, you must train to strengthen the weakest links, and as you age you can't take any of your links for granted. A shortcoming with TOJs is we can be set in our ways and do only the exercises we prefer and avoid those we could use, but may not enjoy that much - like those specifically for the feet and ankles. But the more I learn about aging, I realize how important it is to work on your whole body, including your ankles and feet.
When you're just hanging around your house chatting or watching TV, take your shoes off and slowly rock back and forth up onto your toes then back onto your heels. With your feet directly beneath you a few inches apart, circle your knees so you roll onto the outside and inside edges of your feet. When you get proficient at this, do it on an unstable surface like a pillow or piece of foam rubber.
Do some very light jumps and short hops where you spring off your toes and gently come down on your full foot. When you get proficient at this, jump and hop a little higher and further and faster.
Just balance on one foot for 30 seconds, then the other. Repeat. Progress to 45 seconds, then 1 minute.
Balance, strength and power come from the ground up.
Before getting underway with the gist of this blog, this TOJ wants to go on record that all exercise is good exercise. Whatever you like to do, do. Whether walking, biking, jogging, Pilates, whether alone, in a class, on a team, whatever it might be, go for it.
A few times in the past, I've suggested that sometimes it's a good idea to put the pedal to the metal and push your body very hard for a short period of time via High Intensity Training. Wait, wait! Don't click away! (I know most eyes on this blog don't fear sweat or a fast heartbeat anyway.)
Recently I've been studying stuff about senior fitness and aging. According to experts, this TOJ is an official member of the category called the "Young Old," which spans 65-74. When I read the articles by the PhD experts about the 65 year old threshold, it's alarming how cautious they are about exercise. You'd think we're like pieces of fine China, ready to crack and disintegrate at any moment. Their concern is not completely unfounded because many Boomers have sat on their butts much of their lives and are not physically ready for vigorous exercise. About half already have either an illness or musculoskeletal problem that limits their activity.
However, my concern is that frailty begets more frailty. Obviously nobody should put themselves at high risk for injury. And that's not necessary. Most risk can be removed by starting very slow, even below what you might be capable of, then systematically working up from there. By not pushing yourself a little, you accelerate the onset of frailty down the road.
A little high intensity exercise has amazing benefits. See this excellent discussion by Clarence Bass, a Master TOJ if there ever was one. Easy cardio is great, but there are some life-enhancing things that happen only when all the muscles are worked really hard.
Watch this short video of an older guy doing exemplary HIT workout that lasts about seventeen minutes. Here's what's worth noting:
First, he's on machines which are much safer than free weights for HIT because you can't get in an awkward posture that puts you at risk for injury when your muscles move towards failure.
Second, his trainer is making sure he keeps his form correct so only the targeted muscles are engaged (unlike the grunting twenty-year old guy doing a simple bench press with free weights who's arching his back and jerking his entire body to enlist every possible muscle to get the barbell up).
Third, he's using a weight he can lift only 8 reps, so he's building strength and using his fast twitch fibers (hence the powerful human growth hormones).
Fourth, he's keeping a brisk pace. He pauses only long enough to switch machines.
Fifth, he makes sure to use every major muscle group - shoulders, hips, legs.
It's that simple. Challenging, yes. But very doable. He's not collapsing, gasping for air.
Everyone can do this, at all ages. You can do it without ever going to a gym by using your own body weight in a series of calisthenics like push-ups (from your knees if that helps you), squats, lunges. If the latter two are too easy, you can make it more challenging by holding a plastic milk carton with whatever amount of water you can safely hold tight to your chest. Just move from one exercise to the other with minimal recovery.
Most days, it's fine to cruise along in a lower gear. A couple days a week you want to be like the Little Old Lady from Pasadena. Go, TOJ, go TOJ, go TOJ, go!
