Younger Longer: Hamstring to Damnstring

 When it hurts it is horrid

 but when it works it's glorious.

In one simple bend or squat my older body can go from agile and flexible to humble and bent. Perhaps a more humorous outlook is to call staying healthy as we age "a real pain the butt!"

Lining up a putt at Quail Creek GC.

I have enough difficulty sitting that is simply inborn in me, but when I sit to write or sit to read and my hamstring is tight it pinches my sciatica and butt! Sitting and bouncing in a golf cart can be surprisingly painful. All the more reason to walk, now that we have survived the 100 degree days. Most of all the shortened or inflamed hamstring pulls on my back. When that happens I cannot rotate my hips properly. Often the painful hamstring causes me to sway instead of rotate allowing my arms and shoulders to take over.  

My thinking is to never let pain be in control of my life.

My mother taught me that WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY.  

So, once again with the help of physical therapists and exercise options, I now incorporate "the pigeon stretch" nearly every day.

 

Step One! bend at the hips, not the back. 

 Step Two! Reality test.  Stop when it hurts.

It will get easier. 

Another step to keep the body young and agile is to learn the flapper step. When the quadriceps or hamstrings are tight the dance step is short and slow. 

 OR

When the quadriceps and hamstrings are agile look what can be achieved, if you can laugh at yourself and be proud.

 Letty's version of the flapper dance.

Most importantly keep moving, wiggling, giggling, and kicking.

The Dancing Flapper Girls  Click on this link for a flash back in time.

And remember the words of George Bernard Shaw:

"This is the true joy in life, the being used

for a purpose recognized by yourself

as a mighty one...

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the

community, and as long as I live, it is my

privilege to do for it whatever I can. 

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die,

for the harder I work, the more I live."

Younger Longer--A Stronger Core

Modified planks. These do not hurt
 my wrist or shoulders. Be sure to 
tighten the core belly button to bra line
first then lift with the core, not back. 

Will Rogers often remarked, "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there," or as I prefer to think, "Even if you are sitting on the right track, the longer you sit the sooner you age." Some weeks I steam along like a train engine, then one day I am slammed with a hitch in my get-a-long and look like an engine chugging till the gas runs out. Thinking the heating pad is all I need I sit and ache in comfort, until at last I stand up go to the gym or call the doctor and arrange for a Physical Therapy prescription.  These are the gray days when  I argue with myself about exercising versus sitting and napping. (Confession. I let the naps win, but not the sitting.) A stronger core is my new mantra for life.

Many of us who prefer to be called "Perennial" adults excuse our weak core muscles because of our lack of knowledge when we were younger.  I didn't know about sit ups until 9th grade PE. I didn't like them then, but now I know how to do them properly. For all I did right in the last 50 years by lifting weights, walking miles to seek fresh air, and playing golf, I rarely strengthened my jelly belly tummy muscles enough to keep my back in shape.

While I lived in Hutchinson, Kansas I joined a Pilate's program that serves as my ONE reminder that I can be strong again or stronger.  Like using technology, change comes our way and we can discover in any decade how to think with a clearer mind, walk with better posture, eat healthy meals, or to play a sport all with the help of a strong core because a strong core binds us like a bullet proof jacket stabilizing the spine, the lower back, and our vital organs. Sadly, we don't all have a bullet proof jacket stabilizing us internally so that balance and core go hand in hand. Younger Longer--Finding Balance

Research has shown that regular exercise can slow down the physiological aging clock and keep us young longer, what is the core?

Essentially, the core consists of everything within a person's center of gravity, all areas of the abdominal, the back, the glutes, and beyond. Exercising these muscles means to exercise an area that is part of the core musculature.   Core defined for conversation  

Notice that my hands are pointing to the area that I need to be conscious of tightening. I pretend my belly button and tailbone squeeze to meet each other. Then with the glutes tight and the lower back flat on the floor I lift my legs up and I hold them in a 90 degree angel for 30 seconds, three times. (leg curl)

Now with a little more knowledge (from Physical Therapy) and a conscious mind set that draws daily attention to my core, posture, and gait I am moving with more ease. After three weeks of exercising thirty to sixty minutes a day three to five days a week, and stretching my old tight muscles or using a foam roller on them I feel physical and nervous relief. Attention to my mind set helps me create tension in my core, and I stand confidently taller. 

Why is it important to develop and maintain a strong core after age fifty? Through the working years of thirty to 70 sedentary adults may experience as much as 30-40% loss of muscular strength as a result of reduced levels of muscle mass making us prone to injury and illness. Strength Training Moves for Women over 50 

Bridges. 

 How do we create a stronger core at our age? My suggestion is to talk with a doctor or physical therapist first if pain is the issue. Otherwise, consider exercises such as, bridges, leg curls, and planks, every other day. My basic pictures show these exercises. 

  

As parents and grandparents we find ourselves needing a strong back (core) so we can enjoy lifting and hugging our grandchildren. For those of us who enjoy sports at all levels, gardening, walking, or running we do not need to be highly trained and fit athletes, but we do need a strong core to lift, twist, bend, walk, run, swing, or get down on the floor and back up gracefully.  The Mayor Clinic website offers the best options on core exercises beginning with the basic (easiest). Click on this link for pictures: Mayo Clinic Core Exercises 

The icy brown tones of winter. 

Winter is the deepest darkest time for me, and I tend to slip into anxiety over my aging body, asking questions of myself and my abilities to walk purposefully instead of hunkered over, will I be able to compete on the golf course, will the weeds win in my garden or will I be able to bend and pull them.  These are such minor worrisome issues, but they suck away my confidence.

Last summer I set a calendar reminder on my phone for 7:30 pm every night. It reads, "30 minutes of exercise or 10,000 steps." If I achieve my goal that day I delete the reminder and smile to myself.  At the end of each week or month I look back and count all the times I deleted the reminder.  It has become the best self-confidence and smile booster for me in the last decade.  

I believe self-confidence shows in how we walk and greet others and strong core strength doubles the confidence to help us stay Younger Longer. Good Luck. 

Younger Longer. Finding Balance

The Golf Gypsy proudly standing by Dinah Shore. 

Ben Hogan, one of my childhood heroes, tells the story of learning how to bend his left knee nicely to the right, whereas before his left knee shot out when he took his back swing. He practiced so much in his family yard that there was no grass left. When his mother sent him to the grocery store a few blocks away, he would practice his golf game all the way there. Ben Hogan's Modern Fundamentals of Golf

As a youngster, I too, practiced many hours learning how to repeat a solid swing. I didn't seek the knowledge of anatomy or what my body needed to stay strong and flexible. There's a chance I never thought about growing older, and if I did then I'd just push through the pain that I'd seen other "old" people go through.

Push is exactly what I did from age thirty-five to the present. With three teens in the house my husband and I discovered the best use of weekend time was to workout together on the University of Oklahoma's  Duck Pond circuit training path. That in turn led to regular nightly workouts at the new YMCA, but time passed and my body began to wear down, The joints and the knees consistently irritated my back and hip. Little did I know that my "knock knees" would someday cause my walk (gait) and golf swing a great deal of unbalance and lack of power.

When I retired at age sixty, I enrolled in a Tai Chi class to help regain a sense of balance and rhythm, rather than my frantic teaching mode of the last four decades. The class moved so painfully slow that I dropped out after the first week. One of the few things I ever quit in my life, but why submit my body to something that demanded I slow down! Once again I participated in aerobics, long walks,

Dynamic Stretching is powerful.
Starla Boyd, instructor

stretching, and light weights to keep my body moving. Over the next decade I spent time with rehab and chiropractic work along with interment yoga, strength training, and Pilates. These technique kept me playing, helped with strength and walking even in pain, but I didn't see what was coming.

Watching the kids at the golf course play and play golf, I realized that age may make a difference, but I could most certainly improve upon my body's overall health, starting with developing strength in my feet and knees to improve my posture and balance. I began with new inserts for my golf shoes and tennis shoes from OK Runner, and became aware of the importance of footwork to minimize my knock knees. I worked on correcting my gait and then discovered Tai Chi.

The only way for a woman to compensate for her

relative lack of physical strength is for her to

build an efficient repeating swing, with

GOOD BALANCE and RHYTHM

   Mickey Wright, LPGA founding member

Immediately, our instructor set aside time each class to work on balance. That became my reality check! Could I stand on one leg and do various moves with the other, and vice versa. Like a trained golfer (athlete) I recognized that this required daily practice, so in my back yard I practice various balance moves and Tai Chi moves but not on windy days in Oklahoma.  My practice wasn't helping until I learned that my must remain flexed or soft to maintain balance. (It seems as though I took a golf lesson not long ago, when my knees stiffened causing me to pull up out of my swing.) So awareness of flexed or soft knees became paramount in my venture into Tai Chi and proper balance.

Tai Chi move using balance and soft knees.

What a difference ten months of balance training has made in my everyday life and golf swing. Thanks to "finding balance" I won our Club Championship this fall, much to my surprise, and I truly can say that stronger posture, feet and knees that work together helped to improve my golf swing, power, and confidence.



Click on the links for various programs and balancing tips.

Tai Chi helps improves balance because it target all the physical components needed to stay upright--leg strength, flexibility, range of motion and reflexes--all of which tend to decline with age. Harvard study on Tai Chi


7 Exercises that Help Improve Balance (there's a app for this)

Tai Chi for Health

Tai Chi and Chi Gong

Letty Stapp Watt
historian, golfer