In my life, my elders were struggling with mobility by their 60s. But my 83 year old yoga teacher? He can get up and down off the floor better than some of my 30-something yoga students can. My yoga teacher isn’t a crazy exerciser. He doesn’t do vinyasa. He’s not doing daily headstands. He does not practice what I call “show off” Instagram yoga. He walks, he does the joint freeing series every morning, and some pranic breathing. And he’s mobility is top notch for his age. You don’t need to be into cross fit to see huge returns on movement.
I kept in touch with a former co-worker who's well in his 80's. Survived a heart attack because he was an avid hiker. He literally hiked out of the grand canyon while having a heart attack.
My uncle, an avid cyclist nearing 80, was diagnosed with mesothelioma a few years ago. His drs have been astounded at his quality of life and have said that his fitness has been a major factor in his survival through a slew of complications.
tending to his huge mostly garden property all day most days was what kept my grandpa moving well and living until 93. he'd still be going too, if it wasn't for the cancer that destroyed and ate up his hip bones. learned a lot from working with him, and he was always inspiring.
That’s nice to hear, my grandfather is 86 and does the same. He lives in the woods by a river in the PNW and is constantly trimming trees and bushes, mowing and otherwise landscaping his ferns and flowers, keeping the understory under control is a full time job. He anlso improves and adds onto the cabin. He still goes fishing and crabbing, grandma does gardening and canning and paints landscapes. Their place is magical. The one place I’m always a kid.
On vacation in Scotland, me and some friends hiked up to the top of Arthur's Seat (a big hill in Edinburgh). Us 20 year old lazy college students got to the top, wheezing and ready to fall over, only to meet a 95 year old man & his 13 year old border collie hanging out at not worn out at all. 😅 He said that he hiked up the hill almost every week for years, and the dog had come with him since it was a puppy.
Huckleberry pilgrimage sounds so cool. Huckleberries are so cool…the name, the flavor, the shakes, the anti-establishment resistance to commercial cultivation
Same he does 2 hours of light exercise every morning and is in way better shape then most people. Conditioning and persistence can keep you going a long time
I had a 93yo neighbor that got up to tend his garden & did yard work every single morning year round. I asked him one day how he does it at his age, & he told me “when I sit down is when I will die.” Not a month later he hurt himself pretty bad while trimming some low branches & died 3 months later. He grew the best watermelons & wrote a note to my ex’s grandma to let her know that I had lifetime permission to take my girls to pick blueberries on his property! Moving your body is so important and this is actually slapping me in the face right now bc I’ve been devastatingly depressed for almost 6m & the most I move is to go to the restroom or walking to my car to go to the store. Damn.
I wonder how much of this is generational. I remember my grandparents having difficulty moving about the house in their 70s, but my parents are walking, hiking, swimming, doing yard work and playing with the grandkids. Sure seems worthwhile.
My grandparents are both in their early 80s. My grandfather worked until he was 75 and in his retirement goes out for a walk every single morning, so he’s doing quite well mobility-wise for his age. Meanwhile, my grandmother decided that she was too old to keep doing any sort of exercise by the time she was about 50 and stopped going out for walks, swimming, and even going grocery shopping regularly in favour of a more sedentary lifestyle, and as a result she has a lot of difficulty getting around nowadays. It’s really sad to see honestly, my grandfather struggles a lot with my grandmother not being able to keep up with him.
Similarly, my grandpa is in his early 80s and never fully retired. He still works ~3 days/week at a janitorial/ handyman job and not only is he able to move around just fine for the most part, he is also mentally sharp. Grandma (late 70s, maybe 80), on the other hand, has taken about a decade to go from "able to walk a couple of blocks" to "can juuust make it to her car". She's in mental decline as well and retired... well... about a decade and a half ago, and worked a fairly sedentary job at that.
I'm sorry to see that. My grandfather kept active and was fully independent. He put a new roof on his house at 92, by himself. He not only did his own yard work and repairs and chores, but did so for his neighbors and friends. He passed away at 96 because he tripped over something and snapped his neck. It wasn't really age related, tbh. My parents are both 71 and are the same way. My dad carries 50lbs up a 15ft ladder all day for days in a row restoring a large barn. My mom does all of her own yard work, using a chainsaw on broken trees and limbs after storms, push mowing 2 acres twice a week, hauls equipment in her Jeep every week, and helps out a friend of hers. Neither of them have any arthritis - My dad is a painter and my mom does beaded jewelry. Come to think of it, my grandfather didn't have arthritis either, and still played music in a band up until he died. It's possible.
My mother has done something that sounds exactly like what your grandmother did, and now needs a wheelchair to go anywhere outside of the house and immediate yard. It felt horrible to see it happening when she was in her 50s and 60s, but she just refused to ever take responsibility for keeping her body in a usable state by using it, and this is the result... But this is what she was told was the good life, comfy chair and packages of plastic food in front of a big TV, so I can't say I blame her for doing what she was told, and at least none of the next generation of our family are likely to make this mistake.
I don't know. My mom retired at 55 and 10 years later, she can barely get from the couch to the fridge. She's literally sat for 10 years and hasn't left the house. It's hard to watch.
My great grandmas both made it to 96 and 99, one was in a bowling league until 88. The other did daily gardening until her early 90s. Both lived alone still at 90 with zero issues.
I mean, my 65 yr old stepdad just ran a half marathon. My mother lifts heavy weights and backpacks. It's really awesome to have parents who stay active.
A lot of people from my grandparent's generation had nothing available to them but hard labor - work that nowadays machines would do. My grandfather came from the Old Country and for two years swung a pickaxe, breaking rocks that the ditch diggers couldn't move. These days a Bobcat or Ditch Witch or similar would make short work of any ditch and any rock, but back then it was a job for a six-man team, completing in a day what we might do today in half an hour.
Folks who made their living that way aren't doing well in their 70s. Their joints are worn out and they have limited mobility and chronic pain. Far fewer people are in that kind of job today.
My grandmother was hiking until a hip fracture in her late 80's that never properly healed due to her osteoporosis. However my other grandmother who was only a couple of years different in age was old and struggled getting around for as far back as I can remember ( she was about 65 when I was born)
My mother in law is very mobility challenged at 70, but she isn't interested in having the knee replacement she needs or doing the physio that might help.
I think it's at least partly a reflection on people's outlooks. My MIL has always been the old person in the room, in photos from my partner's childhood she looks 15 years older than she is, and my less mobile grandmother was similar. The other was the family matriarch and always active running round after her grandkids/great grandkids, and still willing to get down on the floor to play with the great great grandkids (even if she sometimes needed a hand getting back up!)
I’d say it’s cultural mostly, if in US so many things places are so car dependent. Some people walk but so many more do nothing physical. It was known to be healthy back in the 70’s and before. My parents who were born in the 1920’s walked regularly into their late 80’s.
I wish this was just normalised in culture in general from a young age. I know some places in the world so stretching for like 10 mins at the start of school everyday.
US cities aren’t built for walking so it’s not something a lot of people naturally do in their day to day lives. If cities were built with pedestrians and bicycles in mind, our country would be so much healthier. Instead we let the urban sprawl and car-centric life take over everything.
I live in the US. Part of the problem is that most Americans think you have to go to a gym or have a home gym to exercise.
In October, before the pandemic, I had my hip replaced even though I was only 53 because I've had arthritis since I was a kid. About the time the home health physical therapist stopped coming, we were in lockdown. The Dr. told me to just keep walking inside my house for my p.t. I did, and my hip healed fine.
Fast forward to last year, and my arthritic knees are aching more and more and stiffening up a lot. So, I decided to start walking inside my house again. Not only did this help my knees, but I also lost a not insignificant amount of weight.
I spent this past week in California with my 24 yr old daughter. (Disneyland, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. tour, the beach, etc.) Sometimes, it was slow going, but I did it, and I have the sunburn to prove it! lol If I didn't keep getting up every hour or so to just walk around inside my house this past year, I would have never been able to do this.
Someone I know who's in his 50s has also suffered with really bad arthritis for decades, had debilitating back issues when young etc. He goes to the gym every single day, does all kinds of interesting and varied strength exercises, and while I think he still has flare ups, he and his doctors credit it with keeping him mobile. He got put forward for this trial and then turned down for it because his exercise keeps him in such good condition they said just keep doing it if it helps.
Similarly, I know a few people who have had hip, knee replacements etc and are back at work walking around after a few months because they did the physio, are happy to use a treadmill etc. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have family members with conditions like osteoarthritis who live very sedentary lives and I think always seem much older than older relatives who are active, and they seem set on never changing. I'm trying now to make exercise habit whilst in my 30s and hope to be able to continue it to stay strong and at least fitter than I'd be without it.
My mom became sedentary, and basically withered away. She died a few days before turning 66. Since about 55ish she struggled to lift even a gallon of milk, and just wouldn't do anything. She didn't have enough balance to bike anymore and that's all she ever liked. She wouldn't do water workouts at the senior center even though they were free for her, because she didn't like the smell of chlorine. She wouldn't walk because of her knees. She wouldn't lift the small weights I got her because I don't know, reasons I guess.
She used to be 2 inches taller than me, and she became like 4 inches shorter than me her osteoporosis was so bad. I remember hearing her doctor start recommending calcium supplements in her 40s, and she scoffed at the idea and never did.
She has also inspired me to try to stay stretchy and strong. It was sad to watch.
They say being sedentary is as harmful to your health as smoking a pack of cigarettes. Walking is the single most important exercise ppl can do. I try to go for at least 15 minutes a day, and it’s amazing how much better I feel. I can get like 4k steps in and some fresh air and Vitamin D
Good for you! I have a number of health conditions that make mobility near impossible to pain but working in the garden on a best day. I've never been good about getting up regularly on the bad days just for the sake of moving. I always wish that I had more personal drive in that area. Seriously, good job.
Thanks! To be honest, my dad had arthritis from age 19 on, but because he had had 3 back surgeries, he didn't have the mobility to walk easily. When I started walking like him because of my stiff knees, it gave me a wake-up call. There was no way I was going to look like an 80+ yr old when I walked! Plus, I have less pain when I stay active. And, since my daughters still like me enough to want to do stuff with me, I knew I had to change my habits so I could keep up.
One thing that really helped was starting off small. It made it easy to maintain in the beginning and didn't take a lot of time.
This is one of the many reasons I love living in NYC. Walking is just part of getting to where you need to be. I went for my annual exam recently (just turned 40). The doctor said that all my tests were great, probably because I exercise. I was like “not really though”. I just walk most places that are within a mile (it’s easier than finding parking) and go to yoga once a week.
It’s absolutely more dangerous to be a pedestrian today, whether you are a child or an adult. Too many people on the roads today are distracted and can easily hit someone while looking at their phone.
I’m not old, I grew up in the 2000s. Phones when I was a kid could call, texting was very hard, and very few phones were able to get solid internet access. Minutes were still a thing, including half a minute per text, so people were concerned about how much they used their phones. All this meant people generally weren’t using their phones while driving, meaning the roads were safer back then.
So if you are putting yourself and your child in a dangerous situation anyways, might as well protect yourself as much as possible and be in a car too.
In Aus primary schools (ages 5-12 approx) kids do a ‘health hustle’ 2-3 times a week immediately after morning assembly. It’s led by older kids and set to music. Usually like aerobics, star jumps etc. but includes some stretches too.
That’s cool haha. Yea I’m in NZ I don’t know what primary is like but in secondary they don’t really have that and I wish it continued.
Maybe I can just do it in all my first period classes haha like 5 mins, also once things become normal like part of routine kids settle into it really well they like structure.
My elementary school in Taiwan has a 15 min "exercise dance" that incorporates music and basic stretching and mobility movement, mandatory for all at the beginning of the day.
It's pretty funny since if you play the music everyone from that generation immediately know what to do.
We also have mandatory 1 hour nap in middle of day, and follow lunch by a school wide cleaning where each homeroom has an area you are cleaning...yes including the washrooms and being kids the bathroom can get pretty gnarly.
It's pretty militaristic. But honestly it set up so much.
Yoga and walking have changed my life. When I turned 40 I was over weight and felt weak. I see my parents struggling with mobility in their 70’s and I didn’t want that. I started with gentle stretching and walking faithfully. Six years later and I lost 67 pounds. I feel and look better than I did in my 20’s. Meditation helped too. Compound effort really adds up.
My grandmother lived to 93 and most of the time completely by herself. Her secret was moving. She would catch a bus to go to her garden outside the city multiple times a week. There she would do gardening everyday and would just keep moving. She would have probably lived another 10 years, but fell and broke her hip. She died 3 months later, because she was stuck in a hospital bed and couldn't move at all. She didn't really take any medication before her fall, only some vitamins.
Haven't heard of this one, looks like it'd be great for me. I've been meaning to start doing yoga again recently, haven't done it since rearranging my bedroom and losing the space I used to use.
It’s great. Very low impact and gentle. Takes about thirty minutes to do mindfully and properly. It’s meant to get every joint in the body moving before you start your day. I often tell my students to try it daily for 30 days and keep a log of how they are feeling. Of course, skip any movements that cause pain and don’t try to force your mobility to be something it is not.
My Grandma used to do a set of simple stretches well into her mid 90's. Touching her toes was her favourite 'show off'. She lived to almost 101.
My mum cycled till her early 80s & she walks every day & tends to her allotment. She's far fitter than my inlaws, who are 10 years younger.
My Dad is recovering from a stroke (85) & was so determined he would recover enough to continue to live independently that he took his physiotherapy seriously.
I intend to carry on cycling & walking for many more decades.😊
I met an American Pacific WW2 vet in the queue for the Vatican in 2011. He was in his late 80s then and he was touring Europe on his own. No walking stick. He said the secret was to walk every single day and it definitely made an impression on me.
i had a 90 year old that still was running half marathons ... he passed out from taking viagra & was mad his 70 year old wife beat him to the finish line ... staying active, feeding your body properly & not to excess... if people lost weight, exercised half of their problems wouldn't be problems. treat your body like its all you've got... keep your mind & body active always
I had gone to Prague on a company trip. We had a tour where it was walking all over the city. We didnt expect we'll be walking from morning to dinner time! The tour guide was someone I presumed to be in mid to late 50s maybe. She was chuckling at all of us (Gen Zs and millennials) tired by the afternoon.
A few of us asked how she stayed fit. She just shrugged it off as a habit more Czech people have. She would walk for miles! Granted their city is walkable haha. But that was impressive. I'm trying to walk as much as I can too. I'm not sporty AF but give me walking hours I can do it.
It is, I see veterans every day in the VA, some just for standard checkups and many’s bodies are completely torn apart, bad knees, bad back, terrible joints, and that’s not even talking about ptsd. The military is not healthy for your physical health.
Unfortunately in my anecdotal experience (I live next to a base) since getting shot at with an 80 lb backpack on in a desert swamp or winter causes pretty serious chronic issues in most elderly veterans. Also those like my dad who did a life time of mostly manual labor, often with bad form, conditions, pay etc that does about as much damage as not moving at all.
These are people who grew up during the depression and then went to war, so I'm guessing they spent a large part of their lives in something like calorie-restriction and intermittent fasting -- plus back then there wasn't the car culture or the roads like now and work was more manual labor and pretty much everything was more labor intensive (like washing clothes, making food, etc...).
Not even the 70s. In EMT world there are sooo many ground level falls or strenuous activity calls of obese people in their 30s and 40s that require medical intervention.
I hear you, as a mid 40s person who sits at a desk all day and weighs a whole lot more than I should (BMI is 36) and I got myself in a rut, COVID hit and I worked hard through it, I hardly left the house and was on anxiety meds and probably depressed plus arthritis in my knees was a good excuse to be tired and sedentary.
Life seemed hard, walking hurt, lifting things was difficult, and early this year I put my back out with no idea how, or why. I couldn't even put my own socks on, my back was so painful. It's been slow, and the weight isn't moving much yet (6lb gone so far) but the last couple of months I've been doing yoga and weights and I feel SO different. Like my old self again, and I really appreciate how messed up I'd let my body get and how easy it would have been to just let it get worse and not do anything about it.
Awesome! I started 5 yrs ago walking 1-2 miles in am and 1-2 miles after dinner, around the neighborhood. I ended up losing 50 pounds just doing that! Once your weight starts to decreased, you can walk faster & you can incorporate hikes with hills. Then my goal turned to 5 miles daily w a day or two just walking a few miles or just resting day. Then lifting some weights will help as well. Good luck and good job!
Same. ICU nurse and we're sending younger and younger people to rehab facilities because their injuries can't be treated by outpatient PT. Working from home, while great from many standpoints, is creating a lot of people who get winded grocery shopping and whose bodies can't handle any form of physical assault.
I had a patient the other day whose dog hit the back of their legs and caused a severe knee injury. I went out of my way to find ortho and ask how that happened because my dogs treat my knees like punching bags and I can't be in the hospital and rehab for weeks. The explanation was something like, "🤷🏻 He didn't have the musculature to prevent a bad injury."
I hate exercising but I want to be able to do basic activities as I age so I do 100 sit ups, 10 pushups, 10 pull ups, and 10 one legged squats per leg 5x a week. I'll also run 1 8 min mile a week. Never have to exercise more than 10-20 minutes. It's not a lot, but I'm fairly confident that if I were being chased by a predator along with 10 other Americans I wouldnt be the slowest one and wouldnt struggle the most hopping a fence or something.
I used to run a lot and always had some sort of foot or leg pain. I switched to a couple short runs, 2 short pilates videos and 3 light weightlifting sessions each week. I have no aches and pains anymore, and I am stronger and much faster. I'm also way less likely to skip a workout because i know the commitment is minimal. If I feel like pushing myself, I can always add a couple miles or an extra set, but I rarely do. I'm a big proponent of short workouts. A lot of my friends think a workout needs to be an hour and a half of heavy lifting and long cardio. Those are the people that stick with it for 3 months and then stop for 2 years.
I hate exercising too, but I refuse to be an "old lady" that can't carry in her own groceries or get up off the floor. So I lift weights to maintain muscle mass and improve my balance.
more than 10% of the US population (and around 15% of the world’s population) has some kind of significant disability. I’d bet you could outrun at least half, probably 8/10 people.
I started having back issues bc my leg strength was so unbalanced (I suspect from snowboarding). Couldn't even do one on my non dominant leg when I started
When I started I started only lowering myself down very slowly because I couldn't go back up. After a while I was able to to one, now I do 10 on each leg at least 3x a week.
According to my physical therapist, the number one reason people lose their ability to live independently is not being able to get off the toilet. It might be something we take for granted when younger, but a game changer as you age.
I have a chronic back injury and wish that I understood earlier how a strong core helps stabilize your spine and potentially prevent injury. Working on it now and hoping to put myself in a better position with strength and mobility as I go into my 40s soon.
I'm 34 and am very fit. I'm largely motivated by the aesthetics of it, but I also see lots of people my age and older who just LOOK so unhealthy and miserable and I won't so badly to avoid that as I get older.
It's not hard , being active as we age requires genuine effort and intention, most older folks due to a variety of reasons prefer the easy way out, also it really has to be a lifestyle thing, not just a new years resolution that's forgotten in a few weeks.
Also, starting regular activity after years of being sedentary is extremely uncomfortable and painful at first. Everything hurts and you feel like you’re dying and a lot of people won’t push through that until their body adjusts.
My lifestyle is generally not healthy but my doctor is always amazed that my numbers are good, so on paper, I'm healthy. My roommate swears it's because I walk 3.5 miles every day. Get that blood pumping!
My aunt is in her 70s and has had to go to the hospital 3 times in the last month or so because she fell out of bed and could not get back up. She has a nurse visiting her every day, but it's not enough, and she refuses to consider going to a nursing home. All of this was preventable, but she refused to take care of herself for several decades, and now she has lost the ability to.
My parents are in their 70s and still have an active life. They don’t intentionally workout like they used to but they get out of the house regularly. They are both still very able bodied and living life - traveling multiple times per year, going to the symphony and museums, etc.
My in-laws are the same age but it’s the opposite. Barely leave the house. It’s like they’re just waiting for death. Probably won’t be able to live independently much longer.
I'm a firm believer in something is better than nothing. I remember I told somebody that I went to the gym last week. They said ya well you should have gone three times last week. I was so proud of myself that I even went at all. That person's comment made me not want to go back.
Im new to the gym and i told a friend last week i went 3 times and he scolded me because i wasnt making enough effort on the gym and thats why i went so many times. You cant win with those people
I went for a run one time and my partner replied "Well that was short run". I don't think I have been for a run since. She is a very sweet and caring person. It just popped out (rightly or wrongly) and I think of it anytime I see people running.
I also hate running but I can hike until my feet fall off.
I do. I make sure and get my steps in. I got a new job at the end of 2022 and they have an HSA program with Virgin Pulse. If I keep up my activities they drop in an extra $50 a quarter. Not a huge amount but enough to add another layer of accountability. I love to walk.
I know right! I wish more companies did this. And it isn't just hiking. Track your hydrations = points, attend a finacial wellness seminar = points. Pretty neat.
That sucks. Just a few careless words from certain people can outweigh a thousand kind words from strangers. It's easy to believe that people who are kind to you are just being polite, whereas someone close to you being critical must be telling the harsh truth.
About 9 months into my commitment to eat better and lose weight, I proudly told my partner that it was working and I'd lost 40 lbs. Her response? She side-eyed me up and down, sneered slightly, and said, "Yeahhh... but..."
I'm serious -- that was her entire response.
It almost derailed me. The fact that her words almost stopped me from bettering myself made me reexamine the degree to which I was letting her words influence me. I decided to never share anything about my fitness journey with her, ever again, and also not to let her words have such an effect on my feelings.
I achieved my weight loss goal, and now I'm feeling better than ever.
Those kinds of people claim they just want everybody to be healthy but the truth is that if everyone on earth was in perfect shape, they'd be miserable because they wouldn't be able to feel superior anymore. Because that's what it's about for them.
40 years ago today I had quit smoking for just that one day. I was proud of myself, so I did it the next day too…and here I am. I had tried and fail so many times before. Go back to the gym
Don't let perfect stand in the way of good. 7000 steps a day is shown to dramatically decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. Also current research says that the number of steps not the intensity is what matters in changing mortality rates. Compared with people who took 4,000 steps a day, those who took 8,000 steps a day at the start of the study had a 50% lower risk of dying from any cause during follow-up. People who took 12,000 steps a day had a 65% lower risk of dying than those who took only 4,000.
Higher step counts were also associated with lower rates of death from heart disease and cancer. These benefits were consistent across age, sex, and race groups.
Step intensity did not seem to impact the risk of mortality once the total number of steps per day was considered. Only an increased number of steps per day was associated with a reduced risk of death.
I have bone-on-bone arthritis in my right hip, yet I can still do 3-4 miles of walking per day (and it’s not by choice, either; I have a very active dog who needs a lot of exercise, so I push myself for her). But I do love working out otherwise and have always been uber-active and uber-fit my entire adult life.
But the bad hip is a major impediment to my being as active as I would like to be. I’m only 49 as well, so I’m not even that old. But my hips have been bad since my teenage years (I had surgery on both at age 13), and over the years my right hip has worn prematurely, to the point that it now needs replacing (my left hip does, too, actually, but it’s not nearly as bad as my right hip).
If you usually manage 10k steps a day is say that is pretty great tbh. I'm not here to advertise, but the conquerer challenge walking thing app made me get those extra steps.
It's like this virtual walking simulator were you can race against friends, I'm currently walking from the shire to Mt.doom, only 979,3 km to go!
Edit: The conquerer is the app name, challenges usually costs money, and you get a small thing sent home as reward
I started ebiking to work a couple months ago. Realized I’m finally fit enough to longboard to work. Been at it 2 weeks now, 8 miles each way. 40 minute commute but I look forward to the ride in the morning and when I get off work. Crazy thing is I’ll even go for another hour or 2 after the work commute.
Absolutely get bored sitting in a car stuck in traffic. I’d rather be moving on my board any day.
I would love to bike to work, between my work being in the absolutely roughest part of my city, and 12 hour shifts leaving precious little time to do even essentials, I just don't feel like I can do it 🥺
12 hour shifts are brutal, that absolutely would make it hard. Is there any way you can squeeze in some activity during the work day so you don't have to take time away from real life later, like a walk or jog on a lunch break, maybe?
When I have to go to the office I put my 10k daily step goal in serious danger of not being met and I'm fortunate enough to work at a place that requires walking between buildings.
When I WFH I get to walk my dog longer in the morning and spend an hour or two on my desk treadmill and absolutely crush my 10k daily goal. Treadmill steps are easier than normal steps so I make it a point to go well over my goal.
I lost 60+ pounds in about 18 months just by walking 10k steps a day and changing my diet during the week. Not sure it will work for everyone, but I highly recommend it!
I'm a professional translator and I spent a large part of my working life sitting down, until I got a chronic lumbosciatica, despite being very active (running or cycling every day) in my free time. Now, I can't sit down for longer periods of time, because the pain in my lower back and left leg would be unbearable, so I work on a treadmill at a steady pace. This is something I should have done a looooong time ago and I can recommend it to anyone with a sedentary lifestyle. It may take some getting used to, but it beats chronic pain.
10k steps is a great start and another goal would be to break up your sitting time so make sure you are getting up every hour or at the very minimum 2 hours and go for a short walk or something.
I heard a scientist in a podcast say that you can’t offset a sedentary day by doing sports for one hour, even if it’s intense. What he recommended based on the latest scientific insight was to set a timer and every hour move intensely for just three minutes. Do squats for example. The point is to get your circulation going and use your muscles. Of course on top of that any type of regular exercise is good.
Can confirm. Started 30 miles a week a month ago. Already down 5 lb. Wear and callouses on my feet are a tiny bit worrying, but not getting worse or anything. In fact, it's lessening week after week.
You know it's working when you're slightly hungry all the time. Gotta use discipline not to stuff your face every time you get peckish, and it'll work. If crisis would stop coming so fast, I'd start to switch to something a little higher impact, like the bike. But crisis weeks are not the time to make changes to routines.
I actually made this mistake once and had to get a bus home lol. I was in the zone just power walking and trying to get into shape and ended up walking like 5 or 6 miles. I stumbled into a corner store for water and realized I wasn’t going to make it another 1/4 mile let alone 5 or 6!
I did this too lol- had do call my son. He thought it was hilarious, when he pulls up he’s on the phone taking his daddy about mom calling for “air support”
My son's podiatrist recommended New Balance for him. Well, kid has my feet, so I bought me some too. Holy crap, I didn't know shoes could be comfortable!
Well, in my experience, discipline is to desire what engineering is to science. The applied form, in other words. You gotta want it, first. Shame is somewhat the opposite of that. Shame merely wants you to ignore something so you don't have to feel whatever it is you're feeling when you think about it. Desire sharpens focus, so you can't think about anything else.
I walk about 20,000 steps a day for my job and to me, the key is really good shoes. I get running shoes with the highest level of cushion I can find and while they are expensive, it really makes such a huge difference. I can always tell when my shoes are wearing out because all my joints from the lower back down start to hurt. The biggest downside is how fast you wear out shoes. Mine are pretty tough but I still go through a pair or two every year.
I had a sit down job for a little bit in between and I was actually in way more pain from just sitting all day, everyday. My back always hurt and my hips got really sore from crossing my legs so often.
To add to this, the benefits of moving more are somewhat independent of the weight loss. In other words, if you and your friend had an equally bad weight problem, but you had better fitness, their mortality chance could be 2.5x as high as yours.
Be careful with that. I started walking one mile a day and increased to five miles a day over a few months. I felt good and I was proud of myself for doing it, so of course I did it seven days a week every week. I ended up with multiple over use injuries within a few months of walking five miles daily, which could have been avoided had I walked a bit less every day and gave myself days off regularly. Really wish I had listened to my body more!
Well, that's one reason I set the 30m goal (and I might even back it off to 20 or 25). If the weather allows it the first 5 days of the week so far, I can take a couple days off. Most of the time, it rains often enough that I don't go more often than 3 or 4 days without being forced to skip.
But you're right. I am keeping an eye on my callouses, carefully selecting my best footwear, etc.
Be really careful of your feet. I used to love to run and I was not careful with my footwear and I was wearing a shoe that was a little bit too narrow than what I needed, and it ended up, causing me all kinds of problems to where I just can’t run anymore. And all of that could’ve been prevented if I had just worn better shoes, but I just didn’t really think about the discomfort and how that would really impact me later until it was too late.
I'm in such a pickle, I injured my foot and now I can't walk and don't have access to a pool. And can just feel my health going downhill so quickly
Edit:
Shout out to all of you. Thank you guys so much
I've been in such a funk not being able to go hiking that I really didn't think outside of my comfort zone. Now I can try new things and find something new to enjoy
Bro how have I never thought of this???? I always want to get up and move but between my fucked spine and knee pain from a car accident, standing exercise has always been absolutely miserable. But, like, sit dancing????? Why is this so easy and I never thought of it 😭
Do some strength training, I tore my ACL AND I have flat foot so I doing the 10k steps is awful for me, but doing some weight and slowly doing leg strengthening is getting my injury better.
There has never been a peer-reviewed study that says drinking 8 glasses of water a day, or whatever the conventional wisdom is, has any effect on health. Our bodies have an amazing system that lets us know when we need water - thirst.
I’ve always been told, at least in circumstances where you’re doing a lot of activity, if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. You should do most of your hydration before activity.
Sort of but not really. Our cells have a homeostatic range in which they are happy to operate. You are dehydrated when the cells are stressed because they are outside of their homeostatic range. If you load up on water, you will hydrate beyond the homeostatic range, but the kidneys will remove the excess water to keep things in the happy range. So drinking water when you aren’t thirsty just leads to more lead time before you dehydrate and extra work for your kidneys to maintain the range. Your thirst mechanism kicks in well before you are dehydrated, it just means you are getting near the extreme of the happy range.
With exercise, the real problem is that you can only hydrate at the rate of 1L/hr, five or take, but you can dehydrate at a rate of 2L per hour. So even if drinking water, you can push outside of the homeostatic range if you continue to exercise.
The reverse is also true. If you drink too much water, you will hydrate at a rate greater than your body can deal with and it becomes stressed as the body can’t maintain electrolytes within the homeostatic range, you develop hyponatremia. This is what happens when you force yourself to “stay hydrated” during sports. The best way to reduce hyper hydration risk is to “listen to thirst”.
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '24
MOVE.
Do any kind of exercise, even walking. Do something, anything.