I often speak to clients about things from my own kinesthetic journey, including my own history of chronic pain, injury, surgery, and fascinating personal medical experiences. As I grow older, movement provides a dynamic and present way to exercise my body, my mind, and most importantly, my creativity.
I used to be a runner. I haven't currently done races, but I loved pushing myself to improve my 5K times. As a middle-aged martial arts enthusiast, physical theater explorer, and bodyworker, I felt fulfilled and creative despite chronic pain. Then life took and unexpected turn which affected many areas including both of my hips. The pain started subtly but soon became unbearable. With the help of a brilliant chiropractor and astute physical therapists, I scheduled my first hip replacement surgery. The orthopedic surgeon found osteoarthritis bone-on-bone in both of my hips. I had the right hip replaced first as it was more deteriorated.
During the first healing process, I slowly reintroduced movement with virtual boxing, gradually regaining strength. I focused on specific strength exercises targeting my right hip and all the maladaptive patterns my body had created in that joint. Six months later, I was moving with far less pain. A few months later, my left hip started to decline. The pain became intolerable untenable as this left hip had spent the better part of a year taking the brunt of a right hip joint that was completely compromised. With targeted strength work prescribed by my physical therapists, I prepared for the second surgery, This preparation helped express inflammatory and cellular waste products from the joint itself, allowing for more efficient uptake of this chemistry, facilitating better healing.
My left hip healed more quickly, with improved range of motion, and nerve function. In the past three years since my surgeries, I have been working multiple times a week on increasing the strength and mobility of my hip joints, improving my foot contact with the ground, and building muscle stability with weights.
Strength work offers numerous benefits, including increased metabolism. It boosts your resting metabolic rate, helping your body burn more calories while at rest. Regular strength work also increases endorphins, release dopamine, increase availability of serotonin, and boost levels of norephinephrine. These neurochemicals are involved in everything from our mood, to motivation, to our ability to pay attention. Working with weights can also have a positive effect on inflammatory chemistry in the body. Strength work increases the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, lower CRP levels (an inflammatory marker in the body), and increase production of inflammatory fighting hormones.
Many of these benefits can be effective tools with which to address issues and health concerns that can arise in mid/later life such as menopause, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autoimmune conditions, ED, anxiety and pain. Motion IS lotion and movement IS medicine.
That said, movement in later life can be difficult due to pain, inflammation, medical procedures, stress, loneliness/depression, lack of space, lack of "exercises", uncertainty at where to begin, and general overwhelm. Some young 73-year old went to a Crossfit class full of young people moving very quickly and blew out their low back, another 90- year old lady stepped off a sidewalk sideways and gave herself a 3rd degree ankle sprain, and delightful 50-something gentleman tried to move a couch into his apartment by himself, and now he can't turn his neck without sharp pain. These are all stories I've heard from clients in my treatment room. While life isn't going to keep injuries from occurring or people from feeling stress or pain, as life inches towards that big ol' massage table in the sky, there are things we can do to make that journey as full of ease and joy as possible.
I am always preaching about self-care biochemically, physically, and psychologically. In the physical realm which we are discussing today, there are older people all along the movement continuum...from retired athletes, to full time care-takers, to folks who get out and walk on occasion but have never done any work with weights. There are many resources for all of these people. Something simple you can do, is contact your local gym and inquire about the personal trainers who work there. If you have a community center near you, there are also many movement classes available such as yin yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong. Many of my older clients as well as myself do a good portion of our exercising and strength work in water. A pool is a great way to get resistance without gravity. If you would like to unpack more of your physical patterns and dive deeper into proper movement and proper form for that movement, there are physical therapists that specialize in such work and can assist in honing a routine that is tailored to each individual based on health history and health considerations. Any movement coach "should be" able to assist you in regressing ANY exercise if it is having an injuriously painful effect on you, either before OR after the session. And I want to invite those of you who do identify with the label "middle-age" or "older age" but have had a very active and sporty life, to take your routine, and mix it up. Try your routine more slowly than you are used to. If you can't do it slow, then you can't do it fast. Check in with your form, is your low back kept safe, is your neck straining, are your fingers curled up in a claw as you Zumba? Give yourself a physical self-care check up. Consider that you may not have to run that 5K, and that a long relaxing walk with your headphones might suit the bill on any given day. Learn how to listen to your body, evaluate it's movement patterns, and respond with presence, consciousness, and vitality.
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