Age

[Janne]

Do you older people feel your ’ways’ in the great outdoors have changed much?

Personally, I do not look to waking up. No matter how smooth ground, no matter what temperature, I wake up stiff.
The longer I spend in the horisontal position, the stiffer I am. So I tend to have much shorter nights!

Also, all my adult life I have walked with the 50/10 method. Walk fast for 50 minutes, rest for 10.

Now, I think around 30/5 is more refreshing.

 

[Woody girl]

I prefer 5 mins walking 10 mins resting. Preferably on a chaise lounge with a handsome young man to bring me a nice cup of tea.......... pop!....... sorry , was I dreaming again ?

 

[Fadcode]

A lot of youngsters nowadays don't like walking at all, seem to want everything on a plate, shame really, and so many are obese nowadays, junk food and lack of exercise,

 

[Woody girl]

I love walking my knees hips and spine don't. We fight about it every day. Volterol is our mediator.
I miss walking the coast path and I'll never get to do the camino. But I have many happy memories of wonderful walks. One day I'll get wheels and a motor fitted then I'll be fine.

 

[Janne]

I take Norwegian fish liver and (Icelandic origin?) seal oil, one teaspoon fish, and one cspsule seal, every second day.
I do not know if it really helps, but I feel better.

Something which started last year was that my fingers are kind of seized up when I wake up in bed.

Takes a minute or two of massage. No pain though.
I need to last and be able to work 10 more years....

 

[Woody girl]

Fingers seizing up ? Tell me about it! Trying to peel potatoes is so much fun. I buy special flying potatoes. Everytime I try to peel them they fly out of my hands and across the kitchen! I eat a fair few baked potato as they don't need peeling. They are the ordainary kind that don't fly.

 

[Janne]

For me, I suspect it is a combo of holding a (cold) metal drill that vibrates, for maybe 3 hours a day, for over 30 years.

Had some tests done late last year, no arthritis in finger joints.

Weird. Do not like it!

I noticed last year while csmpinh that I had problems igniting a BIC lighter. So to make a nice morning brew, I had to take the storm matchsticks.

 

[Robson Valley]

My ability to walk is shutting down and no, it can't be fixed. My legs are dying.
No, it can't be fixed. Skip the herbs. It can't be fixed. Or, I would have got it all fixed, years ago.
My blood vessels are mineralizing, stiffening = I am becoming a living fossil!
Takes 10 minutes by the clock for the pain to ease.

So wood carving and just about any other sort of art and bench work can keep me very well-occupied.

Medical testing has been some really stupid fishing trips for a penetrating insight into the obvious.
I want to be comfortable. I'm cold all the time so when I get snuggled down into a warm nest,
I am reluctant to stand up.

If I can sit and have other people be my "legs", I have a really good time.
My part-time house keeper and my part-time gardener/handiman/shopper help a lot.
They just have to do all sorts of walking to get things done.
I think they like working for me because I'm not very fussy about most things.

 

[Chainsaw]

We have a saying up here, "Old age doesn't come alone!" Probably universal.

I've just passed 50 and like you wake up stiff and uncomfortable most mornings so I tend to get up and do some light exercise (a little taichi) to get moving. I don't go back to bed though and we used to regularly stay in bed until lunchtime on Sundays. I find hammocks and Marriott hotel beds the most comfortable unfortunately I spend more time in Marriott beds than my hammock I cycle a little so don't really have any issues with walking even though I am tied to an office chair 10 hours a day...

Could be worse, you could be going through the menopause, that can pile a whole lot of stuff on top!

Do not go gentle into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

[Erbswurst]

I am a bit younger than you, but just discovered that I become rusty during the winter.
But after two or three weeks of camping it becomes better.
I guess it is important to keep moving.

 

[Woody girl]

Rusty..... that's a good description . Trouble is 3 in 1 oil doesn't work. Yes the menopause is a complete bitch. I've done it. You guys are so lucky! As a youngster I always wondered why older people ran so strangly. .. now I know why.
My motto is head down bum up and keep going. Sometimes it's not easy. I definitely suffer nowadays. I'm constantly asked why do I do it. I tell them if they got to ask that I could never explain.

 

[oldtimer]

I'm 77. Nothing has changed at all...……………………….. Just spend a lot more time admiring the view!




Seriously a French friend of mine got it just about right. After congratulating ourselves for still being able to walk up to a mountain retreat above the village, dance nine sardanes, enjoy a French Catalan lunch and walk back down to the village at our age, he asked, "Have you noticed that every day when you get in the shower you seem to have developed another ache that wasn't there the day before?"

 

[Woody girl]

You are so lucky old timer. I go to a bike meet most weeks in the summer and there are many chaps in their eighties still riding long distances as fast as when they were young. I'm so jealous! Health is precious. I never dreamed my body would do this to me. I do all I can to mitigate it but I'm slowly loosing the battle.... if I'm honest. So use it or loose it is very true. I'm keeping going as long as possible.

 

[tankie]

Where are these bike meets in your area?

 

[saxonaxe]

Many years ago I knew someone who lectured us on endurance and the reserves of strength and physical ability that everybody has, but either do not find cause to use them, or give up mentally before drawing on them.
Mr Yung, he was a South Korean Martial Arts Instructor, amongst other things. He spoke a lot about mental attitude and would use examples like that of the American lady who ripped the buckled, jambed door of an estate car open when the car was involved in a road accident and caught fire. One of her children was trapped in the burning car, that is until she rescued him.

He always said that a great many older people automatically went into a kind of self imposed physical decline on reaching a certain age.."Can't do that, I'm 60 now" or " I'm too old to do much exercise now"..This has nothing to do with physical disability I emphasise, purely that mental switch....Too old..can't do it.

Mr Yung had some interesting views. The 55 year old who ran the 100 metres in 20 seconds was performing to no less a degree than the 18 year old who ran 100 metres in 12.5 seconds. Yes he was slower, but the effort both physical and mental was at maximum for both of them.
Wearing shorts and trainers, running 3 miles takes me two and a half times longer than it used to take me in boots, belt order and carrying other kit.....But I'm a short hop to 75 so I take comfort in Mr Yung's explanation of individual effort, and I'm convinced that he was right, mental attitude and effort...within an individual's capability... is a way to remain active and mobile.

" So use it or loose it is very true. I'm keeping going as long as possible"

So, Old Timer and Woody girl..............

 

[GuestD]

He always said that a great many older people automatically went into a kind of self imposed physical decline on reaching a certain age.."Can't do that, I'm 60 now" or " I'm too old to do much exercise now"..This has nothing to do with physical disability I emphasise, purely that mental switch....Too old..can't do it.

I don't ever think about it, considering the life I've lead I should be suffering, but I'm not, I don't know why. I'm not any slower than I was 30 years ago, and I'm not sore when I get up. Luck I think, and long may it continue.

 

[Erbswurst]

What I have learned, is that to much weight is simply a problem. I got 10 kg heavier, every thing became heavier.
I became 10kg lighter and felt, as if I would have become 10 years younger!

 

[Woody girl]

Where are these bike meets in your area?

At a transport cafe... that's the one thing that has changed. It used to be a pub. Older and wiser perhaps?

 

[snappingturtle]

Not really, I still hike miles, scramble, and climb, love techno, I look out from this shell as a youthful soul even thou a 48 year old man looks back from the mirror, I always worked on any pain or stiffness finding ways to take it out or put strength in, my body is a tool so best keep it sharp

 

[Woody girl]

I too in my head am much younger than my shell. I have always been fit despite life long asthma for most of my life but unfortunately my spine and right leg suffered pretty bad injury. This has caused other problems and now I have managed to add fybromyalga to the mix. I'm still often guessed age wise about 15yrs younger than I am. (The gap is closing tho!) So with a mind space aged 20 yrs a body looking 45 yrs and a body feeling some days about 80+ I have no idea how old I realy am!!!!!