A former elite distance runner had to stop running due to hip pain. She had two small children to keep her from dropping into despair, but she missed running terribly. She came to our pool and started with deep-water running and walking to eliminate all weight bearing. Her hip pain began to sub- side—and her enjoyment of deep-water running began to rise. After six weeks in deep water, she made the transition to running and jumping exercises in chest-deep water. She was quite astonished at how much pleasure she felt while running high-intensity intervals with her feet on the bottom of the pool. It almost felt like running! She had successfully made the transition from a high-impact sport that hurt her hip to a satisfying but much lower-impact activity that was therapeutic. The Decades of Your Life As we age, most of us need glasses to read. Even if we didn’t need glasses before, Father Time is now in our eyes. So, we modify our vision with glasses. We must make other changes as we move from one decade to another. Let’s first consider the athletes. In your twenties, your body is so resilient that you can enjoy three or more abusive activi- ties without negative consequences. Maybe you go for runs every morning, then play basketball two nights a week, and participate in volleyball and football on the weekends. True athletes, people whose bodies are strong, flexible, well bal- anced, and coordinated, can often continue with such activ- ities into their thirties or even their forties. If you are one of these athletes, and if you escaped major injury in your sports career, you may be able to continue with two abusive activ- ities throughout your forties, possibly into your fifties. But let pain be your guide. It might be time to learn stand-up paddle boarding, kayaking, body boarding, or another activity that uses your upper body more than your lower body. Since you built good form and strong muscles for your activities, you can often continue into your sixties and seventies to enjoy one sport if you begin to relinquish the other abusive ones. It’s time to start alternating your road running with your pool running, or your basketball playing with your bicycling. After age seventy, it’s no longer about competition; it’s about hold- ing on to as much strength as you can. It’s time to start taking the long view – planning how to be active the rest of your life. It means integrating more nurturing exercises into your routine every week. Baby Boomers Push the Limits Nearly everyone knows someone in his or her sixties or seventies who is super-fit. These are the Baby Boomers saying, “No! We won’t stop our favorite activities just because we’re older.” As a Boomer myself, I know many of these people who continue to move gracefully. All of us who continue to thrive athletically have maintained good body weight, get enough sleep, and watch what we eat. If we had small injuries in our athletic careers (hamstring strains, ankle sprains, rotator cuff strains, knee sprains), we systematically and painstakingly did the rehab to return to our full, former levels of function. And we switched sports any time an injury told us to. If you wish to be a superfit seventy-year-old, follow our lead. Don’t let a small injury knock you down a notch and keep you there. Fight your way back to make a full comeback every time. And start your nurturing exercises now! —Lynda Huey Instead of an athlete, maybe you would consider yourself a Regular Joe or Joan. When you are between the ages of twenty and thirty, you can do everything you want. You’re going to heal quickly from a pulled muscle, from a fracture, from straining or tearing this or that. When you are in your thirties and get close to forty, you need to begin recognizing that certain exercises abuse your body. Use common sense and start asking yourself some questions, such as, “Should I really be doing this today?” When you turn forty, you have entered the Decade of Delete. You don’t have to delete all your sports. But you must start introducing more nurturing activities to combat the abusive ones. Spend time on the bike, in the pool, or doing another nurturing exercise of your choice. By cross-training in a pool, on a bike, or on an elliptical machine, you will not only add new layers of strength and will flexibility, also be but you “rationing” the sport you love so that you can enjoy it over many more years. Once you turn fifty, you’re allowed only one abusive exercise, but only if you do two parts nurturing to one part abuse. When you turn sixty, you have to delete the abuse. It’s just not good for you. When you turn seventy, stick with the pool, Tai chi, yoga, Pilates, and stationary bicycling. You may try to justify continued participation, despite the pain it causes, because it is your favorite activity or sport. It’s the one you love. However, at some point, you won’t be able to tolerate the pain. Readjust your training before your reach that point! Work towards building a better, safer fitness regimen now, for a longer, more fulfilling active lifestyle for the decades to come. n Author Robert Klapper, MD, is the Chief of Orthopedics for the Cedars-Sinai Medical Group. He helped pioneer the use of arthroscopy on the hip twenty-five years ago, and hosts the weekly ESPN radio talk show “The Week- end Warrior.” He has authored Heal Your Hips and Heal Your Knees with Lynda Huey. Lynda Huey, MS, pioneered the use of water rehab with Olympic and professional athletes. She has authored six books on aquatic exercise and rehab and mentors stu- dents around the world with her Aquatic Rehab Online Course at www.lyndahuey.com December 2017 / January 2018 | Akwa | 31
