Forrest Gump is really handy to paraphrase, hence the title. Lazy workout
habits show as you get older. Yeah, I know it’s not fair that you will be
caught out simply because you are not doing your stretchies and you are getting
older. Rail against it all you want, fair has nothing to do with it. It’s just
is the way it is.
As you
progress into your sixties you notice that it is becoming harder to bend down
to pick things up. The hips and lower back just don’t work the way they used
to. My wife has a really picturesque expression for this. She says her ”bender
and dipper” doesn’t work like it used to. She first became conscious of this
when she went bowling a short time ago. Throwing a bowling ball, an activity
that involves a lot hip and knee action, is one of the first to expose this
uncomfortable evidence of growing older. If you haven’t done it for a while,
you may be in for a surprise.
As you age it
is increasingly important to keep up with exercises that use the full range of
motion of the hip, knee joints and the joints of the back. Funny, core work
comes to mind. How about that? Suddenly exercises like sit ups, squats and dead
lifts, old standbys, have new respect, no? Of course, you don’t have to do these
particular exercises. There are others. Be creative. If you are one of the
lucky ones to be contemplating keeping up after sixty birthdays, you also have
to be careful to be promoting strength while keeping limber. Hamstring and
thigh stretches combined with hip stretches should definitely be part of your
routine along with old standards like weighted squats, lunges and dead lift
combinations, especially as we age.
Of course, if
you are normal, the stretching routines are the first to go as motivation
flags. This is where keeping a log and/or having an accountability partner (or
coach) really helps. We need reminders to maintain all of our program, not just
the parts that we like or that show best results in our own minds. What do you
think? More important, what do you do?
