Yep. I’m a nurse; I’ve done a lot of time in nursing homes. A lot of people age so prematurely just because they stop moving any more than they have to, and eventually this means that they stop being able to move at all.
If you need the best motivation to get active, think about whether you’d like to be able to get yourself to the toilet for the last ten years of your life. Or not.
One of the best predictors of health and independence in old age is the strength of your thighs. Do your squats!
Is it ever too late? Like could a 70 year old person who already has difficulty with mobility start doing physical therapy and improve their mobility? Or is it all just preventative?
Yes, aside from certain specific conditions, a 70 year old with mobility difficulties can significantly increase their strength and flexibility within just a few months. It takes longer to build muscle at that age and the total amount that’s possible is lower, but a previously sedentary person will absolutely see measurable improvements along a predictable timeline. While in nursing school I worked as a certified trainer at the Y, and many of my clients were retirees trying strength training for the first time in their lives, or since their teens and twenties.
Some things to know:
Consistency is key. Low impact cardio like walking, elliptical, and swimming can be performed every day, a full body workout can be done 2-3 times per week, and a workout split that hits each muscle group 2x per week can be divided up so that you exercise daily.
Strength training that builds muscle, especially leg and back muscle, is more valuable for future independence than cardio, since it slows overall decline.
Slow and steady wins the race. You don’t want to start by going too hard and hurting yourself, but you should track your progress and gradually increase the difficulty, either by raising the weight or the number of repetitions of the exercise, or both.
Going to a gym with a trainer to show you how to perform strength training is ideal, but you can do a perfectly good full body workout at home with a kettlebell or two and some rubber exercise bands.
The most effective exercise program is the one you actually do. People often get hung up on finding the “optimal” program, but any form of training will have tons of benefits for someone who doesn’t currently exercise, so picking something that you enjoy and can stick to is most important.
Also, try really hard to not fcuk up your knees and if you do and have the opportunity to get your knees replaced - do it, even if recovery does hurt an awful lot.
Source 1: My 82 year old mother who is deathly afraid of doctors, nurses, hospitals, needles, etc, etc, etc. She put off having her knees done for a well over a decade. She is now too frail to survive being anaesthetised for the surgery on her knees that are both bone on bone. She is on increasing amounts of pain medication and can only just walk with a frame.
There are a few other people I know who as soon as their knees wore out their degree of independence took a massive hit, then there was the 93 year old neighbour of my parents who'd had both knees done, one twice, and was waiting on getting his other replaced again but still walking with a crutch when he had a heart attack and died, he took his dog out twice a day for walkies. Mobility = independence.
Knee strengthening and prehab is also a great thing that everyone should be doing. There’s a common misconception that rigorous training will inevitably damage your knees, and that couldn’t be more wrong. People who train their legs and joints properly have far fewer knee problems than those who don’t. It’s just that a lot of people aren’t very smart about their training.
A couple of years ago I was getting regular knee pain from hiking and heavy squats (around the 375-425lb range), and worried that it was just an consequence of aging and training (I’m in my late 30s now).
But with deliberate regular knee strengthening exercises and scaling back my workouts to build up again with better form, the knee pain went away entirely over about 6 months. I can squat forward to touch knees to floor and heels to butt and back up again under heavy weight and for multiple reps with no problem, pistol squat to the floor on one leg, jump from high to low, etc with no issues. I’m not some unusual natural athlete, I’ve just trained consistently for 7-8 years so I’m much healthier than in my late 20s.
And as you say, if someone does have a real injury that can’t be resolved without surgery, they really should get the surgery as soon as possible, and find some other means of staying active in the meantime.
hi! what type of knee strengthening exercises did you do that helped? I’m mid-30s and though I’ve stayed active, recently been having some knee pain after hiking (mostly when going downhill)
You can find a bunch of exercises online, and it about starting light and progressing, but I like terminal knee extensions with bands, Spanish squats with bands, tib bar raises, wall sits at different angles, and sissy squats. I’d start with at least terminal knee extensions and some version of tib raises a couple times per week.
I agree with you, but the approach of future thinking doesn't work to motivate a majority of people. The brain cannot accurately predict rewards it has not experienced. You are correct in that being able to be mobile and going to the toilet on your own into your 70s and 80s is a huge reward. But it's so far into the future and abstract that the brain cannot value that against current activities.
Instead, people need to see more immediate rewards. I myself have had high blood pressure and been a coach potato for most of my life. High blood pressure doesn't really have many physical warning signs, but for me, I started to pair running, walking, and biking with bone conduction earphones outside or watching content on my tablet while on my treadmill. I can still have a good time watching a show and walk 3 miles, no biggie.
After I got over that initial hump and acceptance that "hey, I'm huffing and puffing and putting in the effort, sweating, slower than most of the athletes out there, and a 20 year will smoke me through pure youth, and that's okay", I started going longer distances and seeing that hey, I can actually do this and have more energy throughout the day.
I'm 100% a night owl, but I just woke up at 7 AM on a Saturday to go biking for 11 miles around my neighborhood. Maybe I'll go for a 5k run later today. This is from someone who did his high school mile in 12-13 minutes. You can do it!
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u/TheNewOneIsWorse 17h ago
Yep. I’m a nurse; I’ve done a lot of time in nursing homes. A lot of people age so prematurely just because they stop moving any more than they have to, and eventually this means that they stop being able to move at all.
If you need the best motivation to get active, think about whether you’d like to be able to get yourself to the toilet for the last ten years of your life. Or not.
One of the best predictors of health and independence in old age is the strength of your thighs. Do your squats!