As you know, the first of the Boomers turn 65 this year. It is clear that Boomers are entering the Medicare years kicking and screaming. There is a new catch phrase in my office which is: “that is unacceptable.” I am not going to state that we have to stop doing most things because we are older. However, there needs to some common sense.
I had a lovely 65-year-old woman come in this week who was petite, approximately 5 feet 2 inches and weighed about 115 pounds, in great shape. She did not look her age and her complaint was that she could not be as “vigorous” as she wanted to be.
I asked her what vigorous meant. She stated “I cannot do deep knee bends with the rest of the class nor I can do lunges like I used to because my knee hurts after I am done.” Well this was “not acceptable.” She had no pain during walking; bicycling, climbing stairs or hiking. It turns out she had a little bit of mild arthritis in her knee and a degenerative meniscus tear. She has seen another orthopedist who told her she should have surgery. Mind you, the only pain she had was after she did her vigorous activity. After spending some time explaining to her that it is normal for our knees to age. The type of tear she had was not the cause of her pain, but it was due to the overload she was placing on her knee by doing lunges and deep squats. Surgery definitely would not fix this.
No one denies that it is extremely important that we keep moving as we age. Walking, bicycling, and swimming are excellent activities to keep our cardiovascular health, muscular strength, and endurance. Light weight lifting is also well known to be able to enhance muscular tone and improve the way our bodies look. When I asked the patient why she was so focused on these “vigorous exercises.” She states that she wanted to stay in shape. Granted, these are exercises to stay in shape if you are 20 or 30 years old, but in an aging body these two exercises can cause significant compression through the knee joint, stress fractures, meniscus tears that require surgery.
When I asked her if she knew what the biggest cause of orthopedic disability was in older patients, she was not sure. I indicated that the answer were balance problems – and the falls it causes. You can fracture your hips and break your wrist. It is known that a hip fracture over the age of 70 has a very high incidence of death within six months. That IS unacceptable. The reason why we fall is that we loose our balance- you trip over the phone cord, the sleeping dog, a bump in the sidewalk. Boomers can reduce the chance of this happening,
When I told her this she stated “oh my balance is awful.” So, activities like tai chi, standing on one leg and throwing a ball against a wall, and Pilates, are all excellent activities for enhancing our balance. Boomers, we all need to stay strong, walk, and keep our heart healthy. Please use common sense when choosing exercises and remember that you have to balance your goals of exercise which includes feeling and looking healthy, with the goals of keeping your overall health which includes being mindful about the activities you choose to do, listening to your body, and using common sense.
– Lesley J. Anderson, MD