Health and Fitness in the Older Ages

 Many people who think they know better, advise people to stand up from a seated position without using their hands — as though that were a better way. Undoubtedly it is harder and more precarious (dangerous) for the person receiving that advice — and eventually and inevitably becomes fatal. What a person should be practicing all their lives, is the easiest and most efficient way to do anything and everything — as the most intelligent understanding and expression of their being — rather than the misguided notion that the purpose of life and everything one does, is to maximize the hardship for themselves, and everyone around them. That can even lead to some cases in which a person being lifted, is fighting everybody else to nullify their efforts — instead of everyone magnifying every other’s efforts to aid in that effort. The more common example of this, is attempting to save a drowning person — determined to pull everyone else down with them.

The first rule in aiding anyone else, is to see if they are doing as much as they can to aid themselves — which in the case of standing from sitting — is to use your hands (for better leverage), just as they would be well-advised to use the handrails going up and down the stairs — rather than the thinking that if they do not fall and break their neck, they will be shortly running up and down the stairs by leaps and bounds. Reality doesn’t work that way. So one has to begin slowly, practically, feeling one’s way tentatively — all the way, and that manner of proceeding, will serve them well for a long life.

By placing the hands on one’s knees, merely shifting the weight and falling forward results in a standing position — because of that increased mechanical advantage — in using the hands and arms. That’s really what one wants to learn as one becomes older and less able — the easiest and most efficient way to do anything. One is not looking to burn the most calories to produce the least results — if that ever made any sense at any age. Even in the shaping of the body, one is not trying to achieve random movement — thinking it will result in an aesthetic “look.” Yet that is what is still thought in many schools that should know better.

So while the squat is regarded as a valuable movement to do, many don’t do it because it is awkward and painful to do — which can be addressed by making it easier and painless, by increasing the assistance and support in the most vulnerable position — which is the bottom, and not the top by placing the hands on the back of a chair and tentatively bending the legs as far as it is comfortable to go — and in that manner, easily and effortlessly extend the range of motion -- with the assistance of the arms to control the movement. People who have difficulty doing traditional squats, will be surprised to learn that they no longer have that aversion to squatting in that manner. Otherwise, most people just disqualify that valuable movement from their workout program — in favor of much less productive movements and exercises — mainly because they are more convenient to do. Unfortunately, that is the main driver for the design of most exercise equipment — not because it is most productive, but the most convenient — even if it does nothing at all. In the top position, they simply complete the leg movement by rising on their toes — which is the universal leg movement of running, jumping, and walking, etc.

But for the crowd that thinks that doing anything at all, is the same as doing the best they can do, they are invariably disappointed in not achieving the desired results — which becomes less arbitrary the older one gets, and needs to get things right. Right understanding and right effort becomes more important than simply more effort. So to simply rise to a flat-footed position rather than articulate the heel raise, is not any athletic leg and foot expression that feels natural, and results in the comprehensive contraction of all the lower body structures in an integrated movement. The reason for the knee bend, is to add thrust to the foot movement occurring at the end (top of the movement).

That manner of performance, renders most movements unproductive because there is no natural completion of extension/flexion at the extremities — that increasingly are the weakness of the circulatory effect. That is the blood flow to the feet, hands, and head — most importantly, and increasingly the problem of health and fitness in the older ages.