When we built our own house, I was 43. Sure, a variety of previous jobs involved building several garages, stonemasonry, and such, but this was our only attempt at building from the ground up, a custom, red-brick faced home, to live in. It was 1800 square feet, with an 800 sq. ft. detached brick garage/shop building to the right in the above image. Mixing and pouring all the concrete used by hand entailed buying at Home Depot, 50 or more bags of Portland Cement, 94 lbs. each, and hauling them home. Sand and gravel I had delivered by the dump-truck load, out front. What's my point, Grandma? I, then, casually lifted and tossed 94 lb. bags up onto the pickup bed, or the flatbed trailer, both were used, 50 or more, with little effort. Here's a view of me carrying a grease gun, after greasing our small cement-mixer's bearings, the flatbed still having several bags of cement on it, the foundation stemwall, and a 4' X 10' section of flat slab delineated, waiting to be poured full of concrete. That took at least 5 or 6 wheelbarrows-full (it's on the trailer) @ 300 lbs. wet, each. This was the largest portion I could comfortably complete doing this by hand. In all, the foundation, slab, and mortar for brickwork added up to an estimated 90,000 lbs. of concrete and mortar thus mixed, wheeled, worked, and finished. Our neighbor here in AZ sniffed and scoffed when told we planned, 4 years ago, to hand-mix & pour sidewalks and patio; he said "Good luck with that". Little did he know, just another helpless A.H. with more money than brains, who had had a contractor-made patio poured for many thousands of dollars. Please understand, this is not bragging I'm doing. It's what we did, that simple. I see my abilities slipping away nowadays. Hence, this thread. My upper body, especially shoulders, has withered. I doubt strongly I could even lift one of those bags of cement now off the ground, much less toss it 4 or 5 feet. My question to folks of similar circumstance here, that is, gradual loss of physical ability, is whether I should be doing something to prevent further "withering". The weight machine in the garage sits idle. Sometime back, my wife decided she was going to enter into an exercise regimen with it; that lasted for one routine. Asked my doctor in November about exercising. His response was based on my blood work-up, "keep doing whatever you do". I mentioned the fitness guru, couldn't recall his name just then, who in his later life swam towing several rowboats behind him. Doc instantly said "Jack LaLanne!" I recall LaLanne looking somewhat scrawny in his later years. My bulging and strong muscles of long ago are gone. I see an image in my mirror of a spectre. Can any of it be gotten back, via extreme effort? Frank
Well you could do gentle exercise Frank, we will never be what we were but we can tone up with not too much effort, Set aside 10 minutes a day and give it a try Even flexing arms and legs help, which is about all I can manage
I would definitely say to exercise, eat healthy foods, and work at getting your strength back, @Frank Sanoica . At our age, nothing comes easy anymore, but it can be done if you are persistant. Three years ago, I was almost dead, and hugely overweight, no muscle, all flab. My heart failure had progressed to where the heart was only working at about 23%ef, and i huffed and puffed just walking from one room to the next. Even walking out to the road to get the mail was impossible at that point. Well, seeing that none of the medication was working any more, my doctor sent me for a heart procedure to stop the fibrillation. It didn't stop the heart failure; but it did stop the a-fib. I felt like I had been given another chance at life, and to help my heart heal, I stopped eating inflammatory foods, and started what amounted to the Paleo Diet, eating only natural foods, and abstaining from processed or chemical-ized foods like sugar or white flour. Slowly my heart healed, and then I started doing what exercise I could do. We got a fitness membership, and I started swimming. I could not even swim the length of the pool when I started and had to rest several times just to make it all the way down and back even once. However, I kept going, and started feeling better and also losing weight slowly. Eventually, I looked up water exercises on Youtube, and added those to the swimming, and even got a pair of swim fins to add more resistance to my leg exercises. I still have a long ways to go, and more weight to lose; but I am now in MUCH better physical condition, and my weight is from building muscles and conditioning, and not just flab. I am in better health than I have been for over 10 years, and I intend to keep exercising and building up my health and fitness. So, I would say to not overdo the exercise part, but start with what you can do, and gradually, you will build that muscle tone back. Eating healthy and anti-inflammatory foods will help stop arthritis pain, so you will be able to walk easier and do more without suffering for it the next day. Even though I am again having issues with the a-fib, my heart has still built up enough to where I am no longer in heart failure; so once the a-fib is under control again, everything should once again be moving in the right direction.
From my previous medical experience working in Senior Healthcare, I'd take it very, very easy when trying to recuperate the body. Most of us want to look like we did 15 to 20 years ago or more, but that can be almost impossible. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is. There are things I use to be able to do, that I wouldn't even think of trying to do today. Wife and I are very glad that we can still do what we can, but many times, after doing some of those things, we have to take some Motrin for the pain that occurs later. Bottom line is: Be careful when trying to recuperate those muscles. They are more tender/weaker than they use to be.
@Cody Fousnaugh "Be careful when trying to recuperate those muscles. They are more tender/weaker than they use to be." What's left of them......
I agree with @Cody Fousnaugh about this @Frank Sanoica , if you want to look like you did 15 - 20 years ago, it ain't gonna happen. But we can look the best we can by exercising and eating wisely. I forgot about the eating wisely part over the holidays. But, heck, we only live once and I'm working on losing those pounds I gained. My kids and GKids tell me I'm not fat but I tell them if I gain five pounds every Christmas and keep it, I WILL be fat.
Doctors aren't taught much about nutrition or exercise in Medical School @Frank Sanoica. But the old saying: "If you don't use it, you will lose it." is very true. Even if we are older there are still many things we can do to keep our body strengthened and healthy. Eating the right foods, and exercising will help us at any age. We may not be able to do the things we could do when we were younger but we can still do many things. I want to build up my upper body strength too as I have noticed how much I have lost of this. After my Doctor's give me the okay to start rebuilding that strength I am going to do just that. At our age it is important to do the warm up stretches first, start off slow and gradually increase. My husband and I have a free health club membership with our Medicare Advantage Plan but if you don't have this there are plenty of web sites you can research that can help you find the right exercise and strength training plan for you during this season of your life. Go for it Frank, you will feel better and stronger for doing so.
My muscles are weaker and my physical condition is worse than it's ever been. I climbed upon a small four or five foot ladder, the top step. I felt fearful and insecure, afraid I 'd fall. No confidence. I finally got the battery replaced in the smoke detector in the garage, but I don't think I'll do that again. But this is not my worse problem.
I understand that completely @Bill Boggs The older I get the "frailer" I feel and I notice I'm not as steady on my feet as I used to be either. When we notice an area we feel we are weak in there is often things we can do to strengthen those weak areas. We will never be young again but that doesn't mean we can't have strength and agility, or sharpness of mind. It does mean we will have to put out some effort to retain those thing that are important to us.
When we find the time, especially during winter months (Florida does get "winter" type days temp wise), we play our Wii Game. During warmer winter days here, we will go to local Rife & Pistol Range and shoot. That spells "exercise"! During Spring days and a number of Summer days we take our powerboat out for a few hours. Again, nice exercise! We just aren't into gym/fitness center stuff. We try to eat right, but there are those times that we definitely don't.
I have another little problem that's recurring with some regularity. When I go in a restaurant and start to leave, I often don't know which way to go. If I lead off my partner will say "no, it's this way." And I sometime get lost in a large store, unable to determine which way to the front of the store and the checkout registers. I always experience a moment of panic. Not good. I suppose I'm slowly becoming incompetent.
I don't know if I am going to like traveling back and forth to the fitness center as I really don't like driving very much but if I find that doesn't work for me I am going to start "shake, rattle, and rolling" with some of my old Richard Simmons CD's! Eating right won't be a problem because I really like all the foods that are healthy for us. It's just getting enough of it in me that will be hard some days.
Have you talked to your Doctor about these things Bill? You may be having some kind of physical problem that is causing these things.
No, not sure I'd want to admit to it anyway. But I did wonder if anyone had ever experienced such a problem.
Hello @Bill Boggs , it's good to see you here. I miss your writings and logic, and I've never seen any incompetence in either of those attributes. Loosing your sense of dirrection doesn't make you incompetent. I have vertigo, talk about a loss of direction, I thought I was loosing my mind. We all loose some of the abilities we took for granted in our younger years. I can no longer walk in a straight line. I fall frequently. I can no longer do portraits, or do much of anything with my hands anymore. I end up in my wheelchair more days than I wish, but none of these things mean I'm incompetent. Your brain is still functioning. It may be functioning differently than when you were younger, but you still seem to be thinking clearly. Just because our bodies and minds are growing older, doesn't mean we are incompetent. I also think @Babs Hunt is giving you good advice. Talk to your doctor. He can't help you if he doesn't know your having a problem. About three years ago, I thought I was loosing it too. I couldn't think straight, and I thought of dementia and Alzheimer's. Turns out it was the cholesterol meds I was on. Two months after he took me off of them, my brain started to clear up and everything started working as it should. I hope we get to see more of you in the future.