There is a stereotype that as we age we become weak. That our ability to stay active declines and we must take a back seat to what we used to enjoy. We’ve seen the story repeat many times. Throughout the years of working and maybe raising a family we are busy and can’t find the time to sit still. Then retirement age arrives and a lot of that busyness calms down. We’ve earned the right to relax so we slow down and move less. While the right to relax is true, the lack of movement can hurt us in the long run. Aging and weakness should not be synonymous. The phrase “if you don’t use it, you lose it” is very true in terms of muscle strength as we age and general weakness can affect more than just your ability to go for a relaxing stroll.
General weakness is as unspecified as it sounds. It can feel like fatigue, maybe nausea, a heaviness when deciding to engage in an activity. The overall weakness may keep you on the couch longer than you want and stop you from leaving the house and engaging with friends or family. While there are specific diagnoses that can cause generalized weakness, this article focuses on lack of activity causing weakness. If you feel you have other concerning symptoms, please contact your doctor.
Take a look at your daily activities. Have they declined over a period of time? Were you once able to walk up the stairs without feeling fatigued or walk around the block without a cane and now need help? Does moving the groceries out of the fridge feel heavier? If nothing has changed medically it is quite possible that the lack of activity has caused your muscles to atrophy. Your endurance may be reduced, compromising your cardiovascular function. This can set you up for balance loss or even a fall. In addition, those tasks around the house that therapists call ADLs, activities of daily living, may become challenging and now you need assistance. Your ability to move is dictated by what your muscles have to give. If they have deteriorated, for whatever reason, everything gets harder. A vicious cycle can start where you feel weak so you stop moving, which makes you do even less, which causes more weakness and around it goes. It is important to not allow this to happen in the first place, but if it has, it’s very important to break the cycle. And the only way out is to get up and move, even in slow doses to start!
Don’t become the stereotype. Make sure you keep working your body as you age. If you feel that you have become weaker, a thorough checkup with your doc would be wise. Then start getting to it. Walk daily. Even if it is laps inside your house. Go for a couple minutes and increase as tolerated. It will work your big postural muscles that keep you upright and your heart and lungs pumping. Strengthening exercise, even without weights at first, is key, but then you need to add resistance to maintain that new strength. Moving your body in ways that push you past your ADLs will maintain your ability to keep doing them. If you want to lift that 5lb gallon of milk out of the fridge for as long as you can, then working with weights heavier than that is the way to go.
Aging does not equal weakness. Now get up and keep moving and if you think you need a little help to get started, we’re happy at Tandem Strength & Balance to provide that!