Soooooo I really am a bit sedentary

[conuly]

Well, sedentary with long walks because I'd always rather walk than take the bus, but still.

On the one hand, I want to exercise more for general health reasons. I don't want to end up old and find out that immobility has snuck up on me, nor do I want to discover that it's really true that being inactive increases your risk of dementia. (It's all well and good for me to assert that dementia doesn't run in my family, but that only works if I ignore my father's mother. Which I mostly do, but still. Probably I should stop doing that.)

On the other hand, I don't want to exacerbate existing joint issues, which would really suck and probably not help my old age mobility at all, especially not if that's connected to arthritis. In the past month my mother has mentioned off-hand an alarming number of relatives who were severely restricted due to arthritis at rather young ages - and that's only counting the ones who developed it in adulthood! There's at least one cousin of hers or her mother's who was apparently "totally crippled" before puberty. She can preen all she likes about how that gene seems to have skipped her, I see my sister increasingly worried and yet dodging the thought that she might already be developing arthritis. She's not even 40 yet! (She ought to go to a doctor. I think we all know that neither funds nor time is really the reason she hasn't.)

So clearly the thing to do is find some 15 or 20 minute daily exercise routine that's reasonably high intensity but isn't going to screw up my joints, at least, not more than they already are. Preferably something that can be done by somebody with no real coordination - I can't jump rope, I can't ride bikes, every day I nearly trip over my own two feet/my pants/the dogs and break my glasses.

Maybe I should just buy myself an exercise bike. When I don't need to balance, I am very unlikely to fall down. I'm not worried about myself so much as my poor glasses.

Comments

[lilysea]

The gold standard for exercise that doesn't screw up joints [as endorsed by Arthritis groups and physiotherapists] is exercise-supported-by water.

So,
walking in waist deep water in a pool,
swimming,
hydrotherapy,
water aerobics.

[siderea]

This.

conuly it's just as well you can't jump rope: any sort of jumping exercise is brutal on most of your joints. Running's not great either.

Honestly, if what you want is to protect mobility and fend off arthritis, you don't want "intensity". Intensity is for cardiovascular health, weight loss, and stamina. For what you want, you probably want something like yoga or tai chi or barre, and maybe something like weight training. Now, all these things can be done in ways that don't exacerbate existing joint injuries, but also not, so you might want to get a bit of instruction on how to accommodate your own issues.

[conuly]

Well, I mean, I don't not want cardiovascular health and stamina. (Weight loss I can take or leave. I'm hardly underweight, but I don't care much either.)

[mindstalk]

Reliable weight loss seems "impossible and counterproductive[1] with rare exceptions", from all I read; seems much better to worry about fitness, which actually can be improved. If that happens to lose weight, yay.

[1] "Dieting makes you fatter on the rebound" counterproductive.

[conuly]

Indeed. And, as I said, my weight is not something I overly care about. My interest in my body extends as far as my body's ability to do what I want/need it to do. What it looks like has never been too big a concern.

[ironymaiden]

This. I do deep-water fitness and it is both a great workout and easy on the joints. (At the city pool it is very affordable, 50 cents more than regular admission.) It's also the least intimidating group ever and done to fun music.

For hands specifically, knitting and musical instruments like piano are both good.

[conuly]

Or typing an awful lot, do you think?

[conuly]

Hm. Can't swim, and find the echos at indoor pools extremely discomforting, but I suppose I can suck it up a couple days a week.

[lilysea]

I'm guessing that the sea is not an option because pollution or travel time?

[conuly]

The beaches are closed from Labor Day in September through to Memorial Day in May. Plus, it's cold half the year!

I could do beaches or outdoor pools in the summer, no problem, but it's winter I worry about.

[lilysea]

The beaches are closed from Labor Day in September through to Memorial Day in May

Aha!

As an Australian... "the beaches are closed" is not really a thing that happens, ever. Except for a few days after a shark attack.

[conuly]

Yes, I figured that was the source of your confusion. (We don't have shark attacks in NYC. Jellyfish, maybe.)

[lilysea]

By the way, does "the beaches are closed" in NYC mean

a) "If you swim here you will get a fine and/or arrested"

or

b) you can swim here, but there are no surf lifesavers on duty to rescue you if you get into trouble?

[conuly]

It means the parks department will absolutely chase you out of the water if they find you, even if you're not even an inch in and fully clothed. I don't know if you'll get a fine or a ticket, though - but you definitely could drown in some spots on the NYC coastline, so you shouldn't do that.

[lilysea]

Wow. Yeah that is DEFINITELY not a thing in Australia.

We have lots of beaches where there are no surf life savers in winter, but you can still swim there at your own risk.

[marahmarie]

Are they actually "closed" nearer to you? On LI we lost lifeguards after Labor Day and didn't get them back until Memorial Day, but you could still go (at least to the smaller North Fork/South Fork/East End beaches) any day of the year.

[conuly]

They'll chase people out of the water if you show up 5 minutes before opening time any day of summer, so I assume it's the same over the winter.

[marahmarie]

That is...strange. We didn't have lifeguards (or anyone) to chase us out of the water once the season was over.

[conuly]

Well, the parks department is there anyway, because beaches are parks, so.

[marahmarie]

OK, that explains it. The beaches we most often frequented aren't state or county parks (I just checked the LI state and county park pages to see if that's changed, but it hasn't) so I guess it's a little easier to visit or even swim in them off-season.

(Now I wonder: "Who the heck controls those beaches?". The towns they're in? ...

Yes! The towns indeed run them. Just googled and got this answer for the ones we'd visit the most: "All beaches are open daily from sunrise to 10 p.m. year round." TIL)