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

[acelightning]

I've been sedentary my entire life, which is probably part of why I wound up with congestive heart failure and arterial plaque. But a former student of mine is certified as an instructor by one of the Chinese schools of T'ai Chi, and he is giving me lessons via Skype (he's in the Navy). It has already improved my balance and coordination, and my general stamina - a couple of weeks ago I was able to traipse around a large gem-and-mineral show, and I only had to stop and sit down and drink some water once during the afternoon. T'ai Chi is extremely low impact, which is why you see videos of outdoor parks in China with hundreds of elderly people doing T'ai Chi exercises at sunrise. There's a lot of "Western medicine" proof that it's very good for people with arthritis, high blood pressure, stroke damage (like mine), and limited energy; you're encouraged to stop, and not push yourself too hard, whenever it becomes uncomfortable. I'm enjoying it.

[conuly]

Stoke damage. I wonder if I can pressure my mother into doing it with me as a mother-daughter bonding thingy.

[acelightning]

When I got out of the hospital last year, they sent me home with a walker. I promptly stopped using it (I used to trip over it when I tried to walk) and got a cane. I'm now reaching the point where I don't need the cane nearly as much as I used to, now I mostly need it for going up and down the stairs.

There is a mental/spiritual component to T'ai Chi; you have to visualize things and adopt a somewhat meditative state. If your mother can do that, I think it would be good for her.