New and experienced climbers over 50 #38

Jim Uwrote:

If someone thinks this is spragging it’s their own insecurities….  I’m watching my own father at 80 have a hard time bending over without loosing balance - major contributing factor being inactivity and my 76 y/o mother in law not be able to step out of a pool because she won’t “do” stairs unless there’s bingo game at the top…. Let’s not even get into side effects of GLP-1 on muscle mass

So weighted pull ups. Two thumbs up Sir! Goals!

Hands up Who else can pass the “old man test” put shoes and socks on while balanced on one leg?

Use it or lose it…  

Yeah I always put my socks on while balancing on one leg. I might make a video of it so everyone can see how good I am and then someone can tell me to fuck off and they don’t care.

Sometimes checking in here is like watching Days of Our Lives after not watching it for a while. It’s like ‘what are they up to NOW!?’

So entertaining. 

Carl Schneiderwrote:

Yeah I always put my socks on while balancing on one leg. I might make a video of it so everyone can see how good I am and then someone can tell me to fuck off and they don’t care.

Sometimes checking in here is like watching Days of Our Lives after not watching it for a while. It’s like ‘what are they up to NOW!?’

So entertaining. 

Mah dude…. Tone your sh*t back to zero.

it’s a basic test of balance and coordination, just like standing on one leg, getting up from the floor without using your hands, or what % of your body weight to can carry in your hands for a set amount of time.  All established tests that have insight into your longevity.

do it, don’t do it, all your choice. Don’t care either way….. exactly what I tell my mother in law

rgoldwrote:

With eyes open, I make it a habit to balance on one leg every day for a timed minute. With eyes closed, I'm toast, and attempts at practicing don't seem to result in any progress.  I suspect that as other types of balance proprioception decline, I can partially compensate with visual inputs, but without sight I'm screwed.

Next time that you try with your eyes closed, visualize an object several feet in front of you at about knee level. 

Lori Milaswrote:

Carl, you gotta get out of there!  You poor thing, drowning in angst.   During the winter before I moved to the desert I found myself nonstop crying. It was bad. I would look out the window and see clouds and just burst into tears again.But just remember the sun is on its way and you can get through this—you always do. Are you taking extra vitamin D?

You do have friends.   And you have a lot of time left.  Hang in there, buddy!

It's another excellent poem for sure but I think Carl is a bit dramatic as he has it better than most of us as his average daily temperature is 54. 

Has anyone ever had business or just been in central Florida during the summertime?  I can now,  with much certainty,  say that I have NEVER EVER experienced heat like that. Certainly the true coastline cools down a little at night but holy shit I've never experienced 100f+ and 99% humidity for 3 days in a row before . I grew up in VA and we had similar weather a few days a summer but all summer long? Now I know why the human species known as Florida Man exists. I'm guessing the Florida Man probably grows up and lives without AC which results in a real change to the brain.

I did a 3 hour paddle down the Santa Fe River yesterday, nice spot and people were swimming!

Jan Mcwrote:

I'm with you Rich.  Eyes open I can stand on one leg as long as I want.  Eyes closed and I MIGHT make 10 seconds, but it is a wobbly 10 seconds.  My favorite is to boulder hop along streams/rivers and never touch ground.  Best balance exercise I have found.

Boulder hopping is a favorite of mine with a little bit of one legged stances in the mix, of course I'm just a baby at 56. Facts are most 30 year old Americans can barely walk 2 miles anymore...

philip bonewrote:

A guy is on the train. His kids are acting up. An angry commuter accosts the father.

He appologizes for being distracted and for his children's behavior.

They are returning from the hospital . . .

That's a bit more than 17 syllables. 

wendy weisswrote:

I wish that I hadn't been taken off estrogen as part of the big estrogen scare, but my current PCP, whom I trust, thinks going on hormones at my age and so many years later would be a mistake.

I was very lucky to have been working in that field when the WHI data came out and caused a massive change in most HCPs use of HRT. Fortunately  my gyn interpreted the data the same way I did and I’ve never been off it. Current gyn totally on board.

Unfortunately your PCP is probably right about starting systemic at this point

but probably every post menopausal woman should be on vagifem or the generics, tab or cream. Hugely useful for GUSM ( which many docs misdiagnose). Considered safe even for breast cancer survivors with ER positive history from the studies I have seen.

When I get home and have a computer, I’ll link the new directive on GUSM from the big powwow of gynecology/urology specialist organization the just came out a couple weeks ago. 

Thanks, phyl, I'll look into it.

M Mwrote:

Boulder hopping is a favorite of mine with a little bit of one legged stances in the mix, of course I'm just a baby at 56. Facts are most 30 year old Americans can barely walk 2 miles anymore...

Maybe Doug should write a new article for us…Striding Talus. 

M Spraguewrote:

You guys with your weight lifting obviously need to step it up another level with you iron crotch training. Maybe Nick has picked up some training tips over the years he would share with you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2c_-9kIjyU There are women's versions too.

I haven't weight trained since I wrestled in college. That was 47 years ago. But thanks for sharing your training techniques

Traditional martial arts has some really silly things in it. I would venture that Monk is sexually frustrated.

Tim Brattenwrote:

I haven't weight trained since I wrestled in college. That was 47 years ago. But thanks for sharing your training techniques

Who did you wrestle for? I did as well and I think we're roughly the same age.

Emil Briggswrote:

Who did you wrestle for? I did as well and I think we're roughly the same age.

Hey Emil! I wrestled for a pretty small school, EWU (Eastern Washington University) in Cheney, WA. We weren't even Division II (I can't recall of the name of our division, and I'm too lazy to Google it), but EWU won multiple national championships in their division  

Edit to add: We did wrestle a lot of NCAA Division I schools, (e.g U of W and U of O) and I wrestled at some open tournaments that had Olympic medalists participating

OK I looked it up and I was right: NAIA was the division

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Traditional martial arts has some really silly things in it. I would venture that Monk is sexually frustrated.

I thought the guy in black and red would make a good Bond baddie.

So Emil: did you wrestle too? Apparently (more Googling) I was wrong about the "multiple" national championships. I thought they also won when I was still in HS, but I guess 1977 was the only team championship. Also says the wrestling program was discontinued after I moved to SLC. So it goes. And I guess, by MP rules, this is my last post for the day!

Tim Brattenwrote:

So Emil: did you wrestle too? Apparently (more Googling) I was wrong about the "multiple" national championships. I thought they also won when I was still in HS, but I guess 1977 was the only team championship. Also says the wrestling program was discontinued after I moved to SLC. So it goes. And I guess, by MP rules, this is my last post for the day!

Yup I wrestled at Rhode Island under Carl Adams from 78-81 until they dropped the team. He went on to coach at BU for a few more decades. We were a top 20 D1 school but along with a bunch of others got dropped after Title 9 was passed. I'm in favor of Title 9 but the way it was implemented led to a lot of schools dropping so called "minor" mens sports in order to preserve their 100 full scholarships for football. I kept wrestling in grad school and as a postdoc at North Carolina State though. Kept at it up into my 30s before injuries, family and career made me hang it up. Unlike climbing not a great life long sport but I still miss it a lot.

Emil Briggswrote:

Another good test of balance is standing on one leg with hands on hips, closing your eyes and timing how long you can balance. People in their 60s average around 3 seconds while people under 40 average around 10 seconds.

I found this training device to be useful. 

I had pretty good balance to begin with, but after only a few sessions using this device I noticed improvement, at least for standing on one leg. After about a year using it, I can stand on one leg for several minutes, until my muscles start cramping. And I can stand on one leg with my eyes closed for 20 seconds, something I couldn't quite do before.

M Mwrote:

Has anyone ever had business or just been in central Florida during the summertime? 

I was in Arcadia (south/central Florida) about 3-4 weeks ago for a service of an important family member- it wasn't quite as severe as you describe, but damn close. I was dreading the trip for that reason, but once there, it was do-able mostly because we were inside a lot of the time doing family stuff, and good, solid A/C- which is a norm out there. Hard to imagine living in that type of environment for years (or generations) on end without the benefit of A/C.

This family member was the last of his side of the family line, and highly revered- USN Commander, pastor, and president of Liberty Bible College for many years. Most of this side of the family have always had a very different world and ideologic view, and we've always looked at each other a little sideways as they viewed my side as the hippy pot smoking liberal Californicators (which only has limited truth to it). All of this was by the wayside, and we enjoyed being with each other, sharing food, stories about our family and lives as kids, photographs, touring their ranch and farm, and a little bit of shooting guns. (One big one, in particular- 50 cal- biggest thing I've ever shot.) A really good time together.

Tim Brattenwrote:

I haven't weight trained since I wrestled in college. That was 47 years ago. But thanks for sharing your training techniques

Um, did you guys watch M Sprague's video?I think I will be skipping any training of this sort.

CARL.