UBC – Day 18
Getting Older
I don’t exercise much these days. How I wish I could be more agile, like I was many years ago. Getting old has its challenges and while I have been quite fit for most of my life, I do have some issues.
These days my enemy is arthritis. It is in the family, and I suffer from its activity in many parts of my body. Joints in my hand are swollen and painful, my back (original injury during nursing career), my feet and so on. Was it that I played tennis until my 60’s? Was it that I failed at gym? (I joined several gyms, but each time, except for the one that went broke and closed, I had to submit the doctor’s letter to cease my membership.) Surely, exercise can be dangerous!
I like walking but have to do it alone (all my friends walk faster than I can) so leave me behind! My slow walking is not the best exercise anyway.
Photo by Jacob Postuma – Unsplash.com
Swimming is good for me – but it’s a matter of accessing a pool and in winter I avoid my pool time, except for one of my house sits who has a heated pool! We had our own pool some years ago, and it was challenging keeping it maintained, and I don’t miss that. I am house sitting at the moment where there is a pool. I just have to “keep an eye on it.” It is mid-summer, so I enjoy my regular swim to cool down, and I do exercise in it. A small pool especially for seniors would be great.
The point of this post was really to make comment about “seniors accommodation” and how they make little effort to offer their residents much in the way of exercise.
Ballroom Dancing
What about ballroom dancing for exercise? It is big time in China – groups of seniors meet in parks or under bridges for their regular dance activity. Many of our young folk would not have any idea about this sort of dancing, but it is fun, you have company and can do as much or as little as you like.
Even in the main shopping mall in Shanghai, you will find people dancing to some of the familiar western music.
Safe Walking
In Australia, there is little use of rubberised walking tracks. There was one in Adelaide that my mother used. The benefit is that it is softer to walk on and if you fall you will do less damage to your body than a cement track. Here in Queensland, I’ve not found a rubberised track – and I have lobbied council in the past about the benefits.
Tai Chi in the early morning
Visit almost any park in China in the early morning, and you will see groups of men and women going through their paces. Usually to music, and they take it seriously too. In Australia, despite having wonderful parks, we tend not to use the facilities like the Chinese do. (Sometimes there is an orchestra or music group practicing too – I think all our musicians practice indoors!)
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