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At this age, we are no longer exercising. We are in training at the University level so that we can get off the toilet at 90.
We don't want to do this alone.

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I tried my first Tai Chi class on Monday and really liked it.
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I can't put my socks and shoes on any more. I bought a tool for "old people" to help pull my socks on. I'm 63. I didn't think that was that old. When I go out (which is not often) I slip on my leather moccasin slippers from Minnetonka Moccasin.
I can't do squats any more. But I do "stand up, sit down" exercises. That is, standing up from a chair without using your hands. I do it a few times every time I stand up. But it's getting harder. 10 years of lifting my husband in and out of bed daily, when I thought I was so strong and fit, has really taken a toll on my poor body. My tendons snap when I move; my joints don't want to bend, then once bent, it takes a while to straighten out again.
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I hate floor exercises, especially push ups. At my Jazzercise classes there are instructors who I'd say are at least in the their late 60s that can do these effortlessly. I guess they have been teaching these classes for years and they are operating on muscle memory..

I cannot match these women in quantity of push ups but I am aiming for a few good quality ones that I hope I can increase with time.

Squats are totally out of the question, I am afraid of destroying my knees.
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Speaking of losing abilities - I just wiped out on my bike in my own driveway, I was testing the brakes and the abrupt stop threw me off balance and my sorry old body couldn't recover in time 🙄
What's even worse my indignity had a witness, my sporty neighbour was driving by and stopped to see if I was okay (I'm FINE. Thank you)
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I've noticed some of my friends are going through even more challenges than I am though we don't talk about it a lot, but we must look a sad state when we have to look for a chair to rest when taking our almost grown sons out together. One friend loves going to the gym and is enjoying world travel in her retirement. The rest of us when the pain is bad enough end up swapping sciatica stories and suggesting supplements maybe others haven't tried. Most of them walk as their only exercise I think. My doctor noticed last year that I'm getting muscle weakness in one arm, so I borrowed my son's dumbbell and do curls when I think of it, and he takes me walking in the park when it fits his busy schedule. Ironically the world traveler is the only one that has redone her bath to be handicap friendly.
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LOL Gershun, squats are a little more problematic with every year's passing. I'm always flabbergasted at how quickly I lose abilities unless I'm using them every single day.
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Speaking of squats.

I got stupid and did a few squats while I was waiting for
the microwave to do it's thing. (Forgetting I have osteoarthritis
in my knees)

Guess what? I now have a pulled groin area and my right
knee has been giving out on me since.

Live and learn. No more squats for me.
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Squats are KING! and balancing on each leg throughout the day are helpful too. I'm 57 and my desire is to the the little things that will help me stay in tip top shape for the long haul. Functional fitness for real!
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About getting up off the floor.....
I am not sure that I can even get down on the floor unless I fall.

Has anyone tried Tai chi chair? Slow moving.

Barefoot shoes? Cheaper to go barefoot. We do that in Southern California.

Keep moving. Keep getting up in the mornings with a daily routine-you can help yourself.
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Okay here.
My heart, mind, and ideas are hopeful.
No matter what online "experts" are saying about all things.

The people I know have always walked daily instead of an exercise routine.

When someone I respect and follow gives the opposite advice from their own advice, red flags come up. It could be AI, your dH is right.

No one is an expert in all areas. And, there is so much out there that state things like eat healthy, eat bananas, don't eat bananas, if you eat this banana wrong it could kill you! Unbelievable. How can anyone eat a banana wrong? Lol.

I do watch a lot of videos Gershun. It helps me sleep. Lol.
It is true that AI can fool us.

All of us should maybe just keep moving, do what works for each of us.

One goal could be to remain as independent as possible your entire life.
And understand, that even if there is a decline in abilities, many times that can improve.

Part of Fibromyalgia is that one minute we can be fine, next we can be falling apart.
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Send, hope you are okay. You can't get up off the floor but you can fly? LOL

I watched a lot of videos Send. Probably saw the young guy, the buff guy, the yoga girl etc. My DH said that maybe they were all AI. Ya never know.

But I did go on some reddit forums and a lot of people on there said that they work out every day and still can't get up off the floor without using their hands or knees or something, so I think that article that said you'll be dead younger if you can't do it is probably wrong.
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Then, there are those who cannot stand for 10 seconds and the eggs are burnt.

However, Cwillie, I can do the tree pose (Virksasana) while in bed. Had to look up the tree pose. There is a right time for everything, and music playing is one of them.

We must be watching the same videos Gershun. Did you see that really young guy demonstrating how to?

Yesterday, I became horizontal (like flying) as I tripped on the rug headed to the kitchen. Seems dH was putting away bottled water and a box had moved the carpet up. I caught myself on a chair placed in the same walkway. (He was the one doing exercise.)
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I can balance on one foot no problem. Partly cause that was one of the exercises my PT had me doing when I broke my foot a few years ago.

Now the whole getting up off the floor without using any support? Forget about it.
There's no way. In fact, I don't think I was ever able to do that. Even when I was young. I spent a whole evening the other night watching videos on youtube of people showing how to do it. Then I'd get on the floor, try to do it and ................like I said, forget about it.:P
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Do I have to do the tree pose Send? Because then I can't do it, at least not on my right foot. But somehow when I'm dancing around to music it's almost easy, maybe it's a brain thing.
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Can anyone balance on one foot while standing for 10 seconds?
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ArtistDaughter's point about tai chi really resonates - gentle movement that doesn't force range of motion tends to work better long-term for hip and knee pain than pushing through discomfort. Something that has helped me is doing a few minutes of slow, small movements while still lying down before attempting to get up - it's remarkable how much less stiff everything feels once you've given the joints a bit of gentle attention first.
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Everyone needs a little help at any age now and then.
Here at home, NOT asking for help (even if it's easier for someone else to do it)
is the best thing for both of us.

Plan is to keep moving daily, even when it hurts.

Watching videos on how to get up off the floor.
The movement part was finding the remote.

Keep moving everyone!
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Hold onto your kitchen counter with your hands and practice squats.
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The phrase: "help, I've fallen and can't get up" is still used in advertisements for Fall Alarms.

Yes, "training" your husband to stand-by when you have fallen helps. However, in general, the guideline remains not to pick up someone who has fallen.

Don't try to get up too soon, wait until you are balanced and can determine what hurts. Getting up is not the emergency. Stay put awhile, make an assessment.

Then, my husband offers his hands/arms standing in front of me, had to pull me up from a sitting position. Had tried other ways. Happened in January.

The paramedics are better suited to pick up a senior who has fallen and cannot safely get up.

Gershun, If I slid off the couch onto the floor on purpose as a joke, it would be an emergency as all my extremities would be going to sleep.
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Send, when I first met my DH I used to slide to the floor and shout "I've fallen and I can't get up" DH would come and drag me up. He hadn't heard of that. LOL

It was a joke then.................Hmm.......not as funny now that it's getting to be true.
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Can no longer get on the floor or ground, unless I've fallen and can't get up.
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Ha! In the past, this was the time of the year I’d get all worked up to hunt down the yellow tag clothing and beauty at TJMAXX and Marshall’s. Still do it, but now it’s finding the grippy yoga socks, the fat handled hand exercise squeeze's, balancing foam sq’s, that is my hunt.

Not about to buy $75 Bala Bangles. But finding them for $13 at Chez Marshall’s, yessssssss.
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Lift hand weights while watching TV. You'll be surprised at how much it helps with arm strength.
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Ha! Reminds me, I used to attend a ladies gathering where one lady in her mid 70’s always left early to go to the gym. As she was leaving she’d say “squats, ladies, squats, you’ll appreciate being able to get your own self up from the toilet one day!”
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Wow. I thought it was just me, that I was doing something very wrong. It seems a few months ago I was walking down the street in giant strides, feeling strong. Now I'm so slow! Knees and hips hurt. I take tai chi classes and about to start a bone breathing class. I go to the chiropractor a couple times a month and have asked my medical doctor about these pains, but do not want to get injections and/or replacements eventually, which is all the advice I got from her.
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I can’t either these days. I need some sort of support to get up off the floor.
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In one year I had 3 surgeries, one with some arm damage. I am slowing down and after 9 months of PT, I felt like I plateaued. I occasionally work with a personal trainer who is also a senior. The way I keep up in my ability to get up from the floor is to work out at least 30 min every day. I already have adaptive hardware in my home
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Wait till your 76. Grunting the whole time your trying to get up.
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Whoa! I’m not sure that I could have done the stand to sit on floor cross legged and back up again without hands at 35, never mind now at 60. At 20-25 think I probably could have. I did a lot of yoga in those days.

There is another test where you sit down and stand up from a chair without using your hands or arms at all with a certain number of reps per age bracket considered good. That one I can do at this point. Hope to maintain indefinitely.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9LLfnKAc2LA
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I was feeling pretty fit; I walk more than 10K steps per day and fitbit's cardio load feature tells me I'm maintaining my fitness level. Then I came across the fitness "sit-rise" challenge which supposedly is a predictor of longevity. oof. Can't get down, sure as h*** can't get up either.
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