Defy your age, Define your strength.

Recently, a primary care doctor said to one of my clients, “You have to exercise like that arthritis is chasing you.”  I love this line…It’s such a refreshing break from a more typical PCP line, “Well you know as we age, we start to get some aches and pains…” The second line implies passivity, an acceptance of the inevitable that I don’t buy!  Where as the first line offered a strategy; it empowered instead of victimized.  Which leads me to the subject of this blog post…Defy your age by defining your strength.

There is something more here that is beyond the musculo-skeletal system, and it speaks to the second reason that the second primary care line listed above drives me bananas!!! I have a student who has been coming to my Tuesday pilates class, almost every week for the past ten years.  Alice is close to seventy, but she might be older.  To be honest I have no idea what her age is.  She is so strong!  This Tuesday pilates class is in a college town, and at the start of the fall semester, I inevitably get some students that attend this pilates class and they are always young, beautiful and fit.  Yet, no matter how strong they are, Alice is stronger.   Part of it is her consistent ten-year practice, but more than that her “aging” body has so much wisdom, strength and grounding that no young athletic body can compete.  With age comes wisdom in the body as well as the mind.  We all should exercise as if the arthritis is chasing us, but luckily as we age we have the wisdom and knowledge to choose exercise that is safe and helpful to our bodies. 

Ok now how does one exercise as if the arthritis is chasing him?  Of course I am going to suggest pilates lessons.  Whether it is a pilates mat class, or a pilates reformer class, or even a pilates one on one sessions, pilates can provide a safe avenue for strength building that is gentle on the joints and muscles.  The spring resistance offered by the pilates apparatus offers progressive resistance so that the entire muscle is strengthened including fascial connections at the joint.  Pilates apparatus classes also work to balance all of the muscles acting on the joint. 

Let’s use the hip socket as an example.  The hamstrings and hip flexors including the illiopsoas have to work together and the flexibility and strength in the muscles and fascial connections need to have balance.  If one’s hamstrings are too short, tight and weak, then they will impede the range of motion in the hip, which will then cause the wear and tear on certain parts of the hip socket to increase.  However if one works with the piriformis and the illiopsoas and also strengthens the glute medius, releases the plantar fascia, and increases strength and range of motion at the ankle, then the hamstring can release and the range of motion at the hip socket will increase.  And if your brain is spinning right now, don’t worry when you come to a pilates lesson, or a pilates mat class, it is your pilates instructor’s job to have this information and present it in an accessible way.  The class will leave you rejuvenated, stronger and more flexible. 

One last thought to leave you with…I was playing with a three year old the other day and like many three year old boys he is a fan of Thomas the Tank engine…When we were playing we got out the sidewalk chalk went to the neighbor’s house and drew a train track.  This three year old ran around the track and directed the three adults to be bridges, tunnels, and of course he wanted us to chase him.  The laughter that erupted from his tiny body when we chased him expressed the spontaneous joy that only a child’s laughter can.  SO maybe as we head out into the world to exercise as if whatever is chasing us we can have the child’s giddy laughter and screams in our heads and then maybe we can laugh maniacally in the face of age with the “as if” attitude of the most resolute of teenagers. “aches and pains…Puh-lease!”

Katrina Hawley C.M.A., R.S.M.E

Co –Owner of The Pilates Studio

www.thePilatesStudioinHadley.com