Some of you might have started to notice little things about your movement have changed as you have gotten older… squatting down to get something off the bottom shelf at the grocery store might not be as easy as it used to be, or reaching the top shelf of your closet. What about how stiff you feel after a long car ride or flight, or how about an afternoon spent chasing your kids or grand kids or working out in the yard?
As early as your 30’s you probably will begin to notice your flexibility isn’t what it used to be, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost by any means! Your flexibility and mobility can be trained just like we can train a muscle to get stronger or your balance to be better. In fact we should pay attention to training our mobility as we age, as evidenced by a clinical review done at the University of Alabama that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013. This study suggested that mobility limitations were so important that they should be considered part of testing for healthy aging and urged primary care physicians to even take a more aggressive role in screening for mobility in their older patients. They also reinforced how important it is to recognize any increases in mobility limitations at an early state to allow the opportunity for successful interventions aimed at warding off functional decline and in older populations keeping seniors living independently as long as possible.
Listen to your body, take note of what you can do easily and the things that are getting more difficult. Don’t ignore those difficult things, instead start working on your flexibility and strength to help maintain your mobility. Need some help and guidance in this process? Let us know, we are here to help keep you moving! Contact Christina Vink at [email protected] for more information about our Fitness in Motion program.