Independent

There is so much advice out there about how to stay healthy as you age that it’s easy to get bogged down and some important non-negotiable factors can get lost in the pile. I’d argue that regardless of some of your physiological health indicators like blood and cholesterol stats, maintaining a couple of physical skills are paramount to living independently as long as possible. In their 70’s and 80’s one of the main concerns people have (and a top cause of injury and disability) is falls. It’s not just the fall itself that’s a problem- but the inability to get back up again afterwards. Many factors can lead to falls such as a lack of balance, dizziness or light headedness, but regardless of the cause, the main physical skill needed to get back up again, is the ability to do a lunge. If you can do a lunge in your 70’s and 80’s you are much more likely to be able to maintain independence - and get up after a fall. Certainly, working on the variables that lead to falls in the first place is important, but don’t forget about keeping physically strong enough to give you the ability to get back up again. 

Now, don’t panic if you find yourselves in your 70’s or 80’s (or perhaps 50s and 60s!) and realize that you are not able to do a lunge anymore - this can be a goal. It may well take some training to get there, and if that’s the case, we can break it down. Maybe you can just do a half lunge, perhaps only lowering half way to the ground, or only able to do it on one side. Maybe you need support to get down at all, or maybe you can lower down but then can’t push back up again. It doesn’t matter, where you’re at, it matters that we’re working on it now! If you can’t lunge now, you won’t ever be able to if you don’t work at it, I can guarantee that much. Don’t be shy about breaking the movement down and progressing in baby steps towards this goal - it’s an important one and worth the effort. You may need to first do only very shallow lunges, perhaps using hiking or walking poles or a chair for stability. You may need to work on doing a squat first and then slowly slowly over time begin to move your feet into a split stance posture, progressing as you build strength. Maybe you can eventually get rid of one pole, or just use a few fingers on the chair for balance when before you had to cling onto it with both arms and haul yourself up. Progress is progress! If you like, you could enlist the assistance of a trainer or healthcare professional to plan some home exercises to help you safely build up the strength in the muscles that will allow you to perform this movement. Just make sure that one of your goals this year is to be able to do a lunge. 

90s and up you say? You may have an assistive device to help you maneuver around and some help available in case of a fall, so your main goal is not the lunge (unless you’re still completely independent), but rather the ability to do a squat. In general, the overall biggest barrier to maintaining as much independence as possible in this age bracket is the ability to get up and down from a chair and on and off the toilet. Can’t do that - can’t be completely independent, it’s non-negotiable. You don’t need to be able to do a super duper low squat to the floor, but at least to the height of a chair/toilet (and ps - don’t make life difficult for yourself, it’s ok to splurge for the high toilets!). Again, just like the lunge, we may need to break this movement down into little chunks and we may need to use a lot of support at first, but with focused work and repetition overtime, the muscles responsible for this movement will get stronger and your ability to do one will improve. But again, that’s only if you have it on your radar and put in the intentional effort to work on it and progress your ability to do it. 

Obviously there are a variety of factors and health concerns that can limit ability as we age, but these two movements, the lunge and the squat, are the low hanging non-negotiable fruit of physical strength required for maintaining independence. So if you’re overwhelmed about what to do and where to start, start here with these two basic movements. Strength training isn’t just for getting the beach body when you’re 20, it’s also your ticket to maintaining your independence as you age.