Advantages to martial arts for the older folks

[Kung Fu Wang]

Old people are simply lazy,

Lazy may not be the right word. When you are 70/80 and if you still work out as you were 50/60, your body may never get enough rest and recover. You will feel tired 24/7. That's not good feeling.

I did my 4 miles running on the beach yesterday. Today, I tried to run on the beach again, I found out that my body just didn't want to do it. Today, I just did walking and enjoy the ocean view.

Lazy is your body can do it, but your mind doesn't want to do it. IMO, if your mind wants to do it, but your body can't, that's not lazy.

 

[Tez3]

My father is 96, officially blind and has problems walking. He does however live in his flat in sheltered housing alone, he does his own cooking, cleaning and local shopping. We take him to the bank and supermarket. His knees are knackered but uses a walker. He cannot physically do anymore.

 

[Hyoho]

I should imagine any exercise is good for old people since the majority do next no physical activity. But I doubt there’s anything special about MA training when compared to rowing, swimming or gymnastics and they’re much less likely to injure themselves when pulling on a pole in a scull.

Have you ever see those fitness gurus, on morning TV showing exercises like raising your hands above your head or side stepping to music? I often think ‘what’s the point of doing so little exercise’ and then remember they’re catering for the old, infirm and hugely obese.

It's not so much as doing the activity as actually being able to do it as you age. I always refer to the things I can't do any more as "industrial injury" as I was a professional instructor. Still teaching and was actually doing competition type practice last July/August and teaching international seminars. But as many might condone a lot of physical activity for older people. I think the best thing to prolong life is "rest".

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

My father is 96, ... He cannot physically do anymore.

That day will come. No matter we like it or not. If you run, train MA, and lift weight daily, one day, you decide to reduce your speed, reduce your weight, you then know that day is coming.

If you

- don't reduce speed and weight, you may feel tired for the next 2 days.
- do reduce speed and weight, you will feel that your youth is gone forever. It's a very sad feeling. QAQ

Should you live your life to

- feel tired 24/7 (your mind is happy, but your body is not), or
- have sad feeling daily that you are no longer young (your body is happy, but your mind is not)?

It can be a hard decision for everybody.

 

[geezer]

Should you live your life to
- feel tired 24/7 (your mind is happy, but your body is not), or
- have sad feeling daily that you are no longer young (your body is happy, but your mind is not)?

It can be a hard decision for everybody.

Or should you just stay as fit and active as your body allows, and learn to accept that you are now an elder and have limitations?

Of course, that might be easier if we lived in an era when people still respected and valued their elders.

 

[isshinryuronin]

stay as fit and active as your body allows

Yes, but at least as important is stay as fit as your mind allows. There is an element of one's self-perception, especially for elders, that can put limitations on what one's body can do. If your mind says you are old, the body will believe it. The opposite is also true to a greater degree than most would believe. My advice is to challenge your body as is physically safe and not succumb to preconceptions of what being old means. We all get old, but we don't have to meekly surrender to it.

 

[Gyakuto]

There’s an interesting series on Sh*tflix called ‘Live to 100: Secrets of the blue zones’. There’s little new information presented (BBC Horizon covered this stuff many years ago) and some of the conclusions to reach a healthy 100 years old are well know (eat fewer calories and derive most of those calories from whole, vegetable foods, gentle, regular exercise such as tilling the soil and socialise).

Worth a watch and the first episode is in lovely Okinawa!

 

[Bill Mattocks]

There’s an interesting series on Sh*tflix called ‘Live to 100: Secrets of the blue zones’. There’s little new information presented (BBC Horizon covered this stuff many years ago) and some of the conclusions to reach a healthy 100 years old are well know (eat fewer calories and derive most of those calories from whole, vegetable foods, gentle, regular exercise such as tilling the soil and socialise).

Worth a watch and the first episode is in lovely Okinawa!

LOL, "lovely Okinawa." It's a tropical jungle and it smells bad. Great people though.