Why wasn’t I told this earlier?!
“Show me how you get out of the chair you are in,” I ask the patient sitting in front of me.
“I need to use my arms though!” The lady replies slightly exasperatedly
“That’s fine, show me anyway,” I reply automatically. The patient struggles to vault herself to an upright position from her comfortable recliner.
I quickly congratulate her and then slightly cheekily challenge her to try out of a kitchen chair.
“Oh, I can’t do that without using my arms either!”
“No worries,” I say again. The patient moves across to the slightly harder squarer kitchen chair and flops into it then continues to push herself out of it with her hands.
“When was the last time you could stand without your hands and would you like to be able to again?” I ask.
“Oh, it’s impossible, I haven’t done it for years! I think that is behind me now” the patient answers with a veiled sense of resignation.
Defying Limitations: Overcoming Sarcopenia Through Resistance Training
This is pretty common. People giving up on tasks that they can’t do and then just not trying them again because no one told them it’s possible. Most things like getting up out of a seat or even something as frivolous as jumping slowly go by the wayside and we leave them there as if they were too heavy a load to carry anyway.
The physiological process that drives this is called sarcopenia, a mechanism that causes our body to begin metabolising muscle mass as we get older. But you don’t have to go by this script, it has been shown repeatedly that the tonic for maintaining and even increasing muscle mass and function is resistance training. This is where the term “use it or lose it” really holds weight. If we neglect activities, they will remain impossible.
Unlocking Potential: Conquering Age-Related Functional Decline Through Strategic Workouts
Well, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be this way. Yes, functional decline is a normal and even an expected part of the aging process but it doesn’t have to be.
The tonic is simple, repeatedly performing exercises that break down bigger activities into bite-sized pieces and a helping hand with positioning and technique and the movement that was once impossible will once again be manageable.
The dialogue at the start of this post was almost taken almost word for word from a new patient I had this week. By the end of the session, she was getting up without using her hands. Now, in this case, there wasn’t a magic improvement in strength, just a few little pointers on her technique.
To which she exclaimed “Why wasn’t I told this earlier?! I have been struggling with this for years!”
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Reclaiming Mobility: Rediscovering Ease in Everyday Tasks with Home Physiotherapy
This is in no way to denigrate anyone else’s practice. Rather to emphasise to you, the reader, if you are struggling with movements that you think should be easy but aren’t anymore, it is likely that you can get back to them. Practice and a helping hand with some technique modifications while you are relearning the task and you could be doing it again in no time!
If this sounds like something that you could benefit from, contact us to book an appointment so we can help you get back to doing things that you thought were too difficult for you.
source https://hubandspoke.health/why-wasnt-i-told-this-earlier/
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