Y’all… I’m sitting here on my couch with my knee in a leg brace, angry that I am in the pain I’m in. My left leg has been a little twitchy (hard to explain), but yesterday, out of nowhere, the pain intensified and I am now hobbling around my house, keeping my leg up whenever possible.
You know what pisses me off about all this? I have bee sick for the last few weeks and I was finally feeling better enough to get back to the gym, because my overall mobility is deteriorating by the second…
I’m 55 and let me tell you – getting older is NO JOKE!! They say after 40, stuff goes downhill, but I was in the best shape of my life in my early 40s and damn me for letting it go. I have since gained over 50 lbs over the years, become less mobile and my body is making me pay for it.
I don’t know if you are like me, but I’m always on the Tomorrow bus… “I am gonna start tomorrow”. Well, I’m here to tell you the hard truth…. THERE IS NO TOMORROW!! There is ONLY TODAY and I’m paying the price for waiting to seize the moments in life.
I don’t know how I became so stagnant. I used to have the gym as my release, but when I started working, it got in the way of the one class that I loved and I have been floundering ever since. Not being flexible in the way I worked out has bitten me in the ass and now I’m sitting here with my leg up hoping to heal quickly so I can make more plans for tomorrow…
I was super frustrated when I left the chiropactor. He was amazing and working a few therapies on my knee…but he told me, “Do your best to walk as normal as possible.” … I’m literally walking around my house saying out loud, “Walk as normal as possible”… and it hurts like a muthafucka!!! But he’s right. favoring it will only make it worse and force other muscles to kick in which will delay my healing. So I have to pretend I am in physical therapy and walk through the pain until I’m better. At least he gave me piece of mind that I should bounce back fairly quickly, with heat and ice and more therapies on my knee.
Back when I was fit, I relished in the feeling of being sore every day. It meant I worked my body into strength and I was reaping the benefits of all my hard work. But as I sit here now thinking how far I have fallen, all I can think about is I am falling apart FASTER than I can put myself back together.
The truth is, pain is a part of life no matter how you look at it. I would rather be “earned sore” than painfully remorseful that I didn’t do the work. And as we age, it gets harder to get motivated.
Did you know that the main thing elderly loose as they get older is the ability to get up and down from the toilet? Yesterday at the movie theater, I had to go to a handicap stall to have the handles accessible in case I couldn’t get up because of the pain from my knee? Do you know how humiliating that is? I am ONLY 55 and I need to remind myself that 55 is a powerful age. Yet I’m sitting here like I am ready for the nursing home waiting for my aid to help me go tinkle.
It’s a sobering thought.
Yesterday was our 26th wedding anniversary. We went to dinner and had my father in law with us. He told me on the way out of the restaurant, “Let me tell you.. being 80 isn’t fun”… I looked him square in the eye and said, “Well 55 has been a bitch too, so there’s that”.
Treating exercise as if it’s an option is just wrong. After the age of forty, you start loosing muscle mass at the rate of roughly 10% per year. If you aren’t working the muscles you have left, well frankly my friend….you are fucked. And I say that as I sit here at 55 years old HOPING that I will recover quick enough to be able to hit the gym before the retirement home.
Consider me a cautionary tale… .don’t wait to seize the moment. Take advantage of the health you have and ‘get er dun’ while you can. There are things I can do in the meantime and I will be starting today. I can work my arms and do knee lifts or any other exercises to work to improve mobility. I will be looking ahead to when I am 80 and do my best to keep good form until that day.
Wish me luck… signed Gimpy and tired…
Mom of two grown ass girls and married to a short guy who is funny and cooks really well! I’m a photographer by trade, so you can say I’m a bit “peopley”. My favorite sessions are the one on ones where I just get to chat and find out about my clients. I’m blessed with what I get to do every day! Blessed by the support of my husband and kids, and blessed by the ongoing support and encouragement of my friends who are always lifting me up.