Do you feel OLD?

Do you feel like with each passing year, your body is beginning to fall apart and getting less mobile? Right now, you’re holding things together, but maybe only by a thread and you feel like you’re starting to move like an old person. Well, there are some very simple and specific things you can do, starting right now - today - that will help you start moving better. This is going to change how your body feels and it will STOP you from feeling like you’re getting older!

A question I get asked a lot is “What can we do to maintain and improve our mobility as we age?”

I think the underlying question is, “What can we do to not feel like we’re moving like an old person!”

Mobility is essentially the ability to move around the way you want to, and there are a lot of factors that contribute to your overall mobility:

• the strength of your muscles
• your cardiovascular health - can your heart and lunges get oxygen to your working tissues?
• your balance and coordination

But, today I want to camp on another fact that plays a role in your overall mobility - and that’s your JOINT MOBILITY.

• This is what is sometimes referred to as flexibility or range of motion.

The ‘Ol Teeter Totter Story…

When my boys were little, I used to take them to the playground all the time. There was one park in particular that had some updated and new playground equipment, but it still had some of the old stuff. And one thing they still kept around was an old teeter-totter.

The new teeter-totter glided smoothly, all the way up and down.

But the old one, you could tell had only been used by little kids so it kind of had a smaller amount of motion that it glided smoothly. My kids were bigger, so when they hopped on it, they wanted to go big. But those unused ranges of motion on the teeter totter had begun to rust up. It only continued to stay smooth and lubricated in the small range that it was consistently being used.

And you could see that when you forced it and pushed into those rusty spots when it really wasn’t able to, the bolts that are holding it to the ground might start to get loose and weaken. And now we have another problem.

• You might think you’re going higher on the teeter totter, but the base of the teeter totter is completely undone and it’s lifting off the ground

I want you to think of your joints like the hinges on that teeter-totter.

Joint Mobility

When you have limited joint mobility - This leads to:

• Greater wear and tear on specific spots in your joint and a higher likelihood of osteoarthritis
• Lack of proper lubrication throughout the joint space
• The surrounding areas and joints having to take over

And here’s the reality: when your joints lose their mobility and good functional capacity, you can be facing joint replacements that could have been prevented.

And if we can ultimately prevent you having to get a bionic joint at some point down the road, and maybe ending up needing a walker or being in a wheelchair, then let’s definitely do it.

Improving and maintaining your joint mobility is one major key to stop getting older and feeling older.

You have a guide!

What makes a joint healthy and mobile? 4 things actually:

• Smooth and thick surface of the actual bones at the joint
• Thick cartilage that acts as a shock and friction absorber and
• Lots of gelatinous synovial fluid
• Strong and appropriately flexible connective tissues (muscles, tendons and ligaments, and even the fascia)

Mobility=

• Not just flexibility. It’s a combination of being flexible and strong
• You could have ridiculous flexibility - almost hyperflexibility - where you can drop down into a deep squat, but if you don’t have the strength to control yourself into that deep squat and then stand back up out of it, well then you actually don’t have very good mobility.
• Some people may need to focus more on the flexibiliy and improving their range of motion, whereas other need to focus a bit more on building up strength through their ranges of motion.

Here are 3 ways to keep your joints healthy, helping you stay mobile and pain-free:

1) Utilize the full range of motion for each joint

• Hips, ankles and shoulders appear to lose the most mobility as people age. And I would put knees on that list, too.
• What doesn’t work very well:
• Merely walking and only doing passive range of motion stretches, like sit and hold type stretches
• What works best:
• Doing active or dynamic style stretches for you major joints everyday:
• Ankles: Ankle stretches against a wall
• Knees: Deep knee bends at the kitchen sink
• Hips: Deep lunging movements
• Shoulders: Thoracic rotations & Y stretches
• Dynamic style stretching, where you have to use your muscles to pull your through the stretch
• Strength training through full ranges of motion

*Why this is also great - Moving your joint dynamically actually draws more synovial fluid into the joint space

2) Make your muscles as strong as you possibly can

• Remember, good joint mobility is not just being flexibility. It’s having strength and control through that range of motion. That’s how your joints will truly be happy and healthy.
• Stronger muscles means:
• More support for your joints, so even if they lack the natural cushioning capacity, they’ll still be at an advantage. Muscles can act as great shock absorbers
• Stronger and denser bones - When you strength train through full ranges of motion and even include rotational movement patterns, this pulls on the bone and can make your bones denser and stronger
• What doesn’t work very well:
• Small movements that don’t use your full range of motion
• Isometric holds
• What works best:
• Functional style strength training through full ranges of motion

3) Practice an anti-inflammatory lifestyle.

• Why? Inflammation stress can thin out your joint cartilage and even attack the chemical structure of your synovial fluid, so it’s not as lubricative
• People with greater chronic inflammation tend to experience way more joint pain and stiffness, and even more breakdown in their joint tissues
• Unfortunately, as us women age, our estrogen production declines. Estrogen is a wonder-hormone that actually can keep extra inflammation at bay, so when you don’t have as much estrogen in your system, your body’s inflammation levels might rise without you doing a single thing different.
• Makes this even more important to do what you can to reduce inflammation
• What works best:
• Having good nutrition full of a variety of fresh produce, good quality protein, healthy fats and oils, and unprocessed foods
• Getting plenty of sleep, managing your stress, and being physically active everyday
• What doesn’t work:
• Having a poor diet that’s full of sugar, fried foods, processed foods, alcohol
• Not sleeping well, having way too much stress in your life, and only being active once or twice a week

What if you already have osteoarthritis in a joint?

These things are all still important!! Building your muscles up surrounding that joint is even more crucial for you, because the surface of the bone and your cartilage is no longer in tip-top shape.

When you are going through movements, do not push your range of motion like you can with a fully healthy joint. Stay in a range of motion where you do not feel pain and where you have complete control.

• For example, OA in your knee: You can probably do a squat with great control, but not a very deep squat

You may experience that as your muscles improve, that squat gains a little bit of range of motion and actually gets healthier

Failure vs. Success

Ok, so here’s what to do if you want to feel really old, stiff and achy, lose your mobility, and even be facing a joint replacement that could have been avoided:

• Don’t use all the joints on your body through their full ranges of motion
• Neglect strength training all together
• Have a lifestyle that leads to high amounts of inflammation throughout your body

OR… you can avoid feeling older and even REVERSE those feelings by:

• Intentionally improving your range of motion
• Strength training in functional ways
• And cleaning up your eating habits, sleeping habit and stress management habits.

STOP Feeling Old!

As you’re getting older, you CAN reverse mobility loss, improve your joint health and feel so much younger!

Starting today, work on the dynamic mobility of your ankles, knees, hips and shoulders.

Also, begin a good strength training routine that is functional and moves you through your full ranges of motion.

And then pay attention to your lifestyle, and make sure you are doing what you can to eliminate any habits that could be increasing your chronic inflammation.

More Resources & Links

Are your hips tight? Grab Megan’s free Hip Flexor Stretching Masterclass here!

Need help with a fully body functional strength training program? Click here for Megan’s Jumpstart 30 program for beginners!

Need help getting the ball rolling with some simple tips? Get Megan’s FREE 5-Day Jumpstart Tips guide!

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