She’s amazing!
LOL - About 5 minutes ago I saw that story on FB and told my husband about it. Amazing that she just wanted to participate in the sport again, was surprised to win.
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Sorry to hear about your ruptured achilles heel from pickleball. Sounds like a painfull, frustrating ordeal. Glad you have had PT help. If you’ve learned any good helpful less-active exercises while on the sideline, please share.
It’s always wise to ramp up carefully with a new sport. And acknowledge the unfortunate risk of injury, especially when older. When I started running 8 in my mid 50s, my husband was quite concerned that I was asking for trouble. I did it slowly and carefully, at a community walk-2-5k class. Still it was a conscious decision to accept risk of injury over risk of too much time on the couch. (There is a happy medium to do a walking… which I did some of, just was looking for a hobby that would hold my attention and burn more calories.)
Along the way while running, I did have mild beginnings of plantar fasciitis. Had to stop a while, start morning ankle-circles (thanks to advise here on CC), be more careful on shoes etc. Interestingly I had some advise from an older sister. She had mild PF too, despite her non-impact exercise habits (long evening walks).
Now many of my retired friends who do no exercise have had various problems with hips, knees etc. But the ones in sports are more vulnerable to serious injuries. So it’s a tradeoff, in the quest to have better fitness and balance in later years.
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Yes, I agree about ramping up carefully. I have felt in shape most of my life - active in walking/running and strength training and good body weight. However, I developed plantar fasciitis about 5 years ago and my calf muscles were always tight. I don’t rest much in between activities generally. I think all of this contributed to it.
My tendon ruptured when I did a quick sprint to the ball. My whole body moved in a forward motion, while my right foot was planted on the ground during the quick release motion. It was like an old rubber band that snapped and just broke. I used to play tennis, and quick feet was one of my better skills, but not this time. My PT said achilles injury are occurring more often in men around 40s and weekend warriors esp in activities like basketball.
PT exercises that strengthen the achilles tendon is building calf and soleus muscles. This tendon also take a long time to heal, while other important muscles for movement decline while healing - like glutes, quads, hips. Therefore, therapy required a lot of work on strengthening in all the areas. I was also a bit obsessed about trying to get better, that I was doing too much and not resting when my ankle was asking for rest.
Exercises to help are: seated calf raised with weight, standing straight leg calf raises (single legged), bent knee calf raises for soleus, walking lunges, split lunges with one leg raised, step ups with neutral feet. Now that I’m stronger, I’m doing pogo jumps with assisted bands, slightly raised box jumps (up and down). Single leg pogo jumps are still harder, but that is the goal. I can jog a bit, but have not attempted real runs. That is goal though. Walking has improved a great deal, but my pace is still slow and that really bothers me. One final important thing I have do is rest when I feel a slight pain and give my ankle time to recover.
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Sometimes I’m with PB players (mostly youngish guys) who do incredible saves for balls that are far from them. Gotta say I’m pretty wimpy about far chases. In fact, some points I loose are because I’ve taken a gamble that they will go out (which is a usually a decent bet).
Not sure if this helps anything. But… I’ve been trying a variety of stretches as I go up our carpeted stairs. Step 1 is always to grab the handrail. After that I put one foot up a step or two (or sometimes 3 or even 4). Then I lean forward and back to get various stretching. Really it is mostly a reminder throught the day to have a variety of motions / stretches.
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My Apple watch died last week. I’ll get another this week. I also have the health app on my phone. I didn’t lose my years of data, did I?
Anyone else watch the French Open men’s final? EPIC and inspiring.
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I don’t think you’ll lose your years of data, but you of course won’t get credit for the time your watch was dead.
My watch died when I’d been exercising at least 500 calories for 498 days in a row. It will never show that I really made it to 500 :(.
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Rats
I love that response! I need to use the word rats more often! Better than cussing around the kids you coach.
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Great exercise weekend. Between coaching and walking to /from stadium for MLS game, I had 17.4K steps on Saturday. Sunday I had another 12.5K steps walking to/from stadium for the NWSL game.
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I learned today that I need to use more push off with toes when I jump. I’m currently jumping flat footed so I mostly use quad muscles to compensate for weaker calves. It’s another thing I have to remember to incorporate.
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Box jumps have benefits for us older folks. Just adjust the height of the “box” as needed.
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Nice visual descriptions. LOL - my box would need to indeed be soooo much lower. When I took step aerobics classes (starting 20 years ago), the other students varied over whether they used one or two sets of risers. Me… I felt safest doing the class without any risers. Part of the reason was short height (5’2"), and part of the reason was clutziness.
Thanks for the video. The break down instructions are helpful. I jumped on a 9" box today. The height was definitely doable, but I need to be conscious of engaging toe lift off. I suspect if I continue flat footed jumps, jumping on higher boxes may not be doable.
Seriously, what are the benefits? Especially for those over 50? I know people do these but I have to say, nothing about it looks more helpful than hurtful for some body parts!
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Oh my, lots!
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Raises the heart rate for anaerobic exercise.
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Improves quick twitch muscle fibers, which help one’s short bursts of intense energy.
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Strengthens leg muscles such as glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, etc. as well as tightening the core.
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Then there’s balance, stability and coordination.
In our gym we have soft boxes like the one in the video from 6" to 24" high and then some people even stack them higher.
My programming often has these on the weekly activity list:
Just have to say, if you do them, make sure you have a soft kind. I used to do them at our old gym. They were all homemade and wooden. They were lots of fun until I missed and raked my shin down it. Took a full month for all the skin to grow back. That killed them for me.
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I received the bloodwork back from my annual physical today. During the past 2 physicals, I’ve had the best blood lipid numbers I can recall. I am the only person in my family with our familial hypercholesterolemia gene (as listed on DNA tests) who has normal blood lipid numbers without medication. I attribute this to increased physical activity. This includes more than just traditional working out / exercise. I’ve done 1 hour type workouts most days ever since I was a teen. What’s had more notable changes is generally spending less time being sedentary since adopting a dog a few years ago. For example, on typical days, my dog and I spend a few hours outside, including walking to different locations such as dog beach, dog parks, dog-friendly athletic fields, etc. There is no planned workout or expected duration, although when we come across a hill, we often run up/down. Other changes over past 1-2 years include:
- According to my Fitbit, my resting heart rate has gradually decreased and is now 4 bpm lower, in low 40s. Manual checking pulse is consistent.
- According to the Fitbit, VO2Max estimate has had corresponding changes. I doubt the specific numbers are reliable (if they were, I’d be among top athletes who are my age), but the trend is improvement.
- I’ve increased the treadmill rate for constant pace running by +1.8MPH over past year. I plan to add another 0.1MPH tonight.
- I’ve also increased both duration and intensity of typical HIIT workouts.
- I don’t measure body fat, but vascularity and appearance suggests lowest body fat in decades, on par with when I measured under 5% with calipers in past.
- I’ve seen notably improved real world impacts. ~10 mile hikes with dog are usually near effortless now, when it in the past I’d need recovery time after the hike. We keep a fast pace, and I have no need to change workouts or other plans for later that day. We also regularly go on longer duration hikes with more elevation change, which I would not have attempted in the past. For example, we are planning a multi-day hike in the Sierras during the summer, if weather permits.
What hasn’t improved is strength. According to my physical, my weight is the same as last year. I’m gaining little muscle, so I wouldn’t expect rapid strength gains. However, on more exercises than I’d like, I’ve had hardly any strength improvement. Strategies that were successfully in gaining strength in the past, such as deloading/loading phases, are now less successful or unsuccessful.
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Those are 4 great benefits. But… I’m still slow on the buy-in. Very open to other alternatives with similar benefits.
That sounds like wonderful improvement. I hope you are proud of all your achievements and don’t focus too much on the womp womp part of your assessment.
Today is the first full day with my new Apple watch. They’ve made a change I don’t care for – you have to turn wrist for display to show – but in good news the battery holds longer … maybe because of the display change!
I have been looking at old photos of the past 10 years or so, helping my cousins with a slide show for their dad’s 90th. Man, when I feel down about the 15 pounds I gained and can’t seem to shake since my mom’s fall/hospitalization and ultimate death, I absolutely need to focus on the 55 pounds I’ve kept off. I refuse to send them pics of me at my top weight! lol I need to take my own advice to @Data10 and focus on the positives!
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