| There is a crime being committed against those | | | | Remember this: It is infinitely easier to gain |
| of us considered senior citizens, in the name of | | | | strength once you have achieved functional |
| Health and Fitness. All over the country there are | | | | flexibility, than it is to try to become flexible once |
| reports of weight training being implemented to | | | | you have already compromised your structure |
| help seniors regain lost strength, and to stave off | | | | through neglect or strength and endurance |
| and reverse detrimental bone density loss. | | | | training. |
| I have personally witnessed hundreds of people in | | | | Ignoring flexibility moves you backwards in your |
| their 60's, 70's, 80's, and even 50's, making the | | | | quest for fitness. We joke about the |
| rounds through the maze of repetitive motion, | | | | well-developed muscleman who can't scratch the |
| muscle-isolating machines and free-weights in | | | | back of his head. And I've met amazing long |
| gyms, health clubs, and physical therapy clinics. I | | | | distance runners who could not touch their toes, |
| have observed with sadness and compassion | | | | sit cross-legged on the floor, or perform a dozen |
| whole groups of seniors participating in | | | | other simple functional flexibility movements. |
| strength-training classes. | | | | The weightlifter can lift far heavier weights than I, |
| Why sadness and compassion, you may ask? | | | | and the runner could run circles around me, but I |
| Isn't lack of strength the cause of bone density | | | | wouldn't trade my flexible body for theirs for |
| loss in older folks, you may wonder? Didn't those | | | | even a large sum of money. It will be a long and |
| studies prove that the reason the elderly have | | | | painful process for athletes in that shape to regain |
| diminished muscular strength and bone density is | | | | the flexibility they've lost, and as a result most will |
| due to a lack of weight-bearing exercise? | | | | never regain it. |
| As you read on, step into my CommonSense | | | | To the perceptive there are wonderful examples |
| Corner and see if you won't agree the proverbial | | | | of this Truth all around. Just listen! No one |
| cart has once again been placed before the horse. | | | | complains, as they get older, how weak they are |
| One thing overlooked, yet easily observed, while | | | | becoming, but on everyone's lips is the sad lament |
| watching those with diminished bone-density is | | | | of how stiff and sore they have become! Unless |
| that they are inevitably very, to extremely, | | | | you are one of the tiny minority who has |
| inflexible. | | | | somehow learned this lesson, you are, or will |
| Many of us struggle to rise from a chair and | | | | become, one of them. |
| having to be helped from off the floor. Weakness | | | | The solution is simple and effective. As a weak |
| is absolutely part of their condition but something | | | | elderly person begins working on their flexibility, |
| far more crucial lies under this obvious aspect. It is | | | | not simply stretching, but a comprehensive range |
| what has led up to the weakness and | | | | of motion flexibility routine which is fluid, circular, |
| bone-density loss; and it's the foundation of the | | | | skeletal range of motion movements, they will be |
| degeneration of the structure. | | | | gaining strength as an obviously observable side |
| The lack of flexibility is the problem here, and not | | | | benefit. |
| the lack of strength, which is the culprit. | | | | After an hour of simply exploring flexibility |
| I will prove that in this treatise, and even the | | | | movements, anyone who is stiff and inflexible will |
| most untrained layperson will be able to | | | | be sweating and breathing heavily because it is a |
| understand how to treat this condition in others, | | | | workout for them, cardiovascularly as well as |
| and how to avoid it themselves, without falling | | | | muscularly. |
| into the trap laid by well-meaning, but misguided | | | | Here's the thing; put a decrepit elderly person, or |
| therapists. | | | | even a stiff, inflexible young person on a |
| Understand first that the obvious stiffening of the | | | | strength-training program and I guarantee they will |
| body has taken place over a whole lifetime of | | | | become stiffer and more inflexible with each |
| abuse and neglect. | | | | passing day. It's mechanically inevitable! |
| Unless the skeleton is regularly run through a | | | | Put that same person on a comprehensive range |
| systematic range of motions, the muscles, | | | | of motion flexibility program and they will be |
| tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and in fact the entire | | | | gaining strength as they gain, or regain, their |
| fascial web, will shrink, compress, distort, | | | | flexibility lost over time. As they become looser, |
| dehydrate, and become dense. Instead of the | | | | the body becomes more comfortable to move |
| tissue resembling a fluffy resilient sponge, it has | | | | about in, which leads to an increase in the types |
| deteriorated into something akin to beef jerky or | | | | and amount of daily activities engaged in, which |
| gristle. | | | | builds even more functional strength and |
| All muscles, tendons, and ligaments cross joints, | | | | endurance. (Strengthening isolated muscles does |
| attaching bone to bone. If the bones are not | | | | not build functional strength). Without flexibility |
| moved in such a way as to bring movement | | | | work, strength-training is a dead-end street. (see |
| through the tissue, in a non-stressful fashion, then | | | | Functional Strength) |
| the above scenario will occur. As the tissue | | | | Remember: Strength is an inevitable by-product |
| shrinks it pulls the bones closer together | | | | of Flexibility and Flexibility is always compromised |
| compacting the joint. This never happens | | | | with every bit of Strength gained by (especially |
| symmetrically and so the joint is now compressed | | | | repetitive) exercise. |
| and distorted. | | | | Add strength-training to your routine only to the |
| To the degree that this happens, possibilities of | | | | degree that it does not compromise your |
| movement are diminished. Further strengthening | | | | flexibility. |
| of the musculature only shortens the muscles | | | | If you will follow this plan then you too may avoid |
| further which leads to additional compression of | | | | the well-worn path leading to becoming a weak, |
| the joint and greater distortion which in turn | | | | decrepit elderly person with bone-density loss and |
| decreases movement potential even more. Is this | | | | no hope on the horizon. |
| beginning to make sense to you? | | | | I hope you see now how trying to buff up our |
| The primary reason that many senior citizens are | | | | aging population is only making their unfortunate |
| moving around the way they do is not because | | | | predicament worse. If they are up to the |
| they are too weak to move otherwise, it's | | | | challenge and truly want to reclaim the flexible, |
| because they are stiff and inflexible! | | | | pain-free body they so rightly deserve, please |
| I've never met anyone who would be considered | | | | give the right advice and focus first on the |
| too weak, without them also being fantastically | | | | underlying cause of their problem, Inflexibility. |
| stiff and inflexible as well. And it is a rarity to | | | | Treat the cause and not the symptom. |
| meet anyone who is (self-admittedly) flexible | | | | *Note: I'm not against weight training or |
| enough. | | | | endurance work. I work out with a total gym, |
| If you try adding strength (i.e.: shrinking and | | | | free weights, swimming, etc, but I maintain at all |
| bulking up of the musculature) to an already | | | | times the functional level of flexibility I have |
| inflexible and compromised structure you are only | | | | attained. I will continue to maintain this flexibility |
| adding insult to injury. | | | | even as I engage in activities I know will cause a |
| There may be an increase in bone-density, but | | | | shortening of muscles that will decrease my |
| with the result of cranking the skeleton down | | | | flexibility. |
| tighter and tighter into itself, creating less and less | | | | It's up to each individual to determine just how |
| space through the joints and hinges of the body. | | | | flexible they want to be now, next year, or in 10 |
| In effect, you will wind up with a human body | | | | or 20 years. I have no desire to cross my ankles |
| becoming a statue. | | | | behind my head but I know I do not want to |
| There is a noticeable similarity between the | | | | become like the majority we see around us |
| seemingly weak senior citizen and muscle-bound | | | | every day, obviously hurting and getting worse. I |
| weight lifters. What is missing from both is | | | | make my flexibility work my top priority and then |
| freedom of movement...flexibility. | | | | do whatever else I choose to make time for. |
| How strong does the average person need to be | | | | *Do not give up hope if you are elderly and have |
| in our society today anyway? We're not running | | | | lost your strength and flexibility along the way. |
| from lions, climbing trees to get our fruit, chasing | | | | The body is very forgiving and I have seen what |
| down deer, or even farming our own food. Again, | | | | seem like miracles happen to folks just like you. If |
| strength is not the issue here, flexibility is. | | | | you are trying to take control of your life again |
| Physical Fitness is comprised of three parts, these | | | | and are interested in your physical fitness, then I |
| being: Flexibility, Strength, and Endurance; and they | | | | implore you to start practicing some flexibility |
| should be pursued in this order with flexibility | | | | work, but first and foremost, flexibility, which |
| always being a part of the process. Working on | | | | begets balance, grace of movement, proper |
| strength and endurance with little or no focus on | | | | posture, alignment, comfort, well-being, and |
| flexibility is a path leading to stiffness, distortion, | | | | freedom from pain. |
| density, inflexibility, injury, pain, and decrepitude. | | | | |