IT'S A BALANCING ACT

How agile are you?

I always thought I was pretty agile as a kid.  I could play a mean game of jacks, bounce forever on a pogo stick and never miss a beat in jump rope.  I could hang upside down on the swing set, twirl around on my ice skates, get to first base before the short stop. But,

 I don’t know what happened over the next sixty years. Ha!

For some reason, my motor skills aren’t  quite as good as they used to be.

I certainly found that out recently when my husband and I were riding bikes. We rode into the garage when we were done.  And I stopped behind him.  Well, there’s nothing unusual about that – right? --  except for one thing — I didn’t put my foot down. I sat there with both feet on the pedals for a split-second, then proceeded to fall over sideways on the concrete with my bike. Good news is I jumped up and celebrated, “I can still take a fall!” 

Then there was the time last summer that a little boy who was swimming at our house kept begging me to go off the diving board with him.  Why not?  My daughter must not have been as confident as me because she yelled, “Mom, use an inner tube.”  Well, that’s the last time I listen to her.  When I hit that water in my big hamburger inner tube, I thought I hit concrete again.  It was embarrassing explaining the whiplash  to my chiropractor.

Sanibel Lighthouse still standing strong — with her missing leg

( Photo by Ft Myers News-Press)

It makes me feel a little bit better knowing everyone starts losing  some balance in middle age. Although the CDC says 1/3 of people over 65 fall every year, it’s not only the elderly.  “We think of it as an older person’s problem because we see the catastrophic consequences of older people falling and breaking a hip,” says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, “but the subtle changes that begin much earlier can affect everything from athletic performance to the ability to easily rise from a chair.”

Well, thankfully, there are simple ways to improve your agility at any age — Tai Chi, yoga, dance, and children’s games like hopscotch. And they say there’s even a good test to see if you need to do some exercises before it’s too late. Here’s one easy test to see if you need them: try standing on one foot for a full minute. Or another one I used: try skipping around your backyard.

Ha Ha! Bring on the exercises…

 It’ll Be OK.

~~~

“You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.” ~ George Burns

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO IMPROVE YOUR AGILITY?