I have aged and so has my mom. Like mother, like daughter, my mom remains active and eats healthy which keeps her in great shape. She is a little rounder, has a little more grey but she's just as sassy as ever! Since her daughter is the "Fall Prevention Lady", she felt comfortable asking me about her hip pain. "It feels like it pops out," she said when I asked her why she was limping early one morning.
After assessing her movement patterns, I recognized an ailment common to ladies in their early 60s. My mom has hip issues that can be corrected by a simple stretching and strengthening program. Specifically, her hip abductors are weak and her hip adductors are tight. Her hip pops when she walks because her hip stabilizers are weak. This imbalance, plus a super tight piriformis, pulls on her pelvis, causing her knees to bow outward when she squats. I have to say that she was all over the place when I had her stand at balance threshold !!!
Like most people who do not practice balance and/or resistance training, her hip stabilizer muscles are weak but since my mom was a cheerleader in high school and excelled in gymnastics, she is aware of her body movements and quickly responded to my verbal cues. With consistent practice, she can correct her muscular imbalance, reduce her hip pain and prevent further disability.
My mom walks 2 miles a day, 5 days a week but she quickly realized that is not enough. Yes, she is healthy but if she ignored the hip pain and just kept on walking, not strengthening the weak muscles while stretching the tight ones, her pain would become progressively worse while her independence would be increasingly compromised.
The moral of my blog: if you have nagging pains, unusual hip, leg, foot or back pains, please visit a professional. Nagging pains only get worse when left untreated. Baby boomers, those 50 and older, are beginning to develop what has become known as boomeritis. Become aware of boomeritis now so you can continue to live the quality of life you have worked so hard to achieve.
Do what I did and give your mom a 5-day set of my Take 5 to Exercise Fall Prevention DVD series so she can start learning the basics about movement as well as how to stretch tight muscles and strengthen weak ones. Remember, you're never too old, or too young to benefit from consistent exercise. Imbalance leads to compromise and compromise leads to sacrifice. Don't sacrifice the quality of life you deserve.
Love your mom,
The Balance Enhancement Specialist.
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