JCrane

Congratulation you are among a small minority of men who take up the challenge. I think it is 20 %. Most think it is for women and continue to tighten their muscles with weights and see strength as building muscle. I have been teaching and doing Yoga for 20 years and there is nothing that compares to it. Of course one has to be careful when we say Yoga, That term is a generic term that can mean a lot of different styles. A person has to find the right style for them and it appears you have. Keep up the good work and keep sharing .

sounds like you have an exiting summer planned.

put your time into keeping it stretched out

It is a little early for me, especially after the winter we have had

I have not been on this forum for awhile so I thought I would share a few things. I am 69.5 and along with golf still play volleyball, and Pickleball and do at least one of these every day. I have always worked out, but at 48 I made some big changes in my workout routine. Despite what we would like to believe : Age does matter. I quit lifting heavy weights and starting doing more mobility, strength, and balance training. I have never looked back. I have committed to the idea of muscle integration, replacing muscle isolation ( heavy weights)I am not saying this is for everyone and for those who get satisfaction and results from lifting I say continue, but for the aging body there are trade offs. Golf is a dynamic sport that relies on all muscle groups working together and it is my belief that we should train it that way.

Balance is something most people overlook especially young people who tend to focus on strength training. Balance is having a strong core, but it is also about strong legs and it is also about being mobile. Remember all the muscles are connected and we want them to respond that way as one unit. So we want to build a strong flexible muscle that will respond to the activity that is being presented. I work with some high school sports teams and I have found them to be way too tight for my liking especially in the calves and hamstrings.I wonder what they will be like at 40. Practicing balance exercises should become a high priority as we age, but if you start young and form the habit, you will not have to worry. . It works ! I am 69 and my balance is just as good as when I was 20.

coming from someone who has cured a herniated disk and a pinched nerve, over 20 years ago, I can assure there are things to do besides having some doctor cut on you. I realize sometimes that is necessary, but only as a last resort. I had doctors tell me the same thing and a Chiropractor tell me I had the worst back he had ever seen, but I kept searching. They were wrong. Think about it, all day every day we have gravity pushing down on us on one end and then on the other end we walk on cement floors that have no give. It is like being in a vice. What happens over years. The end result is compression of the spine and the answer to compression is decompression. I used inversion, (boots at that time ) and began to invert every day and you know what I learned ? That much of our problem is caused by tight muscles that hold the compressed spine in pace and keep it from stretching. Not one doctor told me that in the 3 years I searched for answers. I found it myself. Once I stretched out the muscles in my back, then the spine was able to lengthen and release the impingement that was causing the problem. There is a big difference between a strong muscle and a tight muscle. If the muscles are tight, the rest of the system is threatened. I still invert a few times a week and do Yoga. Once the muscles are lengthened, then It only takes some matinince to keep that length. This has allowed me at 68 to play golf, volleyball, ski and anything else I want to. I did find a Chiropractor in California who uses an inversion table in his practice and also does Yoga and is a believer. He and I are going to Collaborate on an ebook about this subject. Believe me there are things you can do.

Good idea if you get the table start slowly just like you did with Yoga. The muscles have to adapt to the position. Also the blood is rushing to the head and you have to get used to that. So start slow with just a few minutes then add time as you get used to it. You also do not have to go all the way upside down. I have been doing Yoga and using the inversion table for over 20 years

you got it. no one wants to start at the beginning, but that is always the best way. You have to crawl before you walk

Maybe your back is trying to tell you something

Do you have back pain ? Most inversion tables end up like yours, but that is not your fault. They do not come with programs and they need to. Start slow and understand the muscles have to stretch first then the spine will stretch and you will get the full benefit.

I agree. I have been using the table for over 20 years. I got relief from a herniated disk and a pinched nerve with the table. It takes time though. My back was really tight from all the weightlifting I had done and I had to lengthen those muscles out first before the spine would stretch.

I do them all

Go to Amazon and search for Neck Stretcher. Be careful not to overstretch the muscles. Just a few pumps over time. If you over stretch the muscles too soon, your neck will be sore. Give it a month. You first stretch the muscles, then stretch the cervical spine itself. I found it to be an amazing experience. I still use it a couple times a week

That is an excellent Idea. Find out as much as you can about the injury. Knowledge is power and that knowledge can help you make better decisions I had some neck issues last year. I made sure I looked at the x ray and understood the problem. In my case it was bone on bone which greatly reduced my mobility. One of the problems with Chiropractors in my opinion is that are usually working around tight muscles which may hold the vertebra in place or out of place. I found stretching out the muscles first, can go a long way in helping to lengthen the spine. Personally I used a neck stretcher to lengthen my cervical spine. It is a blowup pillow I got on Amazon. It goes around the neck and it has a squeezer that you hold onto to pump up the pillow. Over time I slowly pumped it up and stretched my neck muscles. Once those were lengthened, the cervical spine began to stretch and the spaces between the vertebrae came back. It sounds like a popping noise as the spine stretches, but that is nothing to worry about

Great article, very technical. Excellent information on balance and what it is. I just do not agree on the solutions. It is very easy to increase balance without using weights. Practice by standing on one leg then gradually moving the center of gravity to different places over time. This will build a lot of strength in the standing leg and create more control. I have used this method for 20 years and have trained many others. As a long time weightlifter I came to the point where my body started to break down due to all that heavy workload on the body. It took until I was 48, but it did happen. Think about it. We have gravity pushing us down all day every day and then I was throwing 450 pounds on top of my shoulders. Also most of us spend too much time on hard surfaces such as cement. That is like putting our spine in a vice. What happened at 48 ? Compression of the spine and herniated disks. Fortunately I found a way of decompressing the spine over time and creating space between the vertebra. Now at 68, I have great balance and no back problems and do all the things I did at 30. Sure some people may get away with heavy weights their whole life if they want to take that chance, but there are other ways. I know

It sounds to me like you have answered your own question. Continue using the treadmill and pay attention to the joints. If you get sustained pain, back off a bit and add something else that does not give you pain. By pain I hope you mean discomfort not real pain. Good Luck

I hate to tell you this but your pain will probably come back. Muscle relaxers and temporary therapy are temporary solutions to pinched nerves and herniated disks in my experience. The problem is compression. If you think about it ,day after day and year after year we are fighting gravity. Gravity pushes us down. To make matters worse we sit on chairs and car seats and toilets, and walk on cement floors.This creates compression in the spine. Compression can lead to disk problems and back pain. In my opinion we need to regularly decompress the spine which means stretching the muscles first.so the spine can lengthen. unfortunately most of us do not prepare the body for the game of golf and think we can prepare the body by practicing golf. Sometime that works but most times we end up with problems.Moving to a full swing requires muscle co operation and forcing the muscles to respond is not always the best solution. Just my opinion

I think that depends on a couple of things. One being : Do you enjoy being on a treadmill ? Being consistent in our workouts means we look forward to them. They need to be somewhat enjoyable or at least the results need to be. How do you feel when you are done ? The other thing I would question is your body. How are your knees responding ? Are they sore after the workout. How are your hips ? Your body knows more then any trainer. Listen to it. . If you looking to lose weight I, personally would look to my diet before I would exercise for losing weight. I would include exercise as part of a health routine, but moving toward foods that are more nutrient dense can give the body more fuel to burn during exercise and then the systems are working together toward greater health, which should be the goal in my opinion. Hope this helps you look just like Michael Keaton

It could be a herniated disk. does it go down your leg.? Go see a Chiropractor and look at the x rays. I use an inversion table myself to keep the muscles around my back lengthened. Hopefully you just strained some muscles.

that is excellent ! I am going to do a post, maybe today on the best exercise for golf. I have done posts before but now I have an national organization saying what I have been saying for years. Keep it up

it sounds like you got it figured out and have learned to work with that system

Well said. The misunderstanding that so many people have especially athletic teams, not just golf is that they can do a few stretches or a little Yoga for while and that will give them these great benefits. The truth of course is that Yoga has to be done on a consistent basis to achieve those effects. The muscles have what is called the stretch reflex which causes the muscles to actually contract at first and it takes time to get past that. I have worked with swim teams, soccer teams, and golf teams and all of them thought they could just do this stuff during the season and then pick it up again the next session and still get the benefits.

I can not imagine what that is like. I think I will pass on Kuwait, too many sand traps LOL

Great article after reading it and reading both posts, I think you both have made good points. The key in that article to me was not the low sodium, but that James was an exception as the article pointed out. Most of us would never come near that stage. Even the other athletes did not experience that degree of cramping. I would have to agree that most of us are getting plenty of sodium in our food to the point where it has become addictive like sugar and fat. We call it taste and manufactures take advantage of that. Myself, I will wait until I start experiencing cramps to increase my salt intake, but I will be on the lookout. Thanks for some great information