There is also a slightly different approach, one that I think is easier for most people to start with, and that is simply to stop taking the easy way.
Modern life is designed to dis-able you. Literally. All the hard work has been taken away from you. From the elevator/lift to your office or apartment, to the cocooned luxury of your car, to the delivery service, and the gardener and cleaner, and the child minder, and the decorator or repair guy, and even the TV, Netflix and YouTube subscriptions that 'do entertainment' to you, rather that you going out there to participate in actively entertaining yourself.
For decades I have tried to embrace a life that is just a little bit more difficult. Not in any dramatic way, I'm not talking about Iron Man training, or even cycling everywhere! Just living my life in a way that involved a little more activity, rather than a little less - taking the stairs, walking faster, going the long way around, walking to the shops and carrying a couple of bags of groceries home, walking, brushing and washing my own dog, living in a hilly place rather than a flat place, cutting up and hand mixing food rather than using a blender, washing my own car, driving older cars with fewer labour saving devices (even no power steering!). I'm not trying to be a Luddite, but I simply don't believe that an easier life, with no work involved, is better for us.
In Britain there is a term, 'bungalow legs' where, as people get older, they retire to a bungalow with no stairs, ready for their future mobility to decline. The issue is that their decline in mobility accelerates because they aren't climbing stairs anymore!
Most of the time I live on a boat. It involved stepping on and off, lots of balance and ducking and carrying stuff, lots of adjusting ropes and heavy weights, like full gas bottles and weekly shopping trips. I have friends close to my age (70's) that need my help to step on to the boat, and steady them as they walk along the deck - I usually sit them down before they fall over and hurt themselves!
Contrast that with other friends, a married couple in their 80's that drive from northern England to catch the ferry to their 3 storey cottage in France. Once here, they walk everywhere, and until a couple of years ago played tennis every week, went sea swimming on the coast, and he still does his own maintenance jobs. They both talk like 50's year olds, with wide interests and well considered opinions, still open to new ideas.
I never really got into the gym thing. I would go for a while (usually for the pool, sauna and hot tub! 🙂) and then it would slowly fade, until I would get fed up of paying for it (and usually end up in a fight to end the gym contract!). But a few years ago I picked up a book by Mark Jenkins, 'The Jump Off', an unusual work-out manual from the celebrity trainer that famously trained the musician D'Angelo, resulting in a notorious music video 'Untitled - How does it feel'. The point is that it isn't really a gym fitness book, but can be a home fitness habit that just involves a few exercises. So now i might do some 45 degree push-ups against the kitchen worktops as I wait for something to cook, or do some 'sit down - stand up' repeats (try doing 20, as fast as you can), and I have some barbells to run through some shoulder and arm exercises after too long on the computer. No stress, no guilt, and no expeditions to the gym. So much easier.
I live in France, where a doctor's visit usually seems to end up with medication, so I am met with some surprise when i say I don't take anything - no prescribed medication for many years. But I have also cut out added salt or added sugar from my diet, and don't use milk (though do use cream or yoghurt in cooking sometimes), and I walk a lot with my dog. A few years ago, when working in a stressful business, my blood pressure was raised and a doctor recommended statins. I looked up the side effects (pretty scary!) so instead cut salt, walked more, meditated 3 or more times a week, and within 3 months my BP was down to 130/70, which is where it has been ever since.
It seems to me that in the near future, many, many people are going to have to learn to live with less medication and far fewer 'labour saving devices', and perhaps less food too. I am reminded that in Britain in WW2, with a diet halved in calories by rationing and all gardens dug up to grow vegetables, and fuel rationed so everyone bicycled or walked, people were quickly healthier and, if you dodged the bombs and the unfiltered cigarettes, then people actually lived longer, healthier lives.
Something to look forward to, perhaps? Well, sort of......
There are various chi gong exercises specifically for people confined to a bed or chair or with mobility issues. I will check i”out the references and get back to you here.
“Zhan Zhuang and the search of Wu” by Yu Yong Nian. He’s a professor and medical doctor and appears in some of Lam Kam Chen’s videos on YouTube.
It’s not a perfect translation from the Chinese and is about his scientific research on the effectiveness of the techniques but he includes exercises for people with limited mobility or folk who are confined to chairs or beds.
It’s available on line from various sources including the Internet Archive and Google Books where it can be read online for free. I hope it is of some use. Take care.
Thank you for taking the time to cite sources -- I will absolutely check it out! I'm sure there are many ways to apply the sentiment of this article to physical therapy techniques rather than proper workouts... I just got a bit hopeless reading it during one of my immobile days. I wish I could work out. I wish I could spend more time outdoors where I love to be. Anyway, I look forward to seeing the overlap between my familiar PT (i do the same PT for fibromyalgia that my aunt does for MS), and the research you shared about people with mobility issues. Thanks again!!
You’re very welcome. I too have MS, fortunately not remitting but find crawling around the garden (when it’s dry!) a useful and safe technique. Good luck with everything.
I feel you. i think. do what you can and forget the rest. most of all, do not give up. funny i should be saying this, because even without any (physical) disability, i think about giving up all the time. that's lack of mental fitness on my part.
I'm near 70 and my lumbar is so bad that I'm permanently on opioids because I'm out of options. I stay as active as I can manage, but most of these exercises are out of my ability. About all I can do is walk for exercise.
That's super impressive, Sarah, thank you for sharing. I'll copy those exercises.
But for someone who loathes the inside of a gym, and who sat and read all day during Covid, and loved it, (but got sciatica from all the sitting!) for me personally, I just work long hours outdoors, come rain or shine - bending, crouching, digging, lifting, carrying mulch, walking uphill....for me at 75 years old,, it's effortless to do this for eight hours or more - but ask me to step inside a gym and the tedium overwhelms me within five minutes.
Each to his own, but the point is to keep active at all costs as you say and in any way you can, thanks again!
Collapse prep that starts with buckets of rice but ignores knees, hips, balance, and grip strength is just cosplay with better shelves. Your body is the first tool, the last tool, and the one you cannot order after the grid sneezes. Strong legs, mobile joints, and the ability to get off the floor are not vanity. They are household infrastructure with a pulse.
Chinese and other subsistence farming societies developed systems like Tai Chi because they could not risk hurting themselves- a bad back might mean going hungry or worse. These systems have been refined over several thousand years.
Through practicing Something like Tai Chi, you come to realise that all physical action begins from your physical centre (tan tien). Once you grasp that, you can apply it in all you do- washing up, raking, digging, sawing etc. etc. Also, there are extremely powerful fighting forms of Tai Chi
I also practice Zhang Zhuang, often translated as “standing post” or “stand like a tree”. Very simple and very good for developing breathing stamina, endurance, knees, shoulders. Lam Kam Chen has some good videos to follow on YouTube.
You make a good point about establishing routines- make it really easy to begin with. I began the Stand like a Tree, Great Cycle, (which has five different postures to hold in turn and then a return to the first), with just five breaths per posture. It took about four minutes before breakfast every morning and was easy. I just added a few breaths each week, counting them as I breathe.
I stopped adding breaths when I got to about half an hour in total time, which is enough for me. I follow that with Tai Chi form, practicing it twice. I’m ready for breakfast then!
I’m 69 and a gardener. The activities around gardening are so varied, stretching, reaching, bending, squatting, crawling (more of this in the last decade- very good, gets you close to the soil!) carrying, digging etc. etc.
But walking is probably the single best activity that we as humans can undertake.
This is gold. for me. my brother has been pushing me to stay fit in the simplest sense for years to continue being useful to family and community, and this reinforces it.
the piece that i'm missing though is mental fitness.
i haven't gone through your old pieces, but i wonder if you have a series covering all the important facets of "fitness" - economic, mental, physical, communal etc.
For years now, I do all my exercises at home, without weights (except for a backpack full of heavy books :-D), I use chairs, the kitchen desk, a strong stick, and luckily my entrance door has an opening above, so I do pull-ups. Since I had my back surgery 7 years ago, I wholeheartedly can recommend doing stability and stretching exercises. Just as much as strength training! The difference is massive.
Thank you for your immensely informative and helpful posts. But moreover, thank you for being an example, a pillar of strength and clarity. Especially emotionally ❤️
Thank you. I think I have been focusing on the exterior. I can tell that I have lost muscle mass and balance over the past couple of years. I appreciate the specific suggestions, especially the small, everyday changes.
Mostly correct, but forget counting calories because they're not all created equal. Aged 70, my body hit the wall showing every sign any old fart like me will recognise. I'm still gobsmacked 4 years later that I pretty well fixed everything without trying or counting calories. I simply ditched ALL CARBS AND SUGARS AND Seed oil and even fruit and vegetables.... Plants are trying to kill you.
There is also a slightly different approach, one that I think is easier for most people to start with, and that is simply to stop taking the easy way.
Modern life is designed to dis-able you. Literally. All the hard work has been taken away from you. From the elevator/lift to your office or apartment, to the cocooned luxury of your car, to the delivery service, and the gardener and cleaner, and the child minder, and the decorator or repair guy, and even the TV, Netflix and YouTube subscriptions that 'do entertainment' to you, rather that you going out there to participate in actively entertaining yourself.
For decades I have tried to embrace a life that is just a little bit more difficult. Not in any dramatic way, I'm not talking about Iron Man training, or even cycling everywhere! Just living my life in a way that involved a little more activity, rather than a little less - taking the stairs, walking faster, going the long way around, walking to the shops and carrying a couple of bags of groceries home, walking, brushing and washing my own dog, living in a hilly place rather than a flat place, cutting up and hand mixing food rather than using a blender, washing my own car, driving older cars with fewer labour saving devices (even no power steering!). I'm not trying to be a Luddite, but I simply don't believe that an easier life, with no work involved, is better for us.
In Britain there is a term, 'bungalow legs' where, as people get older, they retire to a bungalow with no stairs, ready for their future mobility to decline. The issue is that their decline in mobility accelerates because they aren't climbing stairs anymore!
Most of the time I live on a boat. It involved stepping on and off, lots of balance and ducking and carrying stuff, lots of adjusting ropes and heavy weights, like full gas bottles and weekly shopping trips. I have friends close to my age (70's) that need my help to step on to the boat, and steady them as they walk along the deck - I usually sit them down before they fall over and hurt themselves!
Contrast that with other friends, a married couple in their 80's that drive from northern England to catch the ferry to their 3 storey cottage in France. Once here, they walk everywhere, and until a couple of years ago played tennis every week, went sea swimming on the coast, and he still does his own maintenance jobs. They both talk like 50's year olds, with wide interests and well considered opinions, still open to new ideas.
I never really got into the gym thing. I would go for a while (usually for the pool, sauna and hot tub! 🙂) and then it would slowly fade, until I would get fed up of paying for it (and usually end up in a fight to end the gym contract!). But a few years ago I picked up a book by Mark Jenkins, 'The Jump Off', an unusual work-out manual from the celebrity trainer that famously trained the musician D'Angelo, resulting in a notorious music video 'Untitled - How does it feel'. The point is that it isn't really a gym fitness book, but can be a home fitness habit that just involves a few exercises. So now i might do some 45 degree push-ups against the kitchen worktops as I wait for something to cook, or do some 'sit down - stand up' repeats (try doing 20, as fast as you can), and I have some barbells to run through some shoulder and arm exercises after too long on the computer. No stress, no guilt, and no expeditions to the gym. So much easier.
I live in France, where a doctor's visit usually seems to end up with medication, so I am met with some surprise when i say I don't take anything - no prescribed medication for many years. But I have also cut out added salt or added sugar from my diet, and don't use milk (though do use cream or yoghurt in cooking sometimes), and I walk a lot with my dog. A few years ago, when working in a stressful business, my blood pressure was raised and a doctor recommended statins. I looked up the side effects (pretty scary!) so instead cut salt, walked more, meditated 3 or more times a week, and within 3 months my BP was down to 130/70, which is where it has been ever since.
It seems to me that in the near future, many, many people are going to have to learn to live with less medication and far fewer 'labour saving devices', and perhaps less food too. I am reminded that in Britain in WW2, with a diet halved in calories by rationing and all gardens dug up to grow vegetables, and fuel rationed so everyone bicycled or walked, people were quickly healthier and, if you dodged the bombs and the unfiltered cigarettes, then people actually lived longer, healthier lives.
Something to look forward to, perhaps? Well, sort of......
That’s the first I’ve heard of “bungalow legs”, but it makes total sense. Use it or lose it.
Gonna be honest, I normally love your posts, but as someone who's disabled before middle age this really does inspire me to give up entirely.
I'm sorry and I should have considered this possibility when writing this article. That’s my fault.
There are various chi gong exercises specifically for people confined to a bed or chair or with mobility issues. I will check i”out the references and get back to you here.
“Zhan Zhuang and the search of Wu” by Yu Yong Nian. He’s a professor and medical doctor and appears in some of Lam Kam Chen’s videos on YouTube.
It’s not a perfect translation from the Chinese and is about his scientific research on the effectiveness of the techniques but he includes exercises for people with limited mobility or folk who are confined to chairs or beds.
It’s available on line from various sources including the Internet Archive and Google Books where it can be read online for free. I hope it is of some use. Take care.
Thank you for taking the time to cite sources -- I will absolutely check it out! I'm sure there are many ways to apply the sentiment of this article to physical therapy techniques rather than proper workouts... I just got a bit hopeless reading it during one of my immobile days. I wish I could work out. I wish I could spend more time outdoors where I love to be. Anyway, I look forward to seeing the overlap between my familiar PT (i do the same PT for fibromyalgia that my aunt does for MS), and the research you shared about people with mobility issues. Thanks again!!
You’re very welcome. I too have MS, fortunately not remitting but find crawling around the garden (when it’s dry!) a useful and safe technique. Good luck with everything.
I feel you. i think. do what you can and forget the rest. most of all, do not give up. funny i should be saying this, because even without any (physical) disability, i think about giving up all the time. that's lack of mental fitness on my part.
I'm near 70 and my lumbar is so bad that I'm permanently on opioids because I'm out of options. I stay as active as I can manage, but most of these exercises are out of my ability. About all I can do is walk for exercise.
Walking is great exercise.
Thank you - resharing as Day 9 of my 40-Day Hormuz Resilience Challenge.
That's super impressive, Sarah, thank you for sharing. I'll copy those exercises.
But for someone who loathes the inside of a gym, and who sat and read all day during Covid, and loved it, (but got sciatica from all the sitting!) for me personally, I just work long hours outdoors, come rain or shine - bending, crouching, digging, lifting, carrying mulch, walking uphill....for me at 75 years old,, it's effortless to do this for eight hours or more - but ask me to step inside a gym and the tedium overwhelms me within five minutes.
Each to his own, but the point is to keep active at all costs as you say and in any way you can, thanks again!
Collapse prep that starts with buckets of rice but ignores knees, hips, balance, and grip strength is just cosplay with better shelves. Your body is the first tool, the last tool, and the one you cannot order after the grid sneezes. Strong legs, mobile joints, and the ability to get off the floor are not vanity. They are household infrastructure with a pulse.
You raise a crucial topic Sarah- nice one.
Chinese and other subsistence farming societies developed systems like Tai Chi because they could not risk hurting themselves- a bad back might mean going hungry or worse. These systems have been refined over several thousand years.
Through practicing Something like Tai Chi, you come to realise that all physical action begins from your physical centre (tan tien). Once you grasp that, you can apply it in all you do- washing up, raking, digging, sawing etc. etc. Also, there are extremely powerful fighting forms of Tai Chi
I also practice Zhang Zhuang, often translated as “standing post” or “stand like a tree”. Very simple and very good for developing breathing stamina, endurance, knees, shoulders. Lam Kam Chen has some good videos to follow on YouTube.
You make a good point about establishing routines- make it really easy to begin with. I began the Stand like a Tree, Great Cycle, (which has five different postures to hold in turn and then a return to the first), with just five breaths per posture. It took about four minutes before breakfast every morning and was easy. I just added a few breaths each week, counting them as I breathe.
I stopped adding breaths when I got to about half an hour in total time, which is enough for me. I follow that with Tai Chi form, practicing it twice. I’m ready for breakfast then!
I’m 69 and a gardener. The activities around gardening are so varied, stretching, reaching, bending, squatting, crawling (more of this in the last decade- very good, gets you close to the soil!) carrying, digging etc. etc.
But walking is probably the single best activity that we as humans can undertake.
Thanks for the education on Tai Chi and stand like a tree. I need to learn more about it.
This is gold. for me. my brother has been pushing me to stay fit in the simplest sense for years to continue being useful to family and community, and this reinforces it.
the piece that i'm missing though is mental fitness.
i haven't gone through your old pieces, but i wonder if you have a series covering all the important facets of "fitness" - economic, mental, physical, communal etc.
I have covered some of these topics in the past. Will do so again in the future.
I should add though that, for many, working out is the best anti-depressant and mood enhancer.
Great post Sarah !
Wise
Yes! While so much seems beyond our control, the one thing we can control is creating a lifestyle that prioritizes health and independence.
I admire the passion you have to help others.
For years now, I do all my exercises at home, without weights (except for a backpack full of heavy books :-D), I use chairs, the kitchen desk, a strong stick, and luckily my entrance door has an opening above, so I do pull-ups. Since I had my back surgery 7 years ago, I wholeheartedly can recommend doing stability and stretching exercises. Just as much as strength training! The difference is massive.
Thank you for your immensely informative and helpful posts. But moreover, thank you for being an example, a pillar of strength and clarity. Especially emotionally ❤️
Thank you. I think I have been focusing on the exterior. I can tell that I have lost muscle mass and balance over the past couple of years. I appreciate the specific suggestions, especially the small, everyday changes.
Mostly correct, but forget counting calories because they're not all created equal. Aged 70, my body hit the wall showing every sign any old fart like me will recognise. I'm still gobsmacked 4 years later that I pretty well fixed everything without trying or counting calories. I simply ditched ALL CARBS AND SUGARS AND Seed oil and even fruit and vegetables.... Plants are trying to kill you.
https://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/2025/03/14/plants-are-trying-to-kill-you/
Calisthenics is great because it requires very little equipment and no gym membership, just a pull-up bar is pretty much all you need.
Local playground can work too! Those lower bars where your feet still touch the ground can help build strength for those who can’t do a pull-up.
Great strategies here. I have a good corollary article coming soon. Please check it out.