bigjim wrote:I personally think stretching is the key to avoid pain and many other problems as we age. I suffered back problems for a long time but a few Pilates sessions solved it. I now regularly attend the gym and work my back quite a bit, much of it involving body weight sessions. Pull ups, wide and narrow, stretch and load the spine and support muscles. I now never have back issues unless I do something stupid. I have retaught myself to always squat to pick anything up, light or heavy. A habit we lose as we age.
I'm currently fighting some sort of knee problem. Well I think it is my knee. After waiting 6 months for an appointmant with a specialist, he insists it's the slight Arthritus I have in the knee that is the problem. I don't agree. My Hamstrings are as tight as hell in that leg. I can only relieve them by leg excercises in the gym. Stretching them using weights.
Swimming breast stroke hurts my leg so I too am trying to improve my crawl. However my back stroke is prettty good, but as has been pointed out, hard work in a crowded pool. I'm 69 and am capable of riding 100 miles without any leg/knee issues.
I think that a lot of my problem could be related to hamstring tightness. The chiropracter I saw years ago marveled at how tight they were but seemed to give up. The NHS “back expert physio” didn’t even feel my legs (I could have been a couch potato for all the attention he paid). I think that maybe overtraining the same muscles is the issue. Sometimes the hamstrings seem so tight that even getting a leg high enough off the floor to insert it into underpants causes excruciating discomfort down the back of the thigh. I’m sure stretching might help, and was hoping that a physio might put me on the right track?
