The South Beach Harbor area in San Francisco was bustling this past Memorial Day. Kayakers, boaters, joggers, baseball fans, and walkers—people from all walks of life. (As a physical therapist, I see the way people walk as their “walk in life.”) Throughout the day, I observed them go by as I sat in the fly [...]

Loss of balance, strength, and overall function associated with advancing age are often met with anxiety, fear, and depression. Many of my patients express these feelings to me. It is often assumed advancing age is the problem. Be careful of making that assumption! In most cases it is incorrect.
Although it’s true that loss of muscle [...]

Have you noticed how bent over most people over 50 look? Physical therapists call this a forward-head posture. Many young people have a forward-head posture too, but the problem is more common as we age. It not only looks bad, but it can contribute to health problems that include neck and back pain, breathing limitations, [...]

Have you ever thought about what holds your body up? Have you noticed that whatever it was that was holding you up in the past is no longer doing the job it once did? Most people (not all) under 25 are being held up straight by spinal ligaments, discs, joints, and muscles—all working well together. [...]

Our spine derives its stability from four support structures. The first of these is the spinal disc. The spinal disc is an important stabilizer. The disc also serves as a mechanical shock absorber separating the bones in our back. If a person has bad discs, they can have that “stiff look” when they walk. You [...]

Your spine provides the structural foundation of your body. This foundation must be stable for you to function. There are four structures that keep your spine stable: spinal joints, vertebral discs, the ligaments that hold the joints together, and spinal muscles. These structures weaken and become less effective as we age. By the time we [...]

We know we lose strength with age, but how much strength do we actually lose? Well, according to an article on the topic in the Strength and Conditioning Journal, our muscle mass diminishes up to 40% between the ages of 50 and 80. Worse yet, our strength diminishes up to 60%. This is not a [...]

In case you haven’t noticed, you are weaker now compared to when you were in your 20s. Stress and inactivity have taken their toll, but so has aging. Sarcopenia is an ugly word for age-induced muscle atrophy and weakness. Sarcopenia begins in our late 20s, and by the time we turn 50, the process accelerates.
According [...]

Yesterday I discussed Perry Garfinkel’s AARP article about back pain. Garfinkel discovered how new medical research points to exercise playing a key role in the relief of back pain. He also mentions a study in the Arthritis Care & Research journal that found “fewer than half the participants who saw a health professional for back [...]

Ponder these facts for a moment:

Every activity we do in life requires muscular strength.
Inactivity and stress cause our body to move into a “shut down” mode resulting in serious muscular weakness.
Muscular strength diminishes gradually after age 30.
The only way to restore lost strength is to apply resistance to movements (resistance exercise).
Engaging in resistance exercises results [...]