Is 50 Squats Enough?

 As one who was diagnosed as having childhood arthritis — with the prognosis that it would inevitably get worse until I was crippled in adulthood —at which point they could “operate,” I found that doing light weight lifting exercises improved the circulation to the point that it ameliorated much of the back pain to the point that I could live a normal active life. But just in doing these most therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises, people told me I had transformed into an impressive and imposing athlete — just as how many early bodybuilders had gotten involved. That was the typical profile of bodybuilders in the 50s and 60s — mainly youngsters taking it up to overcome childhood arthritis, asthma, a woefully underdeveloped body — and within a year, people were suggesting they ought to enter a physique contest — and they surprisingly won or placed highly. Then they “got into” it — unlike the many novices who now desire to win the Mr. Olympia before even embarking on an exercise program of any sort. That is definitely putting the cart before the horse.

Now as a person in my 70s still with that genetic predisposition that I now know how to overcome, I sleep on a firm mat on the floor and the first thing I do is roll onto the floor and sit in a squat — and let those tendons and ligaments that are problematical for most older people, stretch until they are quite loose, lubricated, and ready to move. Once I’ve done what I have to do for morning hygiene, I get back to doing 50 squat-push-ups as the best bang for the buck — if I don’t get around to doing anything else — but because of that movement, I usually feel I can go easily for another 30 minutes of other movements — and in that manner, I can fulfill my exercise requirements for the day, while just “warming up” for normal daily movements throughout the day. At that point, I already feel like I’m ahead of the game — because I can move without pain or restrictions — and if I fall or take a blow, my muscles will absorb most of the trauma — and I can recover as though from a more intensive once a week gym workout.

Obviously, that already makes an immediate difference — over those who cannot jumpstart their day in similar manner and effectiveness — and grow increasingly incapacitated — including the many who just never feel comfortable “squatting” — which actually means to hang out in that low position — rather than bounce out of it as quickly as they can, or never achieve that full possibility of position and movement. Thus you see so many bodybuilders with impressive biceps but always wear sweat pants so as not to reveal deficient leg development. And even among the older competitive bodybuilders, they have impressive biceps but woeful leg development, and walk as though they may fall over from that imbalance.

As even most doctors will tell you, if you do nothing to maintain your health, it should be to optimize the circulation to your legs — over the biceps, or upper body, and why they recommend walking — let alone squatting — which for most people over 70, is simply out of the question henceforth. If one removes that essential component of the circulatory system then increasing immobility is predictable and inevitable — along with its health consequences and complications.

But rather than making the squat harder to do — by adding a weight to one’s back or holding one’s arms out in front, the better, more practical version is to use one’s hands on one’s thighs to stabilize that movement — just as a thoughtful instructor would advise for a weak, elderly person to rise from the floor — rather than insisting that they do so in the hardest, most difficult and contrived manner that these “exercise physiologists” can think of as predictive of greater health. And that is the problem of all these YouTube videos advising older people on how to get up off the floor once they have fallen and don’t know “how” to get up. The results speak for themselves.

The computer people used to make operating a computer as difficult as possible — until somebody came up with the genius idea to make computers as easy as possible — and even “foolproof” as much as possible. Many “teachers” still teach that way — to make their subject matter as difficult as possible so maybe one person can understand who would have anyway — rather than make the difficult as simple as possible so it is accessible and productive to virtually everyone — rather than prohibitive and problematical as it seems to be.

Results come from that better understanding — and not more effort at what doesn’t make sense.