February 2023
By Richard Fleming
During my years in medical practice, one of the most common complaints shared by my older patients was stiff and painful joints and muscles. I tried to approach such problems with sympathy and concern. But I can now confidently state if I was still in practice today, I would approach these complaints with empathy and vehement affirmation. Oh my goodness.
Now that I am in my early 70s, my understanding of joint and muscle stiffness has advanced dramatically. Not because I have read more deeply in medical texts. My knowledge has expanded through personal experience.
Fortunately I do not have much arthritis, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately my knees tend to get stiff and painful. When going to the bathroom in the middle of the night – a possible topic for a future post – it sometimes feels like I’m walking on stilts. My right wrist has started protesting any attempts to embark on home repair projects. And in the mornings I now find I must put my pants on without bending at the waist. (Important disclaimer: if you do not face this problem yet, don’t attempt this activity at home. It puts you at high risk of falling.) My lower back simply refuses to bend until I have at least two cups of coffee.
Does any of this sound familiar?
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As humans age, our joints and muscles tend to become stiff and sore. This happens for various reasons. Arthritis – inflammation in the joints – is a common cause. But we can also develop stiffness and pain without arthritis. The tendons and ligaments which surround our joints grow less flexible as they age. Older muscles become infiltrated by increasing amounts of fat and a pigment of aging called lipofuscin, both of which limit muscle contraction. Muscle fibers shrink. Add these things together and what do you get? Stiff muscles and joints.
While stiffness is a near-universal component of growing old, we need not succumb to it. Useful methods can help counter this scourge. Using our muscles and flexing our joints frequently is important. Exercise helps. Regular stretching and walking can improve flexibility.
I’ve never been one for assuming awkward postures or posing like a clown, but I am told yoga is a useful technique for slowing down the aging of joints and muscles. Truth be told, yoga is on my bucket list. But it is down around #37 or so, below projects like cleaning the garage and doing paint touchups around the house. I may come to regret yoga’s low ranking and really should consider moving it up to the single-digit category.
Other useful measures are ice or heat. An interesting phenomenon is that some people do better with cold and others do better with warmth. What accounts for the difference? This is one of the great unsolved mysteries of aging. I hope some smart research team can obtain funding to investigate this important problem.
Of course, massage can be therapeutic. Massage helps not only stiff muscles but pretty much all other human ailments as well.
And a good night’s sleep never hurts, though for many that concept is, shall we say, a stretch goal.
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I do my best not to feel victimized by aging. Why should I resent seeing young people out running rapidly through the park? By moving more slowly, I get to see the birds and flowers they miss because they move too quickly. There is no reason for me to begrudge kids playing a vigorous game of tennis. I simply recall my own embarrassing efforts to play that game when I was their age, and I am suffused with feelings of contentment.
But – if I’m being honest – it is hard to avoid feeling a mite resentful at times about the creeping infirmities which accompany a maturing body. When I feel this way, I put myself on another time-out. I try to force myself to remember and then count my blessings. I tell myself that growing old is so much better than the alternative.
And I keep repeating this simple mantra: stiff happens.
My comments here are intended for folks experiencing the common stiffness and soreness of aging muscles. If you are having significant muscle or joint pains which are new or seem in any way unusual, please contact your doctor for evaluation.
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And here I thought… never mind.
I’ll tell you what scares me, not the stiff muscles, but the overgrown bones in my neck.
I feel like I’m one twist or fall away from quadriplegia. Luckily my stiff muscles protect me from doing anything to strenuous.
Richard, you were thoughtful and wise beyond your years when we worked together in Vallejo in the early 1990s. And now, you are even better on both counts. Thanks for these excellent essays that lend a reassuring and humorous perspective to our shared predicament as human beings.
I confess that when I read this title I thought of a different stiffness which, fortunately, still happens, though it takes a bit longer to accomplish. Still, I appreciate your thoughts and would encourage you to move yoga higher on your list. It indeed does help with the stiffness and I have a whole new community of individuals experiencing the same stage of life.
a detailed analysis: great stuff!
I liked your essay, Richard. I support you in taking up walking as an exercise. I’ve been walking a mostly no-hills neighborhood route in “Old Southampton”. The “hills” are really just gentle ascending grades. Last summer I was walking 1.5 miles. In Nov & Dec 2022 I increased to 3 miles. In January, I upped it to 4 miles. My next goal is to add another mile, for a total of 5, come March 1st.
But, as you mentioned, I need to stretch, and also build some upper body strength. I should try yoga … I just don’t want to get on the floor.
Good analysis of a common problem for a certain demographic. I like to think that my brief round of tai chi while the water boils for coffee has staved off stiffness, albeit not entirely.
I’ve been doing Essentrics excercises by Miranda Esmonde-White. Look it up in YouTube. I enjoyed it so much that I subscribe yearly and do the stretches every day. It is addicting and makes me feel good. Check it out
Thanks for your essay… I’m 82 and it rings a bell, though I still get around pretty well. I start every morning with a stretch and strength routine, about 30 minutes, then many days a neighborhood uphill, downhill walk, about 0.7 miles. Lately I’ve developed shoulder aches, though not crippling, and other various minor aches and pains. I do have a family history of arthritis.
Thanks again for your essay… hoping for the best for you.
Wonderful post, Richard. And a great closing line!