One thing to consider is this: how active have you been in recent years? If you sit around all the time, your bones will not be as strong as if you work a lot or push and pull weight pretty often.
Osteoporosis is another thing to think about. As we age, our bones become more porous, weak and brittle, so any mistake, such as a flatlander, might break bones in the forearms (radius and ulna), vertebrae in the spine can be crushed, and the nucleus pulposus can be pushed into the spinal canal - never a pleasant thing.
If you've been working out for a while, your ligaments and tendons might be up for the challenge, but if not, you might want to embark on a year-long physical training regimen to strengthen every ligament and tendon in your body to reduce painful and long-lasting injuries.
If you're going to do that, start with light weight and high repetitions. I'm over 50 now, and just started working out again, and I'm doing 200 situps on a situp machine, 100 reps of this, 50 reps of that. Light weight builds ligaments and tendons, and those ligaments and tendons are what hold your joints together and hold your muscles to the bone. If you work out with too much weight from the start, your muscles will grow quickly, but they will overpower your ligaments and tendons and you'll soon be injured. Your dreams will be delayed as a result. Better to build the foundation properly.
If you can protect the knees while doing some form of aerobic activity, that will be good. Brisk walking, treadmill or my latest favorite, a machine that allows you to do any combination of elliptical and stairs at will, will tighten everything up and work not only the quadriceps, hamstrings and calves, but the hips and associated muscles, which get little action as we advance in age. I'd recommend joining a good gym for a while so you have access to good equipment to work every single body part.
Ride a lot too. Three times a week, you should pound some laps on a real motocross track. That will get your timing back, and give you the well-rounded skills and reactions you need.
As for osteoporosis, an x-ray of a given body part can show that what used to be a good, strong bone might be a hollow shell of what it used to be, so make sure you stay active and use your muscles and that will keep your bones thicker and stronger.
The worst thing you could do is go out there on a whim and just wing it without adequate preparation and practice.
You can do it, but do take it seriously and build that foundation one step at a time. You might be an inspiration to us all!
JA
--Previous Message--
: Yo, JA.
:
: I've got the itch to GO BIG and begin
: breaking a few cycle jumping records, but
: I'm concerned I might be a tad too old to
: start jumping.
:
: Is it too late to start a jumping career in
: your seventies?
:
: Cheers,
: Grampa GoBig
:
:
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