Someday my left foot harm for no good motive. I stood as much as shake off the ache and tweaked my proper Achilles tendon, so I headed for the drugs cupboard, bent over like an ape due to a stiff again.
Truly, I lied.
It wasn’t in the future. It’s just about daily.
None of that is extreme or severe, and I’m not complaining on the age of 72. I’m simply questioning.
Are my train routines, which had been meant to maintain me from falling aside, slowing my demise, or accelerating it?
What higher time than the beginning of a brand new yr to get a solution? In a single ballot, the highest New 12 months’s decision for 2026 is exercising extra. Additionally amongst the highest six resolutions are consuming more healthy, enhancing bodily well being and shedding pounds, so good luck to all you dreamers, and I hope you last more than I’ve with comparable resolutions.
As an alternative of a decision, I’ve a objective, which is to discover a candy spot — if there may be one — between train and ache.
Perhaps I’m asking an excessive amount of. I’ve had two partial knee replacements, I’ve bought a torn posterior cruciate ligament, a scar tissue knob on a frayed Achilles tendon, a hideously pronated left foot, a proper shoulder that feels prefer it wants an oil change, and a pacemaker that retains on ticking.
However I made a decision to get some professional recommendation that could be helpful for anybody who has entered this wonderful part of life by which it’s attainable to tug a muscle whereas taking a nap, or pinch a nerve in your neck whereas brushing your tooth.
And I knew simply whom to name.
Cedars-Sinai orthopedic surgeon Robert Klapper hosts an ESPN radio present known as “Weekend Warrior.” This lab-coated Renaissance man, a surfer and sculptor in his spare time, additionally weighs in frequently on the radio with “Klapper Imaginative and prescient” — clear-eyed takes on all method of twisted, pulled and damaged physique components suffered by elite athletes and banged-up buzzards like me.
On “Weekend Warrior,” Klapper could be speaking about knee substitute surgical procedure one minute, segue to Michelangelo’s rendering of the human type, after which insist {that a} sandwich shouldn’t be a sandwich with out peperoncini. It isn’t essentially all related, nevertheless it doesn’t matter.
Once I emailed Klapper about my aches and pains, he responded instantly to say he’s written one guide on hips, one other on knees and a 3rd one is within the works with the next title:
“Cease Exercising, You’re Killing Your self.”
No, he’s not saying it’s best to by no means get off the couch. In a cellphone dialog and later at his workplace, Klapper mentioned the subtitle goes to be, “Let Me Clarify.” He’s making a degree about what sort of train is dangerous and what sort is useful, notably for folks in my age group.
Dr. Robert Klapper holds up his guide about stopping hip surgical procedure.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Occasions)
My day by day routine, I instructed him, includes a two-mile morning stroll with my canine adopted by half-hour of swimming laps or using a stationary bike.
To this point, so good.
However I additionally play pickleball twice every week.
“Pay attention, I make a dwelling from pickleball now,” Klapper mentioned. “Train is fantastic, nevertheless it is available in two flavors.”
One is nurturing, which he calls “agercise” for my demographic.
The opposite is abusive, and one in all Klapper’s examples is pickleball. With all its begins and stops, twists and turns, reaches and lunges, pickleball is busting the Medicare financial institution, with a few hundred million {dollars}’ value of accidents every year.
I do know. The sport appears fairly low key, though it was lately banned in Carmel-by-the-Sea due to all of the racket. I had no concept, after I first picked up a paddle, that there’d be a lot ice and ibuprofen concerned, to not point out the killer stares from retirees itching for an opportunity to drill you within the sternum with a sizzling laser.
“It is a sport which has the adrenaline speeding in each 50-year-old, 60-year-old, 80-year-old,” Klapper instructed me in his workplace, which is the start line in his joint substitute manufacturing unit. The partitions are coated with photographs of star athletes and A-list Hollywood celebrities he’s operated on.
“I see these sufferers, however they’re not coming to me with acute accidents. They didn’t snap their Achilles tendon … like they do in tennis. They’re not snapping their ACL like they’re in pickup basketball,” Klapper mentioned. “They’re coming to me saying, ‘My shoulder is killing me, my knee is killing me.’ ”
Pickleball has apparent conditioning advantages for each age group. However it could actually additionally worsen arthritis and speed up joint degeneration, Klapper mentioned, notably for addicts who play a number of instances every week.
Not that he’s the primary MD to recommend that as you age, strolling, biking and swimming are simpler in your physique than higher-impact actions. As one physician mentioned in an AARP article on joint care and the advantages of wholesome consuming, watching your weight and staying lively, “the worst factor you are able to do with osteoarthritis after 50 is be sedentary.”
Nonetheless, I believed Klapper may inform me to cease pickling, however he didn’t.
“Pickleball is greater than a sport to you … and your entire compadres,” he mentioned. “It’s psychological. You want it due to the stress. The world’s falling aside.… I would like you to play it, however I would like you to do the nurturing workouts so you are able to do the abuse.”
There’s no fountain of youth, Klapper mentioned, however the closest factor is a swimming pool.
OK, however I already swim 3 times every week.
Dr. Robert Klapper meets with affected person Kathleen Clark, who’s recovering from knee surgical procedure.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Occasions)
Klapper had totally different concepts.
“You have to be strolling ahead and backwards for half an hour,” he mentioned. Do this 3 times every week, he instructed me, and trip a stationary bike 3 times.
Why the water strolling?
“We as people take over 1,000,000 steps a yr. Overlook pickleball, simply in … day by day dwelling,” Klapper mentioned, so I’m nicely past 72 million steps.
“Take into consideration that,” he mentioned.
Do I’ve to?
Water strolling will develop muscle groups and joints with out the stress of my full weight, and that would “optimize” my pickleball sturdiness and common health, Klapper mentioned. Buoyancy and the contact of water on pores and skin are magic, he mentioned, however there’s science concerned too.
“It’s onerous to maneuver your legs and arms and your physique by water, and but it’s unloading the joint,” Klapper mentioned. “And eventually — and that is the actual X issue — while you shut your eyes and straighten your elbow and bend your elbow, straighten your knee and bend your knee … your mind is aware of the place your limbs are in area.”
That is known as proprioception, Klapper mentioned. Receptors in your pores and skin, muscle groups, ligaments and tendons ship messages to your mind, resulting in higher stability, coordination and agility and probably lowering danger of harm.
There are many workouts for sharpening proprioception, however the browsing physician is a fan of our bodies of water. At my age, he mentioned, my proprioception “batteries are working low,” however I can recharge them with a brief break from pickleball and a deal with the pool.
“You’ll be able to’t assure something in life and drugs,” Klapper mentioned. “However I assure you, a month into it, you’re going to really feel so significantly better than you do at this second.”
It’s value a attempt, and I’ll let you know the way it goes.
Within the pool and on the court docket.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
