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Walking slower? Your ears, not your knees, might be the problem

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Re: Walking slower? Your ears, not your knees, might be the problem

#61
post #7

proprioception degrades with age, strength training is the counter. (from "younger next year")

Why strength training, instead of, say, ultimate frisbee or pickleball?

Sports are much more likely to result in injury, and as you get old, staying in the game (of life) is more important. It can take a long time to recover, if ever, from an injury as you age. I loved playing soccer, and did so until I was almost 50, but many of my issues, physically speaking, are from soccer. I loved doing it, and it is far more fun than strength training, but too many injuries result.

Strength training and controlled cardio is much better for continuous health.

Re: Walking slower? Your ears, not your knees, might be the problem

#62
post #8

I walk slower and talk slower than I used to, and do both way slower than people I interact with. I can appreciate things better by moving slowly, with more intention, conserving my concentration and energy for matters of substance. Why must moving slowly be stigmatised? I am surrounded by people talking at such a high rate, they start responding before the other person's sentence or thought is completely expressed.…

Walking at a regular pace helps slow my brain down so that I can think more effectively. My favorite hobby right now is hour-long walks with my kindle (I walk in places where there are very long uninterrupted stretches).

When I read at home, I fall asleep in 2 pages. I have to be moving around. I have a bunch of "flashcard" like stuff on my kindle related to coding, interview prep, etc. The only chance I have is doing this while walking.

Re: Walking slower? Your ears, not your knees, might be the problem

#63
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peak HN to link an article about "spurious correlations" (and not even replying with a well thought out point yourself, just the article link) in response to a claim that slowing down is associated with aging and diminished capacity.

> Peak HN I'm really not sure what that means. In any case, you think what I posted is "peak HN", seemingly as a derogative comment. Then, you say I did it "in response to a claim that slowing down is associated with aging and diminished capacity", without noticing that said claim had been done in response to a person saying they intentionally slowed down. Not due to diminished capacity. Not due to aging. With though…

You literally linked to a website that overlays two unrelated graphs that look similar on top of each other. And now you're blaming others for coming to the obvious conclusion that you think "moving slower" and "growing older" should appear on that website.

Re: Walking slower? Your ears, not your knees, might be the problem

#64
post #8

I walk slower and talk slower than I used to, and do both way slower than people I interact with. I can appreciate things better by moving slowly, with more intention, conserving my concentration and energy for matters of substance. Why must moving slowly be stigmatised? I am surrounded by people talking at such a high rate, they start responding before the other person's sentence or thought is completely expressed.…

The fact of the matter is that other people are likely annoyed by your slowness, and probably think lesser of you as a result, even if it's unjustified, and even if they're just doing it subconsciously. Sounds like you're aware of that and think it's worth the tradeoff. But you're probably not going to make much headway in destigmatising it. You're literally jumping in a bucket full of elderly people.

Re: Walking slower? Your ears, not your knees, might be the problem

#67
post #8

I walk slower and talk slower than I used to, and do both way slower than people I interact with. I can appreciate things better by moving slowly, with more intention, conserving my concentration and energy for matters of substance. Why must moving slowly be stigmatised? I am surrounded by people talking at such a high rate, they start responding before the other person's sentence or thought is completely expressed.…

There's a lot of truth in what you say but I think the conclusion you landed on is too broad. There will exist people moving quickly who have failed to plan, but a lot also incorporate moving quickly as part of their plan, simply because that's how they prefer doing things. It's true that this kind of planning is vulnerable to unexpected problems - a missed connection, a queue, whatever it might be - but over time it…

Years ago I joined a spiritual workshop called The Art of Living in San Francisco. There was a lot of mindfulness, and the instructor followed the curriculum, except for one particular exercise.

The exercise was 2 parts. First, you put away your mat slowly. Second, you put it away quickly.

I immediately thought, oh wow this is interesting. We've spent all day on slow stuff, but now the curriculum has varied to show us that speed can also work when required. I began to think there was more depth to the workshop than I originally thought.

But she ended the exercise as soon as we did the 2nd part, and she clearly didnt like the exercise.

I don't personally believe that everything is better done slowly. A lot is, but there's no reason to banish speed.

Re: Walking slower? Your ears, not your knees, might be the problem

#70
post #35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it should be "stigmatized", but I will say that walking slow actually hurts me. I love museums, but that slow "museum walking" will leave my back feeling extremely sore by the end of the day. I feel like even if I covered the same distance (or longer) walking quickly, it wouldn't be nearly as painful.

I used to get lower back pain standing in concerts. For me, the pain had a lot to do with not properly engaging my glutes and core while standing still or moving slowly. Yoga was very helpful--it taught me to use my muscles to carry my body rather than letting myself sink into my joints.

It's very often this. Even light core strengthening and glute work can help you stand or walk for much longer.
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