By Nancy Jo Ricca —How do you feel?  Are you strong and healthy?  Do you carry your body upright with confidence and ease?  Do you move throughout your daily activities gracefully with little discomfort or pain?  Or do you hurt?  If you tripped and fell, would you be afraid that you couldn’t get up?  Everyone should be able to lift their own bodies.

No fair using age as your excuse.  Older age is not a disease or a condition; it’s just getting older.  Sarcopenia is the condition.  Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle, strength, and decreased quality of muscle tissue often seen in older adults.   The great news is—there’s a cure.  It’s consistent exercise.  The word “consistent” is the key.  Any activity you do consistently will strengthen the muscles you use.  For instance, if you lift weighty objects consistently, you will build strength in the muscles you use.  If you walk consistently, let’s say for a period of 30 minutes 4 times a week, you will strengthen those parts of the body you use: your feet, your ankles, your legs, your hips.  Any part of the body you use consistently will strengthen.  No fair using age—it is scientifically proven that you are never too old to build muscle. 

 Try this little exercise:  Scoot up to the front of your chair, feet flat on the floor and sit as big and tall as you can.  Actually pull your rib cage up and imagine a long straight line from the back of your head down to your hips.  Relax your shoulders.  How long can you hold your torso upright?  You are using your long powerful muscles which surround your core area:  The abdominals, the obliques, and in the back, the latissimus dorsi (the lats).  The more you do this simple exercise, the stronger those muscles will get and the better your back will feel.

Here’s another:  The next time you get up from your easy chair, or any chair with arms, place your hands down on the arms, elbows towards the ceiling, and slowly attempt to lift your body without using your feet.  Then slowly lower yourself down.  Even if you can’t do it at first, any attempt is strengthening.  Don’t quit.  Soon you will be able to lift and lower yourself, and each attempt will make you stronger. 

 This New Year, make a resolution to sit, stand, and walk tall with pride. Use every opportunity you can to strengthen your body.  It’s the best vehicle you will ever own.

Nancy Jo Ricca is a certified, insured Post Rehabilitative Exercise Specialist, Fitness Specialist for Older Adults and Personal Trainer.  She specializes in  Fracture Prevention Exercises for Osteoporosis, exercises for people with Parkinson’s Disease, and rehabilitative programs for people with acute physical and neurological conditions.  Contact her at 928-451-4949 or nancyjoricca@yahoo.com