ON TURNING 75: REFLECTIONS ON MOBILITY AND AGING

  CELEBRATING 75th BIRTHDAY 

AS

 'ADOLESCENT GERIATRIC' 

MY FIRST YOGA ASANA PHOTO

FRONT SPLIT

(HANUMANASANA)

DEMONSTRATING

MOBILITY

ABILITIES AND LIMITATIONS

IN 

2012 AT 61

A LIFESTYLE FOCUS AS A SENIOR ON ACQUIRING WHOLE BODY MOBILITY AND IMPROVING NUTRITION CHOICES HAVE LED TO SIGNIFICANT, POSITIVE HEALTH OUTCOMES. 

____

BLOG TITLE

ACKNOWLEDGING SOURCE OF WORDS

'ON TURNING 75'

My use of the words On Turning 75 are borrowed - a modification of those used by freelance writer John Jerome in his 2000 book

 ON TURNING SIXTY-FIVE 

 Notes from the Field

***

SCOPE OF THIS POST

 Selected life experiences and decisions related to mobility by two individuals - JOHN JEROME AND MYSELF - are presented that have influenced our perspectives about aging.

I

BEGIN

WITH

 JOHN JEROME'S NARRATIVE

My initial intent was to share selected comments of actions taken in response to his declining physical abilities and the  aging process exclusive to his book On Turning Sixty-Five.

HOWEVER

  After reading Jerome's other books, including Staying With It, Blue Rooms, The Writing Life and Staying Supple, I discovered key revelations about how decisions were made throughout his life relating mobility and aging that warranted citing.

AS

 A

 CONSEQUENCE

Jerome's perspectives about motivations, purpose, passions, and enthusiasms are noted at various times during his life 

including

 his love of writing, the outdoors, geography of terrain, his kinesthetic sense, fascination with water, swimming, interest in the biology of exercise physiology (=mobility), conflicted views on Thoreau, issues with his aging.

AND

I

CONCLUDE 

WITH

TELLING MY STORY

Several experiences during my youth, early to mid-adult years are briefly mentioned.

 

I 

 CONNECT

a surgery restoring breathing at 50 

AND 

lifestyle choices including a focus on 

yoga, nutrition and walking as a senior, geriatric

CONTRIBUTING

TO

my current health status at 75.

😌

 --------

SHARING AN EXAMINED LIFE

PART 1

INTRODUCING 

JOHN JEROME

(1932 -2002)

DUST JACKET PHOTO 

FROM

2000

BOOK

ON TURNING SIXTY-FIVE

NOTE

I USE JJ TO IDENTIFY JOHN JEROME BELOW

BACKGROUND

JJ's eclectic books included autobiographical insights about his physical limitations with age  

   

I 

PRESENT

A

 BRIEF TIMELINE

BEFORE

 FOCUSING ON THE MONTHLY DOCUMENTATION OF JJ's 64th YEAR 

***

EARLY

CHILDHOOD

(1932 - 1936)

OKLAHOMA

JJ notes

His parents married in 1926, divorced in 1936

provide names

 his father was an alcoholic and fisherman

4 - 24

(1936 - 1959)

TEXAS

INITIALLY IN HOUSTON

JJ as a child writes about himself 

"... sought ever higher sensations - rollercoasters, high diving, motor racing, skiing, sex-crazed as anyone from the sock zone."

"As a kid I wanted to be an athlete, of course.  ... Sports, as another form of play, entertained me endlessly."

I learned to swim at 6

AND

"By adolescence I was cheerfully obsessed , eager to try anything athletic."   

I was a municipal-pool basket boy, a life guard, a swimming instructor. I even toured for a little while with a water show, as a clown diver."

😀

JJ 
NOTES

"I used to be agile. Few of aging's other physical notifications have struck me more sharply. I really miss agility." 

"I used to teach trampoline, perform as a diver, tumble on gym mats."

AND

'I loved to trot along dry creek beds, leaping from boulder to boulder. I never fractured a single ankle."

JJ recalls harrowing trips at 10 -11 to bootlegger in dry Oklahoma City

JJ's father died when he was fourteen.

LATER

MOVED 

TO

NEW BRUNFELS

AT

16

HIGH SCHOOL

"The level of coaching in a small Texas town in the late 1940's effectively killed my enthusiasm for physical activity."

YET

JJ pursued physical activities on his own

JJ

ALSO

LEARNED

 TO

 JUGGLE & BUILD GLIDERS

'Unconsciously, I've always known that I swim because I can't fly."

"When I was a kid the idea of flight almost made me swoon."

"I built balsa-wood model airplanes endlessly ... I preferred model gliders, just because they flew with the sensuous swoop and quaver I wanted for myself. I lusted after soaring."

AND

JJ recalls having patience during his "model airplane days, cutting out hundreds of tiny parts and gluing up complex structures one stick at a time."

" ... you had to wait for the old fashioned glue to dry. Eventually you learned how long that took and found a working pace that accommodated the delay."  

😁

JJ notes that while he didn't know it at the time "I wanted that  kinesthetic experience."

"I recall it now as the desire to rack up the experience, to file away the sensations, just so I'd know."

 

LEARNING FROM THROWING   

JJ recalls his love of throwing a baseball catch with his father and love of throwing rocks into the river.

"That was about the time I first noticed that throwing could hurt my arm. As I gained full height and weight I discovered that if I didn't throw regularly, I got sore."

AND

"I had to start learning a gradual approach, an attitude towards my body that I never needed before."

" Childhood had always permitted all-out, carefree effort. ... What was going on?"

"It was just age. The strength to accomplish things was becoming the strength to hurt myself."

****

JJ

HAD LESS TIME FOR SWIMMING

JJ

GRADUATED

FROM

NORTH TEXAS STATE COLLEGE BA  1955

WITH 

A

LITERATURE MAJOR

AND

BECAME A TEACHER

IN

ODESSA

TAKEAWAYs AT THIS TIME

JJ's early experiences during childhood, adolescent and young adult in his 20's would influence his employment opportunities.

He would accept offered employment as described below that combined writing skills with assignments to enjoy valued physical sensations related to his writing on topics including racing and skiing. 

NOTE

As a married couple, JJ and his wife would have three children.

27

(1959)

Sports Car Digest, Editor

Odessa, Texas

30 - 32

(1962 - 1964)

IN

NEW YORK

JJ
WAS

THE

 Managing Editor

  Car and Driver

JJ  

sought

"whole-body sensation"  

" I used to write road tests for car magazines, which were supposed to be compilations of objective data;

"I spent all my time trying to say what is was like to drive a particular car."  

"Years ago I thought I might race automobiles" 

but 

"I hung around motor racing as a journalist for several years."

JJ note "the mature racing driver  " finally learned the most difficult lessen in driving: smoother is faster. Always."

Driving instructors on students:  " ... their most difficult task is to get the students to slow down and get smooth first, before trying to learn to go.  

'I left motor racing behind and began to write about ski racing."

BECOMMING

A

SKIING  EDITOR

ONE PARK AVENUE  

JJ

"When I write travel articles about ski resorts, I could never get around to hotel accommodations and restaurant fare for talking about what it was like to the particular mountain."

JJ questioned coaches "trying to learn what makes a good ski racer. The most consistent answer: he- or she- rides a flat ski."

"The good racer gets off his edges earlier in the turn than his rivals. He is "on his skis, ..." while seeking with diverse sensations through physical activities.  

JJ writes

 " ... I never acquired the kinesthetic sense to ski as well as I thought I should." 

ACCEPTING A NEW JOB,

MOVED FAMILY AGAIN

32 - 37

(1964 - 1967)

Technical Writer

IN

DETROIT, MICHIGAN

JJ was working in advertising - employed as a copywriter  

JJ divorced his wife in 1965.

In

 1966 

he

 married 

writer

 Christine McCall 

AFTER SEVERAL YEARS

SOUGHT CHANGE

 JJ and Chris share  thoughts on their desire to move in The Writing Trade.

37 - 41

(1967 -1974)

SETTLED

IN

EASTON

RURAL

NEW HAMPSHIRE

WITH

A

"HOME OFFICE"

VIEW

OF

MOUNT KINSMAN

He began a new life as a freelance writer, editor  

38

(1971)

 Sports Illustrated SKIING

PUBLISHED

BY

JJ

 AND 

THE

EDITORS OF SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

"I was a slow learner."

39

(1972)

JJ

PUBLISHES

The Death Of the Automobile

JJ continues his freelance writing and function as editor.

JJ STARTS RUNNING 

INSPIRED

 BY 

FRANK SHORTER

WINNER 

OF

OLYMPIC MARATHON

JJ COMMENTS mid-1970's on RUNNING  

"I am not a daily runner- I tend to start and quit and start over again ... circumstances have kept me going out regularly for a few weeks, and I'm beginning to reap some benefits."

"I feel relaxed, loose, available for movement. This isn't my habitual state."

STUDYING PHYSIOLOGY OF ATHLETICS

"I began running distrustingly, and hated it for a long time    add comments 

JJ experienced issues with running that are explained in his book STAYING WITH IT

"I only ran for a couple of years"

 

 " ... running, because it loads and pounds the joints so completely, turned out to be a little to cruel for me. I developed a nagging hip irritation, just painful enough to make running frustrating."

45

(1977)

JJ

PUBLISHES

TRUCK

JJ

NOTES

"  ... in an effort to penetrate finally the mysteries of automotive mechanics, I bought a derelict pickup truck, scattered it around my barn, and put it back together."   cited in Stayin With It

46

(1978

ON MOUNTAINS

Thinking About Terrain

PUBLISHED

WITH

DUST JACKET PHOTO

JJ

& 

WIFE

CHANGE

 SCENERY

AGAIN

(1979 - 2002 )

SETTLED 

IN

RURAL

MASSACHUSETTS

ASHFIELD

JJ and his wife Chris moved to a secluded old farm house including a 50 meter pond with a walking path of about a mile and a third on approximately 100 acres of land.

JJ wife Chris has preserved this land

 through 

the

 FRANKLIN LAND TRUST

QUALITIES APPEALING TO JJ

"Living on a dead-end rural road and working at home."

"sunset on our west-facing deck in August  ... "   

&

ABILITY TO TAKE

DAILY WALKS  WITH DOGS

"We live on a wooded hillside laced with old logging roads and connecting trails."  cited in BLUE ROOMS 

AND

ENJOY THE ANIMALS ON THE PROPERTY

&

DURING

FUTURE CANOE, CAMPING TRIPS

YET 

 CONSCIOUS OF AGING

JJ knew he was confronting the aging process

"Aging is very rude ... it it just starts slamming doors in your face, yanking thing out of your reach." 

"I wanted to maintain my faculties the best possible operating state for the longest possible time."

46 - 47

(1979)

MAKING A TRANSITION

SWIMMING

 REPLACES

 RUNNING

"In the summer of 1979 I began swimming in a local lake."

"... I rediscovered a pleasure I'd glimpsed, then lost, nearly thirty years before."  

AND

REFLECTING ON HIS SWIMMING

 "I loved being stretched out 

and flat in the water, caressed by coolness, using muscle against something that, unlike the recalcitrant world above, gently yielded."

"Water accepted my efforts; not much else seemed to."

47

(1979)

TRAINING BEGINS

BACKGROUND

JJ

 THOUGHTS 

ON 

THE TRAINING EFFECT  

"The training effect is the small, common biological fact that says if you ask a living organism for more, the organism will, within reason, respond."

"To age, on the other hand, is to begin asking the cells for less."

***

The training effect is a complex series of physiological responses to stress, intricate in detail but marvelously simple in principle."

***

JJ

NOTES

TRAINING 

FOLLOWS

HANS SELYE'S 

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME  

(GAS)      

"All of training is described in the three phases of GAS ... to stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion."

"The principle is plain enough: overload whichever part of the organism you want to improve- overload it progressively- and

it will develop increased capacity."

DEFINING 

ATHLETIC CAPACITY 

"Athletic capacity" is the scientific shorthand for one specific measurement, maximum oxygen uptake."

" It is the volume of oxygen that the performing athlete can gather and feed to his or her muscle cells at maximum effort, which directly governs how much he or she can do."

NOTE

"My plan was to find out how much I could increase my physical capacity for physical effort."

JJ

MENTIONS 

DR. MICHAEL POLLOCK

DIRECTOR

Center for Evaluation of Human Performance

Mount Sinai Medical Center, Milwaukee

JJ

Notes

Pollock's

 Longitudinal Study

Pollock was evaluating athletes over a ten year period.

Obtained exercise physiology data including VO2 max (maximum oxygen uptake, the maximum rate at which oxygen can be consumed)

POLLOCK MENTIONS CASE

OF 

HAL  HIGDON

  

Max VO2 (ml/kg/min) 

1971 (62.7)

1976 (62.7)

1981 (63.2)

It 

is 

"the intensity of training effects physiological measurements."

BUT

POTENTIALLY

 WITH

 UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

What Hal Higdon has accomplished is impressive but maintaining the intensity of physical activities can have negative consequences and lead to both minor or major soft tissue injuries  - as JJ acknowledges in a later publication Staying Supple (see below.)

NOTE

For updated information about MaxVO2 see book OUTLIVE by

DR. PETER  ATTIA

JJ

DEFINES 

WORDS

ON BECOMMING AN ATHLETE

"My intention was only to conduct a long-term living experiment in how these two contradictory phenomena - the increase from the training effect, the decrease from aging - could be balanced out."

"That experiment was what I meant by becoming an athlete." 

YET

JJ

EQUIVOCATES

___

"Athletics ... it's about muscle and nerve endings, about physiology, about certain extraordinary kinds of concentration, about obsession." 

" ... on the physiological level athletics and aging are opposite sides of the same coin. We think of of it as having to do with loss of function, restriction, even mortality. But aging is also about muscle and nerve endings. ..."

EARLY TRAINING ALONE

JOINED

YMCA

NORTHAMPTON, MA

JJ confronts the consequences of his swimming.

"As I began to train all I was suffering from was accumulated disuse. I was putting mild initial stress on my mechanical works, which made for sore muscles, connective tissue, joints."

Over the first couple of months I worked my way cheerfully from a slow 1000 yards to a slow mile to a slow 2000 yards - the pie-in-the-face stage - and then, a little less bullishly, to 3000 yards a day, three times a week."

😔

"Forty laps per 1000 yards. Try to keep the pace up. Take a break every 500 or 1000 yards- for thirty seconds, or fifteen, or, preferably ten. Work towards smaller chunks of yardage at a faster pace."   

"Work toward smaller chunks of yardage at a faster pace, and shorter rests, tentatively approaching interval work- like the real swimmers do."

AFTER SIX MONTHS 

JJ

ACKNOWLEDGED

CHANGE WAS REQUIRED

TO

 INCREASE

 PROGRESS

JJ 

ARRANGES FOR PHYSICAL EXAM  

PHYSICAL EVALUATION 

AT

AEROBIC CENTER

DALLAS

MEETING

 DR. KENNETH COOPER

JJ HAS A STRESS TEST.

JJ's ASSESSMENT

"My stress test put me somewhere between the ninety-fifth and ninety-ninth percentile among 40-49 year olds."

"What I didn't know then was that most of the people I would eventually be competing against were easily in the ninety-ninth percentile." 

"The best news was that the treadmill results said I could go ahead, train hard, compete. The bad news was that I had no further excuses."

[JJ QUIT SMOKING SIX YEATRS BEFORE THE TEST]

AFTER HIS PHYSICAL

&

 47th BIRTHDAY

JJ

JOINS

LOCAL YMCA

IN 

Northampton, Massachusetts."  

AND

ATTENDS

SWIM CAMP

FOR

FIVE DAYS

"I came away from Skwim's racing camp with my technique sharpened, with my head crammed full of of new ideas, and my body ... eager for more work."

JJ 

NOTES

 "I got started racing again" and "learned that I needed a great deal of more experience at it ... I really wasn't in nearly as good shape as I thought, no matter what Dr. Cooper's numbers had said."

AFTERWARDS

RECOGNITION

"There is a mental state required in training, in performance- that I'm not too familiar. I have something else to learn. I had no idea that this, too, was part of being an athlete."

JJ

CALLS 

HIMSELF

A

"A KINESTHETIC JUNKIE"

DEFINING

THE KINESTHETIC SENSE

JJ

NOTES

"You ask your physiology to perform the task. The better you can read your own state (body position, force loadings, energy level), the better you can carry out the task."

DEFINATION

"Kinesthetic sense is the capacity to read all that, and to respond with the most effective motions."

JJ notes he "was definitely a sensation-seeker, after sensual pleasure, but I settled for small sensations."

"I wanted the kinesthetic sensation" ... I later learned to tumble, and did a lot of diving - seeking out whole body sensation ... from swimming "I drifted into motor racing and then to skiing, for the same reasons: swift movement, body weight lifted and tossed about ... to toy with gravity and other large forces."

JOINNG 

MASTERS GROUP

VALLEY SWIM CLUB

AT

JUNIOR HIGHH POOL 

IN

 AMHERST, MA  

AND 

JJ

FINDS

 A

SWIMMING COACH 

BILL TYLER

VIDEO SWIMMING STROKE

JJ was introduced to a young lifeguard at the pool who eventually became a valued coach and who was acknowledged in his book Stayin With It.

JJ 

describes a workout providing details that fellow swimmers would appreciate

"I kept at the training: intervals, repeat distances, speed work, over-distance exercises, bulk yardage. Bits and pieces, small gains accumulated, an occasional setback from a cold or other interruption. It seldom occurred to me that what I was training was muscle."

GRADUAL

BODY TRANSFORMATION

"I grew a little. ... my body shifting dimensions, reminding me of adolescence. I had stayed roughly the same tall (6' 3"), skinny (160 - 175 lbs.) ectomorph through most of the three decades since high school."   

"I also began to get stronger. ... I had never been particularly strong, and disuse had sapped what basic strength I had."

"... I noticed the gain just in ... the business of daily life- in getting up and down stairs, in and out of automobiles, in getting myself moving, physically and getting myself stopped again."

EXPERIENCE USING LIGHT WEIGHTS

"Sheepishly, I began fooling around with weights."

"I was shocked at how awkward it was."

"I began very cautiously, with quite low weights (seldom more than twenty or thirty pounds on the bar) and a few repetitions. My muscles got sore anyway."

"I tried to work out every other day or every third day."

" I discovered some startling weaknesses. ... there were exercises designed specifically for swimmers that I couldn't do, not even one repetition, with a four-pound weight in my hand. I was a weight wimp. I may always be."

THE VALUE OF STRETCHING

"Weight work, I found, will make you stretch."  

 [see JJ book STAYING SUPPLE that includes 30 illustrations of 

 stretching postures accompanied with his comments.]

JJ

contemplates how muscle actually works

talks with specialists

JJ swam for the New England Masters in five freestyle races ...

 His "1500 (meter) was four and a half minutes better than I swam at swim camp one year before."

"One of the subtler pleasures of masters swimming is simply spending time with people who feel so well."

JJ ENJOYS HIS FIRST COMPETITION

NEW ENGLAND MASTERS 

SWIM CLUB

YET

JJ

EXPERIENCES

SETBACKS

ACKNOWLEDGING AGING

'The largest gift that aging has brought me my be the heightening of of appreciation of the capacities I have left. And the sweetening of my gratitude for the capacity that, through training, I've gotten back."   

HOWEVER

"For all my arguments about training as an antiaging scheme, aging does go on."

"My hair continues to whiten, my skin to sag."

AND 

"I recognize my own aging in muscle stiffness, in subtle changes in hearing and vision (particularly at night) ... "I'm still clumsy, and getting clumsier."  

"I'm having to learn to be more careful, to stop trusting quick reactions to snatch equilibrium back when I stumble or misjudge."

"Aging is real, all right."

VALUE OF STRETCHING

JJ notes 

The smarter athletes "use stretching to help resist the loss of range."

stretching requires attention - focus 

JJ ON AGING

"One of aging's most powerful physical effects seems to be the shrinking, dwindling loss of range of motion, stiffness, malfunction of joints, reduced stature, and other elated connective-tissue related aliments, for which the only antidote I've been able to find is movement -  exercise and stretching."

"What age specifically attacks is the range that characterizes the good performer."

'He trains more intelligently as he gets older, and as a result loses less training time to injury."

JJ ADDS WEIGHT TRAINING

TO

SWIMMING

&

WALKING THREE HOURS ON CITY SIDEWALKS

NOTES

"Twenty-four hours later my calves were so sore I was limping." 

 "I was overlooking the elusive quality of specificity. ... The only way to condition the muscles you use in fast walking is by walking fast."

THOUGHTS ON AGING

JJ  cites Dr. Pollock

"Nobody knows what aging is."

LOTS OF THEORIES

YET 

WE ALL RECOGNIZE AGING

NOTE

 

The subject of stretching became the focus of a book JJ published in 1987.

48

(1980)

The Sweet Spot in Time

 

This is his first of three books addressing what it is to be able to perform at the highest level within a given physical endeavor under the broad category of exercise physiology.

JJ was a curious, physically active individual who learned from exercise physiology specialists of his era, from athletes and his own investigations, personal experiences.

 

JJ

   

Elite athletic performance requires coordinated muscle-nerve interactions and feedback. 

JJ writes about the underlying biology of exercise physiology including muscle proteins actin & myosin, nerve innervation of muscle, motor neurons and muscle contraction, connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, fascia) 

JJ interacts with leaders in human performance

 including

 David Costill  

MEETING 

 DR. DAVID COSTILL

DIRECTOR

 Human Performance Laboratory

JJ 

discovers there is a lot we do not know how the body functions.

JJ COMMENTS ON AGING

"Aging specifically attacks the flexibility of the body."

"Stretching is the gentle restorative that pulls me back into comfortable contact with myself, that tells my body what is up to."

49

(1981)

JJ entered five freestyle races. 

His competitions, place, and times are documented.

50

(1982)

 CITING ARTICLE

WHY WE SWIM

IN

 MASTERS PUBLICATION ARTICLE 

JJ explains 

"We swim because we love the water. We love being in the water."

"What masters competition is all about is improving: on becoming a better swimmer."

"And we are supported and shouldered in our search for improvements by the pure pleasure we get from the water itself."

"Swimming is a whole-body exercise."

JJ LEARNING FROM AGING   

"The largest gift that aging has brought me may be the heightening appreciation of the capacities I have left and the sweeting of my gratitude for the capacity that, through training, I've gotten back."

JJ

ON 

HIS

 NUTRITION

"But I love butter and cream and fried foods, and I'm sure that too large a percentage of my diet is taken up by fats. I really ought to get that under control."

"And booze. too. It's only a couple of ounces a day, but it's every day, very regular, and they do say the stuff kills brain cells." 

"Since I have been training I eat what when I want it, in as much quantity as I choose to cram down. I drink whatever I'm thirsty for  ..."

WEIGHT

"My weight stays precisely the same   ...  and I've managed to put myself into the top ten, nationally, in a very demanding physical sport.

"Okay, my smugness quotient has gone off scale again. I'm 50 years old."

JJ DESCRIBES TRAINING FOR THE 1650 

DEFINING

 ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE  

It's 

"a question of learning

[1]

 what your capacities are, 

[2]

 how to develop them to their maximum, and doing so;

[3]

  how to gain control of them, and finally,
 

[4]

how to make more and more accurate judgments the rate of expenditure of these capacities."

OVERTRAINING

"The only unpleasant part of aging is loss of function."

"I may not have stopped aging in its tracks- and that doesn't seem as important now as it did when I started- but I have certainly stopped the loss of intensity."

JJ

ENDS BOOK WITH FOLLOWING WORDS

"Doing these things- training, racing, being an athlete- is the most productive way of pursuing that small, consistent joy that I ever found. Doing these things has been the most fun I've ever had. Thinking about these things has made me happier than anything I've ever done."

NOTE

UPON FURTHER REFLECTION  

Years later in Staying Supple JJ  writes about the physiological results of his competitive swimming:

"I have revised my understanding of age and aging."

JJ 

discovered 

"In training to resist aging, intensity seems to be more important than volume.  ... Athletes who are able to maintain the intensity of their efforts over decades are those who are able to avoid injuries from either over use or trauma."

"In my case, which is not in any rare, I loved the intensity but my connective tissue didn't. To train intensely enough to attain peak performances was to break down."

SIGNIFICANTLY

"I have had to learn the limits of my connective tissue, which turn out to lower than the limits to performance that I want to accept.

"Aging turns out to be real, all right, even when you maintain your physiological measurements."

52

(1984)

Staying With It 

ON BECOMMING AN ATHLETE

&

DUST JACKET PHOTO

 
JJ documents his experiences training to compete in master level swimming competitions in this second book addressing exercise physiology, mobility issues.

[I previously have shared citations, paraphrased his thoughts on various topics during this period.] 

53

(1985)

JJ's mom dies at 78 (1907 - 1985)

54

(1986)

BEGINS

 PUBLISHING

The Complete

 Runner's 

Day-by-Day

 Log and

 Calendar

UNTIL

2003

JJ writes a brief essay for each month 

55

(1987)

JJ

PUBLISHES

This is the third book JJ wrote about mobility and includes illustrations of basic stretches.

The book is  ... " a way of understanding how your musculoskeletal system prefers to work, and of putting that understanding to effective use."

JJ COMMENTS ON

THE

  BASICS OF MUSCLE & CONNECTIVE TISSUES

 [TENDON, LIGAMENT, FASCIA, BONE]

AND

COMPOSITION, FUNCTION

PLUS

MUSCLE, NERVE INTERACTIONS

&

PROPRIOCEPTORS

MECHANORECEPTORS

HOWEVER

IT

 IS

 THE

30 STRETCHING

 ILLUSTRATIONS 

BY

 KENT WILLIAMS

ARE

 JJ's

MOST USEFUL BOOK CONTRIBUTION

JJ provides commentary on 27 of the postures  emphasizing  moving deliberately to avoid injury.

PHYSICS OF MOTION

JJ emphasizes it's the physics of motion that is important.

He notes in addition to diving: 

"As a journalist I've also covered motor racing, skiing, the high jump, the pole vault, gymnastics, swimming. 

"The coaches and athletes all say the same thing, however the terminology differs. Success in these very different disciplines comes from getting the physics right."

AND

"Proprioception is the sense that helps you get the physics right."

___

What JJ discovered was the value of stretching 

" ... I use  stretching as a first-line specific, against the first hint of musculoskeletal disequilibrium - just as soon as I get finished using it for pleasure"

If I stretched out the unaccustomed but hard-used soft tissues, I didn't get sore; if I didn't stretch, I got sore, as regular clockwork." 

😒😀

'Suppleness- loose and easy flexibility is the quality that defends against the harshness of our athletic experience."

" :One of the tools for its maintenance is stretching."

"You get old or out of shape - or injured- because you lost suppleness."

JJ

presents

"a way of understanding how your musculoskeletal prefers to work, and of putting that understanding  to effective use."

"Much of the evidence I've relied on is what science calls anecdotal."

"The goal is to get the soft tissue restored to its best working length, the joints lubricated the synapses charges."

"Looseness is suppleness"

____

"Flexibility is maintained -mostly on a joint-by-joint basis, but its usefulness, its application, is on a whole-body basis." 

" To stretch effectively you must relax the muscles while you're stretch in them."  

"Movement, or contraction, is what maintains muscle health. 

Tension - stretching - seems similarly to help maintain connective tissue health." 

__

OVERSTRETCHING

JJ mentions those opposed to stretching citing increase in injuries

JJ

MENTIONS THE BENEFITS OF HATHA YOGA

NOTE

JJ discovered the benefits of stretching that has informed my own hatha yoga practice.

The illustrations by KENT WILLIAMS include postures I practice daily. 

56

(1988)

STONE WORK

IS

PUBLISHED

JJ's  year long project of building a stone wall.

 

57

(1989)

 THE 

YEAR

 JJ

 DOCUMENTS HIS WRITING LIFE

JJ's journal documents what his writing life experiences are during each month, January to December.

He does provide some information about his physical activities.

59 

(1991)

JJ's brother Jed dies

60

(1992)

THE WRITING TRADE

A YEAR IN THE LIFE

IS 

PUBLISHED

JJ shares some perspectives on aging.

 63

 (1995)

JJ

 QUOTATIONS

" I swam through several winters, in indoor pools, and really enjoyed it, but overdid it, overuse injuries, and had to quit."

" By the time ... spring arrived I was startled to find myself feeling, for the first time in my life, positively frail."

😒

JJ mentions he and wife Chris "love wilderness canoe trips, but the ... summer's expeditions had been shockingly hard."  

&

"Ordinary household tasks seemed to leave me unnecessarily tired and sore."

" The ... winter had been a severe one in New England, not in the least conducive to physical activity other than perhaps shoveling snow. I ... vegetated instead - and took a serious hit from the aging process as the price."

THESE QUOTATIONS ABOVE ARE JJ's COMMENTS 

RECOUNTED DURING HIS 64th YEAR

He shares insights, perspectives on his rural lifestyle, nature and writing as a aging senior.

 as a means to reflect on, to better understand his decline & recovery, acceptance of the gradual loss of physical activities as he got older.

JJ 

WRITES

"I thought it only sensible to approach the year as a kind of forced matriculation in Old Man's School. I would agree to learn how to be one, but retain the right to define the term for myself." 

64 

(1996)

NOVEMBER - OCTOBER

BOOK ORGANIZATION

Each month served as a chapter - collectively addressing a wide range of topics including past and present activities.

JJ is transparent anxiety about his compromised physical status, thoughts about aging throughout the year. 

BACKGROUND

[1]

" What follows is not a journal, exactly, but a record of a year nonetheless. Actually ... it is two years compressed into one: the year in which I turned sixty-five and a year of attempting to assess that turning." 

[2]

JJ NOTES

CURRENT VIEWS ON AGING

  ... WHAT IS CONSIDERED OLD

The World Health Organization considers JJ "already "elderly," : that category to span ages sixty to seventy-five." 

[3]

JJ 

REFERS TO BOOKS ABOUT AGING

These include publications of Shepard and Nuland as well as Crowley and others.

JJ mentions in a footnote the Roy Shepard publication this was a major source informing views on aging.* 

NOTE

*Our knowledge about aging, physical activity and health has expanded since the Shepard publication.

Advances in multidisciplinary analytical techniques including imaging during the past 30 years have led to discoveries in molecular and cell biology, physiology and further insights into our aging process.

[4]

NOTE

JJ includes quotes from Thoreau

Mentions his history with the author

"He's long been an interest of mine." 

'Another of the winter's projects was to read his journals, all two and a half million words of them."

Has purchased "the Dover edition, the fourteen original volumes bound as two, a total of 1,800 pages in large format, each book too heavy to be held comfortably on your lap." 

'He died two months short of his forty-fifth birthday, in 1862, of tuberculosis ..."

Selections from each month are highlighted below

NOVEMBER

The Dumpster Project

GOOD INTENTIONS THAT WERE DELAYED

___

PARAPHRASING JJ's FIRST DAY p.18

JJ drove to the pool and swam twelve hundred slow yards, had breakfast, productive writing at desk, lunch, a nap, enjoying afternoon fire in fireplace, reading Thoreau's journal, enjoying a cup of tea.

"A thoroughly satisfactory day. I'm a lucky bastard."

HOWEVER

AGING IS ON JJ's MIND

 QUOTATIONS   

"For a quarter of a century I've been in the dubious profession of writing about the physiology of athletics - which, strangely enough, is only the flip side of the physiology of aging."

" ging, one might say, is athletics turned upside down: the physiology of decrease than increase."

"Age itself say, quite plainly, that its through physiology that its going to come at you."

"A CATASTROPHIST, NOT A GRADUALIST"

JJ acknowledges he "swam too much to soon" and was "quickly thrown into despondency by sore shoulders; oh hell, that again."

"I still haven't learned that physical improvement - or restoration- also takes place at the level of the cell."

---

"After a certain ages sitting still becomes a delicious enterprise. But how long do you dare to do it, knowing it's going to make you grown when you finally rise? 

 DECEMBER

Demographing Out

ONE CONSEQUENCE OF AGING

JJ 

NOTES

"As soon as the demographers can no longer sell us anything, they stop watching. Good Go away. The noise you hear is a sigh of relief."

JJ discovers he has become detached from activities and subjects that once held his interest.

"... caring is difficult when your demographic significance diminishes with age."  

&

"Maybe those of us who demograph out can now concentrate  on matters invulnerable to hype: beyond advertising; no spin-doctors allowed."

SIGNIFICANTLY

"Our focus begins to switch to the undemographable - for instance, the phenomenal world. Weather, landforms, watersheds. Flora and fauna." 

" ... once you disappear, you're free." 

___

JJ 's AWARENESS ABOUT AGING

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PHYSIOLOGY OF AGING

[1]   

"...is age the cause of change, or the consequence of it?  JJ learned  "you don't do things as hard as you might like because your connective tissue isn't up to it. Overload it and it breaks down."

[2]

'Is it age that deteriorates the connective tissue, or lack of activity?  .... JJ asks what's the cause.

JJ recognizes "the old man's secret weapon: efficiency."

"Not only does getting old make you cranky, it also makes you cheap. ... why not "become a crotchety old man."

__

He relates getting lost on the loop he walks: a mile and a third on a wooded hillside, thirty minutes of lovely solitude.

  

---

 He comments on faulty memory

__

REVISITING 

CHILDHOOD JUGGLING

JJ acknowledges inheriting a tremor from his father, passed on to son ... has terrible handwriting and relates story about it being "one of aging's giveaways."

"I'd been reasonably athletic from childhood, but the shaky hands had been always there. I was terrible at pick-up-sticks - although I could build model airplanes and loved doing so . It wasn't strength I lacked but sure control- and some element of patience, since haste exacerbated the problem."

HIS REMEDY: JUGGLING   

JJ  had learned to juggle in high school. Juggling is catching and throwing, nothing else."

" Smoothness is the ultimate goal. Smooth, quick and accurate are just what I wanted my hands to be."

"Juggling, like meditation, is fundamentally boring ... the object is to keep it boring and, which is the very definition of meditation." still be able to concentrate on it, which is impossible.

"You end up doing it for the pure pleasure of movement: as with swimming, for the strokes."

___

JJ again returns to the thought "never again as hard as one can."  the limits of the connective tissue

JJ understanding of physiology 

'Age (1) saps the elasticity from your connective tissue, (2) causes, or perhaps allow, nerve endings to go dead, (3) dries you up."

he talks about composition of connective tissue  and mentions cartilage

not skin sag and wrinkle, joints stiffen, 

he again asks what cause, consequence age or lack of use? JJ in favor of hypokinesis, he acknowledges his stretching but connective tissue not resilient

"With age you begin recognizing the necessity of making effort as a means of holding off aging's effects." 

"it's how you keep the things you want to do from slipping away from you."

--

LOSS

JJ thinking about the death of his older brother Jed who died at 64 from cancer. I depressed and frightened him. He wanted to be prepared for the news.  He and wife signed their wills.

Loss of his female cat mid-December 

NECK ISSUE, SHOULDER PAIN

neck bothering JJ ... a bad disc that irritated the nerves leading to my right shoulder, threatening to put hose muscles into spasm, and sometimes succeeding."...

he had an MRI  five years before during flare-up and diagnosis

ON A POSITIVE NOTE

HIS NEWEST BOOK WOULD BE PUBLISHED IN JUNE

JANUARY

The Silence Of The Old Man

"It's as if aging were a process of making lists of subjects not to talk about."

JJ speculates "maybe what causes old men to go silent is simple impatience."

__

BOOK PROJECT

JJ explores an idea about writing a book about a town

---

NECK TRAUMA 

..."my back and shoulder would fee like a sack of hot doorknobs. The disk in my neck was beginning to be a real problem."   "My neck was shutting me down."

He  sees doctor, decides to have another MRI and images evaluated by a neurologist and decisions then made how to proceed  

---

AGING

"Aging makes you feel smaller." exercise helps to a degree ... lifting low weights ... knows he is fighting sarcopenia among a list of other  body malfunctions.

list of other names of body malfunctionp.

JJ

notes

 Failure to STAY FOCUSED ON EXERCISE

starts an weight exercise program and not able to maintain it for long periods

TALKS ABOUT DEATH

JJ notes in mid-January he was at the age his brother Jed received his death sentence  Jed, a poet, died four months later in 1991. 

 

makes reference to sherwin nuland how we die

"Dying is the definition of indignity. It's messy" 

" I was not embarrassed or emotionally distraught at considering that I wouldn't be here, and didn't want others being so either.."

WRITES ABOUT THOREAU 

RECALLING GLIDERS 

JJ notes " to make a glider perform well required a lovely combination of physics and physiology." 

"For a while my interest was obsessive."

" The thing about aging is that what's interesting changes. Sometimes it changes back to what was interesting before."

FEBRUARY

Why Old Men Walk That Way

JJ NOTES

"I can walk like a young person if I think about it. ... I can also consciously walk like an old man."

"More and more, though, I find myself forgetfully stumbling along in the old man's gait. It has become the default position, so to speak."

"Much of this is caused by stiffening of the joints and loss of muscle mass and leg strength." 

JJ

 ASKS

 "Where's the exercise program that restores one habitual, youthful looseness?"

"How much of physical aging is simply growing weary of having to devote attention to such matters as simple movement?"

___

NECK MRI

 

JJ's images "showed a bulging disc between vertebra C5 (C for cervical) and C6, and a lesser one at C6-C7, with a appreciable loss of space for the spinal cord."

"The appropriate solution was cervical fusion: removal of the disk between between C5 and C6, the resulting space propped open with a chip of bone from the hip."

"Two to five days in hospital ... then two to three months wearing a hard collar." 

😒

IN HIS PAST

JJ

EXPERIENCED

NONTRADITIONAL THERAPIES

for

Orthopedic Ailments 

JJ has seen chiropractors, osteopaths, been Rolfed, several types of massage, experimented with yoga.

These approaches made him feel better for awhile but none lasted.

JJ TALKS ABOUT STRESS 

JJ talks about Han Selye and his development of the biology behind the fight-or-flight response and the potential long term negative physiological health outcomes.

Selye proposed the General Adaptation Syndrome which has three steps: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

JJ notes this is where aging comes in ... "with age our homeostatic mechanisms slow down anyway, which means we reach our exhaustion stage more quickly and recover more slowly."

JJ related this to the training effect -"deliberate progressive overload" with "sufficient rest" to avoid exhaustion.

JJ MUSES ABOUT THEORIES ON AGING p. 75

"Unscientifically, aging is easy enough to recognize by visual signals alone - thinning hair, sagging skin, stooped posture, tentative movement - but no theory yet attributes these signals to a single cause."

He mention studies with nematodes and fruit flies doubling life span from selective breeding, studies on the telomere region of chromosomes, the enzyme telomerase.

JJ continues walking with Pawnee, his geriatric dog.

MARCH 

The Sock Zone

JJ's reference to conversation with author Tracy Kidder:

 with older people, Kidder noted: "the big problem is socks. Socks are terrible. None of the old guys can manage socks." 

This was confirmed by (JJ's brother) Jud's widow: "Jud hadn't bothered with socks the last six months of his life ... To damn much trouble."

___

CJ SURGERY

JJ has surgery on March 24th in Hartford , CT.

He wears a hard plastic collar ten weeks during the day, a soft collar at night.

ALCOHOL USE

JJ admits  "... I'd ingested a few ounces of the stuff daily for the past thirty years" in response to suggestion alcohol withdrawal may have led to a tachycardia incident days after surgery, his being admitted to a intensive care unit.

AGING INCONVENIENCES

JJ acknowledges  " ... I have the traditional middle-aged enlarged prostate gland, so far (knock wood) benign. Okay, late middle age."

"Peeing freely is another of aging's little losses."

ADDING 

 "Along with the ability to scratch between your shoulder blades, and to turn your head sufficiently to back safely out of the garage, one also loses the ability to sleep through the night without getting up to go to the bathroom."

Commenting on issues with prostate cancer detection, remedies

AND 

ANNOUNCES

WITHOUT 

CONVCTION

"My life expectancy is fifteen to twenty years."

NOTE

JJ's brother Jud died from bone cancer metastasized from the lungs - he has smoked until the very end

(ONLY FROM A DIFFERENT SOURCE DID I LEARN JJ SMOKED FOR 25 YEARS)

JJ  CITES THOREAU

March 30th, Easter Sunday: "rolled in with a vicious surprise blizzard, with two feet of snow and sixty-mile-per hour winds. What a chuckle that was."

APRIL

The Chronicle Imperative

(= AGINGS INEVITABILITY)

CELEBRATES

Observation of the first redwing blackbirds of the season

AND

 NOTES

DEMISE

 OF

BROTHER (64) and MOTHER (78) 

[Both resulting from cancer]

JJ

SURGERY  PROCEDURE 197

"So they slit my throat, pushed my windpipe aside, sliced out the pulpy little cervical spacer (intervertebral disc) that was no longer doing its job ..."  and addressed stenosis - removed some bone.

"... they clipped a wedge of bone from my hip about the size and shape of what you have left after you bite an Oreo in half, popped it in."

&

RECOVERY

"I was wearing a soft collar for sleeping, the hard collar for everything else."

JJ wearing the hard collar: walking "uphill was a challenge; the bone chip in my neck had come from the crest of my right pelvis."

The "hip was my only muscle damage ... the only thing that needed rehabilitation. As promised, it gave more initial discomfort than my neck."

HOWEVER

 "my neck muscles were atrophying" wearing the hard collar."  

"The collar also affected my balance."

HEALING

JJ 's recovery from surgery was "discouragingly slow."

"I got tired easily, early, often."

"I was spending time in Selye's alarm stage, the severity of which I'd forgotten. I also felt extremely heavy."  

YET

"At the same time, though, I could feel myself healing, improving daily."

AND

"In mid-April I hobbled around our mile-plus loop for the first time since the previous November- a minor triumph. Totally wiped me out, however, bringing on a wave of depression that was almost chemical in nature."  

" By late April the ice was out of the pond, open water ... immediately fetched a couple of migrating mergansers, some mallards, and another goddamned beaver."   

PROPRIOCEPTION

JJ

RECOGNIZES 

VALUE OF

PROPRIOCEPTION

(self sensing, awaremess)

JJ

NOTES

Proprioception ... " is the unacknowledged sixth sense that makes the other five so-called special senses available."

'It does this through change, a.k.a. movement

(Sensory information diminishes rapidly when it comes in a steady state.)"

AND

"Age diminishes sensitivity to movement, affecting one's capacity to detect small displacements of the limbs."

JJ notes " ... aerobic exercise improves balance and reaction time- but strength training and flexibility do not, at least in measurable ways, which is surprising."

____

MORE REFLECTIONS

ON 

AGING   

"My own planned strategy is to know that I am old - there's plenty of evidence - but to go on as before anyway."

 ... "to do that selectively, choosing which things to continue with and which to let slip away."

"This is arrogant, I realize; God, or Father Time, or the idiosyncrasies of certain cellular mechanisms, will do the selecting for me."

"I'm just trying to maintain the illusion of choice- okay, delusion- as long as possible."

😔

"Before the surgery- before the prospect of relief- I'd been guilty of thinking I probably wouldn't bother to mount an anti-aging campaign, unless I was specifically challenged in ways I didn't foresee."

" The surgery was among the tings I didn't foresee."

"Surgery aside, the difficult part is finding out where to draw the line between fighting and accepting."

 TWO QUESTIONS RAISED

 

[1]

"How do we achieve a graceful acceptance of aging's inevitability, the chronological imperative?

[2]

"How do we even recognize where we are on that curve?"

[he mentions living another 10 to 15 years]

SELF_AWARENESS

JJ had difficulty not being bored . "What a gift aging would be if it ever cured me of that .

"Fear of boredom steals so much of my time. It's a if whatever it is I'm doing , I prefer to be think about something else."

JJ & THOREAU

"He is not my hero; I am not a wannabe, a Thoreau manaque'."

Not in my life, my work, or the quality of my thought do I hope to achieve a Thoreauvian life, and most certainly not in the size of my ambition."

"I'm just trying to figure out why, for nearly fifty years, he has kept getting my attention. Besides, a collar around my neck gave me plenty of time to dig back into his journals."   

JJ IS ALARMED BY THE AGING OF HIS DOG

MAY 

Fool On Board

JJ

CONFLICTED WITH MEDIA

"Objectively, my continuing old-fart's whine about media is pretty pathetic. After all, it was the media that got me off tobacco, got me starting exercising, got me in shape, opened up that whole fascinating world of physiology to me: gave me a thirty-year career in that field; gave me a living."

____

AGING AND HYPERTENSION

JJ views on high blood pressure:  ... in short, is age-related but not age-determined and normal but not harmless."

a hereditary component and lifestyle: diet and exercise important

ENJOYING TRACTOR MAINTENANCE

JJ spends time on prepping machine used for mowing

CONSIDERS THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF AGING

"Aging is a matter of pace, I keep reminding myself: pace versus duration."

JJ

ABILITY

TO

ENJOY

MANUAL LABOR

JJ describes the pleasure of using a shovel without gloves, spitting on his hands and moving driveway gravel "thirty yards long and a foot high" that had been dislocated by snowplowing. 

" ... it was the first time in memory I'd actually spat on my hands. In sixty-four years. How bizarre. Push up your sleeves, spit on your hands 

JJ's full day of activities were done with "no nap, full-strength all day long, not a murmur of protest from physical systems (except for blisters)."

"... Slept seven hours, awoke raring to go again the next morning."   

SMUGNESS FACTOR

A new message for the answering machine

"Sorry, but we're actively happy now, and your call may interrupt that. If you want to leave a message, push OFF."

😊

SHARES THOREAU WORDS

MAY 29, 1853

"Bathing has begun." 

[Bathing = Swimming]

JUNE

A Little Song, 

A Little Dance,

 A Little Seltzer

____

JJ CITES THOREAU

June 1, 1857

"I hear the note of a bobolink concealed inn the top of an apple tree behind me.  ... Methinks they are the most liquidly sweet and melodious sounds I ever heard."

JJ RESPOSE

"Which is the reason we stopped haying our fields in early summer."

____

[1] 

RECOVERING FROM SURGERY

JJ's

 "ten-week checkup, the end of the hard collar regime."

Receives OK to engage in physical activities 

AND

[2]

RETURN TO INDOOR SWIMMING

JUNE 4th: 70 days post-surgery 

Swam a "very slow" 500 yards first time back

SOME AGING THOUGHTS

"Control is a lust that grows with age, as it tries to slip away."

FIRST LAWN MOWING

'Halfway through June's lawn mowing, on a muggy afternoon, the tractor chose to die stone-dead a hundred yards from my tools, not to mention from shade or shelter from the blackflies."

BODY FOCUS

He takes joy in sunbathing in "early evenings when the sun was

 sufficient to heat cold bones but not burn tissue-thin skin."

"I crave sun more than I fear cancer." recalling his Texas lifeguarding days in the sun, 

Notices he is "bonier" than a year ago ... he is " knobbier, more angular; my bones feel sharper."

AND

JJ 

ADMITS

"It makes me realize how body-oriented  - okay, body-obsessed I've been all my life."

MOTIVATION FROM ACTIONS

Relates that to his physical activities, pleasuring the body, led to his writing about physiology, trying to understand it."

BUILDING THE DOCK

Eighteen feet long, four feet wide 

JOY OF LABOR

OVER

 FOUR

 DAYS

" ... nothing but spatial relationships: measuring, fitting, solving small problems."

ENJOYING 

"Full foliage, full birdlife, full greenery. Full summer. Outdoors, after a winter in jail."

JJ 

TAKEAWAY   

" It was that wonderful oxymoron, hard work as deep rest."

YET

JJ

NOTICES

LOSS OF STRENGTH WITH AGE

JJ

 comments

 on

 MUSCLE  

"It is not surprising, as one gets olde, to run out of the strength to complete a task."

"Strength is muscle, and we do lose muscle as we age- although whether the loss is a cause or a consequence of reduced activity is up for grabs, as usual."

"Our muscles hang onto endurance better than they do to sheer strength."

JJ

NOTES 

"In the last thirty years we've put more and more emphasis on maintaining aerobic function, even in the very old."

"Now we're learning that maintenance of strength and flexibility (or, preferably their increase) is equally important in holding on to volitional bodily function- and even, perhaps more important, cognitive function."

JJ 

AGAIN

HIGHLIGHTS 

HIS

JUGGLING PRACTICE

JJ juggles each day 

"I'd been juggling for a few minutes each day before sitting down to my desk, thinking of it as a kind of wake-up call to my nerve endings- a loosen-upper, like a dancer's barre."

"Now when I run into a writing problem, when I can't quite get my mind around what I'm trying to say, when concentration fades, I step away from my desk, and pick up the juggling balls."

"I juggle until I've made a thousand passes."

"A thousand passes, misses included, takes five to ten minutes, a longer break than I'd need to smoke a cigarette, which I used to do for much the same purpose."

JJ

 ADDS

"I have no ideas whether this stupid little ritual had any effect on cognitive function at all, but I like to credit it with the recovery of my handwriting.

ADMITS

"Playing with juggling balls gave me some of the better thinking time of the day. Still does." 

___

REWARDING

EVENINGS SPENT WITH CHRIS

"Every evening, as we talk our way through cocktails, dinner prep and the meal itself, we generate big ideas."

JULY

The Machine Age and Me

He makes reference to past restoration of a truck: using metaphor with age your bushings go bad"
___

JJ  

"More eloquent ranters than myself have dumped all over the Cyber Age, and I'm embarrassed to add to the din, but we oldsters are aborigines, dazzled by cybertrinkets from the invading Netniks, and I fear some of them may be laced with smallpox."

"The Cyber Age is passing me by. As with demographics, I'm aging out of this one too."

JJ

NOTES

" " ... it's the mechanical age that I hate to give up on: that time when we could understand how things worked and fix them when they broke. I don't want to give up on that world. It's also the one where physiology still counts for something."  ____

ON HIS AGING 

"My skin, however, has gotten a lot thinner over the inactive winter, another of aging's little jokes."

"Beneath the skin ... The bags that contain the working parts, and the strings that connect them, had grown more fragile."

"  ... it was taking me a good deal longer to warm up sufficiently at a task before I could apply much force, and that force had to be applied in a gingerly fashion."

"When I swam my shoulder complained for the first ten minutes or so; then they felt fine, and swimming became the usual dance of pleasure."

JJ

 COMMENTS

ON

DECREASING

TESTOSTERONE LEVELS

KEEPING BUSY,

RESTLESS BUT PATIENT

JJ engages in projects   

" I replaced a disintegrating low brick wall with solid benches, another mesmerizing four-day project. I painted things." but

 takes away time from his writing. 

Acknowledges that "Age- and a hard collar - seemed to have brought it (patience) back."

HOWEVER

NOT applicable to e-mail  JJ challenged by digital age but did not find it useful - abandoned then did use, but discarded e-mail 

 "It began to eat my life."

___

SOLO TRP TO ADIRONDAKS 

RESEARCH FOR ARTICLE  

goes on first canoe trip to Adirondacks in eleven months ...

 "A canoe will get you more of less"

 of

 "wilderness, solitude, distance in."

ENJOYING

Camping, canoeing, nature, wildlife, solitude

"On my own; responsible for myself. I hadn't paddled a boat in eleven months, and was tired in my arms, shoulder and back, tired all over but pleasantly so. 

Not to ill effect.

 No problem with my neck, my winter frailness: obviously I could paddle again."

JJ

ENOYS

THE NOTION OF SOLOING

"Going out into the woods and spending a night by yourself is not about being alone but rather to opposite: escaping aloneness.. 

"You are only alone if 

you retain self-awareness; at the best of times soloing wipes that completely away ."  

"If no one else is there to be aware of you, you cease to exist as a separate self. It's a great relief."

ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION  

JJ INCLUDES HIS BURBON ON THIS TRIP

AUGUST

Going Orthopedic

JJ   

from middle age on "orthopedism is is always hanging over you"   

"It's a lot better to know that if you push too hard you're going to have a torn muscle or a sprung tendon than to fear if you push too hard you're going to have and infarction and fall dead."

__

NATURE, THOREAU

FEELING & LOOKING GOOD

JJ notes " I was repaired, returned to normal, better than normal since I'd also begun to round into shape again."  

His wife Chris perceived a twenty year shift - from an apparent age of 70 to perhaps 50.

___

CANOE TRIP

 ON

 ONTARIO FRENCH RIVER

JJ & C go on a canoes trip to Ontario French River

'The French River is essentially a straight-line, east -west crack in the Precambrian Shield- a great dome of granite on which most of Canada sits-that essentially turns south and heads for Lake Huron."  

ENJOYING NATURE

uses binoculars: noted loons, gulls, crows, ravens, cormorants, buteos, buzzards, ducks, ospreys, whitethroats

AGING ANXIETY

JJ asks question ..." How do you deal with the end of improvement? That's the quandary of aging in a nutshell."

SEPTEMBER 

The Chronicles of Hypochondria

_

J notes the first frost on September 24. He puts on socks for the first time.

__

FACING REALITY

JJ NOTES

 "even with aerobic exercise and better nutrition for years, neither is sufficient to protect the aging body. A healthy old body requires strength." 

"Everyone is going to have a health crisis eventually; the the object is to have fewer of them, later, shorter ones."

JJ

NOTES

THE

FIRST FROST

OCTOBER

Uneven Ground

JJ writes he has lived on this land for 18 years

____

THOREAU ON NATURE

"October is all the glory, all tribute, all celebration of the great swell of l

___

AGING

"Aging skeletons do not want to sing out after you've been using them hard - or, continuously, not hard enough." 

" I am  in    on my feet   are turning into 

SELF EVALUATION

"I was callow too long, worked too hard to get over it i I never sense, even as I approach sixty-five, that I am not still callow and that gripes my ass."

ON RETIREMENT

ON NUTRITION

"I am conscious of diet but but not to the extent of of doing much about it."

NOTE

"I love good food but will never get serious about it."

"Chris and I tried  vegetarian diet for a while, back in the brown -rice sixties "  ... "too much trouble."

"Nowadays we eat more meat than we should." 

JJ is critical of nutritionists, he notes : diets don't work."

JJ 

ADDS

"We have to hang on to our pleasures"  I don't think we should stint on sensual kicks, flavors, substances, sights and sounds, sexual practices, sybarite body care."

FEEDING THE RAT

JJ recall story told to him by Dr. Theodore Grand about the A. Alverez book FEEDING THE RAT on Climber Mo Antoine.

Antoine liked to "deliberately put yourself in difficult situations then you get a pretty good idea of how you are going" ... " that's why I like feeding the rat. It's a sort of annual checkup on myself."

JJ ends his last month before turning sixty five 

ALS0

IN

1997

THE

 ELEMENTS 

OF

 EFFORT

IS 

PUBLISHED

JJ shares collection of brief essays about running that appeared in his Running Day-By-Day Calendar 

JJ

ALSO

PUBLISHED

BLUE ROOMS

R I P P L E S , R I V E R S , P O O L S , 

A N D  O T H E R  W A T E R S 

JJ 

experiences, responses to the Kiamichis  as a youth 

talks about trips to the Adirondacks and the Laurentians

" The Adirondacks are a geological extension of the Laurentians, and the physical geography, the sensory experience, is virtually identical."

JJ

NOTES

His wife Chris 

JJ

 shares 

physical experiences related to water throughout his life (swimming, canoeing, windsurfing)

SHARES

EXPERIENCES

(1)

SWIMMING SINCE CHILHOOD

writing about his training and competitive swimming: "After a few years, accumulated wear and tear began to take the fun out of it, and I retired as a racer." 

(2)

WINDSURFING WITH ADULT SON IN ARUBA

FREE DIVING IN THE CARRIBBEAN  WATERS  " "with no equipment but mask, snorkel, and fins." 

(3)

CANOEING, CAMPING WITH WIFE CHRIS 

"Until a few years ago my experiences with canoes was limited, but the more time I spend with them the more I've come to enjoy the act of paddling."

JJ

Compares details of the paddling stroke to the swimming stroke 

JJ

RECALLS EVENING SWIM IN 1950

" ... glided through the silver water, watching with blurry eyes the dark shadow of my naked body drift across the moonlit sand below me, and the confusing world reduced to black and white, to cold and hot, and some unnamable voice whispered in my head, as I slid along under the surface, alive! Alive!  

(4)

WALKING AT HOME

JJ NOTES

ON

 AUTUMN

 "It's the best time of the year to walk our hillside, and Chris and I have been tracing watersheds ... for seventeen years, "I don't know every rivulet."

67

(2000)

PUBLISHES LAST BOOK

ON TURNING SIXTY FIVE

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

69

(2002)

DEMISE

FROM

 LUNG CANCER

JJ   

"I smoked for more than twenty five years; I just purely loved tobacco in just about any form anyone wanted to sell it to me." 

HE 

NOTES

"If you are a smoker you're seventy times more likely to have lung cancer ..."

"Smoking doubles your chances of dying before age 65

[ A white male born in 1932 had a life expectancy of    ]

MY 

TAKEAWAYS

ABOUT 

JOHN JEROME

[1]

The sensations from diverse physical activities and terrain, nature were appreciated throughout his life, from childhood to adult and senior status.

A skilled freelance writer, the diverse articles and books written revealed details of his life - views of and reactions to people, places and personal preferences and physical activities.  

[2]

Information was sought over many years from diverse sources about exercise physiology specialists and elite athletes to better understand how a healthy body functioned - recognizing a considerable absence of empirical data, many unanswered questions know at that time. 

 His shared perspectives on aging at different life stages were informed by the many changes to his physical appearance and limitations of his physical abilities as well as interpersonal communications and published contemporary and historical  literature including Thoreau

 

[3] 

His love of the water, swimming led to serious and sustained training for years at 47 and competitive masters competition.

Prolonged discomfort and pain led to neck surgery, physical recovery and an evolving psychology, positive changes in attitudes about his life.

With restored mobility, valued camping, hiking canoe trips in nature with his wife were possible which added to the quality of his life.

HOWEVER

JJ did not devote any real interest about his nutrition, rather dismissive about his drinking but acknowledged the hazards of his smoking for twenty five years.

JJ

ON

VALUE 

OF

 STRETCHING 

&

 YOGA

He recognized the value of stretching and spoke favorably about yoga

"Stretching is the gentle restorative that pulls me back

into comfortable contact with myself, that tells my body  is up to."

JJ

On

 YOGA     

"Yoga is often touted informally as an antidote for aging."

"Gerontologists often use loss of flexibility in joints, muscles, tendons, even skin as an index of aging. Stretching maintains flexibility."

"Yoga (or stretching) does open a quiet little door. into the consciousness. To get real benefit, you must pay attention as you do it." 

____

JJ's unique mobility experiences and perspectives on aging provide a background and contrast to my own story of improving whole body mobility as a senior. 

PART 2

MY 

MOBILITY EVOLUTION

Born in Manhattan, I have no memory of living in NEW YOK CIY before moving to Bethpage in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. 

___

My early childhood physical experiences were perhaps like those of others during the 1950's.

UNDER THE UMBRELLA

 OF 

PLAY

WE 

'PLAYED'

 INSIDE

 AND 

OUTSIDE

ACTIVITIES

INCLUDED:

 riding bikes, shooting baskets, playing stickball, swimming in backyard pools

&

ENJOYING 

Swings, slides, climbing bars, 

baseball, softball, whiffle ball with sticks

jump rope, hopscotch on sidewalks or roads

roller skates, ice skates

hide and seek, guns with caps

climbing trees, exploring constructions sites

putt putt golf, bowling, movies

board games, cards, comic books, library books

coloring books, crayons or pencils

assembling, painting model planes

 assembling, flying kites

My play experiences were quite different from those activities John Jerome shared in this writings. 

Organized team sports (baseball, football ) were not pursued during my childhood or adolescence.

EARLY YEARS

This image was sent to me in my 40's and one of only several known to exist but a favorite.

SANTA & ME 

Few memories of my childhood years can be recalled at this time.

HOWEVER

What I do remember is having difficulty breathing from an early age. 

Frequent infections of thick, sticky mucus in bronchi compromised my breathing.

NOTE

I can recall many nights when attempts to facilitate breathing led to applying Vicks VapoRub under nose, towel over head  with sink of hot water.

Exposure to disinfectant sprays, hair spray, perfumes, cigarette and cigar smoke were all triggers that were a problem. 

I

BEGIN

 RUNNING 

Diagnosed with a heart murmur, becoming fatigued walking up stairs led to my being excluded from physical activity for a year.

As a freshman I joined the track team with absolutely no experience, no talent in an attempt to get some exercise.

One memory stands out: I recall an inability to complete a single lap when I started to run.

HOWEVER

I gradually did get stronger although I struggled getting oxygen related to an alarming concavity in my chest. 

 This thoracic structural deformity took a physical and psychological toll.

***

HIGH SCHOOL

Running became a source of enjoyment despite having no obvious skill.

 I remained a member of our high school track team for four years. 

Recaling the many hours spent after school practices running on the cinder track, at times running in school hallways, up, down stairs, at times around parking lot in front of the school. and attending early Saturday morning practices after working late nights and walking miles to get home are good memories.

This physical activity was overall a positive experience and the source of several good memories during the senior year enjoyed with teammates and coaches before graduating.

Recently I found some notes taken during the 1960's about our practices on the cinder track that had me smiling.

COMPROMISED

 BREATHING

WORSENS

Difficulty breathing continued throughout my 20's.

My immune system was over-reactive to environmental allergens which c compromised my health.

Frequency of asthma required medical interventions. 

BOB AT 20

POST ADOLESENCE

Participation in some physical activities while spending time  in New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania before relocating to Massachusetts did occur.

I discovered it was more enjoyable to run informally than maintaining a relationship with the college track team.

Within a paper submitted for an adolescent psychology class, I recall wrting running was an important and valued activity but one burdened by difficulties breathing that compromised my quality of life. 

Other physical activities on campus included racquetball and other gym requirement for graduation.

Unlike John Jerome, I had no affinity to being in water and never became a proficient swimmer.

I was never comfortable being in water, especially deep water.

LIVING

ON

CAPE COD

[WOODS HOLE, FALMOUTH MA]

My years pursuing research interests at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA in the lab of  Dr. J. R. Whittaker were intellectually stimulating and rewarding.

DURING THESE YEARS

I 

WAS

 DEALING 

WITH

ASTHMA & ALLERGY

SETBACKS

COMPROMISED BREATHING

LED TO MEDICAL INTERVENTIONS

SHOTS

Desensitization shots were administered to help alleviate reactions to environmental conditions including:

dust, mites, mold grasses, trees, cat and dogs and many others

AND

SURGERY

Sinus surgery restored breathing through my nose.

Albuterol was used to relax smooth muscles to breathe easier.

BIKING REPLACES RUNNING

 Running was discontinued as I developed exercise-induced asthma.

  

A UNIVEGA bicycle was purchased and enjoyed for many years.

Biking became a primary physical activity in addition to visits to at the local gym in Falmouth.

RELOCATION 

FROM 

Cape Cod

TO

FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK

CANADA

January 1993 - August, 1996

WORKING VISA

Walking and biking were my two modes of transportation without a car throughout my stay.

Three winters of cold temperatures and wind chill 

triggered cold-induced asthma.

During my first summer at the Huntsman Marine Lab in New  Brunswick I biked from  ST. ANDREWS TO ST. STEPHENS 

&

I crossed the border got ice cream and returned .

RETURN TO USA

BOSTON

Shriners 

My return to the United States began a new life chapter.

 

I was able to secure a position in the research community at the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Boston functioning to assist others in their grant funded research objectives.

For over a decade I was responsible for the management and operation of an open lab, common use Core Morphology Facility.

 I designed and setup multiple areas in the newly constructed hospital interacting with members of the international  community: engineers, physicians, biologists focused on burn injury research.

NOTE

I had the background and skills to appreciate the biology of the exercise physiology, focus on mobility and value of stretching and the issues with aging that John Jerome wrote in his books.

WHILE EMPOYED AT THE SHRINERS I HAD AN OPPORTUNITY

 TO 

ADDRESS

MY

COMPROMISED BREATHING

AT

MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL 

As a Shriner's employee, I was fortunate to have good health care coverage.

I took initiative and made an appointment with Dr. John Wain, thoracic surgeon, seeking authorization of a procedure done on pediatrics and teenagers. Not someone at 50.

NOTE

I had prepared for this surgery by loosing 25 pounds - doing a lot of walking and changing eating habits.

PECTUS EXCAVATUM

SURGERY

FOR

COMPROMISED 

STERNUM STRUCTURE

Dr. John Wain supported and provided medical justifications my request to have the reconstructive surgery.

RECONSTRUCTIVE

THORACIC SURGERY

AT

50

(2001)

RESTORED 

MY

BREATHING

JUNE 4, 2001

SURGERY

A titanium bar was inserted in my chest to provide  structural support for 13 months before being removed.

A GRADUAL RECOVERY

The morning after my return from a week stay  at Mass General Hospital I began to walk daily. 

Records of my walking were kept: I began walking three miles the first day and increased each walk during the first week by a half mile.

During the second week I walked twice a day, three times a day during the third week.

The invasive nature of the procedure required me to attempt sleeping upright in a hospital bed placed in my apartment while I was still in the hospital.

Washing hands, brushing teeth initially were a challenge given the nature of the surgery.

RETURN TO WORK

My recovery occurred without setbacks and I was approved to return to work 30 days after the procedure.

Part of my recovery included walking stairs in the Shriner's Boston hospital where I was employed; from the basement to ninth floor.

_____

EMPLOYMENT AT THE SHRINERS HOSPITAL

 contributed to a successful effort to apply for a mortgage and purchase a townhouse condo in Auburn, MA during 2003. 

AUBURN, MA

Located in Central Massachusetts, this town had access to the Mass Turnpike and facilitated my attendance at independent bookstores and antiquarian book fairs in a nine state radius.

JOINING

LOCAL GYM MEMBERSHIP

AUBURN

I would drive from the commuter rail station directly to the gym in order to get some exercise after long days in Boston.

My relocation to Auburn was an opportunity to begin a process of addressing a need to obtain more muscle tone, strength following the reconstructive thoracic surgery.

Light weights with available equipment initially were recommended by a staff employee.

I consulted with a trainer made aware of my surgery and started slowly to engage in whole body movements that might increase strength.

Especially enjoyable was the low sitting bike machine allowing customized resistance.

I used the gym frequently into 2010. 

BUT

The powers-that-be at the Shriner s Tampa headquarters  dealing with my employer financial crisis led to a recession

and loss of job security based on grant support 

57

(2007, 2008)

part time employment

LOSS OF J.R. WHITTAKER

CHANGE IN FISCAL STATUS

DECEMBER, 2009

LOSS OF EMPLOYMENT

AT

SHRINERS HOSPITAL

Individuals within the research

community were notified of my layoff.

I was determined to spend more time addressing health and quality of life issues moving forward as 2010 began.

59

(2010)

While qualifying for unemployment and attending WIND network meetings seeking advice toward looking for a new job.

EXPLORING 

PHYSICAL OPTIONS

I spent time a the local gym attempting to keep active, enjoying the sitting stationary bikes available, doing light weights to maintain some semblance of muscle tone.

BUT

MY LOWER BACK ISSUES

 (DISCOMFT, PAIN)

 PERSISTED 

A CONSEQUENTIAL MEETING

A suggestion was made to consider massage as a way to alleviate muscle, connective tissue discomfort & pain.

 This individual also taught evening group yoga classes at a local gym in a nearby town.

I thought it might be interesting to experience a yoga class before having discussions about massage treatments.

😊

My introduction to Ray Hoyt occurred  before the start of his yoga class when he briefly greeted me.

I recall words to simply watch what he and others were doing and to have fun.

MY

BODY TRANSFORMATION

 BEGINS

YOGA INSTRUCTOR

RAY HOYT

MY

INITIAL EXPOSURE 

TO

HATHA YOGA

WAS

 POSITIVE

😎

ESPECIALLY

ATTRACTIVE

WERE

DELIBERATE WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS

WITH

NO IMPACT

AND

USING

 PROPS

INCLUDING

STRAPAN IN AND YOGA BLOCKS

RAY'S

INSTRUCTION

Ray's hatha yoga instruction was based on teachings of B. K. S. Iyengar

I

ATTENDED

EVENING GROUP CLASSES 

At 

LOCAL GYM 

& 

GIVEN

 PERMISSION

TO PARTICIPATE IN SMALLER TEMPLE CLASSES

IN

WEBSTER, MA

INSPIRING INSTRUCTION

RAY had a style of teaching I appreciated.

He made everyone feel comfortable independent of their experience. 

Most participants were female of varying ages and body types

RAY encouraged all attending his classes to move within their abilities, to be comfortable with what they could do now

NOTE

Ray's classes were for beginners, intermediate and advanced levels offered the opportunity to learn from watching others move  to see other moving 

STARTING 

WITH

 NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

It was obvious during the first several evening yoga classes my   was not able at the time to move in ways demonstrated

SUN SALUTATIONS

My initial introduction to the  sun salutation sequence of movements Ray demonstrated was a humbling experience.

Asking my body to move in several ways beyond current abilities was a revelation - one that was viewed through a lens of possibilities.

I recognized the long term benefits of movements being done without jarring impacts.

__ 

Whole body asanas were done from various positions: standing sitting, kneeling, squatting, supine, prone, on ones side, and inverted, and transitions from one into another.

Inverted asanas included headstands, handstands, shoulder stands.

RECOGNIZING POSSIBILITIES

SEEKING

 IMPROVED MOBILITY

VIA

YOGA

WAS

 HOW

 I 

WAS 

TO

BECOME 

AN

'ATHLETE'

FOR  JOHN JEROME, IT WAS SWIMMING

FOR ME, It WAS YOGA

WITH NO EXPERIENCE I BEGAN TO SUBJECT MY BODY TO FOCUSED, DISCIPLINED & SUSTAINED TRAINING

Frequent visits to the local Auburn and Webster gyms were made practicing whole body movements introduced during our classes

  

I lacked the strength, balance and flexibility as well as controlled breathing that would be required to do many basic movements.

Attempting to 'calm my mind' in corpse pose at the end of each session was beyond my abilities when starting. 

I MADE A VERY GOOD DECISION TO FOCUS ON ME.

💖

CLASS INSTRUCTION 

WAS

COMPLEMENTED

FROM 

 BOOKS AND VIDEOS

I did act on Ray's suggestion and purchased a copy of B.K.S. Iyengar's book Light on Yoga

I ALSO PURCHASED AND WATCHED VIDEOS

THIS DVD DEMONSTRATED THE BASIC WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS BEING PRESENTED IN OUR GROUP YOGA CLASSES

WHILE 

THE

 TONY SCHWARTZ WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS PRESENTED A MORE COMPLETE DEMONSTRATION OF HOW MOVING ONES BODY WAS POSSIBLE

 BOTH INFORMATIVE AND INSPIRING 

HIS

 DVD

 YOGA CHALLENGE 4

 DEMONSTRATED WHOLE BODY MOBILITY

 POSSIBILITIESS

MY YOGA CLASSED WERE COMPLEMENTED BY MONTHLY APPOINTMENTS WITH RAY

FOR

TUI NA

BODYWORKS

MASSAGE

MY YOGA PRACTICE WAS ABOUT TO SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGE 

AS FEBRUARY BEGINS

HATHA YOGA

 BECOMES 

A

 LIFESTYLE FOCUS

ANCORA IMPARO

[I AM STILL LEARNING]

(FEBRUARY 7, 2011 )

FIRST CLASS

IN

THE YOGA LOFT

I was among those fortunate to be invited to participate in evening group classes led by RAY HOYT

Located on the third floor of a former linen mill in DUDLEY, MA

This new studio was designed for instruction of a smaller number of individuals, distinct from the local gym walk in group classes Ray taught.  

Dimensions of the studio allowed for twenty to twenty five individual to participate comfortably in group classes.

Ray had two wall ladders and wall rope installed and did provide a high quality sound system.

PARTNER POSES, ASSISTED MOVEMENTS

The opportunities to have one or several individuals facilitate movements were enjoyable. 

I

BEGIN
TO

 USE

WRIST SUPPORTS 

60

(2011)

ATTENDING

MORE YOGA CLASSES

I continued to attend the Tuesday and Thursday evening group yoga classes Ray taught and received permission to participate in the evening class at a local temple limited to a smaller number of individuals. 

RAY added a Saturday morning class at The YOGA LOFT

These four classes and practice on my own were making a difference. 

Hours of practicing the yoga asanas being introduced on my own led to positive outcomes.

YOGA IS A HUMBLING EXPERIENCE

The sequence of asanas a Ray chose to include in his classes quickly identified area of deficiencies, limitations  in strength, balance, flexibility , breathing and 'calming the mind

The frequency of practice was critical to address these issues

[1]

I began to get stronger wrists, arms shoulder a back abdominals.

[2]

My balance was improving with asana practice.

BUT

LOWER BACK DISCOMFORT, PAIN CONTINUES

RAY EVALUATES MY BACK

MARCH 20, 20212

I recall requesting a paid consultation with Ray - meeting in The Yoga Loft on a Sunday to evaluate my lower back.

I experienced an inversion table and sphinx and cobra asanas were suggested - two basic movements to begin to improve bending my spine backwards. 

Another suggestion was to stand with back against the wall and elevating the arms and in contact the wall above my head 

Practicing this by moving feet away from the wall and raising arms like in the photo below. 

I also took advantage of using 

PROPS

TO

ASSIST BACKBENDING

GRADUALLY

&

SAFELY

INCLUDING 

THE WHALE

This prop located in a smaller room was used often to help open up my spine and back

I had begun a commitment to improve my whole body mobility 

ACTIVITIES 

[1]

Gradual but significant mobility improvement was made from taking classes in The Yoga Loft, at the local gym and practicing on my own 

Daily practice was directed towards opening my pelvic girdle muscles and connective tissues and those associated with the legs, back and abdominal areas as well.

Over time moving from a deep squats into a lunge position shown below became more accessible.

PHOTOS INSTRUCTIVE

With further practice, my extended leg knee would be elevated to form a straight line from head to foot.

It then became possible focus on acquiring the balance to raise the torso upwards with the forward foot flat and the extended leg foot toes supporting the body.

The ability to support the body while maintaining  balance with controlled breathing led to additional body movements including raising arms, above head, behind back and twisting.

While still unemployed and attending various WIND programs

 opportunities in my field at a time when people my age were not being hired I practiced  the basic yoga movements introduced during the three evening classes being offered.

AND

[2]

It was through a contact with a member from a local gym in Auburn that I also accepted an invitation to instruct his wife with a complex of medical issues on-on one in her home .

I was good at modifying basic yoga movement and making them accessible, at times using different yoga props.

Our interactions and positive outcomes led me to take steps that furthered my interest in 

establishing a means to have more formal interactions with others

Our interaction lasted into 2013 

It was rewarding to see the positive health outcomes resulting from our interactions 

61

(2012)

ACTIONS

TAKEN

TAKEN TO INCREASE MOBILITY

[1]

 ATTENDED MORE YOGA CLASSES

TUESDAY & THURSDAY GYM CLASSES,

MULTIPLE YOGA LOFT 

give #

Experiencing range of motions with assistance and on own

Learning to better control breathing and to "calm the mind" from racing thoughts was a goal that would take years to realize.

[2]

MONTHLY MASSAGE CONTINUES

Daily practice of basic movements were reflected in a  gaining a enhanced mobility.

Massage appointments with Ray facilitated muscle and connective tissue recovery from the daily practice of yoga within classes, on my own.

[3]

OPEN MEMBERSHIP

POWERHOUSE GYM OF WEBSTER

March 29, 2012

[4]

MEETING 

WITH

 BRIAN D. BUSCONI, MD

APRIL 10, 2012

Left lateral knee pain doing sun salutations led me to meet a Sports Medicine Specialist 

A brief evaluation led to a welcomed diagnosis and resolution

Purchasing volleyball knee pads would provide protection from pressure on my superficial peroneal nerve

[5]

ASSISTING , INSTRUCTING  OTHERS  BASIC MOVEMENTS 

AT 

MY CONDO

&

HOME VISITS, POSITIVE OUTCOMES

ENJOYABLE

[6] 

SELF-DIRECETED YOGA PRACTICE

I was focused on maintaining a lean and stronger, more flexible body with improved balance.

My 

Lifestyle Priorities 

would include the following: 

ACQUIRING BALANCE

BUILDING STRENGTH

INCREASING FLEXIBILITY

CONTROLLING BREATHING

'CALMING MY MIND"

ALSO

DECREASING BODY WEIGHT

IMPROVING NUTRITION

REDUCING STRESS

MY YOGA PRACTICE

 LED

 TO

CHANGING PRIORITIES

I DECIDED TO FOCUS ON MY HEALTH FULLTIME

 Lifestyle Choices Using My Yoga Practice 

were

 a higher priority than seeking new employment.

My friend and former employer DR. J. R. WHITTAKER had made it financially possible for me to focus on my yoga practice fulltime.

[SEE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]

😊

The dramatic improvements to how I was moving could not be understated.

I enjoyed the impact my yoga practice was having on me.

HATHA YOGA

WAS

TRANSFORMING MY BODY,

TURNING BACK TIME

AND

AS

 2102

ENDED

I SOUGHT TO

[1]

DOCUMENT MY MOBILITY PROGRESS

AND

[2]

INITIATE OTHER VENTURES, 

SEEK NEW EXPERIENCES

62

(2013)

BY

2013

I WAS ACQUIRING

 A 

BASIC YOGA  MOBILITY

&

 BUILDING A SOUND FOUNDATION

WHILE

ADDRESSING HEALTH RISK FACTORS

THAT

SLOWED THE AGING PROCESS

 ____

LIFESTYLE FOCUS

ON 

WHOLE BODY MOBILITY

AND

NUTRITION

2013

 WAS 

A PRODUCTIVE YEAR

The following Activities Contributed to improving my physical and mental health status

[1]

DOCUMENTING MY YOGA ASANAS

I

HIRED

 A 

PROFESSIONAL

PHOTOGRAPHER

ERIC LEcuyer

DOCUMENTING 

WHOLE BODY MOBILITY

Photos were taken on Saturday, January in the Worcester studio of Eric LEcuyer

after a morning yoga class at The YOGA LOFT

 PHOTOGRAPHS

ARE 

REPRESENTATIVE

OF

 WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS

 AFTER

 27 MONTHS

 OF

PRACTICE

IN

 DIVERSE ASANAS

WARRIOR II

CHATTARANGA

PLOW POSE

REVOLVED LATERAL ANGLE

'BIRD OF PARADISE'

REVOLVED LATERAL ANGLE

TORTOISE POSE

TRIANGLE POSE

THESE HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES 

DEMONSTRATE MOVEMENTS FROM VARIOUS POSITIONS

STRENGTH, BALANCE, FLEXIBILITY

&

 CONTROLLED BREATHING

LESS OBVIOUS 

 BREATHING, CALM MIND

[2]

X-RAY IMAGING 

Of

CERVICAL & LUMBAR

SPINE

 EVALUATION Of SPINE 

BY

CHIROPRACTER

  ROBERT PAGE

Five images were take revealed the following 

[1]

a slight lateral bending (scoliosis) of my cervical vertebrae

[2]

A significant scoliosis of the lumbar vertebrae to the left

[3]

Advanced degeneration of lumbar 5 vertebrae, evidence of bone on bone contact 

find NOTES

THESE IMAGES LED TO FOLLOWING ACTIONS 

I met with Dr. Page for five sessions for manipulations

He suggested further adjustments were not necessary as I was attending regular yoga classes

He focused on my back and neck.

Dr. Page's neck adjustments were helpful  to increase neck muscles  range of motions when doing asanas like Triangle, Revolved Triangle and Revolved Lateral Angle where turning ones head, looking upwards is a feature of these postures.

MY YOGA ACTIVITIES

 EXPANDED 

DURING

 2013

I INCREASED OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE IN WHOLE BODY MOBILITY THROUGH VARIOUS ACTIONS 

INCLUDING

[1]

FORMING A BUSINESS

MOBILITY ASSESSMENT

BEFORE

CUSTOMIZED INTRUCTION

I was interested in offering an alternative different yoga instruction experience 

 My approach was designed to interact closely with one or two individuals at a time and address their issues, goals  after completing an assessment of their current mobility abilities.

My instruction would be customized 

Designed to modify movements within their ability, using different props to gently and safely enable them to move within current abilities.

This was distinctly different from yoga classes for larger groups  - a situation where the instructor knows nothing about the participants mobility, limitations, injuries,  medical issues. 

[2]

CREATING A BUSINESS PLAN

&

TELLING MY STORY

I attended business meeting at Clark University, attended workshop at WIND SOUTH, 

ACKNOWLEDGING

name those who help me

 CLARK UNIVERSITY

BETH GOLDSTEIN

NORMAN DOUST

JOHN PERKINS 

PATRICK BROWN

TOM INGRASSIA

BRANDING MYSELF

MY

BUSINESS CARD

&

HANDOUT

WERE

DESIGNED

BY

 TIM BICKFORD

(Paintman Productions)

My intent was to instruct individuals on a part time basis while I continued to purse my yoga development.

[3]

CREATING A YOGA WEBSITE

DON LEGASSE,

EXPLAINING

WHAT I AM ABOUT, WHAT I OFFER

SHARING BLOGS ONLINE

JUNE , 2013 WAS MY MY FIRST POST

SHARING IMAGES OF YOGA MOVEMENTS WITH OTHERS

EIGHT-ANGLES ASANA

COMPARE THIS 2013 PHOTO

LIMITED TORSO MOBILITY

WITH

2022 

[4]

SEIZING A UNIQUE OPPORTINITY

MEETING

FOR

ONE-ON-ONE

PARTNER SESSIONS

BEGIN

In

 MAY, 2013

PATTY TREMBLAY offered me an opportunity to meet for early morning one-on-one yoga sessions. 

T knew this would accelerate my overall whole body mobility.

 Patty was known as a serious yoga student and gifted instructor from attending evening group yoga classes at a local gym.

 

identify ... Large number of asanas were done 

PATTY TREMBLAY

FORWARD, UPRIGHT SPLIT
NOTE

 VERTICAL TORSO,

FULL LEG EXTENSIONS

NOTE

WE INITIALLY MET AT A LOCAL GYM

BEFORE

MOVING TO THE YOGA LOFT

TWO 

 OF

 MY

ASSISSTED MOVEMENTS

IN

MAY, 2013

WERE DOCUMENTED

[1]

ACQUIRING

LEG, PELVIC MOBILITY

FOOT TOUCHES WALL

TEN YEARS LATER

LEG RAISED ON OWN

AND

[2]

IMPROVING

 FORWARD MOBILITY

IN

ASSISTED UPAVISTHA

RAY HOYT

 OFFERS USE

 OF

 THE YOGA LOFT

RUG SEREVED AS OUR MAT

POSITIVE OUTCOMES

Our morning sessions complemented our group classes and contributed to my improved mobility. 

[5]

MEETING

CHIROPRACTER

DR. ROBERT PAGE

BENEFITTING

 FROM

 IMAGING & MANIPULATION

OF

 SPINE

X-RAYS of cervical and lumbar regions were imaged

Demonstrated status of vertebrate

OCTOBER VISIT TO CAPE COD 

During a visit to Doug's working studio in Falmouth, MA, I took advantage of an offer to sit as a mode.

Doug's skills captured a youthful version of me that has past but can still be appreciated.

SEE

DOUG RUGH APPRECIATION

BELOW

MEETING WITH CLIENTS

Instruction of two women together  in their seventies began. 

We used their living room couch and a dining room chair as well as stairs, a wall and yoga blocks during our sessions to facilitate movements. 

I 

I also had an opportunity to meet in my condo studio with a male in his 50's.

and 

a senior woman in their home.

In all situations, documentation of what we did was provided for each meeting 

63

(2014)

DURING 

THIS YEAR 

I 

CREATED

A

CONDO

 YOGA STUDIO

My small living room area was transformed.

Furniture was removed and two thick mats were installed along with mirrors to evaluate asana form 

I could practice on my own, meet with clients.

YOGA CLASSES

ATTENDED INCREASED

OBSERVING

A FUTURE INSTRUCTOR

body works images

My introduction to JEN GENDRON occurred during evening yoga classes at the gym that I first saw 

 Standing, bending back with hands overhears  spine curving and hands reaching floor and returning to an upright position

NOTE

BY THE END OF DECEMBER 

I 

had 

attended 

over

 1,000 YOGA CLASSES 

I BEGAN TO INSTRUCT OTHERS

ONE-ON-ONE INSTRUCTION 

64

(2015)

JANUARY

As the year began I was attending four group classes usually led by Ray, on occasions by Patty as well as three one-on-one early morning partner pose sessions with Patty.

JEN

 BEGINS

 YOGA LOFT INSTRUCTION

We now had a third instructor who was a former  and experienced gymnast to learn from.

Jen had a supple body that was capable of doing more advanced yoga asanas as shown below.

RAY

ASSISTS

 JEN

IN

SCORPION POSE

AN

 ADVANCED

 ASANA

(SCORPION POSE)

DEMONSTRATING

WHOLE BODY MOBILITY

STRENGTH, BALANCE, FLEXIBILITY

&

CONTROLLED BREATHING

FOCUSED MIND

____

ONE EXAMPLE OF MY BALANCE POGRESS WAS DOCUMENTED IN MARCH BEFORE AN EVENING YOGA CLASS

AN

ASANA

DEMONSTRATING 

MY

WHOLE BODY MOBILITY 
PROGRESS

IS 

SHOWN BELOW

LOTS OF PRACTICE OVER SEVERAL YEARS HAVE IMPROVED MY BALANCE AND MULTIPLE JOINTS RANGE OF MOTIONS

DOCUMENTING  MY MOBILITY 

AFTER 

EARLY MORNING 

ONE-ON-ONE SESSIONS

PHOTOS TAKEN  BY PATTY

EARLY EFFORTS  

I  WAS ABLE TO MOVE FORWARD BETTER THAN BACKWARDS

COMPARE

DOUBLE PIGEON ASANA

WITH 

TORSO FOWARD & DEEP SHOULDER STRETCH

AND

CAMEL POSE

WITH

RESTRICTED MOBILITY

OF

SPINE, BACK  & HEAD

MUSCLE, CONNECTIVE TISSUES

PIGEON POSE

FROM A PRONE POSITION

ACQUIRING

UPPER BODY STRENGTH

IN

ELEVATED FULL LOTUS

EXTENDED LEGS, BODY LIFT

BOAT POSE VARIATION

(NAVASANA)

WHILE

 MAINTAINING 

TAILBONE 

BALANCE

THESE MANY ABILITIES WERE COUNTERED BY NOTABLE LIMITATIONS

A

 REMINDER 

THAT

YOGA CAN BE AN HUMBLING EXPERIENCE

I

 SHARE

 ONE EXAMPLE

 BELOW

HIGHLIGHTING

UPPER FACING BOW

[1]

UNASSISTED LIFT

]One-on-one sessions with Patty Tremblay starting during  2013 facilitated my mobility progress with many asanas.

ADRESSING

MY

LIMITATIONS

This image speaks volumes about the challenges I still confront in attempting doing this asana unassisted.

RESISTANCE EXISTS ALONG THE LENTH OF MY BODY - INVOLVING MANY MUSCLES, TENDONS, JOINT'S LIGAMENTS, FASCIA

BACKGROUND

One of the asanas I was introduced to in evening group sessions in 2010 was Upper Facing Bow.

 Starting from a supine position with feet flat positioned forward and hands placed as shown above lateral to the head, and lifting the body upwards, curving the spine resulting in an inverted U.

NOT SO FOR ME

I could barely raise my back an inch or two off the mat.

I had essentially no muscle strength or joint flexibility.

It took years and a lot of practice to begin to make even this limited mobility progress in this asana.

[2]

AN 

ASSISTED LIFT

IN

 UPPER FACING BOW

In some of our YOGA LOFT classes Ray would help those interested to experience a lift doing this asana.

Our hands would be placed on two yoga blocks positioned against a wall and as we raised our bodies Ray would provide both support under our shoulders - providing a 

 sensation of upward mobility lift not achieved on our own.

[3]

USING YOGA BLOCKS 

IN CONDO 

I would practice this asana by placing hands on the yoga blocks and lift.

[4]

CHAIRS  ENHANCING BACKBENDING

EVENING CLASS,
MULTIPLE PARTNER POSE

DEEP BACK BEND 

&

 LIFT

On several occasions I did experience an immense sense of satisfaction with my back bending abilities from the assistance of others.

My lower lumbar issues required I be careful not to injure myself.

AN UNEXPECTED ACHIEVEMENT

able to have both feet, head on the floor at the same time

Deep back curve 

 Further elevated lift opens up back well with no pain

😋

After several years of practice  

I 

could do 

AN

UNASSISTED

STANDING

BACK BEND

 STILL LIMITED 

YET

DEMONSTRATING MY PROGRESS 

***

 DURING THIS YEAR

I

 WAS
DEALING WITH COMPROMISED HANDS


PLACING PALMS, FINGERS FLAT ON FLOOR

BECOMING DIFFICULT

DIAGNOSIS

DUPUYPTREN"S CONTRACTURE

It was shortly before turning 65 that I consulted with a orthopedic surgeon and confirmed  this diagnosis compromising my palms and fingers.

I was diagnosed with

Dupuytren's Contracture

The surgeon suggested continuing to do my yoga to counter this progressive connective tissue disease

DESPITE THIS CONDITION 

MY CONTINUED TO ATTEND CLASSES

1,300 th 

ON 

DECEMBER 23, 2015

NUTRITION

HEALTH ISSUES

65

 (2016)

YOGA

ENJOYING MOBILITY PROGRESS

Practice in my condo yoga studio continued while I attended five group classes in The Yoga Loft taught by Ray, Patty and Jen.

MEDICARE ENROLLMENT

On March 28th I had reached a senior status designation by government officials  with the transition from sixty four to sixty five - one in which I was required to enroll in Medicare.

My chronological age, however, did not reflect the stereotype of of public's perception of one's mental and physical condition.

I

ALSO

BECAME

 A

 PATIENT

 OF

DR. JARROD FAUCHER

A

PRIMARY CARE, GERIATRIC SPECIALIST

I had not seen a doctor in nine years.

My yoga practice had served to keep me relatively healthy.

No medications were being taken at this time.

My lifestyle focus on engaging in daily yoga mobility and making better, more informed nutrition choices for the past years have led to positive health outcomes.

I CONSIDERED

MY

YOGA & NUTRITION 

 AS

 HEALTH MONITORS

I CONTINUED TO MEET WITH PATTY FOR ONE-ON-ONE SESSIONS AND HAD PHOTOS TAKEN TO ASSESS MY MOBILITY PROGRESS

 PHOTOS TAKEN  OF VARIOUS ASANAS

 AFTER 

OUR MORNING SESSIONS 

ARE

 SHOWN 

BELOW 

😁 

ELEVATED BODY, LEG EXTENSIONS

ALWAYS A CHALLENGE

SUPTA VIRASANA

MOVING

FROM

SITTING TO SUPINE 

POSITION

SIDE BEND, SHOULDER STRETCH

IN

UPAVISTHA

DEMONSTRATING

WHOLE BODY CONTROL 

IN

 TWO ASANAS

REVOLVED LATERAL ANGLE

REAR VIEW

DEEP 

QUAD STRETCH

BOTH

LOWER LEG & BACK

ON 

WALL

FEATHERED PEACOCK

USING WALL AS PROP

TO 

EXPERIECE

INVERTED POSITION

MODIFIED LUNGE

TWISTING TORSO,  VERTICAL ARM

WITH
NO PRESSURE ON FINGER TIPs

BOAT POSE VARIATION

(NAVASANA)

BALANCING ON TAILBONE,

SLOWLY 

RAISING LEGS TOWARDS MIDLINE

APPROACHING

  SIMULTANEOUS CONTACT

OF

 HEAD & FEET

ON

 RUG

CHALLENGING  MOVEMENTS FOR ME

DEEP SHOULDER STRETCH

DEEP 

CERVICAL, SHOULDER STRETCH,

BOTH KNEES  ON RUG

MARCHIASSANA II

BOAT POSE VARIATION

ELEVATED LEGS

 &

TWISTING ARM EXTENSION

FORWARD BEND,

SHOULDER STRETCH

I WAS ALSO WALKING LOCALLY

NUTRITION

HEALTH ISSUES

66

(2017)

I WAS FEELING GOOD AS 2017 BEGINS

I WAS MOVING BETTER

A

I ENJOYED OPPORTUNITIES

TO

USE 

THE WALL LADDER

PRACTICING WARRIOE III

AND

THE MANY OCCASIONS

To EXPERIENCE BACK BENDING 

WITH

THE ASSISTANCE OF RAY, OTHERS

I would often wear anbelt for support

&

USING

 WALL ROPES

The Yoga Loft wall ropes offered an additional safe and secure  opportunity along with the wall ladders to move our bodies in ways not possible on a yoga mat.

😊

During several evenings Ray offered individuals to experience a form of back bending with arms  and hands extended towards the floor.

On another occasion Ray offered the option to evaluate ones abilities to enter into a handstand with hands encircling the ropes and the back pressed against the wall with legs being raised.

I especially enjoyed watching how those participating in the above two movements were able to do each.

 Another example of challenging 

myths of what a given body type can or can not do.

****

RAY & PATTY

IN

 FEATHERED PEACOCK

ASANA

EXAMPLE

 OF

WHOLE BODY CONTROLLED MOVEMENTS

INVERTED ON FOREARMS

[FEATHERED PEACOCK]

***

PATTYY & I 

CONTINUED

 OUR

 MORNING PARTNER SESSIONS

I SHARE SOME ASANAS BELOW

2017
FULL LOTUS  VARIATION

MOVING FORWARD FROM SITTING POSITION

INTO

MODIFIED SPHINX & COBRA 

HANDS  BEHIND BACK,

CLASPING OPPOSITE FEET 

IN 

FULL LOTUS

____

MY DEPARTURE

 FROM

THE YOGA LOFT

GROUP SESSIONS

By the end of June I was no longer attending group yoga classes at the YOGA LOFT.

AND

FINAL

ONE-ON-ONE

 SESSIONS

I continued to meet with Patty for our morning one-on-one sessions 

HOWEVER

A WINTER STORM LED TO THE FAILURE OF THE HEATING SYSTEM, AND FREEZING PIPES

THE EXTENSIVE DAMAGE LED TO THE BUILDING BEING CONDEMED

NUTRITION

I ALSO  WAS EATING BETTER

&

NUTRITION GOAL WAS ACHIEVED

I

LOWERED

MY

WEIGHT 

TO 

125 POUNDS

DURING

JULY

HEALTH ISSUES

67 

(2018)

BEGIN

MORNING & EVENING

CONDO 

YOGA 

SESSIONS

FOLLOWING

THE

DEMISE

OF

  THE YOGA LOFT

The decision to devote time daily for my yoga practice both in the morning and evening led to positive outcomes throughout the year.

I had the focus and discipline to continue to build on the progress made during the past years by attending group and one-on-one yoga sessions.

Documentation of each of my yoga sessions sequences were maintained to enable me to assess progress.

WISHING MANNY WELL

WALKING 

AT

 WACHUSETT MOUNTAIN

(PRINCETON, MA)

I did enjoy walking both on trails and on the road leading to the summit. 

These walks complemented those I had been doing locally in Auburn.

NUTRITION

 HEALTH

68

(2019)

MY CONDO STUDIO

Daily morning and evening yoga sessions continue throughout 2019

PRACTICING HANDSTAND

I STILL AM UNCOMFORTABLE ATTEMPTING THIS MOVEMENT ON MATS

INSTRUCTION OF OTHERS 

During January of 2019 I agreed to a couple's request to meet with me for yoga instruction.

Our evening meetings throughout the year in my condo studio became two hour sessions.

😊

Evaluations of mobility abilities, limitations before instruction were provided in a binder to each and the sequence of our sessions were written up and provided in a binder.

Permission to take photos as an instructional tool were also taken and distributed - serving as a valuable tool to discuss their whole body movements.

To say this was a rewarding experience would be an understatement.

___

During one session the following two yoga asanas of me were documented.

TORTOISE POSE

HIGHTLIGHTING

WHOLE BODY JOINT MOBILITY

AND

FIREFLY ASANA

MOVEMENTS 

FROM A SQUATTING POSITION

TO

SUPPORT ON HANDS, EXTENDING LEGS

A FUTURE FOCUS

WILL BE

 RAISING TORSO TO VERTICAL POSITION

NUTRITION

I continued to monitor daily meals and was successful in maintaining an adolescent weight.

BUT 

MY LIPID PANEL VALUES WERE STILL ELEVATED

HEALTH ISSUES

THE EMERGING PANDEMIC

The year ended with communications about a virus that would spread worldwide  with deadly consequences

.

69 

(2020)

YOGA

DOCUMENTING 

ASANAS 

During the year my mobility progress was monitored using my cell phone camera set on a ten second exposure delay.

Using a yoga strap was useful to open up shoulder girdle muscles and connective tissues

MY WARM UP

TO

 OPEN SHOULDER GIRDLE

INCLUDED

MOVEMENTS

FROM HIPS OVER HEAD TO BACK

& 

FORMING FIGURE 8's IN BOTH DIRECTIONS

A

 YOGA BLOCK & HANDS

GENTLY OPENING

SPINE, MUSCLES 

&

 CONNECTIVE TISSUES

AND 

COMPLEMENTED

CURVING SPINE

 FROM

 KNEELING POSITION

STRETCHING IN VARIOUS ASANAS 

ENANBLED

 MY

COMPASS POSE

DEMONSTRATING

PELVIC, LEG & SHOULDER  MUSCLE

JOINT MOBILITY, RANGE OF MOTIONS

REQUIRING

STABILITY & STRENGTH

CONTROLLED BREATHING

TWISTING SIDE TO SIDE,

LEGS RAISED

TWO INVERTED ASANAS

HEADSTAND PREP

&

MODIFIED

SHOULDER STAND

GUILLOTINE POSE

SHOWING

WHOLE BODY LEGTHENING,

SHOULDER GIRDLE MOBILITY

NOTE

RELATIVELY STRAIGHT LEGS,

SHOULDERS, HEAD  POSITION

DEEP FORWARD BEND

SHOULDER STRETCH 

IN

 WIDE STANCE

STANDING SPLIT

GOOD BALANCE, 

 MUSCLE  LENGTHENING

JOINT MOBILITY

NOTE

PROGRESS SINCE 2013  ASSISTED LIFT

DEEP SHOULDER STRETCH

FORWARD TORSO

IN 

UPAVISTHA

FIREFLY VARIATION

DEMONSTRATING 

STRENGTH, BALANCE, FLEXIBILITY

I 

ALSO

PRACTICIED 

HANDSTAND

ADDITIONAL WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS 

WERE DOCUMENTED 

IN

SEPTEMBER,OCTOBER

USING YOGA BLOCK

IN

ONE LEG FORWARD EXTENSION

DEMONSTRATING 

PELVIC, LEG JOINT RANGE OF MOTION

OPPOSITE HAND MOVES ELEVATED LEG 

BEYOND MIDLINE

MODIFIED PLOW POSE

IN

 HALF LOTUS POSTION

ASSUME

  VIRASANA POSTURE

[SITTING WITH BENT KNEES]

WITH

ELEVATED ARMS PARALLEL MAT

DURING

OCTOBER, 2020

I 

WAS

MOVING

 WELL

 IN 

THE EIGHT-ANGLES ASANA

FULL EXTENSION, RAISED HIP

&

LIFTING HEAD, LOOKING FORWARD

TAKEAWAY

I WAS MAKING GOOD PROGRESS 

APPROACING

 TRANSITION

 FROM

69

TOWARDS

70 

BEFORE

EXPERIENCING 

A

MAJOR SETBACK

 CAR ACCIDENT

[March 23, 2021]

FIVE DAYS BEFORE TURNING 70

&

EXPERIENCED

SIGNIFICANT

 UPPER TORSO 

SOFT TISSUE TRAUMA

INCLUDING

CLAVICLE

WRIST, FOREARM

I HAD DIFFICULTY EXTENDING ARMS IN CHILDS POSE,

HOLDING, USING A TOOTBRUSH

MY CAR WAS TOTALLED

A

 LONG RECOVERY

I was fortunate more extensive, serious injuries requiring hospitalization were not experienced.

Five days before my seventieth birthday was both a physical and psychological trauma. 

CONSEQUENCES

Most of my upper body yoga mobility was compromised.

Whole body mobility  progress that had been obtained was, effectively, undone and would require a focused and disciplined approach to recover what was lost before moving forward.

I 

USED

 A

 65 CM 

EXERCISE BALL

TO

SAFELY, GENTLY

OPEN 

SPINE, BACK 

ALONG

WITH

YOGA BLOCKS, STRAP

SANDBAGS

ELASTIC BANDS

WALKING CONTINUES

NUTRITION

Morning meals at THE ROSE ROOM CAFE in WEBSTER, MA begin.

I was eating veggies, fruits, nuts seeds, dairy seafood but no meat

Calorie restriction, intermediate fasting and time restricted eating each contributing to maintaining an adolescent weight  under 120 pounds. 

HEALTH ISSUES

70 

(2021)

THIS WAS A YEAR OF RECOVERY, A  SETBACK, A DIAGNOSIS

YOGA

[1]

RECOVERY FROM TRAUMA

I celebrated my 70th birthday five days after the car accident enjoying a morning meal

 at 

The ROSE ROOM CAFE

 IN

 WEBSTER, MA 

photo of meal

2021

OVER TIME

I

 REGAINED 

UPPER TORSO MOBILITY

AS

DEMONSTRATED

BY

THE

 DOWNDOG ASANA

MODIFIED YOGA SEQUENCES

Attention was focused on selecting a sequence of movements within  what was perceived as comfortable

 As a consequence my upper body muscles and connective tissues did slowly begin to recover without any setbacks

My compromised right wrist trauma from the impact took longer duration to feel normal

RECOVERY 
INCLUDED 
WALKING 

Daily walking continued but my upper torso was stressed. 

[2]

SHOULDER IMPINGEMENT,

PHYSICAL THERAPY

Discomfort to my shoulder, referred pain to upper arm led me to meet with a physical therapist for six sessions.

Elastic band exercises practiced at home along with manipulations by the therapist were effective to restore shoulder mobility 


[3]

JULY

ATHEROSCLEROSIS 

DIAGNOSIS

FOLLOWING

CORONARY ARTERY IMAGING

[CALCIUM SCORE]

AND

I 

BEGAN 

TAKING

ROSUVASTATIN, ASPIRIN 

Imaging of coronary four coronary arteries for the presence of calcium led to my Lipid Panel data

LIPID PANEL DATA ENCOURAGING FROM STATIN USE

😊😊

NUTRITION

FURTHER IMPROVED

AT

THE ROSE ROOM CAFE

PUMPKIN SOUP

I POST A BLOG 

ABOUT

THE MICHEAL MOSS BOOK

HOOKED

 IN 

SEPTEMBER

BY 

THE FALL

I WAS MOVING BETTER

I WAS AGAIN MAKING MOBILITY PROGRESS 

WHILE

GETTING OLDER

HEALTH ISSUES

COVID-19 VACCINES WERE RECEIVED DURING THE YEAR

71

(2022)

YOGA

I

 WAS 

MOVING

 BETTER

 WITH

 AGE

DEMONSTRATING

STRENGTH,

BALANCE

 & 

WHOLE BODY JOINT MOBILITY

AT

71

EAGLE POSE COMBO

FIREFLY VARIATION

STARTING

 FROM A SQUATTING POSITION

WALKING DAILY

My morning walks began before sunrise.

I EXCEEDED WALKING

 OVER

1,000

 CONSECUTIVE DAYS

BY THE END OF THE YEAR

Both

 WALKING and YOGA 

 PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

 WERE

 POSSIBLE 

DUE

 TO 

GOOD NUTRITION

RESULTING 

IN

IMPROVED

 LIPID PANEL DATA
I was successful in reducing risk factors by making more informed daily food choices

HEALTH ISSUES

THIS DATA 

PLUS

COMPLETING MY FIFTH YEAR

 OF

 MORNING & EVENING YOGA SESSIONS

 AND

WALKING DAILY ALL YEAR 

CONTRIBUTED 

TO 

AN

OVERALL POSITIVE 

2022

HOWEVER 

AN

ELECTROCARDIOGRAM 

IDENTIFED 

A

ELECTRICAL ISSUE

I SAW A CARDIOLOGIST

& 

CONFIRMED

A   

 LEFT BUNDLE BRANCH BLOCK

I ALSO HAD A CAROTID ARTERY EVALUATION

MORE TESTS WERE SCHEDULED FOR 2023

72

(2023)

[1]

YOGA

Morning and evening yoga sessions were done daily all year in my condo studio.

 MAKING MOBILITY PROGRESS

DEMONSTRATING

BILATERAL

LEG FLEXIBILITY

&

STRENGTH, BALANCE

AND

OPEN

 PELVIC GIRDLE, LEGS, TORSO

[MUSCLES AND

CONNECTIVE TISSUES]

NAMASTE

DEMONSTRATING

GOOD

 JOINT MOBILITY

WARRIOR II

SIMILAR TO 2013 ASANA

[2]

WALKING DAILY

 FEBRUARY 24, 2023WAS THE COLDEST DAY

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THE EMEREGENE OF BLOSSOMS SURING THE SPRING & SUMMER

THAT INCLUDED THE

PUSSY WILLOW

[3]

DAILY

NUTRITION

The ROSE ROOM CAFE

continued to provide

 locally sourced, hand crafted 

Nutrition 

LIPID PANL DATA

ENCOURAGING VALUES

YET

EVALUATING 

CARDIOVASCULAR ISSUES

HAD

 A 

NUCLEAR TRACER, PHARMACEUTICAL STRESS TEST

& 

MET AGAIN WITH CARDIOLOGIST

______

DURING

AUGUST

I 

ACCEPTED

AN

INVITATIION

& 

ENJOYED

YOGA

WITH 

RAY HOYT

RAY

DOCUMENTED

MY

DEEP

GUILLOTINE 

ASANA

This was my first attempt to do this challenging asana since the car accident.

ENCOURAGING MOBILITY

 I was able to maintain relatively straight legs, achieving a deep torso forward bend with shoulders & head moving beyond plane of legs, positioning arms towards lower spine and clasping hands.

DAILY

 WALKING 

CONTINUED ALL YEAR

I 

HAVE 

EXCEEDED

CONSECUTIVE 

DAYS

DAILY

 NUTRITION CHOICES

WERE REFLECTED

IN

 WELCOMED

 LIPID PANEL DATA VALUES

73

(2024)

YOGA IN CONDO

DEMONSTRATING

PELVIC GIRDLE, LEG

 MUSCLE, JOINTS 

&

 CONNECTIVE TISSUE

FLEXIBILITY

WALKING

NEW WALKING SHOES WERE PURCHASED

HEALTH ISSUES

 GOOD DAILY NUTRITION

REFLECTED 

IN

ANOTHER YEAR OF POSITIVE LIPID PANEL DATA

MY

CARDIOLOGIST MEETING UPDATE

STILL MONITORING

 ELECTRICAL

 &

 MECHANICAL

 CARDIC ISSUES

NOT EXPERIENCING ANY NEGATIVE PHYSICAL CONSEQUECES OF EITHER CONDITION AT THIS TIME

AS

 A 

NEW

 YEAR

 BEGINS

74

(2025)

YOGA MOBILITY

Morning and evening yoga sessions continued daily throughout the year

___

Before, on and after my birthday I photographed diverse body movements from various positions.

50 of these images were shared on my yoga website in a post entitled

"PHOTO GALLERY OF YOGA MOBILITY AT 74

On

 7 APRIL 2025

SEVERAL BALANCE ASANAS

FROM

 THIS POST ARE SHOWN BELOW

[1]

'BIRD OF PARADISE'

NOTE

 ELEVATED LEG CLOSER TO MIDLINE

AND

[2 & 3]

HALF LOTUS & EAGLE

ASANAS 

CROW POSE

CONTINUES TO BE CHALLENGING

LOW FORWARD SPLIT

HIGHLIGHTING

DEEP LEG, PEVIC MOBILITY

ELEVATED  LUNGE 

WITH

ARM LIFT

COMBO

VIRASANA & GOMUKHASANA

 Photos were taken of diverse whole body movements using my cell phone camera set on a ten second exposure delay.

THREE ADDITIONAL

WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS

DEMONSTRATE

JOINT MOBILITY

IN

DOUBLE PIGEON

WITH

DEEP SHOULDER STRETCH

BALANCE ON TOES

WITH

THIGHS PARALLEL MAT, ARMS EXTENDED

MOBILE JOINTS 

FORWARD TORSO IN UPAVISTHA 

WITH 

VARIATION

SHOULDER STRETCH

TOWARDS VERTICAL

EXTENDED LATERAL ANGLE

NOTE 

MULTIPLE OPEN JOINTS 

IN JULY

I POSTED ANOTHER BLOG

OF

WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS FROM A DEEP SQUAT

A HORSE SQUAT VARIATION

IN

AUGUST

ANOHER 

BLOG

WAS

 POSTED

VIDEO OF SIDE TO SIDE, HANDS-FREE MOBILITY

AUGUST 4, 2025

INCLUDING 

WHOLE BODY POSTURES

DEMONSTRATING

MOBILITY OF PELVIC GIRDLE,

&

ANKLE, KNEE, HIP JOINTS

STATIC

'SPIDERMAN POSE'

CONTROLLED

 BALANCE, BREATHING

IN

 JULY

WHOLE BODY MOVEMENTS FROM A DEEP SQUAT

WERE SHARED ONLINE

WALKING

I

 RECENTLY

 REACHED & EXCEEDED

1,800 

CONSECUTIVE DAYS WALKING

January and February in 2026 were colder months than experienced during the past several years.

Single digit temperatures excluding wind chill have been experienced during walks that begin at 2:30 am.

NUTRITION

During the past three months I have continued to enjoy morning meals

 at 

the

 ROSE ROOM CAFE

The diverse menu offerings along with light meals prepared at home have provided the nutrients to maintain a stable, healthy adolescent weight approaching 75. 

What I eat provides the essential nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats to fuel my daily physical activities - limiting most but not all ultra-processed foods. 

MY

NUTRITION

HAS

CONTRIBUTED

TO GOOD

LIPID PANEL DATA

😂

I AM NOW ONLY METING ONCE A YEAR With THE CARDIOLOGIST TO MONITOR SEVERAL ISSUES MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY.

___

A BRIEF BUT PAINFUL SETBACK 

NECK MUSCLES WERE THE SOURCE OF EXTREME PAIN FOR SEVERAL DAYS DURING THIS PAST WEEK REQUIRING A MEDICAL INTERVENTION. 

FOR SEVERAL DAYS I FELT LIKE A GERIATRIC 

IT WAS A NEW  & RARE EXPERIENCE FOR ME

____

THOUGHTS ON AGING

The life expectancy of a white male born in 1951 was 65.7 years based on 1951 data

A white male at 65 could expect to live another 12.8 to 13 years.

___

My yoga practice for these past years have exposed many myths associated with the aging process.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING

Having no previous yoga experience, I began attending yoga classes at 59

 AT

 62

 I had been successful in gradually transforming my body - getting stronger, improving my balance and flexibility

BY

 65

 I was engaged in daily physical activities and was moving better than in past five years.

AND 

TURNING

 70

dealing with soft tissue trauma, I recovered and expanded my whole body mobility abilities

NOW 

75

  I  consider myself an 'adolescent geriatric'.

My biological age is demonstrably younger than my chronological age even when acknowledging known medical issues.

LIFESTYLE CHOICES

 IMPACT

QUALITY OF LIFE

ALONG 

WITH

OUR

 GENETICS

😌

I have benefitted from making better decisions as a senior and  geriatric than during adolescent and early, mid-adult decades.

Like John Jerome, I have acknowledged inevitable physiological changes that will continue to occur until ones demise.

HOWEVER

I recognize the aging process can be mitigated to an an extent by our daily behaviors.

THE AGING PROCESS

With the benefit of advances in technology and multi-disciplinary discoveries via interactions among specialists in molecular & cellular biology, physics, optics, engineering, medicine, immunology and nutrition science among others, we have a still incomplete but useful list of critical factors

contributing to the aging process.

FACTORS INFLUENCING AGING

Critical components include the importance of  keeping mobile, maintaining muscle strength, making informed nutrition choices, getting sleep that restores & repairs the body, avoiding sources of toxic stress, maintaining social interactions, enjoying times of solitude.

ENJOYING WHAT IS POSSIBLE

John Jerome

 learned that doing less is more as he entered and experienced his 64th year.

John was able to value quality times with his wife enjoy nature, its fauna and flora both a home and while on their canoe trips as he continued to practice his writing craft. 

MY

 daily focus on addressing mobility (yoga, walking), nutrition (eating well), managing sleep and stress, pursuing social interactions of interest, embracing solitude contribute to a quality of life that continues to be rewarding.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

DR. J. R. WHITTAKER

 (1932 - 2008)

The generosity of Dick Whittaker - a valued and admired friend, former employer - made it possible to pursue and elevate hatha yoga mobility to a lifestyle focus that has enhanced my health and wellness.

😂

Reading Whittaker's copy of John Jerome's final book was my initial introduction to his writing.

On Turning Sixty Five and other of John Jerome's books were among Whittaker's large personal library.

BOOK INSCRIPTION

The inscription, reproduced below, was on the front endpaper of ON TURNING SIXTY FIVE and sent to Dick by a friend of fifty years, Dr. Theodore Grand.

 Ted, an anthropologist, skilled anatomist and bicycle enthusiast, was known to the author and cited in two of Jerome's books (Stayin With It, On Turning Sixty -Five.)

APPRECIATING 

ARTIST

DOUG RUGH

A 

COPLEY MASTER

rugh @ doug rugh.com

We first met at the Marine Biological Laboratory in the 1980's

I have long enjoyed Doug's talents and was pleased to accept an opportunity to sit as a model for the portrait he did many years ago  - capturing a youthfulness at that time that has since faded but can still be appreciated.

ALL are encouraged to visit Doug's website to enjoy the diversity of portraits, still life and landscape artwork. Even better, visit his working studio in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS

bobcrowther66@gmail.com

ADOLESCENT

17 YEARS

GERIATRIC

74 YEARS

BOB CROWTHER .. NUTRITION .. YOGA