Growing Old Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Frailty
I was saddened when I learned of Jack LaLanne’s death a couple months ago. Not that I knew the man, but he was an figure of inspiration and hope in maintaining a active lifestyle at any age. As Larry King stated, “Elderly people were encouraged by him because he just kept on going.”
Older adults need positive role models such as LaLanne to promote health and well-being. This can be especially helpful to seniors undergoing nursing home rehabilitation such as physical or occupational therapy. My spirits were lifted today when I read an article in the New York Times about Olga Kotelko, an incredible nonagenarian that can jump 5.8 feet and holds two world records in javelin for women over the age of 85.
As the article states, motivation is the challenge. Finding reasons to keep exercising is a universal issue to us all. “Even rats seem to bristle, eventually, at voluntary exercise, studies suggest. Young rats seem intrinsically driven to run on the wheels you put in their cages. But one day those wheels just stop turning. The aging athlete must manufacture strategies to keep pushing in the face of plenty of perfectly rational reasons not to: things hurt, you’ve achieved a lot of your goals and the friends you used to do it for and with are disappearing.”
But competition and positive results can be a huge motivator. Add in a positive team of supporters and role models such as Kotelko and we can be inspired to keep our drive. For more information on Kotelko, click on this link.
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