Things you find difficult as you get older

My fitness improved in my 60s as I lost a lot of weight and started walking more after geting a Fitbit! However I've slowed down a bit since hitting 70. I had some inflamation in my knee which stopped me for a few weeks and the heat this summer has left me exhausted. I'm never sure how much is old age creeping up or whether I need to work harder at the exercise. I'm trying to eat more protein in the hope it might build muscle but there are so many variables. I have older friends who seem fitter than me and younger ones who need a walker to get around. We all have to plod on doing what we can and try to keep everything working for as long as possible. I'm still more active than my 50s but noticing the slowing down.

I am over 80 years old.

I have also lost strength in my hands and find openings bottles and jars almost impossible.

Plastic tubs of soup. In fact any plastic containers are almost impossible for me to open.

Ring pull cans. Another no no.

I have fairly strong legs as I attend a weekly exercise class.
Afterwords I have to have a lie down at home.
Getting out of the bath is becoming increasingly difficult as well.
I am much more aware of things I can’t do as opposed to things I can do.

Memory; making quick decisions; occasionally find it more difficult to think positive; getting back up standing when on the ground. Plus, plus, plus!

Made me laugh MawsRosie..... oestrogen for Cumbrian male 🤣
I have good days and not so good energy wise. If I've had grandkids for the day, I've learnt that the next day is recovery day. Pace myself more now I'm 70. When I need a pee, I need to take notice....the worse thing is to hold on too long and sort of put my hand between legs to hold it off.. it doesn't as my brain thinks it's a loo. Soree TMI

Cumbrianmale56

I am quite fit, walk 15-20 miles a week and have no major health concerns, but there are things I find more difficult than I did 10 years ago. I've just been checking my tyres with a battery inflator, which involves a lot of bending down, and it jiggers me for a while afterwards. Anyone else find bending and lifting things a lot harder when they get past 50?

I can easily get down on my knees and spend hours there crawling kneeling or squatting , planting or weeding or spreading stuff out on the floor to find the thing I want.

Getting up again is the tricky bit.

Most of us lose muscle mass steadily as we age so everything becomes harder. The hills are steeper, the shopping’s heavier, the stairs become impassable.
What annoys me most is those plastic fasteners on dog collars and harnesses. Get home on a cold morning with cold hands and it takes 5 minutes struggle to release the poor critter.

I’m 75, have always eaten healthily and exercised. I do strength training, yoga, swimming and hiking, and still go running a couple of times a week. I was diagnosed with osteoporosis nearly 20 years ago, couldn’t get on with the meds so tackled it myself with diet, exercise and supplementation. My trick has never been to think of things like OP, arths

I’m not going to say that I’m as fit as I was at 60 now that I’m 70, but I’m not bad. I still walk a lot and try to do strength exercises, but my hands seem to have lost strength. I can still open jars, but when I was staying with my Mum at Christmas I couldn’t open the bottle of fizz. Mum lives in sheltered flats and I went off in search of a care worker when I came across a woman visitor who very kindly did it for me. She was older than me! She put it down to working on her farm still.

If you’re in your fifties maybe it’s worth visiting your GP for a health check? I never felt different in my fifties but mid-sixties slowed me down a bit. It seems strange having to sit down after inflating tyres so maybe it could be something like blood pressure or BPPV. However as Alwaysworrying says we’re all different.

Just been punting. In my 70s and i still love it but getting up from the seat that is just inches above the bottom of the boat a not a pretty sight!

I’m 65 and did happen to notice, last time I clipped my toenails that this task was more of a challenge than previously. I get cramp a lot more as I age, which doesn’t help. It might be that my Pilates teacher takes August off. Hopefully once I’m back in the swing of regular Pilates classes my flexibility will return.

I wonder if OP has health issues?
Two of my 3 D’s are in their early 50’s, hold down full time jobs, have demanding pre-teen and teenage children , one commutes back to London from Paris once a week for 24 hours to see clients (she’s a psychotherapist) and the other is in training for a half marathon.

I had to speak to the out-of-hours folk on Saturday. The nurse must have said “bless you” nine times while I was describing my symptoms. By the end of the call I felt about 127 instead of 64!
Need to bend and lift a certain amount at work but it takes longer to straighten up than it used to.

Agree. I was ok at 70. At 76 no longer ok!

It’s lovely all these people saying how fit they were at a younger age and 50 and old age don’t go in the same sentence.
I beg to differ, some people sometimes much younger can feel very disabled. We all have different crosses to bear and l have friends who are much older than me who are much less arthritic than me and who can walk further than me. I have another friend who is ten years younger than me who is crippled with joint problems.
It’s all relative, some of us do better than others. I imagine a lot of it is down to good genes and taking care of ourselves which often doesn’t happen. Either way Cumbrian male, l don’t think there is anything unusual to feel a bit stiff after bending a lot after 50. I am 67 and l can’t bend at all!😁

Oops, THREE-score-year-and-ten - one thing I HAVE lost is my ability to do mental arithmetic...

Time marches on, in spite of our most fervent wishes! I began to lose strength and stamina almost as soon as I'd passed the allotted four-score-year-and-ten. No amount of pills, potions, superfoods, pumping iron, blah blah blah is going to keep your body the same as it was when you were in your prime (that's why it's called your prime). In any case, we have consolations (allegedly): more knowledge, greater insight, less embarrassment at our little "faults". Yeah, well, I did say allegedly...

unfortunately my mother passed arthritis on to me and i've got two artificial knees and a hip which is extremely painful. i haven't been able to walk very far since 2009 when I was just over 60.
because of the knees i'm not able to kneel down and with the hip I find it difficult to bend.
housework is something of a rarity these days. whereas in the past I could clean the whole house in half a day AND strip and remake the bed as well, cleaning one room takes me almost a whole day as i keep having to sit down.
is it something to do with the threescore and ten we're "allocated" after which we fall apart at the seams?
i feel very jealous of those who can go for walks and bound up and down the stairs - getting older isn't for the faint-hearted!

I thought I was really quite fit compared to others of my age until around 73 ish when energy levels declined and now 3 yrs later a lot of differences. The dreaded arthritis in feet, and knee and the beginnings in my hands. Loss of a firm grip and not great balance which I notice especially when trying to get up and down to do housework or gardening. Takes me a long time to get down on my knees and even longer to get up again. But, could be worse!

It might be because your knees are not what they were Cumbrianmale50? The ability to bend at the knees for prolonged periods to do things like checking tyre pressures was something I lost in my fifties as my knees became painful when I did, and bending down without bending your knees constricts your lungs more.

I’m afraid I don’t think “past 50” and “getting older” belong in the same sentence.

It is odd how some things can affect you as you get older. I just found it a bit odd when I was checking the tyre pressures.

Well Cumbrianmale, I'm 85 and a Scottish female, and have no problem with that! I don't think it's anything to do with age but more a soup of genes and past experience flowing through you. I'm very lucky with the former and have practiced tai chi for 26 years ...... I'm also aware that pride might very well come before that fall 😉

79, the age of decline.

I was quite fit and able to do all the things I wanted and needed to do quite easily until about two years ago when I was diagnosed with arthritis in my hips. I am 79.
Now I find any bending job difficult. I still walk for an hour most days and am still able to manage all my cleaning. I still use my 3 rung ladder but my children are not happy about this but some jobs need one.