I never envisioned this video demonstration as the way to “stand up from a seated position without using your hands”. Are you required to do all the weird position changes with your legs? Or does standing up from a cross-legged position count?
ETA: I’m only 41, but after trying the video method, “yes, easily” is my answer to both ways. I’m living forever!!
The way in the video was super easy. I did it 2 or 3 different ways at first just fiddling around with my interpretation of the test, then I saw what the robot said:
Scoring:
- Subtract one point for each time you use a hand, arm, or other support (e.g., leaning on a knee).
- A perfect score (no support used) indicates good strength, balance, and mobility.
So technically her sit-to-stand wasn’t a perfect score because she uses her hands for support on the way down and also leans on the knees on the way up.
This video shows a full perfect score, which I think people are going to find much, much more challenging. I get a 9/10 because I can’t quite sit all the way down to the ground without losing a little balance before my butt hits the floor.
Ok, much more difficult. I can do the down with control almost all of the way down with a little thump down onto my ass, but the up was much less controlled, more of a jerky push than a smooth rise. Ill need to work on this one
WITCHCRAFT!!!
Easy, but I’m chasing a three year old. I’m going to go skiing for the first time in 15 years or so next week. Will see how old I feel then.
Y’all would be shocked how many old as shit 30 and 40 year olds are out there. Don’t drink until your liver is gone, go to the doctor 1 or 2 times per year, and take your blood pressure medication.
Watching my legs go from active, basketball, soccer legs to chicken legs over 2 decades was going to be my post. Related is the videos of trying to get up off the ground. Working my legs is my #1 resolution this year.
The other thing I cannot stress enough about getting older is have some sort of medical plan, have it in writing, and communicate that plan to others BEFORE you get critically ill and can’t make decisions on your own.
About once or twice per month I run across a patient like this (please note that I’m not quite as blunt as I say here):
Me: So you’re in the ER with jaundice in liver failure, I noticed you have stage 4 pancreatic cancer. What’s going on with that?
Patient: Oh I see oncology this week.
Me: So you know you’re fucked right?
Patient: shockedpikachu.jpg
And then we go on to have a long talk about expected course, decisions they need to make, etc. I am not the right person for this talk, and the best time to do it isn’t when you’re seeing me in the ER dying.
The first decisions are if you’re going to do CPR, mechanical ventilation, feeding tubes, and etc. The next decision is if your treatment is going to be disease based or symptoms based. It’s a lot to talk about.
Finally, you have to commit it to writing, in a way that is easily accessible by your local hospital in an emergent situation, with family aware of those decisions. Very often family rescinds DNR and DNI in the ER and I almost always do it because I don’t have the actual DNR/DNI in hand. Even if I have it in hand, it is enormously hard to watch someone die while family demands that you do something.
And just to complete this morbid thought.
I think about how I want to die a lot. Not because I see a lot of people die, because frankly it’s actually pretty rare. When you come to the ER acutely ill, my job is to keep you alive for the next 6 hours basically, and I’m really fucking good at that. The people who deal with death all the time are the hospitalist and ICU doctors, because eventually all the resuscitation I did in the ER doesn’t change the final outcome, it just bought some time for things to change. It doesn’t change, or some catastrophic complication happens, and your body gives out.
The reason why I think about it a lot is the patients who come in who basically have rotted away the past 5 years in a hospital bed with feeding tubes, tracheotomies, and whatnot. I want to live my life as much as possible as I don’t think there’s anything after this life, and I would rather take a bullet in the brain than that any time.
It’s a slow burn to that point though, it’s a stepwise decision and you end up on that path. My advice is to make sure your family knows to not let it happen to you.
This is me (just turned 50), only my shoulders also hurt from curling my arms up under my head all night.
Also, I just threw out my back slightly after a sneeze.
Gout.
Yea that’s what I was looking for but couldn’t find it.
Oh I dread sneezing. Sometimes I even say “Oh shit!,” when I feel one coming on and brace myself.
I used to get that but it stopped for no reason I can identify. Maybe I unconsciously subtly changed sleeping position, IDK. I couldn’t wear my smartwatch to monitor sleep for the same reason.
Social Security and Medicare Basics
I’ll make a series of posts over time. Hopefully some of this is helpful. This post just lists some useful resources.
Disclaimer: I’m an insurance and retirement newb so keep that in mind.
RESOURCES:
The government website for Social Security and Medicare is at ssa.gov. You can create an account (“myaccount”) to review/update personal information and apply for benefits here.
So far, I’ve been able to do everything online but most cities have local offices. You can walk in but you’d probably want to make an appointment to save time.
You probably set this aside when SSA sends this to you in the mail but it contains some useful information. The “statement” has your earnings record but not your SSN. It gives you an estimate of your benefits depending on when you elect to start. If you’re concerned about identity theft, you can stop the yearly physical statement coming in the mail through your myaccount.
The mailing includes a basic fact sheet for Social Security and one for Medicare. You can also find these here:
Scoff if you want but I found these very helpful. They take a more direct and serious approach than usual for this series. Check your local public library; they might have them as audiobooks or ebooks as well as physical books. If you have Audible, they have older editions available to listen for free.
Social Security for Dummies, 5th Ed., by Jonathon Peterson
Medicare for Dummies, 5th Ed., by Patricia Barry
This government service offers free help navigating Medicare. They’re in every state. Since my situation is relatively simple, I will try to figure things out on my own but for people with more complicated circumstances, these seem like way better options than relying on sales pitches from insurance companies or independent agents.
I’ve found Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini are pretty good at answering questions about these topics. Of course check citations and verify anything important.
AARP publishes a lot of stuff and they also endorse things. I assume they are trustworthy but slightly wary. There’s probably good information on youtube but I haven’t looked there. Obviously stick to reliable channels.
Can do sit-to-rise using only 1 leg, so I live to 150?
I guess I’ll give a bit of a contrarían opinion here, but I’m 40 and feel like I’m approaching the best shape of my life. I took up indoor rock climbing about 6 months ago and it’s been a fun challenge getting myself in better shape doing bodyweight stuff (pistol squats, pull ups, core work, etc) with the end goal of being able to climb tougher stuff.
Sure there are a few more aches and pains and recovery can be somewhat slower, but I still feel quite good and usually feel more at home around people 10-15 years younger than those in their 40s.
I think I’ve always been a bit immature in some ways, poker has exacerbated that I think, and the traveler lifestyle without kids or much structure has led to me feeling like I’m younger than I am. I guess to be fair, my digestive system kinda sucks, but that’s also led to me making better nutrition choices so I feel better. Yoga and meditation have also been a consistent part of my life for a while.
I can do both but for me, the one the dude did is much easier.
For the stand the woman did, that first move where she puts one foot behind her is kinda awkward for me.
That’s what I was thinking when I saw the woman’s technique. One of the random getting-older things I experience occasionally is when a slight non-standard movement with my hip will send a momentary pain shooting through it. I thought that might happen with the woman’s technique but it ended up being ok.
I don’t think this is a good test. My first try I stood up and was facing the opposite direction. A friend of mine 27 and in terrific shape (other than being a body builder and possibly having too much muscle?) couldn’t get up at all, and my mom (61) did it no problem ??
Seems to check out perfectly then for the purposes of the test. I’ve got your mom living way longer on average than the body builder. (ignoring externals like climate change)
Average life span for a body builder is super low.
59 here (60 next month). Yesterday got a pain, dull ache type thing, in my right foot, along the arch. Still there today. Is fallen arches a thing?