Old person shuffle

[yeniseri]

The "shuffle" is an adaption of sarcopenia, inactivity, and muscle breakdown (lifestyle and nutrition) over the years.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/ ... tion=click

A short graphic!

[everything]

Fantastic advice and interesting links, thanks a lot.

The tension thing all over seems key. Usually I expect the IMA people to actively work on this better than most people, but I could certainly use improvements all over. Ground work for mobility and skipping rope sounds good (I might use the rebounder). Who was the long-time old eF poster who always lauded skipping for power? I believe he was right and then some. I do a little skipping on to a low bench and off (prescribed by my PT for ankle rehab/prehab). It also seems to help my sport-specific agility needs. The fear of falling thing also seems part of it, and I do practice break fall every so often. But for non-MA people that isn't an easy option.

I do worry about my parents-in-law and my mom and anyone else I know who is aging. My mom walks rather rapidly for her age and seems to have endurance. My father-in-law walks with a shuffle (like people of all ages do wearing slippers but he does it all the time) or a super off balance looking duck walk like he'll topple over any moment.

Q:
What about high knees kind of skipping or running drills? Try to get a near maximum vertical movement and more range of movement?

[Steve James]

The shuffle can come about through tension and fear of falling or being unsteady, which creates more tension.

That fear is the brain (or one of them) letting you know that your balance is off. Balancing ability naturally declines with age. That, combined with an obvious chance for serious injury when falling makes a long flight of stairs terrifying to an elderly person. So, exercises that increase balancing ability also increase confidence in it and lessens fear, and decreases the chance of falling. I totally agree with teaching falling exercises; but, I can tell you that the steel stairs in a subway can look like a death sentence.

Ime, it's impossible to take arthritic joints, particularly hips, knees and ankles out of this equation. If one knee is bad, it will affect the entire system. If you watch some people shuffling, it's because one leg can't extend as far as the other, for example. If one leg drags, then the gait is automatically effected.

[everything]

Came across this article. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html

Don't want to run a marathon (Seems so self-abusive; would rather get back to grappling if I'm gonna be hurt), but it makes me think how cool it is to have video analysis of how messed up one's gait might be.

I walked super fast around the grocery store today, haha.

[Steve James]

My posture was off because my back was taking up the slack from my glutes, which had grown too lazy to power my stride or stabilize my hips. The arch muscles in my feet were also weak, and the combination made my single-leg balance very poor. Because running is basically switching from one leg to the other very quickly, single-leg balance is important.

Just as true for walking.

[everything]

Every once in a while I go to some random beginner taiji class (trying to take it for whatever it is and not think about martial this or that), and it's usually good in the sense of making everyone do a lot of single leg balance and slow careful walking and weight shifting. A lot of "normal" and "fit" looking people usually have some struggles. Always good to see the light bulbs go off; also good to revisit. It reminds me I also need to take those self-tests like squat facing wall and others I cannot remember at the moment.

[klonk]

Wanna get really good at being a biped? Practice as a monopod.

[Dmitri]

Or combine both by getting a moped.

[Giles]

I once heard Vladimir Vasiliev say how men die from the feet up. The shuffle can come about through tension and fear of falling or being unsteady, which creates more tension. I have to go round my neighbour's quite regular to assist, he is 90 and often falls over, even with his frame. His upper body is locked solid.
....................................

And I've also heard it said in Chinese movement arts/TCM that the neck (around C2 + C3) is where people get old first. To my mind the two ideas are totally compatible, since the feet and the neck are two crucial and synergetic elements in human balance. Or also in flamingo balance, thanks Klonk .

When teaching or coaching people with movement and balance issues, I try to promote a relaxed connection between these two areas. That is usually helpful for any other locomotor system issues too, as the "in between stuff" for these two areas is just about everything... Bring about a positive change in one of these two areas and it will tend to propagate along the central axis to the other end. While naturally the same goes for a blockage or injury.

This is not the whole story, of course, but it's often a good beginning.

[GrahamB]

The old person shuffle is what you do the day after jiujitsu class.

[everything]

Ah yes. "shooter" was the handle I was trying to think of.

I used to make my kids soccer teams I was coaching skip as part of warmups. Much better than running for various movement reasons, including developing power.

Giles, neck and feet. Great observation.

[Steve James]

A good exercise is standing/walking on your heels.