Are old swimmers stooped?

Pat

Okay, today I was at the pool and an elderly man walked out of the steam
room. He was slender and as muscled as someone near 80 years old can be.
But, he walked with a stoop. So, that got me to wondering if swimming keeps
us more flexible and could possibly ward off that curved posture we see on
so many elderly people...Does anyone know any 75+ year old swimmers?

I only know two and both are woman and neither is stooped over like the man
I saw today....

Pat in TX

Duncan Heenan

"Pat" <Orion@starrynight.com> wrote in message
news:5qbc7jFuqe6uU1@mid.individual.net...
> Okay, today I was at the pool and an elderly man walked out of the steam
> room. He was slender and as muscled as someone near 80 years old can be.
> But, he walked with a stoop. So, that got me to wondering if swimming
> keeps us more flexible and could possibly ward off that curved posture we
> see on so many elderly people...Does anyone know any 75+ year old
> swimmers?
>
> I only know two and both are woman and neither is stooped over like the
> man I saw today....
>
> Pat in TX
My masters club (Isle of Wight Masters) has 3 swimmers 'roughly' over 80
currently. 1 lady (80) has 6 British Age Group championships and 2 British
records. 1 Gentleman (86) swims about a mile 3 days a week in around 40
minutes, and at the age of 83 set the record for the oldest person to swim
the Solent (a stretch of sea about 3.5 miles across). 1 Gentleman (80 in a
month) who swims about a mile 3 days a week but is also a runner, and
completes about 4 full marathons a year in about 3h 40m.
As you can see they are all fit for their age (or indeed any age). None has
a stoop, and all are as mentally sharp as ever. They all attribute their
fitness to keeping up their training lifelong, and the 86 year old also says
that giving up smoking at 65 (after 50 years of it!) helped!
However another of our members (a doctor aged 70, also very fit) says that
the direction of causality is not certain. Are they good at sport because
they are naturally healthy by luck? Or are they healthy because they keep
fit ?
It seems to me it is a virtuous circle whereby if you keep fit, it keeps you
healthy, upright and able, which enables you to keep fit etc., etc.
One thing is certain, the 3 I refer to enjoy life a great deal more in other
ways, than others of their age I see who have allowed themselves to become
inactive. I think keeping fit has no downside, if you have the 'luck' to
have health to do so in the first place.

mwsmith

Pat wrote:
> Okay, today I was at the pool and an elderly man walked out of the steam
> room. He was slender and as muscled as someone near 80 years old can be.
> But, he walked with a stoop. So, that got me to wondering if swimming keeps
> us more flexible and could possibly ward off that curved posture we see on
> so many elderly people...Does anyone know any 75+ year old swimmers?
>
> I only know two and both are woman and neither is stooped over like the man
> I saw today....

I don't think I've ever seen a stooped masters swimmmer, but my
understanding of the skeletal component of that problem is that
sufficient calcium plus load-bearing exercise are what prevents it.
Swimming isn't a load-bearing exercise, but it certainly strengthens
back and abdomen muscles, and maybe there is something in the chemistry
of any vigorous exercise that helps bones make use of calcium.

Peter Wagner

Pat wrote:
> Okay, today I was at the pool and an elderly man walked out of the
> steam room. He was slender and as muscled as someone near 80 years
> old can be. But, he walked with a stoop. So, that got me to wondering
> if swimming keeps us more flexible and could possibly ward off that
> curved posture we see on so many elderly people...Does anyone know
> any 75+ year old swimmers?
> I only know two and both are woman and neither is stooped over like
> the man I saw today....
>
> Pat in TX

Do you know Morbus Bechterev?

p

Pat

>
> Do you know Morbus Bechterev?
>
> p

I guess there is some reason you mentioned the name. Tell me more....

Peter Wagner

Pat wrote:
>> Do you know Morbus Bechterev?
>>
>> p
>
> I guess there is some reason you mentioned the name. Tell me more....

Google...

mwsmith

Peter Wagner wrote:
> Pat wrote:
>>> Do you know Morbus Bechterev?
>>>
>>> p
>>
>> I guess there is some reason you mentioned the name. Tell me more....
>
> Google...

Do you know Morbus Bechterev?

Peter Wagner

mwsmith wrote:
> Peter Wagner wrote:
>> Pat wrote:

>>
>> Google...
>
> Do you know Morbus Bechterev?

I've known two persons with Bechterev.

mwsmith

Peter Wagner wrote:
> mwsmith wrote:
>> Peter Wagner wrote:
>>> Pat wrote:
>
>>>
>>> Google...
>>
>> Do you know Morbus Bechterev?
>
> I've known two persons with Bechterev.

But not Morbus himself? We used to drink black tea at an al fresco cafe
on O'Connel Street in North Adelaide.

mwsmith

mwsmith wrote:
> Peter Wagner wrote:
>> mwsmith wrote:
>>> Peter Wagner wrote:
>>>> Pat wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>> Google...
>>>
>>> Do you know Morbus Bechterev?
>>
>> I've known two persons with Bechterev.
>
> But not Morbus himself? We used to drink black tea at an al fresco cafe
> on O'Connel Street in North Adelaide.

Morbus would regale us with the tale of his harrowing escape from
Czechoslovakia, when the Prague Spring died, and the Russian tanks
rolled in.

Duncan Heenan

--
Duncan Heenan
(Speaking personally)
"mwsmith" <nomail@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:CuednQ8pZeo1kNHaRVnygQA@giganews.com...
> mwsmith wrote:
>> Peter Wagner wrote:
>>> mwsmith wrote:
>>>> Peter Wagner wrote:
>>>>> Pat wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Google...
>>>>
>>>> Do you know Morbus Bechterev?
>>>
>>> I've known two persons with Bechterev.
>>
>> But not Morbus himself? We used to drink black tea at an al fresco cafe
>> on O'Connel Street in North Adelaide.
>
> Morbus would regale us with the tale of his harrowing escape from
> Czechoslovakia, when the Prague Spring died, and the Russian tanks rolled
> in.


I don't understand this thread, as Morbus Bechterev is a medical term
meaning:
Spondylitis ancylopoetica or spondylitis ankyloans ( = system inflammatory
disease with affection of sacro-iliac joints and vertebral column joints;
leads to severe dysmotility of the vertebral column) is a chronic
inflammatory disease of joints, affects the vertebral column, pubis slits,
intervertebral joints, joints of extremities (hands and feet), result in
ankylosis of bone and capsular joints with full loss of motion. Connective
tissue of the vertebral column is usually shrunken. Eyes and heart are
sometimes affected as well. The reason in unknown. We can suppose, it is the
case of the genetic disposition. Morbus Bechterev occurs relatively often in
combination with psoriasis or colitis ulcerosa. It is characterized by
chronic course. 90% of the disease affects men between 15 and 30 years of
age. The disease starts by pains of ilii, by morning torpor and by pains of
the lumbar part of the vertebral column. The disease start to be manifested
as a rule on medium and small joints of the lower extrmities with subsequent
limitation of motility of the vertebral column and with total torpor and
rachitis during the latter stage. [
http://www.medicalmagnets.cz/result_morbus.html ]

So unless there is a rather strange coincidence of names, I'd be surprised
if MWS could have sat and drunk tea with Morbus Bechterev. As it is
largely a condition affecting young men, he can't be referring to what makes
old folk stoop, so what is he on about I wonder?

andresmuro@aol.com

On Nov 18, 10:46 am, "Pat" <Or...@starrynight.com> wrote:
> Okay, today I was at the pool and an elderly man walked out of the steam
> room. He was slender and as muscled as someone near 80 years old can be.
> But, he walked with a stoop. So, that got me to wondering if swimming keeps
> us more flexible and could possibly ward off that curved posture we see on
> so many elderly people...Does anyone know any 75+ year old swimmers?
>
> I only know two and both are woman and neither is stooped over like the man
> I saw today....
>
> Pat in TX

My dad is 87. I swim three times a week and he swims with me. He
usually does the backstroke kick for about 45 minutes. Maybe he does
500 meters. However, he is fit and healthy and walks perfectly
straight. He gardens, and does some carpentry and cooks. He is going
deaf and his memory is not as good as it used to be and his
equilibrium is also not perfect. However, he is as healthy as he can
be. He is a lot healthier than a lot of the old guys who go to the
pool. Ironically, in his 40s and 50s he used to smoke about a pack a
day.

Andres