Friends, Mums, Daughters, Sons and Dads get to this back routine…
27 Jul 2020
Dear LPG,
My Mother and I live together although she is not as young as she used to be. She is now into her 90th year and while she is in fine fettle most of the time, her back and knees are really beginning to affect her life as she gets older. The saddest thing is that all I can do is watch.
Perhaps getting up in the mornings is the worst thing although my mum is not one for giving up. Getting ready for her day takes longer and longer as she gets older and, while she gets up at about seven o’clock each morning, she is now taking as much as 3 hours before she can really get moving.
As she walks down the road or around the house I am very aware of the pain that she struggles through to keep going, and I used to feel so helpless just watching as I try my best to play along as she pretends that things are normal, by not saying anything, and pretending that everything is as OK as she was trying to make it look.
It occurred to me that exercise might help and, they say that it always helps to have an exercise partner, so I make the time to be with her as we follow the gentlest version of the instructions given in the video, while sometimes I go through the motions with her. We do some simple exercises that I found on the internet every morning. There are so many there and sometimes I watch and help her exercise before she gets out of bed. We treat it as a bit of fun and just do what we can, and she tells me that there is a little value for her. I have to admit that I am also aware of some improvement in my posture while taking the time to do them with her makes the whole thing a bit more fun and part of a routine that she sees as a little less of a chore.
I really just go through the motions and often don’t do any of the exercises to my full potential so that she does not feel that her efforts are inferior, and while it only takes a few minutes there is something positive, for both her and me, about doing this together.
In spite of the fact that we have been to the GP about it and she is always looking through those catalogues that make daily appearances in the letterbox, our little routine sort of makes me feel that I am doing something to help.
TP, Bellingham.
LPG would like to offer the usual advice about having someone with you when first trying any new exercise routine no matter how gentle…
YP shares the exercise video in question…
