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 Recently, there has been a lot of discussion on the dangers of falling, particularly in the case of those of advancing years. I am sure we can all recall friends or relatives for whom a simple trip on a kerb or slip on a paving slab has resulted in serious consequences. Of course, any kind of mishap is upsetting and a broken bone is very painful, and the distress and inconvenience it may bring with it can lead to very unwelcome long-term challenges, particularly the loss of self-confidence.
So, what can we do, in practical terms, to try to minimise our risk of such a situation affecting us?
As I was hopping and limping around with my left leg in plaster, unable to weight-bear for the first eight weeks following my recent operation, I became very much aware of how dependent I became on my right leg to balance. Whilst challenging at times, and thankfully only keeling over on a couple of occasions, I was surprised how quickly it became stronger and balancing became automatic. I can’t say practise made perfect, but it certainly helped!
Getting out of bed, in and out of the bath and dressing of course took planning, balance and concentration. Thankfully, the regular balance practise made me stronger as my brain and body adapted simply through pure necessity. And there is a real lesson here. Mary often tells us to balance as we wait for the kettle to boil. Practising our balancing skills is a really, really important thing to do – but I wonder how often we do it? I encourage you to please do it more. We even have a programme of Balance Exercises on our website.
Mary and I have each been teaching aerobic exercise classes for over 50 years and if any aerobics teacher were to be asked: ‘What does aerobic exercise do for us’, almost certainly they would respond with ‘Aerobic exercise is great for our heart and lungs’. And that is absolutely true. But the kind of aerobic fitness classes we and thousands of other teachers across the land offer also do so much more than just benefitting our heart and lungs, they also teach balance.
This is because the variety of moves we perform in a sequence of carefully choreographed steps involve our legs and arms stepping or swinging from side to side, forwards and backwards, diagonally or even round in circles. In executing those steps, we are developing our motor skills as well as executing the physical movements so we become fitter. Learning which leg and arm should move where, and in time with the beat of the music, is no mean feat but it is brilliant brain exercise. But there’s more… Every time we do a standing leg lift like a ‘half jack’ or a ‘hamstring curl’, we are also perfecting our balancing skills as we momentarily stand on one leg. If we regularly follow an aerobic workout, we are giving ourselves SO much more than just exercise for our heart and lungs!
The other great benefit of working-out to music is that we become spatially confident – meaning that we become used to moving in different directions in the space around us. This is so good for our proprioception.
So, what is proprioception?
Proprioception is the body’s ability to sense its location, movements, and actions. Some health conditions can affect our proprioception and may require treatment, including physical therapy.
Mary choreographed my Ultimate Whole Body Workout DVD and, whilst it was published a good few years ago, those exercises are just as effective today as they were on the first day it was launched. Where our fitness DVDs differed from those presented by others was that they always offered easier and harder versions of the workouts in the presentation so that folks could find the level that suited them best. This meant they could start gently and do the easier version and then progress to the more advanced level as they became fitter. Also in The Ultimate Whole Body Workout we included an extra work-out for those who preferred to do seated aerobics.
Over the last few months since being less mobile, I have missed so much not being able to do my standing aerobic sessions because of the valuable ‘whole-body’ benefit they embrace. I cannot wait to get back to rebuilding my fitness and to do them again – often!
If we exercise regularly, should we have an accidental trip then our overall fitness and our finely tuned proprioceptors may help us to ‘catch’ ourselves from falling to the ground. And if we do fall, we should be able to recover more quickly because we are fit. In Mary’s piece below you will learn how beneficial it is to get active with others and if we do that, we win on every level.
On the subject of falling, you may find the following videos helpful on the Balance Exercises page of our website.
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Chinese Chicken Kebabs
Serves 2
Per serving: 204 calories, 1.6g fat (excl. accompaniments)
Prep time: 10 mins
Marinate: 60 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
2 medium-sized skinless chicken breasts
1 red pepper, diced
1 small can water chestnuts
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tbsp tomato purée
freshly ground black pepper
chopped spring onions to serve
- Cut the chicken into chunks. Thread the chicken, red pepper and water chestnuts onto 4 wooden or metal skewers and place on a baking tray. Season with black pepper.
- Mix together the remaining ingredients, then drizzle over the kebabs. Leave the kebabs for at least an hour in the fridge to allow them to absorb the marinade.
- Cook the kebabs under a preheated hot grill or barbecue for 8 – 10 minutes each side.
- Transfer to serving plates and garnish with spring onion. Serve with 1 blue Portion Pot (55g uncooked weight) or 1 red Portion Pot (144g cooked weight) boiled basmati rice per person plus salad or vegetables of your choice.
Chef’s tip: For extra flavour make the day before and marinate the kebabs overnight in the fridge.
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Don't forget, you can download and print a copy of all our recipes if you click on the image to go to the recipe's page on the website.
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Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.
If we enjoyed playing sports when we were younger, then there is a huge choice of games to choose from these days, no matter what age we are. Even if we didn’t like being part of a team back then, the chances are we would enjoy it enormously in older age. Meeting up with a group of like-minded people satisfies the social side of our life, and being active at the same time is a recipe for a long and happy life in my book.
So, this week I plan to enlighten us all of the great sports that are possibly available in our local area that we may never have previously explored. We will see that many are reminiscent of our schooldays but are often adapted to suit those of us who are older now. Please keep an open mind if you hated PE at school when you see what is on offer here. They are all perfect for an older age group, designed to accommodate ageing joints and performed at a slower pace, but most importantly, they are designed to be great fun - so definitely worth a go.
Padel Tennis
This rapidly growing sport is a combination of both tennis and squash, and the court is set in a walled cube so that you are not forever collecting balls that have gone astray – they simply bounce back into the court! And what I love about this one is that it is only played as doubles, so you will always have a teammate by your side.
The court is 25% smaller than a normal tennis court and scoring is the same as in tennis, so you hopefully you may be able to start playing with some knowledge, and the rackets - spelled differently from those used in regular tennis - are designed to be easier to strike the ball. Even if you have never played tennis in your life, it is so easy to pick up that you will immediately feel reasonably confident and therefore enjoy it from the outset.
You may be surprised to learn that there are over 250 courts across the country and it is organised by the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) and there are even UK Padel County Championships for the over 60s. Most areas of the UK have a facility nearby and I have just discovered that mine is only 8 miles away so I really fancy giving it a try. There is plenty of information at www.lta.org.uk with lots of videos to watch, so take a look and get inspired!
Pickleball
This game was invented as long ago as 1965 in the USA but it was not until 2011 that it started in the UK. It is now the fastest growing sport in America, no doubt helped by the massively growing ageing population. Even here in the UK you are now quite likely to find it being played in your local area.
This one is a combination of tennis, badminton and table tennis and can be played both indoors and outdoors and on a court the same size as a badminton court. The paddles are a great size with a shorter handle and a string attachment to your wrist. This makes it easier to play your shots, and with the perforated plastic ball being nice and light, you will feel like a pro from day one!
I also like the fact that you serve the ball underhand or even drop the ball before you hit it, and the ball must bounce for at least the first 3 shots before you can hit it. All these elements mean that it is perfectly designed for the non-sporty!
Go to www.pickleballengland.org/what-is-pickleball where you can see it being played and find out more if you are interested.
Walking Sports
I must admit to having no idea just how many walking sports there are available and all are perfect when we can no longer race around a court or a playing field like we used to. You may have already heard of walking football and walking netball, but you can also add to the list hockey, tennis, rounders, basketball and cricket! So, an amazing choice! Go to www.walkingsports.com to find out all you need to know.
I loved netball at school and am really keen to have a go at my local club, once my replacement knee has completely settled in. I was particularly pleased to discover that the rules reflect an older body – you cannot run or jump, you can take an extra step on receiving the ball and the ball can be held for 4 seconds instead of 3. Fabulous!
When observing walking football online it was great to see both men and women taking part and clearly loving it. But all the sports mentioned above are covered on the Walking Sports website, so it is well worth a look.
Enjoy the Physical Benefits
Absolutely all the sports mentioned will reap enormous benefits to us physically and mentally. They will all improve our cardiovascular health as without doubt the desire to play well keeps us 'on the move'. All sports improve our alertness and reaction times and demand changes of direction that improve our balance and body control. Add to that the social interaction and friendliness that such groups offer, and our mental health is secured too.
If a competitive sport is really not your thing, then you can always explore any walking groups locally, where you will still enjoy meeting new people and be guided on some lovely walks you may have never done before. Go to www.walkingforhealth.org.uk. Or maybe aqua aerobics which is perfect for older bodies, cushioning your joints and yet still very physical. Even walking in water, if swimming is not your thing, is a hard aerobic activity and will pay enormous dividends physically.
Finally... don't let age turn you into a couch potato!
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This Week's Fitness Challenge
- Take a few minutes this week to explore the websites mentioned above to see if anything appeals to you. If it does then pursue it!
- On your daily 30+ minute walks do the lamppost challenge. Walk steadily to one and then speed up to the next. You will notice the difference and spend a lot more calories!
- Focus on your balance this week by at the very least standing on one leg at some point every day or by doing the full Balance Exercises workout from the website.
- For our strength workout, do 10 squats followed immediately by 10 table-top press-ups and do 3 sets of each, every other day this week.
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Did you know... 
One week on from the biggest ever Global IT outage Microsoft estimates that 8.5m computers around the world were affected, and IT departments the world over are still working their way through the backlog of fixes.
The issue generally only affected large public-facing organisations - banks, broadcasters, airlines etc. who all used a particular piece of software to keep them safe!
Meanwhile, here at Conley-Towers, we were largely unaffected, although we did notice a slightly larger-than-normal number of Newsletters bouncing! An email "bounces" and fails to arrive in the recipient's inbox for any number of reasons. There might be a spelling mistake in the address, the inbox might be full, or it might have just got lost somewhere in cyberspace on the way. Often a missing email turns up unexpectedly categorised as "spam" and gets diverted to your junkmail folder. On an average week our system reports about 2 in every thousand Newsletters failing to arrive, but last Friday around 1 in every one hundred went missing, five times more than normal!
So, if you missed last week's Newsletter - or any other week for that matter - we suggest:
- Check your spam folder in case it's hiding in there.
- Add us to your "Safe Senders" list if you have one.
- Go to Rosemary's Weekly Newsletter on our website where you can find a copy of every Newsletter we've issued since we started it back in April 2021.
The Newsletters are normally added to the page at the start of the following week although sometimes it can take up to two weeks due to holidays etc.
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And finally...
This week there has been something of a focus on developing our balance skills, whether by specifically practising to stand on one leg during the day or by embracing those important motor skills in the form of workouts or by playing sport. I think we can all agree they are really important.
Have a wonderful week!
With love and best wishes,
Rosemary Conley CBE DL
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LIVE LONGER | LIVE HEALTHIER | LIVE HAPPIER
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