Last week, while hiking in Capitol Reef NP, a younger old man asked if I had any advice about how to keep in hiking condition at my age. (He's 10 years younger than me, right on the leading age of the boomers.) As a matter of fact, I do have, based on my recent experience.
My advice: Fight DTS!
DTS = Disappearing Tush Syndrome, aka Gluteal Atrophy.
We've all seen men with DTS - geezers who walk around with nothing in the seat of their pants.
A few weeks ago I posted that I suddenly became unable to summit Baldy around my birthday. The fact that it happened just at my birthday was psychological. The fact that it happened has a real physiological basis: DTS.
I would have thought that doing a significant hike in the mountains once a week, together with a lot of walking around the city, would have kept my glutes in good condition. But it didn't. I know now that I had been shifting the effort of hiking off my ass to my legs. In fact, some people had commented on how muscular my legs had become.
But the legs can't substitute for the push from strong glutes, and I had reached the limit to what I could do relying on my legs. Without that push from behind there's just not enough power to get up the hill.
Once I figured out what the problem was I consulted my son, who runs a Cross Fit studio in Colorado, and a PT at Kaiser. They gave me some exercises to do that specifically target the glutes. After 5 months of working on them I can summit Baldy again. Now that I am more aware of my body, I can feel the push from behind and if I fall back to primarily using my legs I can correct it.
So, you peeps that are approaching geezerdom, it's not too early to pay attention to your butt. A shapely ass is more than decoration!
