‘Stop exercising, you are killing your self.’ Not actually, however extra nurture, much less torture

One day my left foot harm for no good purpose. I stood as much as shake off the ache and tweaked my proper Achilles tendon, so I headed for the medication cupboard, bent over like an ape due to a stiff again.

Actually, I lied.

It wasn’t at some point. It’s just about each day.

None of that is extreme or critical, and I’m not complaining on the age of 72. I’m simply questioning.

Are my train routines, which had been meant to maintain me from falling aside, slowing my demise, or accelerating it?

What higher time than the beginning of a brand new yr to get a solution? In one ballot, the highest New Year’s decision for 2026 is exercising more. Also amongst the top six resolutions are consuming more healthy, bettering bodily well being and shedding weight, so good luck to all you dreamers, and I hope you last more than I’ve with related resolutions.

Instead of a decision, I’ve a objective, which is to discover a candy spot — if there’s one — between train and ache.

Maybe I’m asking an excessive amount of. I’ve had two partial knee replacements, I’ve obtained a torn posterior cruciate ligament, a scar tissue knob on a frayed Achilles tendon, a hideously pronated left foot, a proper shoulder that feels prefer it wants an oil change, and a pacemaker that retains on ticking.

But I made a decision to get some professional recommendation that could be helpful for anybody who has entered this superb section of life through which it’s doable to drag a muscle whereas taking a nap, or pinch a nerve in your neck whereas brushing your enamel.

And I knew simply whom to name.

Cedars-Sinai orthopedic surgeon Robert Klapper hosts an ESPN radio present referred to as “Weekend Warrior.” This lab-coated Renaissance man, a surfer and sculptor in his spare time, additionally weighs in repeatedly on the radio with “Klapper Vision” — clear-eyed takes on all method of twisted, pulled and damaged physique components suffered by elite athletes and banged-up buzzards like me.

On “Weekend Warrior,” Klapper could be speaking about knee alternative surgical procedure one minute, segue to Michelangelo’s rendering of the human type, after which insist {that a} sandwich just isn’t a sandwich with out peperoncini. It isn’t essentially all related, nevertheless it doesn’t matter.

When I emailed Klapper about my aches and pains, he responded instantly to say he’s written one book on hips, one other on knees and a 3rd one is within the works with the next title:

“Stop Exercising, You’re Killing Yourself.”

No, he’s not saying it is best to by no means get off the couch. In a cellphone dialog and later at his workplace, Klapper mentioned the subtitle goes to be, “Let Me Explain.” He’s making a degree about what sort of train is dangerous and what variety is useful, significantly for individuals in my age group.

My day by day routine, I advised him, includes a two-mile morning stroll with my canine adopted by half-hour of swimming laps or using a stationary bike.

So far, so good.

But I additionally play pickleball twice every week.

“Listen, I make a living from pickleball now,” Klapper mentioned. “Exercise is wonderful, but it comes in two flavors.”

One is nurturing, which he calls “agercise” for my demographic.

The different is abusive, and one in every of Klapper’s examples is pickleball. With all its begins and stops, twists and turns, reaches and lunges, pickleball is busting the Medicare financial institution, with a few hundred million dollars’ price of accidents every year.

I do know. The recreation seems fairly low key, though it was just lately banned in Carmel-by-the-Sea due to all of the racket. I had no concept, once I first picked up a paddle, that there’d be a lot ice and ibuprofen concerned, to not point out the killer stares from retirees itching for an opportunity to drill you within the sternum with a scorching laser.

“This is a sport which has the adrenaline rushing in every 50-year-old, 60-year-old, 80-year-old,” Klapper advised me in his office, which is the start line in his joint alternative manufacturing unit. The partitions are coated with images of star athletes and A-list Hollywood celebrities he’s operated on.

“I see these patients, but they’re not coming to me with acute injuries. They didn’t snap their Achilles tendon … like they do in tennis. They’re not snapping their ACL like they are in pickup basketball,” Klapper mentioned. “They’re coming to me saying, ‘My shoulder is killing me, my knee is killing me.’ ”

Pickleball has apparent conditioning advantages for each age group. But it will possibly additionally worsen arthritis and speed up joint degeneration, Klapper mentioned, significantly for addicts who play a number of occasions every week.

Not that he’s the primary MD to recommend that as you age, strolling, biking and swimming are simpler in your physique than higher-impact actions. As one physician mentioned in an AARP article on joint care and the advantages of wholesome consuming, watching your weight and staying energetic, “the worst thing you can do with osteoarthritis after 50 is be sedentary.”

Still, I assumed Klapper would possibly inform me to cease pickling, however he didn’t.

“Pickleball is more than a sport to you … and all of your compadres,” he mentioned. “It’s mental. You need it because of the stress. The world’s falling apart.… I want you to play it, but I want you to do the nurturing exercises so you can do the abuse.”

There’s no fountain of youth, Klapper mentioned, however the closest factor is a swimming pool.

OK, however I already swim 3 times every week.

Klapper had completely different concepts.

“You need to be walking forward and backwards for half an hour,” he mentioned. Do that 3 times every week, he advised me, and journey a stationary bike 3 times.

Why the water strolling?

“We as humans take over a million steps a year. Forget pickleball, just in … daily living,” Klapper mentioned, so I’m effectively past 72 million steps.

“Think about that,” he mentioned.

Do I’ve to?

Water strolling will develop muscle tissue and joints with out the stress of my full weight, and that would “optimize” my pickleball sturdiness and basic health, Klapper mentioned. Buoyancy and the contact of water on pores and skin are magic, he mentioned, however there’s science concerned too.

“It’s hard to move your arms and legs and your body through water, and yet it’s unloading the joint,” Klapper mentioned. “And finally — and this is the real X factor — when you close your eyes and straighten your elbow and bend your elbow, straighten your knee and bend your knee … your brain knows where your limbs are in space.”

This is named proprioception, Klapper mentioned. Receptors in your pores and skin, muscle tissue, ligaments and tendons ship messages to your mind, resulting in better balance, coordination and agility and potentially reducing risk of injury.

There are plenty of exercises for sharpening proprioception, however the browsing physician is keen on our bodies of water. At my age, he mentioned, my proprioception “batteries are running low,” however I can recharge them with a brief break from pickleball and a deal with the pool.

“You can’t guarantee anything in life and medicine,” Klapper mentioned. “But I guarantee you, a month into it, you’re going to feel so much better than you do at this moment.”

It’s price a strive, and I’ll let you understand how it goes.

In the pool and on the court docket.

steve.lopez@latimes.com