One day my left leg started to hurt for no good reason. I stood up to shake off the pain and adjusted my right Achilles tendon, so I headed to the first aid kit, hunched over like a monkey due to my stiff back.
Actually, I lied.
It wasn't just one day. This is almost every day.
None of this is serious or serious and I'm not complaining at 72 years old. I'm just curious.
Are my exercises, which were supposed to keep me from falling apart, slowing down or hastening my demise?
What better time than the start of a new year to get the answer? According to one survey, the best New Year's resolution for 2026 is I train more. Also among top six The solutions are eating healthier, improving your physical health and losing weight, so good luck to all you dreamers and I hope you last longer than I did with similar resolutions.
Instead of a solution, I have a goal: to find a middle ground – if there is one – between exercise and pain.
Perhaps I'm asking too much. I've had two partial knee replacements, a torn PCL, scar tissue on a worn out Achilles tendon, a horribly prorated left foot, a right shoulder that needs an oil change, and a pacemaker that keeps ticking.
But I decided to get some expert advice that might be helpful to anyone entering that glorious stage of life when you might pull a muscle while sleeping or pinch a nerve in your neck while brushing your teeth.
And I knew who to call.
Cedars-Sinai Orthopedic Surgeon Robert Clapper hosts an ESPN radio show called “Weekend Warrior” This lab-covered renaissance man, surfer and sculptor in his spare time is also a regular on the radio with “Klapper Vision” – a clairvoyant look at all sorts of twisted, sprained and broken body parts that plague elite athletes and battered buzzards like me.
In “The Weekend Warrior,” Clapper can talk about knee replacement surgery, move on to an image of Michelangelo's human form, and then insist that a sandwich isn't a sandwich without peperoncini. Not everything is necessarily connected, but that doesn't matter.
When I emailed Clapper about my aches and pains, he wrote back immediately. one book on hipsone more on knees and a third one is in development with the following title:
“Stop exercising, you're killing yourself.”
No, he's not saying you should never get off the couch. In a telephone conversation and later in his office, Clapper said the subtitle would be “Let Me Explain.” He emphasizes which exercises are harmful and which are beneficial, especially for people in my age group.
Dr. Robert Clapper holds his book on preventing hip surgery.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
I told him that my daily routine included a two-mile morning walk with my dog, followed by 30 minutes of swimming or riding an exercise bike.
So far, so good.
But I also play pickleball twice a week.
“Look, I throw pickleball for a living now,” Clapper said. “Exercise is great, but it comes in two forms.”
One of them is education, which he calls “Agercism” for my audience.
Another is offensive, and one of Clapper's examples is pickleball. With all its starts and stops, twists and turns, lunges and lunges, pickleball is breaking the Medicare bank. several hundred million dollars” injuries every year.
I know. The game looks pretty restrained, although it was recently banned in Carmel-by-the-Sea because of all this racket. When I first picked up a paddle, I had no idea there would be so much ice and ibuprofen, not to mention the death glares from retirees eager to drill your sternum with a hot laser.
“It’s a sport that gets the adrenaline pumping in every 50-year-old, 60-year-old, 80-year-old,” Clapper told me. in your officewhich is the starting point for its joint replacement plant. The walls are covered with photographs of star athletes and Hollywood celebrities on whom he has operated.
“I see these patients, but they don't come to me with acute injuries. They don't break their Achilles tendon… like they do in tennis. They don't break their ACL like they do in basketball,” Clapper said. “They come to me and say, 'My shoulder is killing me, my knee is killing me.' »
Pickleball has clear physical fitness benefits for every age group. But it can also worsen arthritis and accelerate joint degeneration, says Clapper, especially in addicts who gamble several times a week.
Not that he was the first MD to suggest that walking, cycling and swimming are easier on the body as we age than higher-impact activities. As one doctor said in AARP article on caring for joints and the benefits of eating healthy, watching your weight and staying active: “the worst thing you can do if you have osteoarthritis after age 50 is be sedentary.”
Still, I thought Clapper might tell me to stop pickling, but he didn't.
“To you and all your comrades, pickleball is more than just a sport,” he said. “It's a mental thing. You need it because of stress. The world is falling apart… I want you to play it, but I want you to do educational exercises so you can commit violence.”
“There is no fountain of youth,” Clapper said, but the closest thing is a swimming pool.
Okay, but I already swim three times a week.
Dr. Robert Clapper meets with patient Kathleen Clark, who is recovering from knee surgery.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Clapper had other ideas.
“You have to walk back and forth for half an hour,” he said. Do this three times a week, he told me, and ride the exercise bike three times.
Why walk on water?
“We humans take over a million steps a year. Forget pickleball, just in…everyday life,” Clapper said, so I'm well past 72 million steps.
“Think about it,” he said.
Should I do this?
According to Klapper, walking in the water develops muscles and joints without the stress of my full weight, and it can “optimize” my endurance and overall fitness. Buoyancy and the touch of water on your skin is magic, he says, but there's also science to it.
“It's hard to move your arms, legs and body in the water, but it takes the pressure off the joint,” Clapper said. “And finally—and this is the real X-factor—when you close your eyes, straighten your elbow and bend your elbow, straighten your knee and bend your knee… your brain knows where your limbs are in space.”
It's called proprioception– said Clapper. Receptors in the skin, muscles, ligaments and tendons send messages to the brain, which leads to better balance, coordination and agility and potentially reduced risk of injury.
There are many exercises to sharpen proprioceptionbut the surfing doctor is partial to bodies of water. At my age, he says, my proprioceptive batteries are running low, but I can recharge them by taking a break from pickleball and focusing on the pool.
“You can’t guarantee anything in life or medicine,” Clapper said. “But I guarantee you that in a month you will feel much better than you do now.”
It's worth a try and I'll tell you how it turns out.
In the pool and on the court.
