[speaker001:] it then takes away the acid from the joint. And can you see it will not cure rheumaticky knees, but it gets you rid of the acid for the time being. If you don't get rid of acid you know what it does to even metal, if it sits on metal it eats through it, so you imagine what it does to your bones when it sits on them. And this is why with forms of arthritis you get deformity and you get n er b the joint won't, won't use. So can you see it is vital that all of you keep your circulation going right and a good idea is to start it in bed so that before you get out and put weight on your limbs... [break in recording]... And the same with the rest of your body get your circulation going, get the joints doing a bit of movement and before you get up and give them the added job of bearing your weight. Now if you're a rheumatism person you will know that you have difficulty getting out of bed in the morning unless you do something, and this is the way of doing it, move in the bed before, get the circulation going so it moves the acid so that you can move. And don't let it deform the joints cos it does eventually. Why I'm very positive about this I am a rheumatoid arthritis person, have been since I oh I don't know happen to be in my fifties I think. And I have been years on Bold injections and all the rest of it, and I know from experience you get, you deal with it, it doesn't cure the disease but can you see you have a way of dealing with it, of coping with it, of helping yourself er c er do things and therefore you can
[speaker002:] [cough]
[speaker001:] You've mastered it, it hasn't mastered you. It, if it's left it will deform joints. That hand of mine won't go the right shape although I've tried, I knew it would deform joints and so I put all my efforts into spreading them the opposite way, but I haven't won on that one, can you see? Because it's affected the bone, once the bone is affected you can't get it right, cos the bone's done. So it's very important that you do
[speaker002:] What of course you don't see is wh what it will have looked like if you have n't.
[speaker001:] N well I, I, I had, why I was so positive about it, I had an uncle who had it very badly and as a child I was very aware of his hands, they were quite inhuman looking, they were that shape, and you know everything he did he, he had to that and that's remained in my mind that when I got it I though I won't have the hands like that so I r I w I go, I went to sleep, I still do it, every night, spread my hands, the last thing I think about, spread the hands. Now it affects all the joints as well but somehow or other I felt that that was the thing that stuck in my mind from seeing him. And that one which eventually o originally was the worst hand has, has got the less er damage to it. So again you see it is up to you to do, deal with it. I think as long as you've got some way of dealing with things you can live with them. Cos you're, it's positive again, you're in charge and not it. Now suppleness is the most important, but when you've got that you have to go for something else before you even can grow the stamina, and that is strength, the power of the muscle to produce the body action, resist gravity and work against resistance. Y the power comes from muscle contraction, it's needed for movement, management, balance and agility and for lifting and handling objects. It needs regular graded notice, progressive practice to build and maintain the skill. Care must be taken to start from each individual's capability. Because your friend can do some fantastic things it doesn't mean to say your muscles will, you could be in trouble. You must start, you forget there where he is or she is, but you've got to start from your actual capacity otherwise you're in danger in that. Now er how powerful are your muscles? What will they do? Have you thought about them lately, about how strong are they? Just let's have a little test on that one. sit on the table. You're sitting in your chair, just lift up one knee will you, and the other one. And repeat that, right. Now he'll put it up and hold it. Now the muscles are not r working to lift it, they're working to hold it against gravity, gravity saying go on let it go. And can you see by about now the muscles are beginning to feel. Again the same thing, there's contraction in that muscle which stops the blood flowing which builds the acid and therefore it begins to hurt, let it go. And again you see if you increase the load, can you take up both, back... pick them up again. We all know how easy that is to do, and if I say hold it
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] we find a few more, right let it go. Can you see it requires more in a static holding, this is building muscle power and you have to do things, and muscle can build it if, it c if you asked that those legs to do that every day they would get better at it, because what the body would then do would be build in more muscle fibre to cope with the job, so can you see it, what you ask the body to do, you've got to ask it the right amount, not too much or else you damage and you've got to ask it regularly and gradually increase it if you want to improve the muscle power. Now again if you take a good look round the retired people in town there is, you just sit down on one of those benches in town and watch people for a bit, and you'll see that a lot of them are deteriorating physically and that is making them, making it difficult for them to get about socially, shopping- wise and so on. And again can you see what will happen. If it is getting difficult you can see what's going to happen, they're going to think oh well I won't go to town today, I'll go to the corner shop and manage. In other words they're going to ask their body to do less and less and less. And there was a, a book, I always regret not pho photostatting it, where one of the people who write on health er made the point that you start with the full page in the book, and the outer band of it were all pictures of the world, and then it was erm a particular sort of location in a town, and then it was a house and garden and then it was a room in a house. Can you see what it says? Yeah. And that happens gradually, you know the person concerned isn't always aware unless they're very very, have some way of telling. When you retire, you see at the moment in your job you will know how you cope with the job so if the job's in your, round your house or if the job's ins in, in your work. Erm how are you going to know when you retire whether your physical ability is deteriorating? Only if you've got something to measure it by. You see, erm
[speaker002:] Appraisal. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] see your skills aren't going to be wasted.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] You're going to need them in your retirement. Er
[speaker002:] Do we send our to you? [LAUGHTER] chart.
[speaker001:] You see speed is one thing, how do you know whether you're getting slower? Er i this is why it's important that you mix with people, that you get out and about, because if you find that everybody else is, is getting up the hill faster than you and everybody else is crossing the roads quicker than you and all the rest of it, it should tell you something, now I mean I don't even want to go into competition but I think it is good occasionally to see if you can walk as fast as that eighteen year old in front of you. Can you keep up with up her? I mean you probably beat her with a lot of the eighteen year olds you see. But can you see, have some idea how long does it take you to go some, to one place to another that you go regularly. Are you taking more time as you go along? I mean there's no reason why you shouldn't take longer if you're intending to take longer because you want to enjoy the, the view. Er are you feeling in the mood to take it easy? Er sometimes I, I'm, I get a lot, a lot of things on, I have at the moment, an awful lot of things on, so everything is you know getting in a p a tight path and fast, so I deliberately thoroughly enjoy taking my dog and wandering along in the park. And I'm going as slow as I can go and I'm just taking everything in, and I'm unwinding, I'm relaxing mentally and physically as I do it because that's what I feel I need at the moment, and having that ability is good. But on the other hand I don't want to wake up with horror one day when I find that I've lost all my physical abilities because I wasn't taking too much care of them and observing. Again another thing too, is that boosting your ego side, if you s if you set yourself a little bit of a target and you can manage it er can you run up the hill? Can you still run? Can you balance? Can you get over er fences un er er across a ditch? I c I, I tell this story cos I think it illustrates it very much, I expect most of you have er if you haven't been you've heard of Dale in Derbyshire, and it's this river with a, a lovely walk either side of the river, you walk along the side and then you come to the point where there's a bend in the river and there's these gorgeous great enormous stepping stones. And I went about two years ago on a gorgeous and sunny morning like one of the first of the season, you know, and the place was packed. And I had t spent a fascinating time standing near the stepping stones and looking at people.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Because you know they came up, they were full of the joys of spring, looking around, chatting to their friends and then they r started looking at the stepping stone. And you knew what they were thinking, they were trying to weigh up whether they dare go across the stepping stones and you could tell by their faces and what they did of course when they decided no it was beyond them and they'd play safe and they'd go back the same way. But can you see the people who came to the stepping stones and couldn't go across and had to go back the way they'd already come wouldn't go back with a very [breath] their ego wouldn't have b been boosted very high. But the ones who'd found, you know, wondered about the stepping stones and then had plucked up their courage and then had got across safely, can you see how they would have walked down the other side?
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Oh all their friends what they'd done. I bet. They had met a challenge and they'd succeeded, indeed we all need them. And what challenges are you going to meet you see to boost your ego, because if you don't boost it you're going to be in trouble. So this is why you've got to have it. You'd be stupid to go across the stepping stones if you didn't have the power to jump from one to the other, pretty big, but the, so are the distances between them and at that time of the year the river was pretty high too and r rather boisterous, so it wouldn't be very pleasant if you had fallen in, but you've got to have that but you've also got to have stamina as you said, but it wouldn't have been any fun if you'd got halfway across and [LAUGHTER] your stamina had run out, then fire brigade called out, the fire brigade or something []. So you need to have the ability to keep going but you can't get stamina till you've previously got s the, the strength in the muscles to do it. Er the other thing you've got to have and very essentially, is coordination, got to cross those stepping stones if you couldn't coordinate the action right, now this is vitally important this coordination, it's the skilful interaction of the five senses, the brain, the nerves and the muscles, acting with the right degree of effort and timing. You don't get your timing right and you'd be in the river, don't get the effort right and you'd still be in the river wouldn't you? This type of work, movement works closely with memorization in many cases, these skills are essential for daily living, they need regular daily practice in a great variety of situations. Now if you don't have coordination and you're, then you're in dire trouble. You think of some of the erm handicapped people that you know, that's what they lack in, their movements are erratic and disjointed, they don't have the fine coordination so life is very difficult then for them to manage. Coordination at its highest, when we develop it, we say we've developed skills, and if you've done that can you see you acquired skills in quite a lot of situations, and again that's an area where you'll get a great deal of satisfaction. I mean if you're absolutely marvellous at painting and produce gorgeous pictures and so forth that everybody else admires, not only gives you something to do but boosts again your ego and your satisfaction but you need very good coordination to do anything which requires the skill. On the other hand, can you see if coordination gets er deteriorates in any way you're going to be cut off from an awful lot of things you now, you might have been marvellous at embroidery, it gave you a lot of satisfaction but if your co coordination starts to go then the quality of what you can do will satisfy you, will dissatisfy you, make you feel annoyed. So again we do need to practise coordination it needs to have lots of practice, it is of course frequently affected by certain types of illnesses er and, and again that may be inevitable but again the more past experience you've acquired and the more, the greater your ability to fight back, even though you're fighting a losing battle if it's an illness, can you see it's going to delay the difficult bit the difficult part longer, you're going to be able to cope. That's important and of course when you lose, really lose your powers of coordination then you lose the ability to look after yourself, you can't dress yourself, you can't feed yourself and when that happens it's into a home and geriatric ward and be looked after. So it, it is a very vital part. Then comes your stamina that you've mentioned, the ability to maintain prolonged physical and mental effort, notice it's also mental, it's not just physical. The staying power having endurance again you say with the feeling of the mind as well as the, the body. Keeping going without distress. It needs regular, graded, progressive training to build up the muscle power and gradually improve cardiac output. That's your ability for your heartbeat and your heart to get the oxygen it requires from your lungs and to keep going, cos if that d h doesn't happen all the rest just goes. Er it needs skilled coordination and rhythm to help build the, keep the action going, developing stamina helps us to cope with work and leisure without undue tiredness. So that you can enjoy your hobbies and, and, and, and you know, you can take on hobbies that do, do require quite a lot from you, if you've got the stamina. Also very useful in emer in emergencies, you think of a, do you remember the ferry disaster? Th the one that was so bad, where a man used his back for other people to escape by? Now people th people there, those people would have been in dire trouble if there hadn't been somebody who could do that. Now I always think of that as stamina cos I think that must have been a terrific stamina thing. He must have felt it and he must have suffered afterwards from it I would imagine, but he had, he had those qualifications, he had those abilities and he used them for a. Now we never know, especially in this day and age, what situation we're going to be in, and would your physical ability save you? Would it be able to even go further and save other people? The, you may get by very nicely on very moderate physical ability in ordinary every day life because you can kind of order what you're going to let yourself in for. But if you're in an emergency situ situation, you don't know and would you be equal to it, would you have some reserve you could fall on? And it is important to think about that. And then we haven't finished yet.
[speaker002:] We just ask on that on? What
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] what are the best exercises then or the best form of exercise to build up some ticker to build up the heart?
[speaker001:] Erm again, this is why er er jogging at th at this point became so er popular if you remember everyb er a little while, few years ago everybody was rushing out jogging and there are still people who are doing it. Now again it's very difficult to say because jogging will not be any good to you unless you're in the right condition to do jogging and unless you've got the right conditions to jog. For instance the, the doctors in the hospitals had a lot of work because people rushed into jogging who weren't fit for it or weren't doing it with the right conditions. You should, you, you're advised not to jog on tarmac because the surface is hard and jars and so if you do a lot of it can you see and if, particularly if your joints are not equal to it, then you set up a lot of trouble. Erm it, again if you'd only do things like jogging it will build up, if you've got the right conditions, your heart y y your heart and lung ability, but in order to have this stamina that we're talking about you've got to have power. Now jogging doesn't give power to the big muscles of the body, it doesn't do that so again you'd you'd have to be doing something which, that built up the power. Er again if you're in certain situations you need coordin very very good coordination and timing and again just jogging would not do that. Er you need to have a much more all round variety of exercise to build up the different things. Does that answer it for you or not?
[speaker002:] A specific exercise is aimed at specific
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] muscles
[speaker001:] Muscles yes, you've got to er if you're going to build power into muscles you've got to, you've got to give the load to those particular muscles and you've got to do it at the right load. This is the whole things behind weight training, it's not a thing I've ever done it cos it I would find that boring, it's er too mechanical for me. But erm the idea is you give a certain load, a reasonable load, to a muscle and it will cope with that then you increase the load and it increases the muscle power to deal with the increased load. This is how these men make themselves into all those freak things where muscles bulge all over the place, they look as if they're about to, I'm not quite sure, they always remind of erm those balloons, you know, that pop off beach balls, they look a bit like that.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] But that's how they build their muscles you see, it's all very scientific and they and they're very dedicated and they know how they do it. No the, the principle of it is good, we could all do with a bit more muscle building than we have. But you've got to do the right kind of exercise to get the effect er and again when you come to stamina it's got to be, you've got to have a bit of the all round to go with the stamina. Erm and again when I
[speaker002:] [cough]
[speaker001:] you need also, very much, to have the all round development, the ability to be nimble, speedy and capable of dealing with the unexpected, and a series of movements demanding and challenging on weight transference and balance performed with speed and various use of space. Can you see how variable it has to be, because you've got about everything in there. Er it needs a safe level of suppleness, strength, stamina and coordination. It calls for confidence and courage. You notice where that is, courage, that'll be partly in you
[speaker002:] Deciding to go on the stepping stones. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Yes. Partly in you, you know, that, that, that, that likes a challenge and you like to step up to things that are difficult and you can summon up your courage very easily and oth some people have more difficulty. But when mastered it gives a great feeling of exhilaration and achievement, in other words your ego's going to get built if you're good on that. But you'd be a fool to try and get this agility if you haven't got those safe levels suppleness, strength, stamina and coordination cos you'd be asking for trouble. So
[speaker002:] How how do you rate cycling and swimming?
[speaker001:] Erm swimming is recommended as about the most all round exercise because it certainly does your heart and lungs, it does all the muscles of the body, it, according to what you do in the water of course, I mean if you just go and stand there it does nothing
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] er but if you are actually swimming and you are using the different strokes and so forth, it does use power-wise all the main muscles of the body. And it certainly does the heart and lungs and it certainly has erm that feeling that you can wriggle and move around in the water, so it certainly gives you this feeling of agility as well. Er this is why swimming's been taken up by quite a lot, there are retir classes for people who've retired and can't swim. There's quite a lot of those being arranged, that's quite a good way of doing it. Erm what was the other one?
[speaker002:] Cycling. Cycling.
[speaker001:] Cycling. Well I thought that cycling built power in the leg muscles, it's, I mean it ought to didn't it? But I have, I, I've ever since I've retired I've run a performing dance group of men and women erm who do it for a hobby. And er I have in there one of the great cyclist, he cycles all over the country, he's gone from John O'Groats down the other way and across the opposite way, he cycles everywhere, he never goes in car he always cycles everywhere he goes. And he's got the weakest legs in my dance group. Now I can't account for that, because he ought to have strong ones didn't he, if he did all that stuff there? I think the a I think the thing is is that I, we can't mentally get into realize how to use his body weight which comes from using your feet and getting and the l and your legs and so forth. But in theory cycling shouldn't give you very strong leg muscles. And certainly do your heart and lungs. I don't know that is does much for your shoulders and arms and so forth, but can you see that's a that's, that's what it is. Some things will give all round, but others won't. I mean if you say you dance, it depends on how you dance whether it does everything for you, because some are very concerned with keeping the body rather aloof, like ballet i i i minimize it, you try to pretend you don't have any body weight in ballet, you control it. Er and therefore it is usually very good foot and leg work and the line of the body er but it's not, it wouldn't be ever so good at agility, because it is concerned with holding, with holding your body weight from gravity. Now to be agile you've got to be able to let your body give to gravity and then pull away from gravity, alternating very quickly er that gives you agility. So again there aren't many things that do complete, swimming I think I far as I can see is the only one that does, but then again that depends on how you use the swimming, it, it just, just cos you bathes every week doesn't necessarily mean that it does do it for you, it depends what you do, okay? Right now can you see you've got an awful lot there to be working on, now I've got one more. Here it's called awareness, in dance call it sensitivity, sensitivity to what is happening around us with the ability to react sometimes at great speed. It calls for physical and mental reaction and is sometimes affected for good or bad by our emotions. You see if you are very angry about something, about a situation you know that when you're in that anger it's so strong that you wouldn't notice if something happened right under your nose because your anger is u occupying your, your brain and your senses. Erm on the other hand if you s in some situations er i i your anger would, would, could make you acutely aware of something, more acutely aware than the other, so it depends. it needs a well trained body, a flexible mind and feelings that can be analyzed and used. It requires lots of experience of working with other people in varied situations. But that sensitivity in my book is what is going to give you a tremendous amount of pleasure in your retirement. If you've got it to use... and you plan your retirement is, isn't that if what you're hoping to do? Go places and do things?
[speaker002:] Can not super sensitiv super sensitivity work both ways? You can ex experience great happiness and great
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] because of the sensitivity. So it's really your attitude as to what you make of it.
[speaker001:] Mm. And again you see, er it's personal choice in retirement and you've got to choose it to suit your, you. Because you are an individual.... You've got a personality, a character which was partly what you were born with, partly what life has developed in you, as somebody described it e we, we are the sum total of the luggage we've acquired. Erm but again you see you could, you would, you wouldn't want to be a person who was only aware of all the good things and the bright things and the light things and the enjoyable things and were never aware of the others. Er do you want to feel that in your retirement, you experience the full range of emotions? Would you find that something you wanted, that you were able to experience the full range of emotions? Or would you want to shy away from everything that was unpleasant or difficult? Or would you be one of those people who only ever saw the worst of everything, because they are around aren't they? Erm so they only pick up and they thoroughly enjoy disaster. Er and they're very sensitive to that and they pick it up and make the most of it. Er they're the real to work with, er but can you see the choice? It's going to, to really be what you want, what you make of it.
[speaker002:] Isn't it true though that
[speaker001:] Pardon?
[speaker002:] if you haven't sensed sorrow you can't really sense joy to its.
[speaker001:] This is the point isn't it? There's, there's part of life that, that you've been missing if you haven't had some experience somewhere, and as you say er some of the most beautiful things in life... move you to tears.
[speaker002:] Bertrand Russell said the prerequisite of happiness is to be without it.
[speaker001:] Yes. If you think about that, that, that's true isn't it?
[speaker002:] Until you've known loss you've never known what you really have got.
[speaker001:] Well I think that I, I think most of us when you get to this to, well not to my age, to your ages, we've experienced that I think. Yes I think you, you, you'd agree on that wouldn't you? So erm where does this leaves us? Have, have you got those physical abilities that we talked about? Have you got any idea in your retirement about how you're going to keep yourself so that your body is not going to be a handicap to you? Because that's really what you want isn't it? You want your body to get about as easily as possible and be able to do the things that your mind seizes on that you want to, to have a go at and to make a reasonable job of it. Now again you see i there's a million ways that you can do it. But I think another important thing is to weigh up yourself, it stems from you, what are you like? You see lots of people find that they w they do best when they join a class and they go to the class, it's there every week and th or maybe more than once a week and that keeps them going because they are, they're expected, it's a definite booking, and that's it and they can go that way. Other people would hate that, it's too restricting and er er and again it is, if you think about it, because if you've got a, a regular date and you're retired and something nice and exciting comes up, and that's right in the middle of your, it bashes into your regular date, so then you have to say do I go or do I do or, or don't I? And you can do that, you can go. But you see, I'm finishing my dance group, this year it's doing its final perfor performance at Clarendon College if any of you are interested on May the fourth and fifteenth er er er there. Now I decided, cos I'm the director of it, that we finish this year. There were various factors that came into making this decision but one of the things is I'm heartily sick that I have never been able to go away on holiday in the autumn ever in my life. Cos I was in teaching... so if you know where you were in the autumn, I leave Clarendon College and what do I do? I have to work every Wednesday night, every week and one Sunday a month in the dance school. So I can't go away in the autumn now cos that's just when everybody's start you know raring to go and wanting to get started on next year's programme. So I still haven't been in the autumn, so one of my reasons for finishing is, is so I can go on holiday in the autumn. I go on holiday other times but you know there is a bit, something about the autumn isn't there? Which is a bit different and I'd like to see it, that's just one of my things, but again when you're in, going into retirement I think you've got to think about this, I mean I went, nobody twisted my arm, I went into that situation and I've enjoyed it for a great many years, but now I'm thinking I'd, before I, it's too late I want to have a, a l a fling in autumn as it were. So I'm going to have a, a go at that. Erm but you will be in that position, you may be so dedicated about something that you want to do like I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it it's given me a great deal of pleasure, I've worked with about a hundred different people over the years that have been in my dance group, all ages all personalities, we've worked with some fantastic music which er erm we've had to interpret. Erm we er you know had a situation you so er we've had moments when you get very irritated with one another because what you're trying to do isn't succeeding and because you always blame the other folk.
[speaker002:] You keep looking at me then. Thank goodness [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] But er can you see you've got to make up your mind what it is, it's not necessarily going to be easy. And how are you going to live this, this, this er physical activity er again I certainly had plenty of mental through this dance group as well as the physical.
[speaker002:] There you go again! [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] You shouldn't have then should you?
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] You're right.
[speaker001:] Er and I might say you're not the only one I've got my eye on.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] on somebody else but er no comment. Erm but again you have got to decide what it is you want out of your retirement because you're the boss and it's no good moaning when you're into your retirement that it doesn't suit you because you've planned it, you've made the decisions and therefore it's up to you to alter whatever you don't like. Now I know that's always dead simple I mean erm one of, one of our directors is a great wine maker isn't he?
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] Er or is it, it's beer as well I think, he does all the lot. And all his working life his mind was set on when he retired, instead of down doing it, you know, late at night he was going to be able to get up in the morning and do it. And there he was straight away as he retired into the kitchen and setting all his stuff out and his wife walked in, what do you think you're doing? Out of this kitchen! [LAUGHTER] So again can you see [] you have other people to consider if you've partners, but that's one of the difficulties of having a partner, but then again think, if you don't have a partner, that's worse cos you've nobody to communicate with, nobody to shout at, nobody to organize or organize you, er nobody ready made to go out with, you've got it all to do yourself because your number one requirement when you're left on your own is to get the company and the activity, whereas if you, if you are er living with a person then at least a certain amount of that is ready to hand. But again people will say, don't go hand in glove everywhere with one another
[speaker002:] No
[speaker001:] never, I mean some people go around just like twins don't they? Er that can be bad because if, if only from the point of view that when you get back you've got nothing to talk about because they were there and saw and did it all you see.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] And it limits your conversation a bit. Er but again if you er something happens to them you're more in a, you've no other leads to your life and so you're left on your own. Now about getting physical activity, I, I can't say that I can give your a er er a foolproof method because it will depend upon you. And how it fits into your life, I have the feeling that er if I could fix it so that I could do it sort of in the house, by the way, I could, I could do certain things and I could stick to them, and I would see that I'd do them. And er to a certain extent I do that, for instance people pay a lot of money to go and buy what they call boxes, they're quite expensive. And the idea is that you step up and down on those and that's your exercise, well you can do that on the bottom of your stirs for nothing. So the bottom stair is a in most houses they're ideal for doing that. Now the idea behind that is that it builds up and keeps in trim the muscles of the feet and ankles and legs, which is going to be what gets you about because you realize your retirement is going to be as good as your legs. If your legs pack up on you or are difficult then you, it will limit where you can go. Isn't it awful to think your legs decide what your retirement's going to be, but they do, more or less, so that if you th if you think a if you've ever had any trouble with them you'll realize, people say, you know, would you, we're going out for the day, you coming? And immediately if you've got leg trouble it's well where are you going? What will we be doing? Will there be much walking? Will it be up hills. You know and immediately can you see, you've asked him all these questions you can see what a pain in the neck you are to all the people you've asked these questions of. And of course it then, in the end you have to say oh well I'd like to but I don't think my legs are equal to it. So they can be the deciding factor in what your programme's going to be, so it pays to keep them in good trim. Now you can do that on the step, in fact don't go from a house to a bungalow, you give up your best form of exercise, now I know people say ooh well when you get older you can't get up and down. You can get up and down. Who w somebody said you find another way, somebody said that ear earlier on in the talk. When my rheumatoid arthritis was very bad it has been very bad and very chronic, and it still can be some days, erm I had more ways of getting up and down those stairs and I got up and down, but I had to invent ways to do it. Quite interesting I could give you a much gr a greater variety of ways up and down stairs than probably anybody. But there is a way, you can manage you can do it and the important thing is that it's your body that's doing it, that your body that's keeping the exercise going, so that when the actual pain disappears, when you've got rid of the acid, your joints still work and your muscles are still good. And if you don't do that, once you let them go you've had it, so it is very important. And again you see people fa you've got to keep your arms strong, how do you get in and out of the bath at the moment? Don't suppose you've even bothered to think about it. But there will come a time when you may have to think about it. Now how do you do it?
[speaker002:] Just stand up and get out.
[speaker001:] You just stand up and get out, but h what happens if and when something happens with your legs and you can't do that, how would get out then?
[speaker002:] Kneel down, turn around and kneel down.
[speaker001:] That would depend upon your knee joints wouldn't it? Can you see? Er now what are you, you're going to pull something, what're you going to pull on with? Feet? Well again, what if they aren't good enough? You see, do you ever, have you ever tried, do you know how you're, how good your muscle power is in your shoulders and arms? Have you ever pulled yourself up with your arms? Put all your weight on your hands and arms. It's no good you see waiting and thinking er and then finding you can't get out and you do need your arms to pull you out, but then if it's no good, be no good if there's no power, they can't do it. And then I know a lot people who now in retirement do not have a bath, because they can't be confident enough at getting out of a bath, so they say oh well I manage with a shower. Now you can manage with a shower, I mean it's, it's efficient as regards er keeping you er clean, but can you, to men there's a different pleasure in having a shower, I enjoy both I would hate to h to be limited to one. But er I, I have to make quite sure that my arms will take my weight, as near as one can. Erm again when I have bad days with these wrists they just give way, and this is not a mental thing at all, I mean I could be holding a, a glass or a cup in my hand or a, a, a dish of something for that matter, and the er the nerves just relax the muscle and out it goes, it's n n I don't know it's going to happen, but it can happen.
[speaker002:] Usually with something light not heavy.
[speaker001:] Pardon?
[speaker002:] Often with something light not heavy.
[speaker001:] Oh o oh yes it doesn't have to be something heavy
[speaker002:] No.
[speaker001:] th you er I mean if it were very heavy you'd almost sort of be prepared for it to go, but you know when you're s s standing with a, something quite light, and you might have been standing with it a little while in your hand, and then suddenly the hand goes and can't you see that's ve that's very upsetting, it makes you not very confident. Erm but again you've got to try and think of ways of coping with any difficulties that you've got. It's no good sitting down and moaning and, and being depressed and saying well I won't do that I won't do that. Now how good's your balance? Now we have man er we have illnesses which effect balance of course and your blood pressure's one, how's your blood pressure? Had it taken? We're entitled now you know to have all sorts of things done at the doctors, coming up to the right age to be hav to be done er
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] should be okay on that. But there is this centre which is right op on Parliament Street opposite Boots and you can go in there and all these leaflets that I've got come from there, you can get those any time, they also have all the timetables, they also have all, have all the other information and two ladies sitting there, voluntary, er who will phone up and get you any information on any subject that you want. So if you've got any problem of any sort you pop in there. They will do blood pressures Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, there's a nurse there then. Erm lots of information, do, that's very convenient on Parliament Street. Er there's another one at the back of Victoria Centre, it's on the corner it's the new red brick building and that is a much more complicated more where you can go in and have your M O T done. And you can have an M O T certificate, they like you to book for those cos it takes the nurse quite a time to do you. You can walk in any time and get your blood pressure done there. Now it is important that you find out about your blood pressure, because again erm if that is, is rising it's putting your