I currently play a lot of ball hockey, badminton, tennis, and football. Now that I'm 36 the constant pounding of sprinting, diving, stopping, starting, and colliding is beginning to beat my body down more and more each year. My question to those in their sixties and beyond who engaged in many of these same activities in the past, is how this high impact lifestyle early on has affected your health now? I don't want to give up playing the sports I love, but I don't want to spend my sixties and beyond nearly crippled and dealing with constant pain as my body pays me back for all the abuse I put it through.
You're gonna boost the retirement plans of several orthopedic surgeons with your persistent Boomeritis, aren't you? Quit now while you're behind.
"No worries." Your anterior cruciate ligaments (plus possibly one or two of the remaining three ligaments in each knee) will give way over the next 5-10 years whether you want to give up the sports or not. You may have to stop before then, however, when the remaining cartilage in your patellar meniscii is gone and the grinding pain of bone-on-bone contact inspires you to take up something with less impact.
There are surgical options to replace the ACL. There's not much to be done to replace knee cartilage, but orthopods are happy to replace knees with titanium when you're 60. They don't want to start much earlier because the current models wear out after 10-15 years and they have to grind a little deeper into your femur with each subsequent replacement.
There are some inspiring photos & videos at
eOrthopodTV, and maybe Cb can direct us to that photo of his recovery from ACL surgery.
I've been living without ACLs for over six years and I'm going to keep going for another two or three (until our kid's in college). Once we're empty-nesters, for my 50th birthday present I'm going to have both ACLs rebuilt to return stability to the joints and clean up whatever other shredded cartilage is still hanging around. Until then I wear carbon-fiber orthopedic braces for taekwondo, weight-lifting, & yardwork. It's not much fun and the surgery is no picnic either, but the surgery should allow me to fully straighten my left leg and avoid causing more damage to my meniscii...
I feel lucky after listing all of the above, because one of my shipmates has led a much more active sporting life (similar to yours) and is facing hip replacement at the age of 45. He's on a steady diet of prescription painkillers-- just short of Percocet-- and who knows what damage they're doing to his digestive system. His knees are screwed up too but they pale in significance next to his hip pain.
There's a reason that some colleges equip their football teams with $1500 orthopedic knee braces on the first scrimmage.
There are many other exercises and sports that are just as challenging and fulfilling without the high impacts. It doesn't matter what you "want" to give up, however, because if you don't do it first then your body will eventually do it [-]to[/-] for you.
