One day my left foot hurt for no reason. I got up to get rid of the pain and my right Achilles tendon was pinched, so I headed to the medicine cabinet, hunched over like an ape because of the stiffness in my back.
Actually, I lied.
It wasn't one day. It's practically every day.
None of this is serious or serious, and I'm not complaining at the age of 72. I'm just wondering.
Are my exercise routines, which were meant to keep me from falling apart, delaying or hastening my death?
What better time than the beginning of a new year to get an answer? According to a survey, the main New Year's resolution for 2026 is do more exercise. Also between the first six The resolutions are to eat healthier, improve physical health and lose weight, so good luck to all the dreamers and I hope you outlast me with similar resolutions.
Instead of a resolution, I have a goal, which is to find a sweet spot (if there is one) between exercise and pain.
Maybe I'm asking too much. I've had two partial knee replacements, have a torn posterior cruciate ligament, a bulge of scar tissue on a frayed Achilles tendon, a horribly pronated left foot, a right shoulder that looks like it needs an oil change, and a pacemaker that still works.
But I decided to seek out some expert advice that might be helpful to anyone who has entered this glorious phase of life when it's possible to pull a muscle while taking a nap, or pinch a nerve in your neck while brushing your teeth.
And he knew exactly who to call.
Cedars-Sinai Orthopedic Surgeon Robert Klapper hosts an ESPN radio show called “Weekend Warrior.” A surfer and sculptor in his spare time, this lab-coat-clad Renaissance man also regularly appears on the radio with “Klapper Vision”: lucid shots of all sorts of twisted, pulled and broken body parts suffered by elite athletes and beaten vultures like me.
In “Weekend Warrior,” Klapper could be talking about knee replacement surgery one minute, move on to Michelangelo's interpretation of the human form, and then insist that a sandwich isn't a sandwich without pepperoncini. Not everything is necessarily connected, but it doesn't matter.
When I emailed Klapper about my aches and pains, he responded immediately to say he had written a book on your hipsanother in knees and a third is in process with the following title:
“Stop exercising, you're killing yourself.”
No, he's not saying you should never get off the couch. In a phone conversation and later in his office, Klapper said the subtitle will be “Let me explain.” He is emphasizing which type of exercise is harmful and which is helpful, particularly for people in my age group.
Dr. Robert Klapper holds up his book on hip surgery prevention.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
My daily routine, I told him, consists of a two-mile morning walk with my dog followed by 30 minutes of swimming or riding a stationary bike.
So far, so good.
But I also play pickleball twice a week.
“Listen, I make a living doing pickleball now,” Klapper said. “Exercise is wonderful, but it comes in two flavors.”
One is parenting, which he calls “agercise” for my demographic.
The other is abusive, and one of Klapper's examples is pickleball. With all its starts and stops, twists and turns, reaches and lunges, pickleball is breaking the bank for Medicare, with a a few hundred million dollars value of injuries each year.
I know. The game seems pretty low-key, although it was recently banned in Carmel-by-the-Sea due to all the noise. When I first picked up a paddle, I had no idea there would be so much ice and ibuprofen involved, not to mention the dirty looks from retirees eager for the chance to pierce you in the sternum with a hot laser.
“This is a sport that gets the adrenaline pumping in every 50-, 60- and 80-year-old,” Klapper told me. in his officewhich is the starting point in your joint prosthesis factory. The walls are covered with photographs of star athletes and A-list Hollywood celebrities on whom he has operated.
“I see these patients, but they don't come to me with acute injuries. They don't rupture their Achilles tendon… like they do in tennis. They don't rupture their ACL like they do in basketball,” Klapper said. “They come up to me and say, 'My shoulder is killing me, my knee is killing me.'”
Pickleball has obvious conditioning benefits for every age group. But it can also worsen arthritis and accelerate joint degeneration, Klapper said, particularly for addicts who gamble several times a week.
He's not the first doctor to suggest that as you age, walking, biking and swimming are easier on the body than higher-impact activities. As a doctor said in a AARP Article Regarding joint care and the benefits of healthy eating, watching your weight and staying active, “the worst thing you can do with osteoarthritis after 50 is be sedentary.”
Still, I thought Klapper might tell me to stop pickling, but he didn't.
“Pickleball is more than a sport for you… and for all your friends,” he said. “It's mental. You need it because of the stress. The world is falling apart… I want you to play it, but I want you to do the parenting exercises so you can commit the abuse.”
There's no fountain of youth, Klapper said, but the closest thing is a swimming pool.
Okay, but I already swim three times a week.
Dr. Robert Klapper meets with patient Kathleen Clark, who is recovering from knee surgery.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Klapper had different ideas.
“You have to walk back and forth for half an hour,” he said. Do it three times a week, he told me, and ride a stationary bike three times.
Why does water walk?
“We as humans take over a million steps a year. Forget pickleball, just in… daily life,” Klapper said, so I'm already over 72 million steps.
“Think about that,” he said.
Do I have to do it?
Walking on water will build muscles and joints without the stress of all my weight, and that could “optimize” the durability of my pickleball and my overall fitness, Klapper said. Buoyancy and the contact of water with the skin are magical, he said, but there is also science involved.
“It's hard to move your arms, legs and body through the water, and it still puts stress on the joint,” Klapper said. “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 called proprioceptionKlapper said. Receptors in the skin, muscles, ligaments, and tendons send messages to the brain, leading to Improved balance, coordination and agility and potentially reducing the risk of injury..
There are many exercises to sharpen proprioceptionbut the surfer doctor has a weakness for bodies of water. At my age, he said, my proprioception “is running out of batteries,” but I can recharge them with a short break from pickleball and focus in the pool.
“Nothing in life or medicine can be guaranteed,” Klapper said. “But I guarantee that after a month, you will feel much better than you do right now.”
It's worth a try and I'll let you know how it goes.
In the pool and on the court.
