Thoughts From The Dancefloor: Why Do We Get Stiffer as We Get Older?”
Updated: Sep 30
There are some things about getting older that seem to creep up on us without us really noticing.
You get out of bed one morning and everything takes a moment or two to get going. You bend down to pick something up and somehow the floor seems slightly further away than it used to be. You turn around to look behind you and realise that your whole body has turned rather than just your head and shoulders. Or perhaps you've been sitting in the car for a long journey, get out at the other end and spend the first few steps walking like someone twenty years older!
And then there's the noise.
I'm sure I can't be the only person who occasionally makes a little "oof" when getting up from a chair.
When did THAT start happening?
It's something I notice in my classes too. At the beginning of a session, bodies can sometimes look a little cautious. Movements are smaller, shoulders aren't quite moving freely and everything needs a few minutes to warm up. Then the music gets going, people start moving and gradually something changes. By the middle of the class, those same bodies are moving much more freely around the room.
Which got me thinking about another question that I suspect quite a lot of us ask as we get older:
Why DO we get stiffer as we age – and is there anything we can do about it?
The reassuring answer is that while our bodies certainly change as we get older, feeling stiff isn't simply something we have to accept without question. There are lots of reasons why we may not move quite as freely as we once did, but movement itself can be a very important part of the answer.
What do we actually mean when we say we're "stiff" or "getting stiffer"?
Stiffness is an interesting word because we all use it, but we don't necessarily mean exactly the same thing by it.
For one person, stiffness might mean struggling to turn their head as easily as they used to. For someone else, it's tightness through the hips after sitting for a long time. Perhaps it's shoulders that don't seem to move as freely, ankles that feel reluctant first thing in the morning, or simply a general feeling that the body needs a bit longer to get going.
Our ability to move freely depends on quite a complicated relationship between our joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and nervous system. Flexibility – the ability of our joints to move through the range we need for everyday tasks – is one part of that picture, but strength and general movement are important too.
As we age, changes take place throughout the body. We may lose some muscle mass and strength, our tissues can become less flexible, and some joints may not move through quite the same range they once did. Previous injuries can make a difference too, as can conditions such as arthritis.
But there's another factor that I think is particularly important because we can actually do something about it.
We often move less.
Not necessarily because we've made a conscious decision to stop moving, but because modern life makes it incredibly easy not to.
Sometimes it's not just ageing – it's sitting
Think about how much time many of us spend sitting.
We sit to eat breakfast. We sit in the car. We sit at a desk. We sit to have coffee. We sit watching television. We sit looking at our phones or tablets. We sit in restaurants and cafés and theatres. We sit on trains and planes.
And then we wonder why our hips feel a bit reluctant when we finally ask them to move!
I'm not suggesting for a moment that sitting is forbidden or that we should spend our entire lives pacing around the house. Rest is important too. But our bodies are designed to move through lots of different positions, and if we spend hours in one position it shouldn't really surprise us that the first few movements afterwards can feel a little stiff.
You may have experienced this yourself. You get up in the morning feeling a bit creaky, but once you've showered, dressed, walked around the house and started your day, things begin to loosen up. Or perhaps you arrive at an exercise class feeling stiff and leave an hour later feeling completely different.
That isn't your imagination.
Movement increases blood flow, gets muscles working and takes joints through different ranges of movement. Instead of expecting the body to go from completely still to fully mobile in an instant, we're gradually reminding it of all the different ways it can move.
This is one reason why I think breaking up long periods of sitting becomes increasingly important as we get older. It doesn't have to mean "doing a workout". Sometimes it's simply standing up, walking around for a few minutes, going upstairs, doing something in the garden or putting the kettle on and having a little move while you're waiting for it to boil.
Those small pieces of movement count.
Why strength matters when we're talking about stiffness
We tend to think that if we feel stiff, the answer must be to stretch more.
Stretching can certainly be useful, and maintaining flexibility is important, but I don't think we should look at flexibility in isolation.
Strength matters too.
If the muscles around a joint are strong and capable, we're often better able to control movement through a useful range. Everyday movements such as getting out of a chair, reaching overhead, climbing stairs, bending down and getting back up again don't require flexibility alone. They require strength, coordination and confidence as well.
This is something that has become increasingly important to me both personally and professionally. Strength training isn't just about lifting a heavier weight or changing the way our bodies look. As we get older, it's about preserving our ability to do things.
Can I reach something from a high shelf? Can I turn comfortably to reverse the car? Can I get down to the floor and get myself back up? Can I put my socks on without it becoming a major event? Can I step over something, carry my shopping and climb a flight of stairs?
These are ordinary things, but they're also the things that allow us to remain independent.
And that's why strength, mobility and flexibility really belong in the same conversation.
Our bodies become good at what we ask them to do
There's a principle about movement that I come back to again and again: our bodies adapt to what we regularly ask of them.
If we regularly walk, our bodies become accustomed to walking. If we regularly lift things, our muscles have a reason to remain strong. If we regularly reach, twist, step sideways, bend, turn and move our arms overhead, those movements remain familiar.
But the opposite can happen too.
If we rarely take our arms overhead, rarely rotate our upper body or never move sideways, those movements can start to feel unfamiliar and more difficult. We can then become less inclined to do them because they feel uncomfortable, which means we do them even less.
It's very similar to what I wrote about recently with balance. Sometimes we start avoiding the very things we need to practise.
This doesn't mean forcing a joint into a position that hurts or pushing through pain. There is a big difference between gently challenging our range of movement and ignoring a warning sign from the body.
What it does mean is that variety matters.
And this is one of the reasons I love dance so much.
The movements we don't realise we're practising
During a Zumba or Zumba Gold class, we're not standing in one place repeatedly moving forwards and backwards. We're turning, reaching, rotating, stepping sideways, changing direction, shifting our weight, moving our hips and using our arms in all sorts of directions.
We don't usually think of that as "mobility work" because we're concentrating on the music, the choreography and possibly wondering which direction I'm going next!
But all of those different movements are asking our bodies to work in ways that ordinary daily life sometimes doesn't.
If you spend much of your day sitting at a desk or driving a car, when do you naturally make a big sweeping movement with your arms? When do you deliberately move sideways for several minutes? When do you rotate your upper body repeatedly or shift your weight rhythmically from one leg to another?
Probably not very often.
Then you come into class, the music starts and suddenly we're doing all of it.
I think that's one of the reasons people so often tell me they feel better at the end of a class than they did when they walked in. Yes, they've exercised, but they've also moved their body through a much greater variety of positions than they probably would have done during an ordinary hour at home.
What about stretching?
Stretching is probably the first thing most of us think about when stiffness is mentioned, and it can absolutely have a place.
But I don't think we need to turn ourselves into contortionists.
For me, the goal isn't to be able to perform the splits at 70. It's to maintain enough useful movement to do the things we want and need to do.
Can we reach our arms comfortably overhead? Can we turn our upper body? Can our ankles move well enough to walk and negotiate steps? Can our hips and knees allow us to sit down and stand up comfortably?
That's useful flexibility.
And it doesn't necessarily have to come from a formal stretching session. Yoga, Pilates and dedicated flexibility exercises can all be useful, but so can dancing, strength training and simply moving our joints regularly through comfortable ranges.
The NHS includes stretching, yoga, tai chi and Pilates among activities that can improve flexibility, and importantly also emphasises strength. Strength and flexibility exercises can help us maintain bone density, balance and the movement needed for everyday activities.
For me, that's the important point. We're not chasing flexibility for its own sake. We're trying to preserve function.
The "use it or lose it" idea – with a little caution
People often say "use it or lose it" when talking about ageing, and although that's perhaps a little simplistic, there is something useful in the idea.
If we stop doing a particular movement because it feels difficult, we can gradually become less confident about doing it. If we then avoid it completely, we get even less opportunity to practise it.
Think about getting down onto the floor.
For many people, there comes a point when they realise they haven't actually sat on the floor for years. The idea of getting down there starts to feel daunting, but often the bigger worry isn't getting down – it's whether they'll be able to get back up again.
So they stop going to the floor altogether.
Over time, that movement becomes even less familiar.
The same can happen with reaching, turning, bending and squatting. We gradually edit movements out of our lives because they feel more difficult, without necessarily noticing that we're doing it.
I'm much more interested in finding an appropriate version of a movement than abandoning it completely.
Perhaps we don't squat as deeply as we once did. Perhaps we use a chair for support. Perhaps our turn is smaller or we don't reach quite as far.
That's fine.
Movement doesn't have to be perfect to be valuable.
A stiff day doesn't necessarily mean a stiff body forever
Another thing I think is important is recognising that our bodies don't feel exactly the same every day.
Sometimes you've slept badly. Sometimes you've been sitting for hours. Sometimes you've done more than usual the day before. The weather may even seem to affect how some people perceive their joints, and sometimes, for no obvious reason whatsoever, you just feel a bit creaky.
I certainly have days when I feel more mobile than others.
What I've learned is not to immediately turn that into a story about ageing.
There's a big difference between thinking, "I'm feeling stiff this morning" and thinking, "I'm getting old and my body doesn't work anymore."
The first describes how your body feels today. The second can become a reason to stop challenging it and that language matters.
It's the same reason I don't particularly like people saying, "I'm terrible at balance" or "I've got no coordination." Once we give ourselves those labels, it's very easy to behave as though they're permanent.
Perhaps instead of saying, "I'm getting so stiff as I get older," we could say, "I need to keep moving."
That feels much more hopeful – and much more useful.
When stiffness needs more than movement
Of course, not all stiffness is simply a normal consequence of getting older or spending too much time sitting.
Persistent stiffness, significant pain, swelling, a joint that suddenly loses movement, stiffness following an injury or symptoms that are worsening rather than improving deserve proper attention.
Exercise instructors are not there to diagnose medical conditions, and there are times when the sensible thing is to speak to your GP, physiotherapist or another appropriate healthcare professional.
I've written before about how impressed I am by people in my classes who adapt movement around injuries or physical limitations. I would always rather someone modifies a movement than feels they have to push through pain to keep up with everyone else.
There is no medal for forcing your body to do something it isn't ready to do.
Good movement should be about working with your body, not fighting against it.
We don't need to move like we did at 25
I think this may be one of the biggest shifts in attitude we can make as we get older.
The aim isn't necessarily to move exactly as you did twenty or thirty years ago.
Our bodies have lived.
They've had pregnancies, illnesses, injuries, operations, menopause, stressful periods, desk jobs, physical jobs and decades of ordinary wear and tear. Of course they're going to change.
But different doesn't automatically mean worse.
What matters to me now is capability.
I want to be strong enough to do the things I enjoy. I want to be able to move freely, teach my classes, travel, carry things, get up and down from the floor and keep doing all the ordinary activities that make up a busy life, and I want the same for the people who come to my classes.
That's really what healthy ageing means to me. It isn't about pretending we're not getting older. It's about doing what we reasonably can to help our bodies continue serving us well as we do.
Movement doesn't have to be complicated
One of the messages I hope comes through in these Thoughts from the Dance Floor articles is that looking after ourselves doesn't always have to involve complicated programmes or huge amounts of time.
The latest UK physical activity guidance continues to emphasise something wonderfully simple: some activity is better than none, and regular movement matters.
For adults aged 65 and over, the guidance specifically recommends activities that maintain or improve strength, balance and flexibility at least twice a week, as well as regular aerobic activity and breaking up long periods of sitting.
But I think the phrase "some is better than none" is particularly important.
If you've been sitting for two hours, stand up and walk around.
If your shoulders feel stiff, move them gently.
If you haven't exercised for years, don't decide you need to suddenly become an athlete on Monday morning.
Start where you are.
Find something you enjoy enough that you'll actually keep doing it.
Walk. Dance. Garden. Lift weights. Swim. Try Pilates or yoga. Come to an exercise class like my Lift & Laugh class. Put some music on in the kitchen.
Your body doesn't know whether movement happened in a gym, a community centre or while dancing around the house.
It just knows that you moved.
Perhaps getting older isn't the signal to slow down quite as much as we think
There are changes that come with ageing that none of us can completely avoid, and I'm certainly not suggesting that a Zumba class is some sort of magical cure for ageing.
But I do think we sometimes underestimate how much influence we still have.
We can give our muscles reasons to stay strong, we can continue moving our joints and challenge our balance. We can maintain our coordination, break up long periods of sitting and keep learning new movements.
And perhaps most importantly, we can avoid becoming frightened of using our bodies.
So the next time you stand up after sitting for an hour and your first few steps feel a little creaky, try not to immediately think, "Oh dear, I'm getting old."
Perhaps your body is simply saying:
"I've been sitting still for an hour. Give me a minute!"
Then move.
Walk around. Stretch out. Roll your shoulders. Put some music on. Give your body a chance to remember what it can do.
Because perhaps the goal as we get older isn't to never feel stiff, perhaps it's to make sure that stiffness doesn't stop us moving.
And as I've discovered many times from the front of a dance floor, sometimes the best thing we can do with a body that feels reluctant to move…
is move it.
Come and move with me
If you'd like to keep moving, build strength and confidence and have some fun while you're doing it, you're very welcome to join me.
My Zumba and Zumba Gold classes use music and dance to keep us moving in lots of different directions, while Lift & Laugh®focuses on functional strength, balance, mobility and keeping our bodies capable as we get older.
You don't have to be flexible before you start. You don't need to be fit. And you definitely don't need to move like you did when you were 25.
Start with the body you've got today – and let's keep it moving.
Zumba with Jo… Let's Go!
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