i wish i'd had deportment lessons

Nope. Not just you. I'm a sight to behold at yoga. The worst part is getting down on to the floor and back up. I can't even swear while trying to do it as the other ladies in the class are, well, ladies!!

Perhaps Catherine won’t be able to do it when she is the same age as many of us GN’ers. Probably wearing more comfy shoes also, and a sensible handbag like the Queen’s, not a little clutch which won’t accommodate a pair of reading glasses!

Today DGS (3) asked me “Janny, why do you walk so slowly?”
Sigh.

This sums it up!

No, not just you. You can't fight ageing. Deportment lessons wouldn't have any difference. I suppose you can keep on trying though. Sigh.

I wouldn't be able to stop the swearing *Jane10.

I'm already at the max by not farting lucywinter!!

My granny used to encourage us to walk with books on our heads as she was made to do when she was a girl. By the time I knew her, she was quite bent with 'lumbago', but a picture of her as a young woman shows her with very dignified posture. I can't say I continued to follow her advice!

ha ha jane-i'd forgotten that particular indignity

I do try to think about my posture when I’m out walking.

It’s surprising how many people my age walk with their head jutting forward.

Ok we will probably never be as straight and upright as we were when we were younger, but it’s possible to try to be more upright within our own capabilities.

I am sure it’s better for our spine too.

Pilates is good I believe the D of C does Pilates. I can crouch / sit and get up
without hands.

I always dress standing up including socks/tights/stockings, knickers, trousers as balancing on one leg is good for core muscles.
I clean my teeth on one leg also.

I think you CAN tell a woman who has been a dancer in her youth as she ages.

A lot of these women who learnt deportment also learnt ballet and I think the muscles remember

My mother sent us for deportment lessons when we were around 10 I think,I remember the lady who taught us very well,she was tiny.Many years later mum and I were walking through town when an old friend approached and said I knew it was you because I recognised Paddy's very "proud" walk .Nothing proud about it ,just head up shoulders down bum and tummy tucked in .
I believe that if you can stick with the rules it makes you appear more youthful .I dont think it was more than six months but it certainly stuck with me

^ I can crouch / sit and get up without hands.^

No good telling us that Vegansrock without saying how old you are. I can't do that at 78!

I can get up from an armchair no hands, but not from squatting position. (I vaguely remember what squatting is)

I wish I believed you, notanan2. I did a lot of ballet in my youth, and now I am almost 80 I doubt if it shows at all. My mobility is terrible and I can’t stand up straight. I know a ballet background often shows in the way the head is held, but I think I’ve lost that, too

I keep a photo of myself in ballet pose and tutu on my bookcase, not to show off but to remind me I once looked like that. Not sure whether it’s good for morale or not!

You have to allow for a bit of the old osteoporosis in the spine. And the fact that everything goes south willy nilly sooner or later.

Yesterday I got home from a walk I used to do easily just a few years ago, and I sat on the garden seat and cried for my lost youth.

Sorry to be a ray of

But would you go back to being young again Lucywinter. I'm OK just being me as I am. Some days I'm better than others.

I would just like to go back six years Jane10. The ageing thing cut in so suddenly.

I do think that how you walk and move generally can be very telling of age.
I was once seriously startled to see (from behind) what I thought was a very old woman in the street - only to realise once I’d caught up with her that it was someone I knew well, who’s younger than I am! And there were no particular issues to account for it.

It was purely the way she was walking, and since then (when I remember!) I’m very careful to stand and walk ‘tall’, not hunched up and wavering about.

Mobility as in being able to get up from the floor is a different thing IMO. My knees aren’t bad, but I know that certain things will set them off, so little Gdcs know that I won’t sit on the (hard!) floor to play with them - I sit on a sofa close enough to join in.

Petunia, I know just what you mean. I took so much for granted and now I'm really frustrated with my body for not behaving.
Last week I went out for lunch with a group of old and dear friends and they commented that I looked nice and had I lost weight?
Most definitely not.
I had put some skinny trousers on and then was totally unable to get my socks on (b****y osteoarthritis in my hip and knee).
So, dear reader I did the only possible thing and put on a pair of heels on those bare feet for the first time in ages. And wow, they did look good. I only had to walk a short distance and we all had such a good laugh about it.