My neck is more than a head support

No matter what they call them, boomers ache and age. Parade magazine recently asked “What Would You Call The Stage of Life Between 60 and 80?” referring to baby boomers who will reach those ages for the next 20 years.

I, at age 54, am in the middle of the boomers. One suggestion I have to call us is a Bible term — The Stiff-Necked Generation.

This has nothing to do with being rebellious, as in the Biblical meaning. Our necks really are stiff, and they hurt, too.

I suffer with neck and shoulder pain partly because I took obituaries over the phone in the newsroom for years without a shoulder-rest device or a headset. Also, part of the reason is because I have fibromyalgia — an inflammatory disease of the muscles that makes them stiff and crackly, and part of the reason my neck hurts is because I am a Don’t Like To Admit It But I Am Getting Old Person.

A New Year’s Day Star article told me I will outlive previous generations (The Live Too Longers?); therefore, I launched my own targeted exercise program about six weeks ago so my neck won’t hurt me for the duration. Already I feel better.

I started with a 5-pound dumbbell. I lay on my back and laid the dumbbell across my forehead while slowly lifting my head up and down. Ankle weights would fit my forehead better, but I gave mine to a sister who also suffers from neck pain. I held the dumbbell lightly in place with my hands. I started with 20 repetitions, increased it to 40 with a pause after the first 20. The muscles in the front part of my neck got a little sore, but the pain in the back of my neck improved within the first four to five days. My shoulders felt better, too.

After about three weeks, I changed to a 9-pound dumbbell. My spasmodic neck and pinched shoulders continued to feel better. With this kind of positive feedback, I was hooked. I called a friend, Tommy Buzan, who is Baby Boomer Caboose and worked for years as a certified personal trainer. I told him about my success.

“Also, try stretching exercises for your neck,” he said. “Combine the weights and the stretching.”

Buzan, who now works as director of Occupational Health at Regional Medical Center, said he always recommends a form of treatment that does not include surgery unless it is unavoidable. He also mentioned acupuncture (ouch), physical therapy and massage (ah-h-h).

Buzan said as we age we lose elasticity in our muscles and joints. One way to promote good back and neck health is to spend ten to 20 minutes each day stretching. He thinks flexibility is one of the most under-utilized components of a fitness program. Weight training or building muscular strength is the second needed component. Weight-training exercises allow us to build strength, he says, which reduces stress on our neck and spine.

Two other things Buzan said was that everyone, especially the We Are Desperate To Feel Like Youngsters, should work out about 30 minutes a day to get the best out of life and that we, The Health System Wreckers, should talk with our doctors before beginning any exercise program.

I did not follow that last bit of advice before beginning my neck exercises, and I should have. My poor doctors, though, are stretched (in more ways than one) already, treating all the ailments that I and the other Demanders of The Best In Healthcare are developing faster than we can resolve, not to mention all the Too Old To Be Boomers and the Too Young to Be Boomers who need medical attention.

We Smack Dab in the Middle Middlers better start praying that more of the younger generations will become doctors so there will be enough of them to treat us when we become “old” — a term Parade magazine says seems “outdated.”

Maybe that attitude leads us to our best label yet. Because we will go kicking and screaming into old age as no other generation before us has, we could be called the Anti-Old.