You know that you're right-handed, but do you realize that you also might be right-legged, right-shouldered and so dominant on the right side of your body that your left side is weaker and much less flexible?
Our bodies have a dominant side, and as we move into our 60s and 70s, we often start experiencing aches caused by one side of the body being stronger than the other.
Here is the good news: Many of these pains can be prevented.
Think about how you move through your daily life. Do you always reach up into cupboard with the same arm? Do you always unlock a door with the same hand? When you stand up from a sitting position, is more of your weight always shifted to one leg? If so, you may be surprised to learn how weak you have allowed your less-dominant side to become.
You can test this for yourself with a simple set of comparison exercises. First, try kneeling, first with one leg, then the other. Was kneeling harder to do with one particular leg? Next, take down a can or bottle of food from an overhead cupboard. Lift the same item down with the other arm. When lifting, did one arm need some support from the other arm? Push the item to the back of the shelf so that you can reach it only with your fingertips. Can you now hold it with the fingertips of the other hand?
If one side of your body is noticeably weaker and has a shorter range of motion, your skeleton will adapt to this as the years go by. The bones on the stronger side will be connected by stronger ligaments, and the muscles will have stronger and more flexible tendons on each end.
When one side gets too dominant, it affects balance. As you probably know, folks tend to fall as they get older. An article published by the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine says that falls may be caused by "intrinsic factors such as unstable joints, muscle weakness and unreliable postural reflexes." Those causes are also symptoms of one side of the body being weaker and less flexible, less able to react to a potential fall.
Fixing weakness in one side of the body takes a long time. Start by concentrating on using the less-dominant side more often. Reach for something in the cupboard with the weaker arm. Unlock the door with the weaker hand. Don't alternate your legs when climbing stairs at home; step up with the weaker leg and bring the stronger leg up behind it (when doing this, always support yourself with both hands on the walls to lower the risk factor).
Doing these things likely will feel unnatural at first, and you might discover that you can't do everything with one hand that you do with the other. But stick with it. Aging without the customary discomfort of age is well worth the effort.
