SEXAGENARIANS, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!

Just because you are too old to consider yourself a Sexagenarian, don't despair. The founder of this new movement is 72 and going strong, so listen up! This might be the answer to the common complaint, "Oh, my achin' back!"

Beijing resident Han Shusuo says, "From crawling comes health." He, like many others, is convinced that evolving into upright-walking creatures did us in, at least physically. Well, he doesn't quite go that far, but he does think that if we looked carefully at zoo animals, as he did, and emulated some of their patterns, we'd have less back problems, less illness, less circulation problems and -- I suspect, less hemorrhoids.

So he developed five exercises that are based on the walking patterns of several animals, including chimpanzees, elephants and kangaroos. And he developed a large following that meet every morning at the Beihai Park in Beijing. As proof of his system, he points to one of his adherents who over a two year period lost twenty pounds, firmed up his midsection and put his diabetes numbers in a much better range.

He pooh-poohs the people who laugh at him as he lumbers by, rear end aimed at the heavens. He advises that if you practice each day, you will be able to eventually reduce the amount of medication you take. He says don't pay any attention to the people who stop and stare as you lumber by. Just focus and concentrate on getting healthy.

Now I'm no longer a sexagarian, but neither is Han. So I actually did try to get into the position he takes in this picture above. I was able to assume the position, but in order to get out of it I had to rollover sideways, as that seemed to be the only way I could get my spine to unlock. I made a fairly big breathy "oof" as I landed, but at least I was on soft carpeting and was able to get back to a human position.

So right now it seems a toss-up as to which I'd rather do, practice chimpanzee walking skills inside my apartment, go to the chiropractor (which I have never, ever done), or just continue on with my incremental aging process which seems to be focusing at the moment on my mid-section, both back and front side. Oh my, decisions, decisions!