We’ve seen them pop up all over the place. Memes are everywhere. Heck, I once downloaded a meme maker and a hysterical dog photo my friend posted so I could make a bunch of foolish memes that amused us all at a team-building event.
Some of the memes are spot on, but there are others that get the side-eye quite strongly. I’m talking about the fitness, aging and injury ones. Here’s a typical example:
Or how about this one:
Okay, let’s have one more:
I told a friend these memes fell into the Funny/Not Funny camp as they skate very close to the truth, especially the third meme. As a child, I never fell out of a tree, but I skinned my knee, scraped my face, fell off my bike loads of times, and got up the day after and did it all again. As a grown-up, all three have happened and it rots my socks.
It bothers me because I am careful when I move: I warm up in the gym, I make sure I have the right shoes, I pay attention to instructions, and I make sure I have a good shower after to coddle my muscles and offset the potential for delayed onset muscle aches. If I am stunned enough to sit too long, I will cop to the inevitable seizing I feel, but
So when sleeping wrong and sneezing too hard result in aches and stiffness, it’s hard not to feel resentful. I do laugh at the minion wanting WD40 for less resilient muscles and bones; I often joke that my supply of Voltaren is WD40 for humans.
But is aging synonymous with injury? Not necessarily. However the risk of serious injury and more significant consequences do increase because as we get older, we slow down, our reactions aren’t as swift, and our recovery may be hindered by other age-related factors.
Falling off a bike as a teen might break a bone but their risk of dying from more complicated breaks like hips or pelvises is quite low. Falls are actually the leading cause of death in people over 65.
And yet. Motion is lotion as my physio is fond of saying. Maintaining basic fitness through walking, swimming, and so on helps bones stay strong, your heart keeps beating, and helps you manage the activities of daily living with relative ease. If you engage in more challenging sports, your risk for injury may be higher depending on your skill; however, it will also strengthen the things that matter.
The memes might make me twitch on the odd occasion because the implication is older people do not engage in fitness and so their risk of injury comes from things like turning the wrong way in bed or falling asleep on the couch watching tv. Nonetheless, the clever ones make me laugh, and so far, the only thing laughing really hard has caused is the occasional bout of hiccups.
How about you? Do these memes bug you, make you think, or make you laugh? Tell us in the comments.
MarthaFitat55 feels she still has the sense of humour of a four-year-old.
There is a big difference between laughing at yourself and laughing at others. I’m old. In conversation, sometimes my friends and I will look at each other as we realize what one of us just said. We sound like old people. It would be different if a young person said it. On the other hand, I can tell a young person, “My bike is older than you are.” (P.S. Your site no longer works with Safari. I had to log in to Chrome to post a comment.)