Brain overrides jump down
 

Curious thing I noticed about getting older... Not sure when it happened - mid 40s maybe ? If I stand on anything over 3ft tall, I cannot jump down. Some process in my brain (probably named "self_preservation.exe") flat overrides my impulse and denies it completely. it's amazing, I CANNOT do the jump down...I want to, and I freeze. I forced myself to do it the other day and kinda Forrest Gumped it frozen mid air, and of course it hurt more than if I had been normal about it... My brain was like, nope, bad idea, don't do that, I insist... It's like my body made a deal with the brain, suspects I should no longer do this or everything will shatter- which is really should not from barely 3ft... I find that amusing, more than saddening - because it's really a subconscious process that superseeds my direct orders - any other over 40 geezer notice this ?

At 63, I’m still jumping down from 3 foot heights, but the landing is getting harder.

Hmmm. Crazy fear of heights cranked up in my 30s-40s. Didn’t help my ski days.

I am in my 50's. In my line of work I have to hop fences of all sorts, from 4' chain link to 6' wood to barbed wire farm fences, actually those I dipped down low between the wires.

I can still hop over a 6' wood fence as good as a 20 year old.

So that is a nope from me, still the same, still hopping fences and jumping back down as I clear the six footers.

My brain block is turning a bicycle away from an edge when I'm close to it.
I can try and try, I'll eventually wobble over the edge.
Doesn't matter if I turn my head fully away from the edge and am not even looking at it.

If I'm on the edge of two surfaces and want to turn away from the less desirable surface, my only option in many cases is to just run out onto the worse surface, then turn.

Your brain won't let you jump because you're heavier, weaker, stiffer, heal slower and smarter.

When I was 20 something, my now wife and I decided to go bungee jumping. The feeling at the edge of the platform was quite memorable. My body refused to jump. Deep DNA self preservation. A very odd experience for me at the time as I was of the 20 something mind that I was invincible.

The worker at the top of the tower counted 3, 2, 1 and gave me a shove.

The bounce was a hell of a lot of fun👍

Approaching 65 and still don't have to think too much about jumping down three feet. Four, on the other hand, has become a different story. I know I could still do it (well, my mind says I could), but unless it was a genuine necessity ... no thanks.

Thanks to this thread, I can't help but wonder how long before three becomes two, two one and one, well, nada.

_

That's a good thing.


I still do things that I did when I was 28, and I'm impressed with myself as to how well I did. BUT, I'm tired for a couple of days afterwards.

When I was a teen I slipped off the side of a low diving board and missed cracking my skull open on the edge of the pool by inches.

The strange thing was that last year I began getting random memories of that event.
Day or night, the same fall would randomly flash before my eyes.
Except this time it was from the high dive.

Those memories absolutely terrified me and would not stop...
I tried tp intentionally fall on the other side of the diving board instead every time that memory occurred.
Cancel it all out by overloading and accepting it.

I then had to do a sketchy outside window screen repair at the rental using a sketchy ladder. That went okay. Barely. It was not safe.
And those flashbacks stopped completely.

I'm guessing the fear mechanism is the brain's way of preparing or recovering from an event.

Somebody said to me 'when we're older a new injury is like 'omg now i have to live with this for the rest of my life' instead of 'oh this will heal up in a week''

yup. I took a tumble down a small hill while raking leaves last November and bashed my knee. It is still a mess.

When I was a kid I'd jump down from 5-10'. I noticed that in my mid 20s, my brain would tell me "you probably shouldn't do that."

When I was a kid, I climbed, ran, rode, jumped and played all of the time. I was relatively strong and agile. By the time I was in my 20s, I was still reasonably fit, but not as fit. And it takes a combination of muscle strength in your calves, legs, and butt to jump down so you act as a shock absorber. I remember jumping off of the top of a platform that was about 5' up in my 20s. My brain was telling me "no" but I was thinking "that's nothing, I've got this." I landed with my legs straight. It was not fun. I was smarter after that. A few years back, I was cycling and did an MS150. I was able to perform a couple/few jump downs that I probably wouldn't have in many of the preceding years because my legs were stronger.

57 in a few months, not getting air like I use too, and last time I went for big air, didn't work out so well
No more jumping out of planes either. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647192042.jpg

I have seen many elderly (60 and up) having to change their lifestyles because of a broken foot.
A ladder or footstool fall seems to be the most common.

Bones don't heal fast when you get to 60-70 years old.

I experienced the exact thing OP did. Since mid fiftys, not only no but eff no.

Semi blew out right knee at 30. Meniscus cleaned up at 40 but torn ACL remains.

Have favored that right knee for 35 years now.

I have had so many unfavorable twerks of that right knee that have cost me weeks of limping that the subconscious safeguards will not allow me to drop down hard ever from any vertical distance.

I gotta think if you are reasonably agile, as well as active, it's not the same mentally.

I'm lucky, I guess. I jump down from lots of things around my place & can still jump up on one of those jump boxes my wife used to use for cross fit workouts. Lots of friends say things like, "you don't climb ladders do you?/You don't get on top of that water tank do you?/etc". I don't think much about it but am consciously more careful. One thing that helps is what I think is muscle memory from when I did tumbling & gymnastics as a kid. I think I still have a decent amount of judgement & coordination from those activities.

^^^^^^ This. My 69 year old body lets me know this on a regular basis. When you make that 3 foot jump and jam your knees it is not a good thing.

I'm about Byron's age. 53, and still jump out of the back of semi-trailer dry vans, which has a deck height of about 4 feet. It's not as easy as when I was in my 20s, when I had a vertical leap of about 3 feet, meaning I could probably have jumped into the dry van from the ground when I was around 23 or even 24 years old.

I still jump off the bead rails of my 4x4 diesel. Dislike it, but do it when necessary. when I land wrong it hurts.

A friend and I used to do lots of street racing in our early 20s. Took all kind of risk and he was a good driver, fast, accurate and alert. Right at 45-47, he and I chatting over a cup of coffee. I discovered he would freeze up when driving over bridges or coming down the mt road, the same damn mt road we used to race over every weekends. His death grip on the steering wheel, breaks out in cold sweat and he wants to pull over so I can drive that section. I was shock and he has no idea why. He's not been in an accident or anything like it in the past 20 years. Still happenning today, he's sihtting brick going on an on ramp that's curved

Hurts my feet and takes a looong time to heel.

I'll be 57 in August, these days are long gone, but I have plenty of reminders:p
I sound like a bowl of Rice Crispys when I get up.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647277259.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647277259.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647277386.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647277386.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647277386.jpg
Someone always asks if I regret all the crazy stuff I use to do, I always reply Hell No

, I can think back and smile about what I did, in my book, even when in pain, that is much better than wondering what if

I sometimes climb up in the bed of my El Camino. It is just a few feet down to the ground, but I don't jump down anymore. There is no fear involved. I learned long ago what hurts. I do have one artificial hip, and I don't want damage it at all as it ain't gonna heal up, just wear out. So I just climb down and put one leg at a time on the ground. No shock on feet, knees and hips that way.

After 50 years of being a member of the National Ski Patrol and not thinking twice about dropping into a double black diamond slope my brain has suddenly decided that it is not worth it. I will ski to the edge, look down and immediately think "nope not today" and not even feel bad about it.

A broken foot bone from a fall....is no fun.
My mother (when she was in her late 70's) slipped off a 2 step stool while washing her van.
It never did heal...she was hurting every day when walking.

Timely post. Pro skateboarder Tony Hawk is 53, and he just posted this fresh x-ray image.
Say's he's not ready to retire, yet.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647290334.jpg

When you are at his level, and literally never had to anything else, and still $$$$ on the table, why would he?

Because X-rays of fractured femur, maybe?

OMG

That x-ray is messed up.

Ain't no jump down gonna do that.

My brain doesn't know that though, and it tries very hard to keep me from ending up in that state!

this is how it's supposed to be done... my femur.
Two more nails/screws not shown...just above the knee. May of 2017

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1647297103.jpg

Exactly.

It's not the "I can still do it vs I cannot" aspect that gets me... it's the fascinating brain subprocess that happened totally unbeknownst to me and is kinda overriding my decisions. that I find amazing....

I mean if I kid was in danger or whatever I'm sure I'd jump 10ft down (and crater), but clearly a subtle subprocess in my brain at some point, based on no significant accidents or injuries, made an analysis on my weight, age, condition and left a "cookie" there, and it wins over my conscious desire to jump down... It really is a funny thing... "nope, you're not doing it" - it's worthy of a doctorate study, I'd be curious to know how that works ! Lizard brain I guess.

Well, The government funds weirder studies.

57 no issues jumping down three feet even higher. For most of my life I have had an edge phobia, that generally kicks in around twenty feet, at that point I have an issue.

I do several triathlons a season and this year signed up for a Terrain race and a Muddy Challenge.

It's nice to see how many of you guys a few clicks older than me are still going, it gives me hope for the future.

The difference is as a kid you were not really trying to do it. You just did it without a second thought. Crashing and burning was part of the initiate and it didn't frankly matter at the time. It was part of the adventure we call youth. Maybe because you were shorter and lower to the ground gave you a better center of gravity, your grip was better, body was more fit, balance was better?

One thing that does change with age is our inner ear. We get calcium deposits that float around in the fluid. Then as we age our balance is not what it was. Those tiny particles upset our balance and equilibrium. It all happens very slowly over time then one day all of a sudden we are not so sure footed and can't play Spiderman anymore. When we were kids and imminent crash meant playing airborne Twister as a last moment recovery and made it look easy.

"Rejoice thy youth oh young man"

Yes sir, bugs the crap out of me that my balance is going.
I found that out when I tried to ride a One Wheel, my balance just wasn't there:(
Another issue is "indecision". That bit me a few years back when I was on the BMX track, and the was a big jump at the end of the 1st straight, most of the kids weren't even jumping it. Well, here come, balls out , last minute, I changed my mind, hesitated, clipped the lip on the step up, ass over tea kettle and hit Hard, really, really Hard. Old instincts reaction and I hopped back up, back on my bike and finished the lap:eek:
I hurt for a month, couldn't use my right arm, which screwed up flying water jet pack while in the Cayman Islands (needed strength in both arms to control it, but I already spent the $$$, so I gave it my best.

I’m 78 and the only place I jump is into the pool.

Jumping to earth
 

How about jumping out of a spacecraft from 128,000 feet (24+miles), landing on earth in merely 4 min & 20 seconds? 834 MPH max speed...breathtaking!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOoHArAzdug