My father in law started sleeping all the time and couldn't exert himself without getting winded.

Turned out that he developed a heart valve flutter and almost died when he just accepted being out of shape and left it for months and months.

Another guy at hockey felt tired, skipped a few shifts then went to the dressing room.
By the time the game was over he was dead.

I don't mean to scare you but if what you are feeling is unusual for you don't mess with it.

There's actually studies out these days that contradict the old theory of stretching before/after exercise. In some people, it actually increases their risk of injury...

+1
Stretching cold muscles never made any sense.

I have to agree I am 64 and had a heart attack last April. I was blaming being easily winded on being "over 60 and overweight" My Dr. told me my blood pressure and cholesterol were approaching high normal . I started losing weight and trimmed about 25 lbs still have 25 to go. I was also falling asleep watching tv in the early evening with an occasional wheezing from my lungs. The Dr said I was probably developing ashma . (I now think it was early congestive heart failure).

I woke up last April while on vacation in Florida hot sweaty and coughing. Not having a local Dr I drove myself to a hospital 10 min away.Thinking they would prescribe a puffer and send me home. I had a heart rate of 59 and BP 120/95.
It turned out I was having a heart attack. Angeoplasty and a stent cleared an almost completely blocked artery. I now feel 10 yrs younger and all the various symptoms I mentioned are gone.
I dodged the bullet and wish I hadn,t taken my deteriorating condition so lightly

Stretching done correctly is very slow. The hand stretches I do should be done over a 5-10 min period using gravity as your friends. Mostly people will do like 15-30 seconds a side and call it good.

Exercise regularly, and just don't stop. The older you get the harder it is to get back to your prior fitness levels.

As to the OP's situation... my wife does a lot of endurance sports. There are some days she's just not feeling it. Other days she can go on forever. I wouldn't sweat a down day every now and then. Listen to your body.

I agree, listen to your body. It is telling you to go to the doctor.

If you are doing it right, stretching is always going to reduce your chance of injury. You will not see me using "always" very often.

Yup. If I hadn't been in good shape when I had my wreck I wouldn't have made it out of the car. I too have times when my butt is full of lead. But staying active to ANY degree is the key for me. I also have frequent med checks due to permanent damage from the crash.

So get the med checks and stay active. Other than that...well who knows. Best to all!

I'm a firm believer in this. I started right before I turned 40 and will be 49 in a couple weeks. I doubt I've missed a total of one month in that time. I hope to never stop and improve on the things I know I need to.

I hope this thread is good reminder to all of us that need/want to work on improving our cardio and strength levels. Along with good diets and maintaining low body fat percentages. It certainly cant't hurt and seems to provide a whole bunch of good.

I gots lots of respect for ya, Doc; however, there are varying trains of thought on this these days. For example:

Myth: You Should Always Stretch Before You Run
The Truth: "Static stretching is not the optimal way to warm-up before you run," Olson says. Believe it or not, you could actually strain your muscles with static stretching, and it might even slow you down. Instead, focus on getting oxygen to your muscles and warm them up—literally, Olson recommends. "Start out by walking and trotting: swing your arms; shrug your shoulders and slowly elevate your heart rate for about 10 minutes before you pick up your pace."

That doesn’t mean you should skip stretching completely, Olson says. Just make sure to do it after your run, when your muscles are very warm and full of oxygen and nutrients; and then engage in static stretching, focusing on your leg, hip, and low-back muscles. (Try this Must-Do Foot Stretch After Every Single Run.)


From Cardio Myths, Busted! 8 Running Tips to Beat Runner Injuries - Shape Magazine


As to the OP, I've got friends your age who complain of the same symptoms. A few of them were diagnosed with low Testosterone. One guy was ridiculously low. Once he started using a testosterone supplement (some kind of topical gel you rub on your inner thighs), he felt 20 years younger. Might be something you wanna have looked at.

My Daughter who works in this filed had this advice for me relating to stretching:

1) stretching before a workout make you less strong (minor damage to muscle fibres, the same as working out but less so)

2) warm up before strenuous exercise

3) use exercise for stretching. Traditional type stretching is old school. If you pull on a muscle that is not wanting to stretch, it will resist more, but if you use active stretching it will release more.

Try this:
If you want to stretch a muscle, use the muscle to work in the direction that it is tight, then relax it and stretch it in the relaxed direction.

Imagin you muscle is your hands, and you are dangling over a crevice of a molten valocono. Now imagine how hard it would be for someone to remove your grip! :-)

Instead now imagine you are squeezing stress ball. Squeeze it real hard, then reach out for an ice cream cone. See how much easier the grip relaxes in that direction when you don't try to force it against its will?

If you want to stretch your arm up over your head, push down on it first with the other arm, then push it up. the effect is magic!

Ms Olson and I disagree. That does not mean she is correct.

As I said, if you do it correctly, stretching will always reduce your chance of injury. If you are straining and tearing stuff by stretching, you are clearly not doing it correctly.

Lots of good comment already made.

I've read that we lose muscle mass as soon as 2 weeks after not lifting, but this sounds very different.

When the weather got cold it really cut into my training/ performance.

Then I took a week off to work on my car and house.

It was really hard to get back started, and knew it would be so the first two days were 1.75 hour walks though the woods. Followed by running up 3/4's of the hills on a 3-hour though the woods event which included doing push-ups at all the wood walkways adding up to 200 PU's in total.

I say I'm back on track, feeling good for 55 years old.

The getting yourself checked out at a doctors office is always a good idea.