curl my knees. then roll halfway over. enough to get one knee and a hand down. then push upright. no more springing up.

All kinds of contortions that involve using arm strength to get up. Arms are good. Legs are good. Back is not good.

Hope you got off.....the floor.

My serious back problems started in 2015, when I did a ton of remodeling on my house.

I had the brush attachment on the vacuum, and there were about 20 pairs of shoes on a shoe rack in a closet near where I was working.

The shoes were covered in construction dust, so I'm sitting cross-legged on the floor vacuuming them.

No one was home.

I got stuck on the floor for 2 hours until my wife got home. I tried everything. No dice.

Now I'm depressed thinking that I was old 10 years ago.

But as I think more...I've had periods since then where I did fine.

Weird how aging works.

where one day, wham, you're old! It's a roller-coaster with up and down slopes, curves, and the occasional moment of terror. But still, I'd rather get old than not.

Strength is important but so is balance and knowing how. I've seen YouTube tutorials on this topic. I'm afraid to try them without someone really strong to help me in case I can't do it!

Best of luck.

nothing worse than getting stuck on the floor.

Hey, you might surprise yourself though on how well you do with the tutorials!

Good luck, Peggy.

I have to get up on my knees, then crawl to somewhere so I can put the palms of each hand on two things stabilzing and higher...... then PU-L-L-L myself up.... (knees yelling and creaking all the while like OLD DOOR HINGES THAT NEEDS OILING.) ROFL!!!

my body sounds like a drum solo. Cymbals and all.

in restaurants, to rise out of a booth the creaks are so loud I'm afraid people will think I'm farting!

And I moan a little bit.

Maybe look for things under the bed or furniture.

Since it will be a while before I can get back up again...

Tried to get up when I was 55. Started practicing that and stretching. Move it swing it or lose it.
75 now practice every day! Good luck with your new hobby!

I try to do all kinds of stretching exercises now.

Welcome to DU!

Yes, practice crawling on your hands and knees to eventually pull yourself up to something very sturdy is definitely helpful. After I had a hip replacement my surgeon stressed doing that type of exercise daily. It makes you feel less fearful and more confident if you do actually fall, knowing you can help yourself.

you cocked your leg and peed on the couch while you were down there!

It's up to you to decide what constitute acceptable behavior!

and let you in our backyard to do your business.

can you hold it?

have two hands, don't ya?

make it a daily thing, lay down on the floor and get up

seriously, it will do ya good

Why do you want to hurt me?

I would be yelling that in record time with you.

If I remember or can.

Getting off floor seems a bridge too far.

Leftover lasagna and some wine and now over and out for the evening.

getting up and down is pretty standard stuff......well, for now it is

Making family size casseroles living alone in cold weather is tubby season for me.

new year starting - get back in the game! You don't have to go all out - just get moving

I think a big problem with New Year's resolutions is people go all out, from nothing to overwhelming, and give it all up in short order

just start with a 10 minute walk or so, ease into it! It's good for the body and soul, yes indeed.

Last year I could get down on the floor to play and then get up without thinking about it. This year, she can run out of the room and be all the way across the house before I can manage to get back up on my feet. I'm also having balance issues. I'm not as active as I once was, but I am working on strengthening my legs.

No padding under the knees. My knees scream just seeing this.

Those bouncy young joints..I had them once.

It must be, because it takes a lot longer to get down to the floor, and then get back up again.
If it gets any worse, I'll have to pack a lunch.

Wait a few decades. Then tell me how easy it is to sit with ankles crossed, much less all the other stuff.

it was such a shock. It was like certain muscles just quit working. I don't think anything quite prepared me for getting old. Inside I am pretty much the same person, but my body doesn't agree.

sheesh what's becoming of me?

Old soldier, ran marathons for 20 years, moderate workout 5 days a week.

Getting up off the floor is the most difficult thing I do. In fact, I returned this afternoon from grocery shopping. Had to kneel on the kitchen floor to put groceries in fridge, real struggle to get up — walk on my knees to the kitchen island and pull up on the counter.

For leverage. Falling would be a problem though. Last time I fell I did consciously try to land in a position and place that would help me get up though. Don't know if I could always do that though

(I know, easier said than done, sometimes.)

My husband usually has a great sense of humor....not that day.

to make sure I can get back up. Somedays it seems easier than others.

My favorite scene in the latest "Freaky Friday" movie was when the teenager inhabiting Jamie Lee Curtis' body discovers she can't get up from the floor. Says something like "I want to, this body won't."

All sorts of movements

...without a DEFFINITE plan for how to get back up!

For me, it started 6-1/2 years ago when I broke my leg. It never healed right, and I walk like a Neanderthal man.

Class. My funky older teacher even funkily videotaped a class on YouTube look for Gary Shade.

He is almost 78 and teaches our class, when he forgets a step we remind him and laugh.

Life is too short to be stuck on the ground

I shattered my left knee—working as a unit commissioner for the Boy Scouts, of all things… When they say their insurance covers “everything,” they mean $1000 max.

But I digress. I had reconstruction and a looooong rehab. Have basically no cartilage left at this point, so I usually wear a hinged brace to keep the upper and lower halves walking in the same direction.

Needless to say, I haven’t been on the ground since (except for the time I fell on our effed-up driveway and miraculously didn’t break anything else except skin) because I can’t kneel and sure as hell can’t get up unassisted.

I obviously exist so that people like you can feel like you’re in pretty good shape in comparison.

the floor several times a day to tend to our little woodstove. It is considerably harder this winter than last. There is a small table close that I can use to push myself up. I have learned that I cannot use the dog or the woodstove to push up.

I have artificial knees, so getting off the floor is really tough. One trick I learned off Youtube helped. If you fall, you slither your way over to the book case. You sit up on the floor. You place a book under one buttocks. Then you lean over and slide a book under the other buttocks, then lean back over to stack a book atop the first book, and so forth until you are elevated enough on the two stacks of books to stand. Well, crazy, but whatever works. (I read all your ideas, just in case I fall with no books nearby!) 📙+📘+📙 = 📚

Roll over onto your hands and knees. Reach up and hold onto the sofa with one hand, or both hands if needed, pull yourself up, and quickly flop onto the sofa. Voila! Now, don't do that again! Lol.

and a lot of huffing, puffing and mental/physical planning getting up/down from the floor. But I still get down (slowly and deliberately) on my hands and knees to clean the kitchen and bathroom floors. Perhaps foolish/stubborn but proves to myself that I can still actually do it. I live in Manhattan and the same goes for negotiating subway stairs and getting on and off trains or buses. Stairs anywhere have become a major hurdle. Thank God for banisters!

Long enough to need one, haha! 😆

It kills my knees.

Tripped on some uneven sidewalk while carrying a fragile item, and instinctively held the item up with both arms as I hit the concrete. Couldn't get up for several minutes. Pair of jerks sitting in a truck less than thirty feet away didn't even laugh, just watched as I alternated between struggling and resting. Bruised ribs didn't get better for days. Fun!

One night not long after, I was speed-walking around the workplace after shift for exercise, went around a large container and tripped over a black vehicle chock in its shadow. Down I go again, this time with the bonus penalty of a heavy backpack I can't wriggle out of. An entire van with a sanitation crew drives by--inches from my head--and once again everyone gawks but nobody stops or helps. I think it was the blind rage that finally got me up on my feet...a few minutes later.

Now it's a daily ritual of Tylenol and Aspercreme and waiting for the next joint to flare up...and the one that, at long last, never gets better. In the meantime, I stupidly adhere to Batman's bullheaded philosophy of persisting into an early grave:

I have gone from someone who rode his bike for hours and loved to hike into the wilds and just wander. I used to climb trees and scale slopes.

Now? I can barely get on the floor (other than falling, of course), much less get up from it without some serious effort. Lots of grunting and 'ready, set, GO' type crap.

It is really doing a number on my mental state because I am just not in the habit of asking someone to walk with me or to help me bring some bags back from the car.

And, it royally sucks.

lucky for me my Kitty Boy accommodates me by jumping up on my lap.