A lifetime of wear and tear on his joints caused Dick Pryor, a 77-year-old retired landscape architect, to undergo not one but two surgeries to replace his knees.

Neither slowed him down for long.

"With one knee replacement, I was back skiing three months later," said Pryor, a Sacramento resident who began skiing a half-century ago. "I could have gone skiing sooner, but the snow wasn't any good."

Like Pryor, many of his 130 fellow members of the local 49er Ski Club average age 72 have dealt with chronic knee and hip problems, and many remain athletically active after joint replacement surgery.

Pryor also walks every day to stay in shape. Bill Anthony, 83, a retired Roseville family physician who had both hips replaced and, most recently, recovered from a broken back, likes to bike three times a week and lift weights when he's not skiing.

"And we kayak in the summer," said Anthony.

"We also do a lot of hiking," said ski group member Judy Agid, 73, a hip replacement veteran and retired Sacramento State fencing coach who has hiked hundreds of miles through Spain and biked across America twice.

While that level of activity might sound unusual, experts on aging say it hints at a new norm. For more energetic seniors today, knee and hip replacements provide a break from vigorous physical activity, not the end of it.

In part, that's because older adults have learned a key lesson: They expect to maintain a good quality of life, because they know that age does not equal infirmity and illness.

"I'd say that age is irrelevant," said Pat Beal, 74, Senior Center of Elk Grove executive director.

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Joint replacement gives seniors leg up on activity, longevity