Everyone needs to read the two part New York Times article on falls (see links below). As a physical therapist who has worked with fall related injuries and fall prevention for the last thirty years, I applaud Katie Hafner. For the last ten years, the number of emergency room visits and the number of deaths from fall related injuries has been climbing at an alarming rate. Most people are unaware of how dramatically a fall can change their life. The news we are not getting is that programs designed to prevent falls are very effective. A properly designed fitness program can improve your balance, enhance your reaction skills, and make you less likely to fall. Please Stand Up If you want to improve your balance you must stand up. There is specificity to exercise. You will not get better at tennis with an exercise program of swimming. Seated, supine, or prone exercise activities will not improve your balance, reaction time, or proprioception. The Feeble Fall Make strength training and the maintenance of muscle mass a priority in your fitness program. The loss of muscle mass and strength is directly correlated to a higher incidence of falls. It is good to improve flexibility and cardiovascular capacity, but they will not reduce your risk of falling. Practice Reacting If fall prevention is your goal, then your fitness training must make you move at quicker tempos. Most of the training in fitness facilities is of the slow and controlled variety: Slow seated knee extensions, slow down dogs, slow seated physioball leg lifts. In life, much of what comes at you is fast and uncontrolled. The time you spend training must focus on activities that make you move quickly. Throwing a medicine ball, foot work on an agility ladder, or low hurdles and reactive resistance tubing drills are good examples of faster paced exercises. Become a Better Shock Absorber Your fitness program should make you impact resilient. Fall events often occur because of an impact. You get bumped or jostled and are unable to maintain your equilibrium. The force of the impact causes just enough movement disruption that you topple over. Just like any other physical attribute, impact resilience can be improved with proper training. Ground Rules Getting up and down off the ground enhances all aspects of balance, coordination, and positional awareness. The capacity to transfer gracefully and safely from the floor to standing maintains independence. Getting down on the ground and developing this skill should be part of your fitness program. Fall prevention programs work, and they work better than most other disease preventative programs. Most people start fall prevention training after they have tumbled over several times. Whether it is heart disease, diabetes, or falls, it is far better to start prevention programs before problems develop. My suggestion is that if you are over forty, you need to make fall preventative activities part of your exercise program. Fear, denial, and the “old dog–new tricks” dilemma are the obstacles we keep tripping over. To read Part I, click on the link below: nytimes/interactive/2014/11/03/health/bracing-for-the-falls-of-an-aging-nation.html?_r=0 To read Part II, click on the link below: nytimes/2014/11/04/science/a-tiny-stumble-a-life-upended.html -Michael O’Hara, PT, OCS, CSCS Posted in Health Information, Learn, Other Education Post, Performance, Products, Rehabilitation, Uncategorized | Tagged balance, exercise, falling, fenton, fitness, mike, ohara, physical, preventing falls, program, reaction skills, rehab, therapy, training Recent Posts Overhead Stability Squat A $2500 Coat Rack (Updated Version) FALLING CALLING Pharmeceuticals Vs. Exercise–Side Effects and Treatment Alternatives Everyone Should Know Isolation Exercises I Like Recent Comments Archives December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:48:57 +0000
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