Senior Fitness Series: Risk of Fall

Senior Fitness Series: Risk of Fall Accidental falls are a serious health risk to older adults. We help clients build the flexibility, core stabilization, strength and confidence to reduce both risk of fall and fear of fall. One of our favorite skills to teach and older adult is properly getting up from the floor. For many older adults, they have not been able to do this in years and it is pretty scary. When they see they are strong enough to do this, after learning and practicing proper technique, they see it as a true gift and are immediately more confident in their bodies! If you are reading this and thinking, there’s no way I could re learn that skill, please let us prove you wrong! As you know there are tons of advantages to fall prevention training. But what would this look like for you? We do practice the actual skill of getting up and down on the floor. In different scenarios with different tools, to mimic real life. But just as importantly, we develop a program for your in home training sessions to build your core stabilization and strength, your flexibility and your overall strength and movement patterns. Everyone can benefit from a strong core system and equally strong stabilization system. One without the other leads to imbalance and personal trainers make sure you get both ends of the spectrum. Stabilizing the core helps with balance, posture and overall proprioception, ie, feeling where your body is in space and being able to react appropriately. This is huge for fall prevention! Your trainer will guide you through multiple levels of core training to achieve this balance. You will practice isometric holds like floor bridge, plank and bird dog to increase stabilization. Then you will practice more dynamic movements to build eccentric and concentric strength. So this would be talking those first moves through the range of motion at varying speeds. Finally, your at home trainer will teach you power driven core moves that are very applicable to real life. Clients always notice a decrease in difficulty of say, getting a heavy bowl down from a cupboard, getting in and out of a car, ringing the groceries in, carrying a small dog or child, gardening, golfing, and this is on top of a reduction in pain in doing these things also! Further, if you’re still with me here and not already giving us a call to sign up, our trainers focus on balance, flexibility and overall strength. So that the whole body works together to support the core and is able to do so moving freely and without pain. Being able to balance uses many neurological pathways creating the ability to slow down force at the correct joint when its needed. All of these factors decrease as we age, but progressive practice can help a ton! Similar to core training, we take you through different stages of balance training to stabilize, build strength and then put to use in real life situations. Sounds like we have a pretty solid system, am I right? Its easy to guess that flexibility and strength follow the same system. And both aid in the body taking the most useful route to finish a movement instead of the least resistance, which when you are inflexible and weak, leads to risk of fall and injury. Adding all of this up, you get a solid system to help reduce risk of fall. By building our stabilization and strength in many different but related facets, you will begin noticing a difference in your day to day life. We make sure to keep your sessions applicable to everyday life by also adding in reactive exercises. First of all, these exercises are fun! You will perform more dynamic multi-step movements that get the heart rate rising and endorphins flowing. They challenge you in new ways and stimulate the neurological systems giving you a boost in energy. They build self-belief and boost your reactibility to real life situations. Before you know it, you’ll be easily and safely getting right up off the floor, with less risk you’ll even need to use the skill in real life!