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Aug 11
BEAUFORT PERSONAL TRAINER: BALANCE EXERCISE WILL KEEP YOU ON YOUR FEET
(BEAUFORT, SC August 29, 2011) – If you watched the news a couple weeks ago you might have seen the footage of Nancy Reagan’s near-fall as she walked with a group of people. The 90-year-old former First Lady stumbled, lost her balance and took a tumble, but fortunately was not hurt.
This incident sheds light on the danger of falls – the leading cause of injury among U.S. adults aged 65 years and older – as well as on the importance of preventing those potentially serious accidents that can result in various fractures, traumas, and even death.
A fall can happen in a split second, slipping on an uneven or slippery surface, tripping over an obstacle, or even something as simple as wearing ill-fitting shoes can cause loss of balance and a tumble. It happens more often than we think.
Fortunately, there are effective ways to avert accidental falls – and exercise is one of the best preventive measures.
That’s perhaps the lesser-known but nevertheless very important aspect of physical fitness, while falls are most common among older Americans, younger people often slip and fall as well.
Which exercises are best to prevent this kind of accidents?
Balance and stability training combined with strengthening and functional full body exercises will help improve your stability, agility, and coordination, making you less prone to falls and injuries.
The following workouts will be particularly useful
- Balance Training improve stability and coordination that will keep you from falling down. It works smaller muscle that help stabilize the joints and keeps your center of gravity over the base of support, which is the real definition of balance. As soon as your center of gravity is over your base of support you can maintain your balance.
- Flexibility Training provide corrections to muscular imbalances to various muscle groups, keeping the joints, tendons and ligaments supple, and give you a better range of motion. As a result, your movements – whether walking or just doing regular chores – will be less clumsy and more coordinated.
- Strength training: As we age, our muscle mass declines and our body becomes weaker. Exercises that strengthen our muscles will make us more resistant to falls and injuries. This will also improve balance, stability and coordination.
An added advantage of strength training, including weight- bearing exercises, is that it will prevent bone density loss that occurs in osteoporosis. The less brittle your bones are, the less risk there is of serious fractures.
For best results, ask your trainer to include all these workouts – while taking into account your age and fitness level – into your regular exercise routine.
