Balance exercises build leg muscles and help prevent falls. Each year, U.S. hospitals have 300,000 admissions for broken hips, and falling is often the cause of those fractures. Balance exercises can help you stay independent by helping you avoid disabilities that may result from falling.
There is a lot of overlap between strength and balance exercises. Lower body exercises for strength also help balance.
Safety tips:
• Hold onto a table or chair for balance with only one hand. As you progress, try holding on with only one fingertip.Side Leg Raises strengthen muscles at sides of hips and thighs. Strengthening these muscles is important for good balance.
• Next, try the following exercises without holding on at all. Ask someone to watch you the first few times in case you lose your balance.
• If you are very steady on your feet, move on to doing the exercises using no hands, with your eyes closed. Have someone stand close by if you are unsteady.
1. Stand straight, directly behind table or chair, feet slightly apart.Hip-Flexion strengthens thigh and hip muscles. Strengthening these muscles is important for good balance. Use ankle weights if you are ready to push yourself.
2. Hold table or chair for balance.
3. Slowly lift one leg to side, 6 to 12 inches out to the side. Keep your back and both legs straight. Don't point your toes downward -- keep them facing forward. Hold position.
4. Slowly lower leg. Repeat with other leg.
5. Keep back and knees straight throughout the exercise.
6. Alternate legs until you repeat exercise 8 to 15 times with each leg.
7. Rest. Then do another set of 8 to 15 repetitions.
1. Stand straight; hold onto a table or chair for balance.Hip Extension strengthens buttock and lower-back muscles. Strengthening these muscles is important for good balance. Use ankle weights if you are ready.
2. Slowly bend one knee toward chest, without bending waist or hips.
3. Hold position for 1 second.
4. Slowly lower leg all the way down. Pause.
5. Repeat with the other leg.
6. Alternate legs until you have done 8 to 15 repetitions with each leg.
1. Stand 12 to 18 inches from a table or chair, feet slightly apart.Here are a couple of exercises that you can do at anytime and anywhere to improve your balance.
2. Bend forward at hips at about 45-degree angle; hold onto a table or chair for balance.
3. Slowly lift one leg straight backwards without bending your knee, pointing your toes, or bending your upper body any farther forward.
4. Hold position for 1 second.
5. Slowly lower leg. Pause.
6. Repeat with the other leg.
7. Alternate legs until you have done 8 to 1 5 reps with each leg.
8. Rest and then do another set of 8 to 15 reps with each leg.
• Walk heel to toe; your heel is in front of your toe and just walk in this manner. Make sure that your toes actually touch your heel.I recommend that you do these small exercises whenever you can during each day. The more training you do can only benefit you in the long run!
• Stand on one foot while you are waiting in line and then alternate to the other foot. Make sure that you do not lose your balance!
• Stand and sit down without using your hands. Do this whenever you have some spare time.
Periodically you should check your progress.
• Time yourself as you stand on one foot without any support. Stand as long as possible and try to do it longer next time. Keep a record and test yourself periodically.
Charting Progress:
It can be very motivating to chart your progress. These simple tests measure endurance, lower-body power, strength, and balance. Test yourself before starting to exercise to get a baseline score.
For endurance exercises, see how far you can walk in exactly six minutes. Write down how far you walked -- in feet, blocks, laps, miles, number of times you walked up and down a long hallway, or whatever is convenient for you. Test and record your scores each month.
For lower-body strength, time yourself as you walk up a flight of stairs as fast as you can safely. Test and record your scores each month.
For upper-body strength exercises, record how much weight you lift and how many times you lift that weight.
For balance exercises, time yourself as you stand on one foot, without support, for as long as possible. Stand near something sturdy to hold onto in case you lose your balance. Repeat the test while standing on the other foot. Test and record your scores each month.
One Thing You Can Do To Reduce Falling & Accidents
Have you noticed that you trip, stumble and sometimes fall more than you used to? How about; are you having more accidents with your equipment and power tools? Do you think this is because you are getting clumsy or are these things related to getting older? I have a tip that can help you eliminate almost all these minor incidents before they develop into something major.
If you focus or pay attention to whatever is being done; this action alone will eliminate most accidents!
You need to eliminate day dreaming or allowing yourself to become distracted when dealing with power equipment and tools.
This same fact also pertains to simple tasks like walking. Allowing yourself to be distracted can cause you to trip on simple things along with misjudging heights when stepping off a curb or stair steps.
Recently one of my coffee drinking buddies was helping a friend change some door knobs in a newer home in Scottsdale, Arizona. You know; one of those fancy custom homes with step ups and step downs in every other room. They look nice but are hazardous if you don’t pay attention. He was walking from the kitchen into the family room and tumbled down three steps. He was looking right at the door he was working on as he tumbled; he said he didn’t even notice that the steps were there.
This is a prime example of not giving the task his full attention. He admitted that he was thinking about when his grandkids were coming to visit and what they would do when the kids got into town. He was lucky that he knew how to fall without injuring himself!
We all knew how to fall when we were kids but we forgot about it as we got older. Remember how you used to run, play and fall when you were a kid? Most of us did it a lot when we were younger but as we age we do whatever possible to prevent falling. Maybe we need to relearn the art of falling; but that’s a subject for another day!
The main thing that I want to stress is that we need to live in the here and now. Focus on whatever you are doing; especially the simple things. The things that we used to do without giving a second thought to could cause a stumble and a quick embarrassing trip to the ground.
According to the statistics; over thirty percent of people over sixty five fall each year so everybody that is in the boomer generation needs to live each day to the fullest BUT stay focused on what you are doing!
