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Preventing falls in five steps

I saw a guy fall flat on his face in Victoria yesterday. For many people this is quite a regular occurance. It happens more so as we age and become less fit.

Follow these tips to help improve your ability to avoid falling. If you know someone who is always spraining their ankle send them this link also.

1) Stretch

An active and static stretch routine in combination are so powerful that it will make the chance of you falling greatly reduced. Active stretching improves coordination, flexibility and balance while static stretching improves posture. This enhances your core and overall body strength through efficient mechanics and operation of the muscles. Everyone should be doing this regularly.

2) Brush your teeth on one leg.

So many falls happen as the ankle rolls over thus causing the person to come tumbling down. This is more likely to happen if you have done this same accident previously. The reason it is more likely is that the proprioceptors (sensors in the ankle) that tell your brain where the foot is in space lose their sensitivity.

The results is the brain gets the signal you are about to fall over when you hit the floor! A bit too late you may agree. Standing on one leg, with your eyes closed if necessary will greatly reduce your risk of falls. Do this when brushing your teeth is much more of a challenge. Children love this too, makes brushing your teeth fun.

WARNING: Do not shoot yourself in the foot by falling over when doing this exercise. Take it steady and begin gently at your own pace.

3) LEngage and strengthen your core.

Balance comes from within. More specifically the muscles that hold the spine rigid. To improve your balance you can therefore look to reactivate the muscles of your core and ensure they are working and helping you.

Here is an experiment, stand on one leg, note how you feel. Now repeat, but first stop yourself going to the toilet at the back and front, then pull your lower stomach in like you are putting on a tight pair of trousers. Now see how much more balanced you feel.

The extra balance in the second test is because the mid section is now stable. Practice engaging the core in this way whenever you can.

4) Develop all over strength and coordination

Taking the above point further, many falls occur because you are unable to hold (through lack of strength) your body in a certain position or perform a correct movement pattern. This causes you to lose balance and fall. Tripping is a good example, when you trip a lot of weight is forced onto the other leg. If this leg is weak you will be guaranteed to go down. A strong leg could push you back up and allow you to regain balance. Central to this is having th glute musculature awake and strong.

5) Ensure You Are Eating Correctly.

As strange as it may seem the nutritional status of your body affects your fall rate. Eating in accordance to your metabolic type will increase your reaction time, allow greater responses from training and ensure the joints are healthy and better prepared to take any falls that do occur. Poor eating involvoing sensitive foods will also shut down the core muscles through referred organ-muscle inhibition and thus destabilize the body.

Check out my courses and see exactly how you can reduce your chances of falling to zero at the same time as enjoying exceptional energy, health and prosperity.