Avoid Falls in 2023

If you have dealt with balance issues your entire life, you are not alone. So many seniors and older adults deal with this on a daily basis. If you are reading this article, that is all going to change. The details of this article will outline the #1 fall prevention program you can be following for 2023, and what sets it apart from other balance routines. And although you may notice some improvement in your balance by following a couple of the exercises, you need to follow every single exercise exactly as detailed, otherwise you may continue to fall in 2023.

What Do We Need to Accomplish

So many balance and fall prevention programs only focus on static balance drills. This being the ability to stay stable without moving. Although this is important, it neglects the four other main aspects of balance. This is your dynamic balance, agility, visual/audio awareness, and core strength. By having all five of these components in a balance routine, you will be truly able to improve your balance and reduce your fall risk to zero in 2023.

Fall Prevention Exercises

Static Balance

For static balance, we are going to do balance pad holds. For this exercise, you will need a balance pad (link below) or a pillow to stand on. Then, you will bring both feet together, and stand on the pillow without moving your body at all. Try to hold for one minute, before moving on to the next exercise.

Dynamic Balance

The way we will work dynamic balance will be with our slow marches. For this exercise, march back and forth with your feet bringing your knees up as high as you can, pausing at the top, and then slowly back down. Try to do this exercise for a minute straight, and remember is to do this exercise as slowly as possible before moving on.

Agility

Once you’ve mastered slow marches, you can begin working your agility and quickness with a shuttle run. For this exercise, set out two towels or markers on the ground about 10 feet apart from another. Next, you will start standing on one towel or marker with both feet. Last, you will move back and forth from one marker to another, tapping the top of the marker with your foot on each side. This improves your ability to move quickly, which allows seniors to reduce falls greatly, in addition to the use of the next exercise.

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Want More Fall Prevention Ideas?

Before we get into that exercise, if you are finding value from this article, and want to continue to reduce falls throughout the year, consider subscribing to our blog to receive more articles that help individuals of all abilities with struggles like balance and coordination.

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Core Strength

Core strength can be worked on with side lean holds. For this exercise, start with your feet in a heel to toe position on the ground. Next, you will practice leaning your torso towards your left, right, forward, and backward, holding each position about 30 seconds a time. Make sure to stagger your feet in the other direction to get equal balance and core work.

Visual/Audio Exercises

One of the aspects often neglected in fall prevention programs is your visual and audio cues. These are highly correlated with your bodies ability to balance properly. Today, we will just focus on visual cues by working our side gazes. For this exercise, start with both feet close together. Next, you will simply turn your head side to side very slowly, like an owl. You will notice that even this small change in your vision makes it more challenging on your balance.

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One Last Thing

If you are looking for a full fall prevention program, feel free to checkout our 21 days to better balance program below, where I walk you through exactly what drills to do to guarantee better coordination and steadiness on your feet. If you don’t want to do that, feel free to check out this article I picked out for you, giving you a few more balance exercises to help you improve in the new year.

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