Balance Issues
Falling scares people. It scares them psychologically because falling could cause them to break their bones, or cause another injury from which they wouldn't recover completely. As people age, many of them (mostly those who haven't been exercising regularly) start to feel less confident about their ability to do everyday things, such as walk and take care of their homes.
Their fear, unfortunately, is not unfounded. As they age, many people lose primary and secondary physical skills, which makes navigating everyday life a challenge. For example, if your peripheral vision has diminished it might be difficult to continue dancing or going running. If your memory is compromised, you might find following the directions in an exercise class confusing.
If your muscles are weak and your flexibility has decreased, then even walking a short distance might be hard for your legs. And if you've lost your sense of balance and agility, if you slip you might be unable to recover, and you might fall.
Regular exercise, even if it's begun at a very advanced age, has been shown to help stave off heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other serious diseases; help maintain brain health and function; it also maintains and can even improve bone density. It also offers an opportunity for socializing and decreases the likelihood of the onset of age-related depression and anxiety.
Once you've fallen, if your health is not what it used to be, your body will find it harder to recover. And if you're afraid — of losing your independence, of being sick and dependent, of falling again — then your fear might change your mood and demeanor.
But it doesn't have to be this way. You've learned that aging can be just about numbers, not about a decline in ability. When it comes to balance, you only need to know two things: balance is a function of your brain's ability to sense your body's place in space, and your sense of balance is the result of practice that your body has done in regaining its balance over and over again throughout life.
For example, when you step onto an escalator, you regain your balance. When you ride a bike, you are maintaining your balance without the use of your feet. When you reach up to get something out of a cabinet and stand on one foot, you are using your balance.
What is the best way to improve balance?
Practice yoga or tai chi. Both require you to stand on one foot and shift your weight from one foot to the other at various times throughout the routines. Also, these practices ask that you get comfortable with the possibility of falling. This may sound odd, but balance is less about being still and more about being as steady as possible. As a living organism, the body is never completely still. Instead, you need to be always steadying yourself as you move, which is exactly what you do when you practice yoga and tai chi.
The truth is, balance is an always-fluctuating ability. For example, you can get up from a chair and find it easy to stand up straight, you start to walk and that's easy, and you continue to walk up a hill and you're doing fine. But suddenly, there's a little rock under your foot that you didn't see, and your foot slips…and you find it impossible to regain your balance and you fall.
Balance is always moving and changing, and the skill of balance is one of adjustment. What older people need, when it comes to balance, is not the ability to stand still, but the ability to get hold of themselves when their feet go out from under them.
If you stay in shape as you get older, you are less likely to fall, but if you do fall, you are less likely to get injured and, if you do get injured, you are more likely to heal faster and with fewer repercussions.
