Get Stronger to Prevent Falls

One of my clients asked me about fall prevention last week. A common question. 

Study after study has shown that a fear of falling is epidemic among older adults. That's not surprising, but what is surprising is the finding that one of the biggest risk factors for falling is a fear of falling itself. In other words, the more afraid people are of falling, the more likely they'll fall.  

That's what's called a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Let's get back to the original question. How do you prevent falling?

Well, I don't lie about fitness and the truth is that we're all going to fall at one time or another. Gravity never stops working and you may put your foot in a dog food bowl and slide across the floor just when you least expect it. (Guess who that happened to.) Given that, we want to make sure of two things.

1.  That we fall as little as possible and

2. That we can get back up as injury-free as possible.

While we can't guarantee either of those things 100 percent, what we can do is give ourselves the best odds. How do we do that? Strength training. 

We know that strength training builds confidence, so if fear of falling causes more falls, then feeling confident you won't fall will help keep you upright.

How does strength training build confidence? Simply put, strength training will help you do things you can't do now. That may be lifting something off the ground, moving with less pain, playing longer with your grandkids, or something else entirely. That's empowering.

Now here's where the rubber really meets the road. As confident as we may be when it comes to falling, we've already established gravity's incessant work ethic. It works even harder than a grandmother cooking Thanksgiving dinner. That means it's likely we're all going to fall sometime. What helps us pull ourselves up? Strength training. What helps us pull ourselves up as close to injury-free as possible? Strength training.

Strength training makes our muscles resilient and is the best thing anyone can do to improve their bone density. A good friend of mine calls it the “Fountain of Youth” and I tend to agree.

I hope this helps give you an honest idea about fall prevention. Let me know what you think.