HOW TO IMPROVE BODY BALANCE AFTER 50 - FALL PREVENTION .

 

HOW  TO  IMPROVE  BODY  BALANCE  AFTER  50  -  FALL PREVENTION .

Do you get dis-balanced while wearing a trouser while standing, or tying a shoe lace while standing on one leg, or when getting up a chair or any raised platform to fetch anything from a height, or need to hold side railing while climbing the stairs ? 

Then for sure you have a balance issue.  Balance is a really big deal, when you do not have it, life becomes a challenge and more so falling is the number one cause for traumatic death among the elderly.  As we are all heading that way , so it is good to know something about balance so that we can practice and improve it before it's too late. 

Body balance is an ability to maintain the line of gravity (vertical line from centre of mass) of  the body within the base of support with minimal postural sway. Sway is the horizontal movement of the centre of gravity even when a person is standing still. As we age, due to various factors our body balance gets disturbed resulting in a sudden fall causing serious injuries. If we start few very simple exercises, which can be done at our home, we will have an improved body balance, thus reducing risk of a fall.

Body Balance exercises aim to increase strength and muscle tone and improve joint mobility and muscle flexibility, these tend to get weaker with age. An equal important goal of these exercise is to reduce stress levels and improve mental well-being. With strength, flexibility and a calm mind , the body is brought into BALANCE. By integrating balance as part of your regular workout, you can minimise your risk of falls and muscle imbalances, where one side of your body is tighter and weaker than the other side. 

For example , if you throw a ball with your right arm and shoulder more than your left, then your right side is stronger than your left . This creates tension throughout your muscles and tissues  on your right shoulder and torso, unless you stretch the right side and strengthen the left side of your body.

What Causes Balance Problems ?

When you are standing up and relaxing and maintaining a balance, it looks as though you are kind of standing still, but you are always  in a sway - falling a little bit, you are falling back, front, right and left , but your body is compensating so quickly as the brain is processing so fast that it looks as you are standing absolutely still, and the obvious example of one that is not working so well is if someone is drunk because now they are not compensating so fast and they are moving all over the place and in the case of being drunk obviously the alcohol is interfering with the cortex and the cerebellum so your body can not process appropriately but there is all kinds of other reasons why you may not be able to process including degeneration. Neural degeneration happens to all of us and we want to make sure that we slow it down, so we have much left as possible for as long as possible . 

So, let's look at what are the components in order for balance, to work your brain needs information and there are three inputs that we have : 

1) VISION , 

2) VESTIBULAR, & 

3) PROPRIOCEPTIONS. 

So, vision is pretty obvious it is you look, you see what things look like and the brain uses that information to maintain balance. 

Vestibular is the inner ear thing, that's your semicircular canals and the cells that transmit that information to the brain and this is the classic place for in the medical world, as they always focus on the inner ear first because if you have an inner ear infection , if you have those stones which are a little bit off-kilter, then you could have balance problems, you get a vertigo and dizziness and nausea and things like that, but that is only one part and those are actually kind of rare , most balance problems and most vertigo is more subtle and it is a problem with degeneration or incorrect or not enough capacity to process . 

The last one is proprioception,  your body sends information to your brain all the time and proprioception is all the information that every fibre and every cell is sending to your brain so that your brain knows where the stuff is and your brain has never heard or seen or touched or felt anything,  the brain only knows where the body parts are because the body parts are sending information to the brain and that's called proprioception , so when all of this is working then we have great balance, we have the visual , vestibular and the proprioception inputs, the brain takes all of that input , it processes hundreds of, millions , billions bits of information every second to create a picture, to send information to the musculoskeletal system which is of course all the joints and muscles and then all of those cells, all of those body parts have receptors that they send information back to the brain in the form of proprioception. So, it's a continuous loop that allows the brain to know where things are and to maintain balance by issuing the appropriate commands.

Poor Balance is when any one of these steps is compromised, if we have poor visual input, if we have poor vestibular input or if you have poor proprioceptive input, or if the processing is not keeping up , like if we have some brain degeneration which happens with ageing , it should not happen with ageing but it does because we are toxic and we are degenerating , we are inactive and so forth, and if the musculoskeletal system wasn't sending enough, we do not move enough then the brain is not getting enough proprioception, so that is what causes poor balance. But we can do something to improve on it, and the visual is the least commonly involved, because most people are so on line with their vision that's not something that varies a whole lot . 

It's the other two that vary tremendously and those are the ones we can work on. So, how do we do this? 

One Very Basic & Simple Exercise :

Well it's really simple, so when you do this exercise you want to go where you can hold on to something , I recommend a door frame, so that you can stand securely in the middle and hold on to both sides while you are trying these things out. You also, if you have some balance issues or if you are not real sure , make sure that you have someone with you to watch you and catch you and guide you, and let you know what's happening, but at least start with the door frame so that you can hold on tight, and then close your eyes and now what happens is you are taking out one third of the input for balance, so if the other two parts are working perfectly then two out of three is still enough . 

If I close my eyes now, then I still have good balance, and you may be able to see a very slight sway but probably not much at all. People who have balance problems should not do this without having someone watching , but if you close your eyes you probably start see about half inch or an inch of sway, and it might be more to one side, that indicates that the problem is more one-sided, which is very typical. 

Then what you do is you hold on to the door frame and then you lift one leg, so you lift one knee and now you are standing on one leg, and then you hold on very lightly and then you close your eyes and what you notice is that foot starts acting , it starts working a lot , the muscles start working twice as hard, they start working really fast and what they are doing is they are increasing the proprioception so because we took the vision out , we are relying on the other two, now they have to increase their activity to keep up. 

The more you work at this, the more you activate those pathways and the more that you will exercise those systems. If you exercise them on a regular basis, then you increase the strength of those pathways. It is just like a muscle you workout, if you work out a muscle it grows bigger, if you workout a pathway it grows bigger and it gets better. So by taking out the vision we can improve and strengthen the other two. You stand between a door frame , you hold on very lightly and then as you get better and better at this then you can hold on less and less, until you don't have to hold on that at all, and if you work this for a while and you get really really good at it, you should be able to stand up to 30 seconds on one leg with with eyes closed, that is how fantastic the body is when all of these systems are working together at a 100% .

So, remember to start very very carefully , I repeat - hold on with both hands, have someone there if you are not sure and then have some fun with this and let me know  by writing in the comments section below - how long you can stand on one leg and if there is a big difference between left and right for example. 

EXERCISES TO IMPROVE BODY BALANCE - For Elderly People :

These balance exercises are designed specially for fall prevention in the elderly / senior community. As we age, one of the first thing that always seems to go is our balance , we always have a fear of falling. By practicing this workout routine regularly you will immensely improve your balance & will start living a better & more mobile lifestyle. Remember , result wont come in one day or one week, you have to practise these daily , the longer you do, the better you will be with balance.

We will do these exercises in standing position , but will be using a chair for support , before we start the exercise we need to stretch the concerned muscles by doing warm-up, then strengthen hip muscles, then strengthen our lower body, then core, then do side thigh & hamstring stretches , and finish with deep breathing relaxation exercise :

1. Sit on a chair in a comfortably erect position. then do hip circular twist / rotation, first from right to left 10 times , then from left to right 10 times.

2. From the same position move forward and backwards 10 times.

3. Then start shaking up side to side like a dance 10 times, first right shoulder down and then left shoulder down & repeat.

4. Next, in the same sitting position do marching with your arm swing 10 times.

5. Stand up , placing the chair to your side, use the chair back rest for your support in case you need it. Then raise your right leg up sideways and then down, do this for 10 times . Now bring the same leg up sideways and hold in that position for 5 seconds, then do the same with your left leg,  and as you progress hold to 10 seconds without any support. But need to practice daily to get your balance permanent. 

6. Now, similarly do the exercise by raising your right leg to your front and back 10 times, then hold the same leg in raised position for 5 seconds, then do the same with your left leg, and as you progress hold to 10 seconds without any support. Use the chair for support only if needed.

7. Then do spot marching with arm swing for 10 seconds.

8. Next , bring your right knee up and then down 10 times , then hold in raised position for 5 seconds and bring down, as you progress hold to 10 seconds. Then repeat the same with your left leg, Use the chair for support only if needed. 

9. Then do spot marching with arm swing for 10 seconds after each of these exercises.

10. We thus did exercises for our hip muscles , now we will train our lower body. Bring the chair in front of you , hold the back rest of the chair if required , and do nice simple squats , start with 5-8 squats (sit down & up), as you progress go for 10 to 12 squats. Then hold the half sit position for 5 seconds without holding the chair if you can, then up. Take the hold to 10 seconds as you progress.

11. Then do spot marching.

12. Then again come back and sit on the chair. Now we will train our core. We will work on our ab muscles. Sit on the chair for support, lean back, straighten your legs forwards and wig your toes up and down keeping both your leg straight 10 times, you will feel those abs tighten-up .

13. Then do marching on sitting position with arm swing.

14. While sitting stretch your right leg forward and try to touch your toe , try to reach your toe as much you can and be with that stretch for 3 seconds , then repeat the same with your left leg. You will the stretch on your hamstring and calf muscles.

15. Now bring the ankle of your right knee on your left knee and pull it back as far as you can and feel a nice stretch on your side thigh of right leg and hold for three seconds and bring it down, then repeat with your left leg. 

16. Then again repeat the exercises of 1., 2., & 3.

17. Now we will do deep breathing relaxation techniques  so that we can get our balance muscles working and get the mind really active and thinking. Sit comfortably on the chair, with your back straight , shoulder relaxed , keep your legs and arms loose with your palms on your knees facing upwards  , make sure to loosen your cloths, close your eyes, now take a slow , smooth and deep breath through your nose without making any sound with the count of 5 and then slowly exhale through your mouth with the count of 7-8 , the exhalation  to be longer than inhalation , throughout this process concentrate on your breath - air going in and air going out , start this with 5 minutes initially, then can stretch the period to 10-15 minutes , as per your convenience.   You will notice that your body gets more and more relaxed with every breath you take , all your stress and tension float away. 

Click on this LINK 👇 to view the "DO ALONG" video of above exercises:

https://youtu.be/rqZoPPZ9uOw

PRECAUTION : The exercises that you do standing, always keep close to the chair (take a sturdy chair), whenever you tend to go off balance immediately hold on to the chair for support.

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