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Health April 2014

Aid for Age

The Senior Balancing Act

By Tait Trussell

    A Wall St Journal story on balance suggested — as a test of balance – taking off one’s shoes while standing up. That’s like suggesting I commit suicide. I can barely get my shoes off sitting down in a chair.

    It’s an alarming fact that every half hour some senior dies from injuries suffered in a fall. So says the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
       
    The CDC also reports that every 17 seconds an American over age 65 falls down.

    My balance at my age is so poor that I frequently go online to find tips for improving my own balance. Of course, everyone wants to sell you a book on how to maintain or regain your balance.

    A Wall St Journal story on balance suggested — as a test of balance – taking off one’s shoes while standing up. That’s like suggesting I commit suicide. I can barely get my shoes off sitting down in a chair.

    Talking about sitting in a chair, one suggestion for strengthening the legs and improving your balance is to stand up from a chair without holding on to the arms of the chair. I find that if I lean forward far enough and bounce forward a few times, I can finally arise to a standing position.

    One recommendation is that you stand on one leg and then the other leg for some period of time for each. Then stand on one leg with eyes closed – which may be a fine exercise for the advanced acrobat or tightrope walker. But it would be a reckless certainty of plunging to the floor for me. 

    Another exercise to develop balance is going up and down a stairway without holding on to the banisters. The Wall Street Journal article obviously was written for a younger bunch. If I didn’t slowly ease myself down the stairway, bracing myself with the banisters, I would hurtle downward, probably fracturing most of the bones in my body.

    The massage therapist-physical therapist to whom I go every week or ten days told me a lot safer way to perform the stairway exercise is to use the bottom step. Step with one foot up and down. Then alternate with the other foot. Makes sense.

    Another exercise suggested, which I have been doing is to put light weights around each of my ankles. Then, while seated, raise each leg 10 or 12 times. It strengthens the thighs.

    If you have sciatica — that pain which originates in the spinal column and sends a nerve pain down one leg – one partial remedy which some recommend is to lie on the floor, bend your knees, cross the affected leg over the other leg, then pull the legs toward your body, thus stretching the gluteus maximus (buttocks). This can give a bit of relief. It happens to be the strongest muscle in the body I was informed when I looked up the spelling.

    I have been exercising all my life. So, I am still able to do 25 pushups each morning. But this doesn’t help my balance.

    Another recommendation for developing or improving balance is to stand on a soft surface and swing your arms and legs back and forth, alternating your arms with your legs.

    A hip exercise can be done by holding on to the kitchen counter and lifting one leg to the front, then the side, then the back. Follow this with a marching motion. This can strengthen the hip muscles.

    The brain’s cerebellum controls balance. It uses your visual and hearing abilities as well as a sense of what the body is doing.

    One exercise for developing good balance involves standing with the feet together and making a 360-degree turn. Then try it with the eyes closed. This is not recommended unless you have a small army of friends or family around you, however, to keep you from falling down and breaking your crown.

    Then, for pleasure, if you’re so inclined and able, there’s ballroom dancing. But probably something quite a bit less strenuous than “Dancing with the Stars.”

     

    Tait Trussell is an old guy and fourth-generation professional journalist who writes extensively about aging issues among a myriad of diverse topics.

    Meet Tait