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How to prevent falls when you are an older adult, starting now!

Writer's picture: katieperronedptkatieperronedpt

TLDR: Get going on your strength and mobility now! The sooner you start and the stronger you are able to keep yourself throughout your overall life, the better off you will be as you get older. Strength, cardio training, mobility and nutrition are all important. There’s no perfect formula for this. The BEST way to do it is to start sooner rather than later. So start now and not only get rewards now, but later too!


I had somebody ask me this question a couple of weeks ago when I asked what type of information you would like to see in our blog, and it is such a great question! In today’s world, it seems that more and more, people are just accepting the “fact” that as you get older, you are going to fall down, get hurt, and you are going to be less independent. End of story. This is not necessarily true though and it does not have to be fact in your life! So how do we keep it from becoming a part of your life?


Get your body strong and mobile now and keep it moving! Whether you are in your 20’s, 30’s, 50’s, 60’s, etc, it doesn’t matter. If you haven’t started yet, now is the time to get started! Start where you are now and keep building up from there. Whether you used to work out or exercise in any capacity or not, does not matter. It does not matter where you are right now in your journey with fitness, you have to start somewhere! If you have already started - great job and keep at it! If you haven’t started, start off slow and start with something that you enjoy!


There is no perfect equation of how much muscle mass you need in order to keep yourself from falling as you get older or to prevent injuries. And to be completely transparent, you could be the strongest person in the world, and accidents can still happen and you can still end up in a situation where you may end up injured. Some things we can’t predict and we can’t prevent, and even though that’s true, there are a lot of things that we can prevent!


So having a good combination of strength training, cardio exercise, mobility work, and nutrition is so critical to improving the aging process. Let’s break down each one real quick here. Strength training is necessary to build up your muscle mass so that your muscles are firing and being utilized correctly to help take pressure off of joints. Cardio exercise is good and important for your heart health and stamina so you can keep up with the things you want and need to do daily. Mobility work helps to make sure that your joints and muscles are all working at the appropriate length and in the appropriate range of motion, so you aren’t putting unnecessary stress and strain on joints and muscles. Nutrition (this is not my specialty, so if you have specific questions about nutrition, I can guide you to somebody who does specialize in it!) is so important because we need to make sure that our bodies are getting the essential nutrients, vitamins, and water that it needs to function optimally.


Everybody is different, so everybody’s needs will be slightly different as well in terms of the right combination of movements and nutrition for them. If you don’t know where to start, I highly recommend starting with a physical therapist to do an evaluation on you and see where your muscle restrictions, joint limitations, aches/pains, anything at all are and where you are in your movement journey. Starting here will help you to find out if there’s anything you need to be aware of in your journey as well as the best place to start - the most appropriate strength and cardio and mobility exercises. It is so important to make sure you aren’t just jumping into exercises that you see online because they look cool or you think you should be able to do something. Exercises can be tailored to you and a physical therapist can help you to determine where your function and mobility is currently so that exercises can be tailored to you from the start!


Once you get started, the best way to keep working towards keeping yourself from falling and getting hurt, is to just keep going. Is it always going to be perfect? No, absolutely not! You may have things that come up that will keep you from following your routine perfectly every week, and you just may have times where you are more motivated or have more time than other times. And that is completely okay and expected! Overall, as long as you are keeping yourself active and taking care of yourself physically (and mentally), these are going to be the biggest things in keeping you safe and strong as you continue to get older!


The stronger you are and the better your body is taken care of, the less likely you are to experience a fall simply because you are weak or tired or lose your balance. Again, we can’t prevent every accident, but we can prevent the normal day to day struggles that contribute to falls as we get older. It is also helpful to be strong and have better mobility and in many situations where an accident does happen, you have a better chance of being able to correct it without getting injured or injuring yourself less seriously. And worst case scenario, if you were to fall and get hurt, you are in MUCH better condition to start your recovery than somebody who has not been moving and keeping up with their activity who falls and gets hurt.


I recognize that there are not specific exercises written out here that will tell you exactly what to do, how to do, and when to do it to prevent every fall and every injury as we continue to age. Again, that is because everybody’s needs are and will be different. The general answer is to keep yourself strong (this includes the muscles that help with balance too!), your cardio health great, your mobility good, and nourish your body to its’ needs, and you are in better shape than many people!


If you have specific questions about what YOU can do based on where you are now in your life and your health journey and mobility journey, please reach out to us today! We still have our Move Better, Live Better 5 Minute Daily Mobility Program for sale that you can take advantage of to get you started! And we can meet with you to establish what your needs and goals are and get you going so you can stay injury free!


Don’t wait, reach out today and let’s get you going now! The sooner you start, the better off you will be!


Thanks for being here!


Follow us on Instagram to learn more about it now, or email us at livewithoutlimitspt@gmail.com and let us know if there is anything else that you would like us to talk about!



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