Or even just a little clumsy? Heck, we’ve all been a little “inelegant” when we’ve had one too many before, right? I wanted to summarise the information in an article I read recently (a systematic review of 44 previous trials with a total of 9603 people—that’s a lot!) where they looked at:

1. whether exercise programs were able to prevent falls in older people; and

2. what sort of exercise is best for helping prevent falls.

The overwhelming result from these studies was that exercise can help prevent falls.

Some studies found better results than others, and the best effects were found in programs that employed “challenging balance exercises” (”exercises conducted while standing in which people aimed to stand with their feet closer together or on one leg, minimize use of their hands to assist, and practice controlled movements of the centre of mass”) and plenty of them – those studieswhere people did more exercise did better. If you want to try this, a good exercise would just be standing on one foot for as long as you can. Stand near a wall if you’re bad at this so you can get support if you need it. If that exercise is too easy, try it with your eyes shut. If you go to a gym, try the wobble board.

Surprisingly the studies where they did NOT include a walking program did better. I would have thought that practising walking would help you get better at walking (kind of self evident, don’t you think), but it didn’t seem to translate to a reduced risk of falling.

The best thing to do is improve your balance. So if you are, or know someone who is, how do we put this delicately, coordination challenged, you should consider introducing some balance exercises to help prevent falls. we put this delicately, coordination challenged, you should consider introducing some balance exercises to help prevent falls.

http://thegoodhealthjournal.com/?p=10