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According to the National Council on Aging, every 11 seconds, an adult is seen in the E.R. for a fall-related injury, 

The end of September was Fall Prevention week in the U.S. As a promotion, the National Council on Aging wrote the article, Debunking the Myths of Older Adult Falls. Of the ten myths listed, #3-#5 stuck out the most. 

Physical activity is one of the best ways to build and maintain strength and flexibility. Strength and flexibility are essential to balance.

A few months ago, we covered a few things you can do to work on your balance. They included:

1. Spend time breathing three-dimensionally to improve the flexibility of your spine, rib cage, and hips.
2. Stand with your weight over your foot tripod, meaning your weight should be equally distributed between the base of your big toe, small toe, and heel, giving you the broadest base to stand on.

These will go a long way to improving your balance, flexibility, and core strength.

The best thing you can do if you...

 According to a recent article published by the NIH (July 2022), back pain remains one of the top reasons for doctor's visits. 

The article lists various back pain causes, including congenital to non-spine related and risk factors from age to psychological.

The article's recommendations for helping with back include medication, strengthening, stretching, and surgery. 

One thing the article did not cover:
what you should stop doing for the health of your back and spine.

The picture below shows four everyday activities you may do throughout your day to move or for posture.

Each of these will put pressure on your spine and change the soft tissue (muscles, tendon, ligaments and fascia) in your lower back area. Eventually, the alignment of your spine will change and put pressure on your discs, spinal cord, and spinal nerves.

So the number #1 thing you can do is stop or modify the following activities:

1. Stop bending through your low back. When you bend, bend at your...

Clients always ask, what is the best way to squat? 

Do you know the answer to the question below?

When you squat or sit down, do you tend to bend first at:
a. your neck
b. your knees
c. your low back
d. your hips

SURVEY SAYS:

Hopefully, you answered d. However, folks often say knees; yes, your knees should bend when you squat or sit. However, it should not be the first place that you move.

You can see by picture (d) that as the person goes into the squat, the whole torso moves from the hips to the head.

If you stand up and place your hands on the crease on the top, front of your leg, where your thigh bone meets your hip joint, this is the joint or area where you should start moving when you sit or squat.

It seems like it should be easy; however, for many people, the first thing they do is bend their knees (pic B) or their back (pic C).

Initiating the movement from your hip joint will help save your knees and spine. It will also help with your balance. Bending through your hips...

One of the most common reasons clients see us is to improve flexibility, or as one client put it the other day, "I would like to move more fluidly". 

Injuries like falls, car accidents, sprain, strains, etc., and surgery can directly and immediately affect your flexibility. We will look at these in the future and their effects on walking, balancing, exercising, breathing, and flexibility.

There are some key elements we must include in our everyday life to maintain flexibility if we have had a history of injury or not.

• Mind our posture. (This may be different from what elders told you.) 
• Breathe well. (Yes, we know you breathe all day.)
• Use the right muscles for the task we are performing. (Yep, work smarter, not harder) 
• Check and reset as needed. (Like any machine, you have to check-in and sometimes reset if things are working efficiently.)

Today, we will look more closely at our posture. From the time we were small, we may have heard, 'sit up...