Balance Your Health
By Jules Delorme
Many of us remember that “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” commercial, featuring a little old lady lying on the floor calling out to the alarm company. Boy, did we get mileage and laughs from that one. However, the truth is that whether young or old, falling down and injuring ourselves is a real and often soul crushing experience. When we get injured we become our pain and our suffering. We get off track with our lives and often never get back to being the person we were before our injury. We can’t avoid falling down now and again, but we can do something about how badly we fall and how badly we injure ourselves when we do fall down. This is where working on our ability to stabilize can make such a difference.
In a country that includes winter snow and ice as part of our regular existence, being able to stabilize and catch yourself can be the difference between severe injury and little to no injury at all. There are plenty of workout systems and devices that focus on stability nowadays, from stability ball workouts to strap based workouts. They’re all good and they all should be done with proper supervision and knowledge, but there’s plenty you can do that does not require special equipment – just some imagination and a little dedication.
Try just lifting one foot a little way off the ground and holding it for a few deep breaths. Try lifting the foot in front of you, to your side, and behind you. If you haven’t done anything like this before, don’t lift that foot more than a centimeter off the ground. You may not be able to hold it for very long at first. The more that you stick to it, the longer you’ll be able to do it for and the better you’ll get at it.
You can do the same for you upper body by supporting yourself on one side of a doorway. Again, be cautious and have the other hand ready to catch yourself, especially if you’ve never done it before.
This type of exercise becomes even more useful and important as we get older. It can be the difference between being able to catch yourself when you begin to fall on a patch of ice and a big ugly, bone breaking spill. It can be the difference between knee or hip surgery and staying relatively healthy. It can be the difference between quality of life and pain and/or injury defining your life.
Use your imagination. Anything that requires you to balance safely is a good thing. You can even do it, within limits, if you have already suffered an injury. You can do it standing up, lying down, or leaning against a wall – and you definitely should do it as you get older. It’s never too late to work on stability, and it’s never too soon to learn how to avoid having to utter the words “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” It’s not so funny when it happens to you.
~ Jules Delorme is a Personal Trainer and MMACoach,
julesfdelorme@gmail.com
~ Jules Delorme is a Personal
Trainer & MMA Coach,
julesfdelorme@gmail.com