Why Did They Fall? How Could It Have Been Prevented?

Over the past two weeks I heard about two Active Agers, who have fallen.

And I wanted to talk about what happened. When I hear that Active Agers have fallen, I always want the information. I want to know how we could have prevented the falls, what could have been done differently so that the falling does not happen. And both cases were the same this time. 

So what happened is that something was dropped. Watch the video on how they went to pick it up. Did you see it?

They went to pick it up by bending forward, and they took their center of gravity forward. That is a really dangerous position to lose balance and fall forward. How do you think they should have picked it up?

Doing it correctly is to pick up the item with a squat, where your center of gravity will stay in the center.

As you become more mature things in our body change. Most of our life we rely on the vestibular system, your ears, to tell us where we are in space. So once you turn age 30, you'll start loosing those hairlike follicles that are in your ears. So you can imagine, by the time you reach age 60, 70, 80, 90 that a lot of those are already gone. So that's that contributes to balance issues.

Your visual system, macular degeneration, cataracts (when you can't see clearly), all contributes to a loss of balance. Proprioceptively, the nerve endings, can contribute to a loss of balance because you can't feel where you are in space. 

These systems are already struggling a little bit, then you lean forward and throw off your center of gravity. I'm sure you can see picking up items this way is not the best way.

You need your center of gravity to stay in the center. When you put your nose forward, if your nose is going over your toes, the likelihood of you falling forward is great.

If you have knee issues in squatting, you might won't be able to squat low enough, and you'll need to get some assistance. You can help yourself with a hand on a chair or something stable. Make sure your hand is on something to secure yourself.

Even if you keep a leg straight here, you can still get down and keep your nose where it needs to be.

Another option to pick it up is sitting in a chair to pick it up. Take a stool over and and lean down and get it, but I still want you to keep that center of gravity in the center. Because even if you are in a chair and you lean forward, you can fall right out of that chair.

In moments like this it is really important to pay attention to your posture.

For the two women who fell, I mean, they had extensive facial bruises, and that makes me so sad, because I know it could have been avoided.

One woman had her eyes swollen shut, because she was so bruised. Nothing was broken with either one thankfully, no concussions, thankfully.

Next time when you drop something please consider that your natural inclination to just bend over and pick it up can lead up to a lot of trouble. Instead use a squat to pick an item. And be proactive about moments like this, work on your strength, so when a moment arises you will be able to utilize your strength and feel empowered when you squat. 

Just walking as a form of exercise is not enough. To do those squats, you need strong quadricep muscles. You need your gluteal muscles to be able to support you. So this is where resistance training comes in. And this is something you have to consider.

In order to age with a good quality of life, you want to be able to do a squat and not have your legs give out on you because there's no muscle. The muscles atrophied. You have to do resistance training. It's a necessity. If you would like to learn where to start you can always reach out to me via my [email protected] email and I'll show you where to start.

Time to say no to unnecessary falls. Keep your center gravity in the center of your body and do not put it forward.