Side Stepping for Fall Prevention
Click here for the loop band needed for this exercise.
For my regular readers, you might notice that I keep returning to lateral movements(sideways). This is 100% correct. Here is why. Your ability to stabilize yourself and prevent falling while moving or standing still is dependent on many factors. Most importantly your leg strength.
Help Prevent falls wit this simple exercise for seniors!
What does the term leg strength mean? At first thought most of you would say thigh strength because that is the part of our legs which we feel works the most when challenged. The thighs are one important component to the leg, but they are just one aspect of fall prevention. Our muscular and neurological systems are connected and intertwined in so many ways. Our feet talk to our hips, our hips talk to our knees, and our abdominal muscles talk our glutes.
Have you ever heard the phrase “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”? Your muscular system is the same. We must focus not forget to exercise our weaker muscles and movements. The problem is that our body is very good at hiding weakness. That is where a great personal trainer shows his value. We identify weaknesses within the body and make you spend time working on those weaker areas.
Moving laterally works your hips and your calves better than any other movement. Both the hips and the calves play a tremendous role in fall prevention and stability. Today’s video shows a simple sideways walking exercise using a loop stretch band placed around your ankles or thighs to add a little resistance to your movement causing more stimulation and fatigue to the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles. These are the muscles which attach from your leg bone to your hip bone at the top on the side of hips.
As you walk sideways focus on feeling those muscles work. Keep the steps small but keep tension on the bands and work until you are fatigued.
Perform 15 steps in one direction and repeat in the other direction coming back.