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Regular exercise keeping the legs muscles in good shape can help reduce tripping. Have you ever noticed older people barely lift their feet when walking makes it easy to catch on something and trip them. Lot of this is because of muscle atrophy. I'm not discounting other reasons balance and motor skills the old saying use or or lose it.
heard it was a timing issue more than muscle strength issue for falls. kids learning to walk havent developed the reflexes to keep both legs going in the same direction. nothing to do with leg strength, they can walk when they learn to move feet.
elderly has same problem in opposite direction, their nerves are aged and electrons fire more slowly. so their brain and feet dont operate at the same speed. the brain thinks it takes 0.1seconds to lift and put foot down. the foot doesnt respond/know it is on the ground until 0.15 seconds have past but it is already past what the brain learned as the time it takes for one step so it lifts the other foot already. meaning you now have both feet off the ground and fall. i made up the timing but the point is there is a mismatch between the timing the brain learned for each step and the time it takes to execute each step
being distracted does same thing, it put the brain at a different speed than what it was operating at before the distraction. people freeze when they forget something, consider a fall the same thing except gravity is still acting on the person. they fall before they even register that they were in the process of falling
if you just trip on something because you didnt see it, you blame the item. treat the ground as the same. the brain didnt see it because the nerves didnt tell it that the foot was planted so it either takes a short step or keeps going and causes a misstep. like climbing stairs and thinking there were one more or less stairs than there really is
having more muscle just means you can hold entire weight on one leg to catch self, if you dont register the fall and have reflexes fast enough to catch yourself, the extra muscles dont mean much. more deadweight that is going for the ride down
edit: if this is case, no real solution other than to reteach brain how to take steps at a speed to match feet. no clue how to do this part, the podcast didnt talk about it
I've seen several women fall during walks. There wasn't even a stumble as in the legs attempting to stop the fall. Walk regularly or do some strength training that strengthens your legs and hips. I've had bursitis of the hip a couple of times. Without the hip, you have nothing to maintain your balance unless you have a walker nearby or grab on to fixtures. Sitting a lot will make your hips weak. You might notice a sharp pain or weakness when you rise out of a chair or get out of the car. It could become an impingement which left untreated that turns into osteoarthritis where the cartilage has worn away. I started exercising daily after I started getting the pain four years ago. I do 30 minutes minimum and include hills in the route.
I have arthritic knees and back, plus bunions. Between the three things, I need to be very careful when I walk. That is, I need to focus on my balance and what is ahead of me, rather than the unmindful walking most of us do when we're younger.
I'm "only" 48 & I've fallen 4 times in the last 4 weeks due to my Anemia. It's not like falling where you feel your foot catch on something or stub something & struggle to regain your balance.
It's more like everything just "tips" & you find your head & shoulders going parrallel to the ground. Occasionally I'll get that static "buzzing" feeling first but not always. It's very surreal to feel everything just go on "tilt" like that.
The very first thing I would say is look where you are walking. I have fallen a few times. Changing to shoes which have more anlke support has helped me greatly.
I've fallen twice recently. The first, when entering the federal bldg. where I work, the floors were wet due to rain. No one was even attempting to sop up the standing pools of water. I fell, got up and promptly fell again!
Last week I fell in a treadmill accident. I just THOUGHT I had pushed the STOP button.....
Last week I fell in a treadmill accident. I just THOUGHT I had pushed the STOP button.....
That's my biggest gym fear!!!
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The real problem is concrete. If it weren't for concrete, falling wouldn't be such a disaster. Everyone who has any risk of falling needs a cane or something. Do whatever it takes to make absolutely sure you never fall. Spend a lot of time practicing with the cane. You have to be fast with it. When you find yourself falling, you have to be fast enough with the cane to use it to break your fall. Concrete is the biggest bully. Let it bully someone else. Stab it with your cane.
I am super nitwitish.....try to do 2 things at once, bam, I get hurt and/or break something.
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