Two Minutes, One Exercise, Zero Falls

Will Harlow, the over-50s specialist physio, shows us how to stay out of hospital:

Lean in

The most important thing for preventing falls is not standing on one leg as many would suppose, but rather training your ability to recover from a loss of balance using your toes and feet.

The reason for this is that falls usually occur when you lose your balance and can’t correct yourself, not when you’re standing still, so of course balance training should focus on recovery rather than static balance.

Why toes are critical for this: when your body starts to tip forwards, small muscles in your feet and toes automatically try to grip the ground and pull you back into a stable position.

The exercise: stand with your feet close together, keep your posture tall, slowly lean your body forwards, allow your toes to grip the floor (as you lean forwards, your toes should actively press into and grip the floor to prevent you from tipping over), then use that grip to pull yourself back to an upright position before needing to take a step.

Note on safety: a good idea if you’re not very certain of your ability to fall safely (if you should fail to regain your balance) is to practice in a corner between two walls (and you can even have another support of some kind in front of you if needed), so you have support available if you lose your balance.

You can progress it when it becomes too easy: hold a weight against your chest while doing the same forward lean, which increases the challenge by making your body more top-heavy, and thus requiring greater effort from your feet and toes.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Fall Special ← this is about how to not fall, and how to make it less likely you’ll be injured by a fall if you do

Take care!