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Health & Fitness

Senior Care Advice: How Good Posture Helps You Prevent a Fall

As we age we bend forward more and this affects our balance. How can we overcome this?

 

Did you know that a third of all people who suffer from falls around the home are aged 65 and over? Unfortunately this number increases as you age and once you have experienced one fall you are more likely to have another. While you don’t want to let these statistics get you down there are some changes you can make to lessen your chances of experiencing a life changing fall.

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Related article: Senior Care – A New Guide to Staying Safe: Falls

Find out what's happening in Healdsburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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Stay Active

One huge thing you can do as you age is to stay active. This ensures that your muscles stay strong and flexible. Try to include activities such as walking and swimming into your lifestyle.

As well as exercise another area to be concerned is in regards to your posture. As we age you tend to start to bend over more and this affects your balance. We came across a great article,Falls and Balance, I don’t want to Fall again..., in regards to posture and why maintaining good posture in your senior years helps to reduce the number of falls you experience.

This article goes on to explain how you can make some simple changes to ensure that you can continue living at home. 

There are things you can do to change the odds. Getting help after experiencing a fall improves the chance of survival by about 80% and will increase the likelihood of returning to independent living, and normal daily activities. Improving posture, awareness, balance and activity levels can also reduce the risk of falls. Making a change begins with becoming aware of our posture, retraining our motion patterns, and then developing new habits.

Postural Pain Syndrome

There is a term associated with poor posture, postural pain syndrome, that is definitely something you want to avoid. The pain associated with poor posture will affect your daily routine.

When you sit hunched forward your chin and shoulders also move forwards and this leads to pain in your back and shoulder area. Long term this leads to tight muscles and permanently hunched shoulders. Don’t allow your posture to become this poor, instead start using some simple postural exercises every day.

One simple exercise is to ensure that your chin is lifted up and forwards, this automatically improves your shoulder position. When you are sitting in a chair make a concentrated effort to lift up your ribs. Try this and you will notice that you automatically adjust your back and shoulders.

Following are two great way to check your posture whether you are sitting or standing that you can use to check yourself throughout the day. These posture positions are courtesy ofElderGym Senior Fitness, by Doug Schrift, PT, where you can find some great exercise videos that you can follow along with.

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Related article: In Home Care: Balance to Prevent Falls

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Good Sitting Posture

1.    Before we begin seated exercises, we must adjust our posture for proper alignment.

2.    Place your feet flat on the floor, sit back in the chair, lift your ribs and place your spine in a neutral position. 

3.    You can do this by tilting your hips forward and backward until a comfortable position is found. 

4.    Then move the middle of your back including the ribs, forward and back until you feel comfortable. 

5.    Finally bring your chin forward and back, making sure your head feels balanced and pain free.

Good Standing Posture

1.    Before beginning standing elderly posture exercise we must make sure our spine is comfortably in a neutral position.

2.    Begin by standing with your feet shoulder width apart, knees soft and arms held loosely at your sides.

3.    Draw your attention to your pelvis. Tilt your pelvis forward and backward until a comfortable position is reached.

4.    Next bring your attention to your back.  Try alternation arching your back with rounding your back until a comfortable "middle ground" is reached and you feel comfortable.

5.    Then bring your chin forward and backward until you reach a happy medium and your head is well balanced on your shoulders.

If you concentrate on improving your sitting and standing posture, you will quickly notice that your joint pains aren’t as bad. Maintaining strong muscles as you age will not only reduce your risk of falls it will enable you to carrying on leading an independent lifestyle.

For more great information, please come visit the blog at our Sequoia Senior Solutions website.
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