Falling and fall-related injuries are common among seniors in Orlando. They occur due to a variety of reasons, such as failing eyesight, hearing loss, a loss of muscle mass, and a loss of bone mass. As you get older, it's natural for these things to start happening unless you actively do something to prevent it. Additionally, it also becomes harder to get up when you're in a sitting and lying position, and you might feel like you need to hold on to something as you do so.
It is possible to prevent falls and get up easily from a chair/the floor/your bed. Building more muscle, with the help of exercise, can help, and muscle mass, in turn, helps to increase bone mass. Plus, you can do some exercises that will help you with your balance reflex and keep you more agile. Overall, exercising has many advantages, especially for seniors.
Here are some exercises that seniors in Winter Park can do to prevent falls and make it easier to get up:
- Balance on one foot: Stand in front of something that you can hold on to, like a table or chair, and then bend one leg backward at the knee and lift your hands off your support. Stand on one leg for as long as you can, then switch to the other leg. Repeat a few times. If you want to try something a little more difficult, try the tree pose in yoga in which the hands are joined in front or above the head.
- Stand up from a chair: Sit on a dining table chair (as opposed to an armchair) and get up from it in a slow, controlled manner. If you need to hold on to the chair seat as you get up, then do so. But as you get better at this exercise, try to hold your hands in front of you and use only your legs as you get up. This exercise develops your quad muscles which are useful while walking as well as getting up off a chair/the floor.
- Walk heel to toe: Fix your eyes at a spot in front of you and then start by putting the heel of your right foot directly in front of the toe of your left foot so that the two are touching. Then put your left heel right in front of your right toe. Keep walking like this without looking down. This helps to develop balance and prevent falls.
- Strengthen calves and ankles: Twisting your ankle is very common when a person falls in Apopka. Sometimes, the twisting leads to a fall. So it makes sense to strengthen your ankles and calves which is actually quite easy to do. All you have to do is stand on your toes. Start by standing on your feet as you normally do, and then slowly rise on your toes. Use some support if needed and repeat 5-10 times.
- Strengthen Hamstrings: The hamstrings are the muscles at the backs of your thighs (the muscles in front are the quadriceps). These muscles are used the most while walking, so it makes sense to strengthen them as much as you can. This can be done by standing straight and then bending your knee so that your heel moves towards your butt. If you can touch your butt with your heel, that's great. If not, then just go as far back as you can. If you find this too easy, attach one or two-pound weights to your ankles.
- Strengthen Quadriceps: As mentioned above, the quadriceps are the muscles in the fronts of the thighs, and strengthening them can help a great deal in walking, balancing, getting up off the floor, etc. Sit on a dining chair and keep your back straight. Then straighten one leg so that it is stretched out in front of you while the other one remains bent. Hold for a couple of seconds and then lower. Repeat a few times with each leg. Add light weights to your ankles to make the exercise more challenging.
Keep in mind that exercises 1 and 3 help specifically with balance while the remaining exercises will help with both, preventing falls in Kissimmee and getting up more easily from a chair/the floor/the bed. Additionally, it's also possible to make a few changes throughout the house to make sure the senior doesn't trip or lose their balance.
Caregivers from Senior Helpers can help you or your senior do these exercises every day which is necessary to prevent falls and increase general mobility so that your senior can have a better quality of life. Contact us to learn more about how home care can help your seniors improve their balance and prevent falls.