Unlimited Horizons: Try these exercises to improve balance
- By Margaret Nesbitt
- at 5:49 p.m.
My mother always admonished me to stand up straight. She did not want me to have hunched shoulders and a forward-thrusting head. After all, the signs of a lady who had been brought up properly included well-enunciated speech and good posture. Remember Eliza Doolittle of "My Fair Lady" practicing with a book perched on her head and reciting "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain"? I was thus very interested in recent research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that linked poor posture to reduced breathing capacity, less overall strength, slower walking speed and an increased risk of falling.
Many seniors are prone to falls, so I think some of the exercises recommended to prevent poor posture could help us all. To have good posture does not mean standing rim-rod straight with the shoulders back. It is more important to focus on balance, alignment and motion.
First, stand straight and lift your left knee so it is bent at a 90-degree angle with your thigh parallel to the floor. Do this in a doorway so that you can catch yourself if you feel like you are falling. If you cannot do this for 20 seconds, your muscles might be too weak to maintain balance. Try the other leg. If you get the same results, you will need to start exercising to achieve that one-leg balance.
Next, stand against a wall wearing low-heeled shoes. Stand with your shoulders back and down, and your abdomen in. Lift your left knee as you did in the balance test, at a 90-degree angle with thigh parallel to the floor. Try to maintain that position for at least 20 seconds with your knee locked. Do not wave your hands or hop around to keep your balance. Switch legs and repeat.
You will likely find that if you do these simple exercises each day your balance will improve and you will be less likely to fall.
— Margaret Nesbitt is a columnist for The Star. She can be reached by e-mail at undeg@verizon.net.
Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/sep/07/try-these-exercises-to-improve-balance/?partner=yahoo_feeds#ixzz0z62OW8cr
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