What Leads To Falling And How Senior Balance Exercises Help

Senior Balance Exercises Prevent Falls With Walking

By Suzanne Stoke, Physical Therapist @ Exercise For Balance via www.exerciseforbalance.com

     For older adults, changes in  walking patterns often lead to falls,  which can be helped by practicing senior balance exercises every day. Please see  http://www.exerciseforbalance.com/buy-now When treating patients who are over the age of sixty, healthcare professionals like doctors, nurses and physical therapists often inquire about their walking and balance abilities.  Determining that a gait is abnormal can be challenging, because there are no clearly accepted standards to define a normal gait in an older adult. Studies comparing healthy persons in their 70s with healthy persons in their 20s demonstrate a 10 to 20 percent reduction in gait velocity and stride length in the older population. Other characteristics of gait that commonly change with aging include an increased stance width, increased time spent in the double support phase (i.e., with both feet on the ground), bent posture, and less vigorous force development at the moment of push off. These changes may represent adaptations to alterations in sensory or motor systems to produce a safer and more stable gait pattern. The term “senile gait disorder” has been used to describe disturbances in gait in older persons when an underlying disease cannot be identified. It is characterized by a slow, broad-based, shuffling, and cautious walking pattern. However, current understandings of gait disorders challenge this term because most major changes in gait and balance are attributable to one or more underlying conditions. Up to 20 percent of older adults maintain normal gait patterns into very old age, reinforcing that aging is not inevitably accompanied by disordered gait. Senile gait patterns may actually represent an early manifestation of subclinical disease, because their occurrence correlates with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, institutionalization, and death. At any rate, older individuals would benefit from rehearsing specific senior balance exercises to maximize their steadiness and to reduce their risk of falling.

Daily Senior Balance Exercises Help With Walking

      by rehearsing senior balance exercises every day, you can improve aspects of gait that tend to decline with age and often lead to falling. As an example, enhancing step length and step speed can increase by rehearsing an equilibrium routine such as standing on one foot and swinging the other foot forwards, as if you were about to take a step. During this steadiness exercise you can increase the speed of swinging the leg forward to enhance step cadence. Additionally, you can practice swinging your leg further forward to enhance step length. you can learn these and other specific senior balance exercises which help with walking by following along with the Exercise For Balance DVD in the convenience of your own home.

Senior Balance Exercises In The Exercise For Balance DVD

    To stay safe and keep from falling while walking, please begin the best balance exercises with the Exercise For Balance DVD. The comprehensive  Balance DVD is a wonderful educational DVD to use at home or in a group setting. The easy to follow  DVD is complete with the best balance and strength exercises needed to enhance senior fitness and to perform basic activities like walking, shopping, standing, stair climbing or to advance to high level activities like dancing, playing golf and hiking. In the Exercise For Balance DVD, you will learn how to improve balance, steadiness techniques and balance routines from a balance trainer (licensed Physical Therapist) who has worked with balance and dizziness disorders for over 20 years. Get your copy of the Exercise For Balance DVD by clicking on the BUY NOW button

Start balance exercises today with the Exercise For Balance DVD to improve balance and prevent falls.
For more information see http://www.mayoclinic.com/health-information/