How to WALK to prevent Falls

the best way to walk to prevent falling [Music] is there a way to walk that actually can prevent Falls for seniors for people over the age of 65 statistics tell us that there's a one in four chance of falling each year that you're alive so walking in a way that can prevent Falls is really important to keeping you mobile and independent there are many problems that can cause someone to fall that that occur with walking if someone is shuffling if someone is not lifting their their feet high enough off the ground or if they're walking with a very wide Base gate those three things can definitely lead to Falls if you're doing those three things you're you have an increased chance of having a fall each year so to understand those three problems we need to look first at what a normal walking pattern looks like so when you watch someone walking normally you're going to notice a lot of things so first of all looking at the person's posture their head is upright they're looking forward now that's very important our body is not meant to have the head looking down or to be leaning forward so if you're if you're looking down or if you're leaning forward when you're walking you're definitely throwing your balance off another thing that's important is arm movement a normal human moves their arms reciprocally as they are walking what that means is as your right leg comes forward your left arm is coming forward people that don't move their arms or who move their arms out of sequence or if someone's carrying something you're interfering with that arm movement so why is that arm movement important is because that's how the body when it's walking upright counterbalances what the leg is doing when your leg is moving forward it actually throws your balance off so your arm on the other side is moving to counteract that that movement and so that arm movement increases your balance so one way that a lot of people can actually reduce their chance of falling is to get back in the habit of of allowing their arms to move reciprocally as they're walking in fact the better your arm swing is the more resistant you are to falling so now let's look specifically at what the feet and the legs are doing when someone is walking when someone walks um we we differentiated into two phases there's The Stance phase when the leg is in contact with the ground and then there's the swing phase when the leg is moving forward The Way We Walk is one foot has to be in contact with the ground while the other foot is moving and that's different than running and running one foot is in contact with the ground and then both feet are off the ground and then another foot is in contact with the ground so walking is distinguished by when one foot is always in contact with the ground while you're moving forward um so the first part of the stance phase is when the foot first comes in contact with the ground and that's called heel strike so in a normal person the heel strike occurs with the heel being the first point of contact so the first big problem that people have that that results in Falling is they're not contacting the ground with their heel first instead their toe is hitting first so that toe strike is also called shuffling and the reason that that's a problem is because the foot is not getting enough ground clearance to go over any kind of obstacle so if there's something in the way and you're hitting with your toe first you're going to trip over it the way you prevent tripping is to hit with your heel first and then the foot comes down over whatever is in front of you and it's a lot less likely that you'll stumble or trip on something so as the foot um completely comes flat there's something that happens in the body which is called weight shift weight shift is when the person's body shifts over to the leg that you're standing on a human being has to have weight shift if you don't fully shift your weight over the leg that you're standing on then you're shuffling then you're you're walking with your feet very very wide apart because in order for you to be completely balanced all of your weight has to shift onto the leg that you're standing on what you notice in a lot of people that are at risk for Falls a lot of older people is they shift their weight less and less and less the older they get now this is something that is correctable you can practice shifting your weight there's an activity that I recommend called single leg stance where you practice standing on one leg with the other leg up practicing that exercise can actually improve your weight shift when you're walking and make your walking more stable and that's why I think standing on one leg practicing standing on one leg is actually the best way that you can the best exercise that you can do to prevent Falls so as the person is is shifting their weight over their leg there's a third thing that happens and and what occurs is the leg that's swinging then comes in contact with the ground so that leg then goes through the stance phase so what happens normally is that the one foot lands right in front of the other foot people walk normally with one foot in front of the other if you were to draw a line uh and the ground where someone's footsteps were you would notice that a person without any problem walks almost completely along a line actually most of us walk slightly to the sides of the line but for the most part it's one foot in front of the other now if you look at an older person or a person that's having trouble with their walking maybe someone who's had a stroke you're going to notice that most of them walk with their feet very wide apart in other words instead of their foot Landing in front of the other foot it's Landing Way off to the side it can be a few inches to as much as one foot it just depends on how bad someone's balance is now people do that because they feel unsteady but actually by doing that by walking with one foot off to one side they're actually making yourself themselves more unsteady and much more likely to fall why is that because if there's some obstacle in the way if the ground is a little bit uneven or a little bit soft if we're walking on grass or dirt walking with our feet wide apart makes it much more likely to fall because we can't react to any kind of change as easily when you're balanced when you're putting all your weight over one leg and you're walking with one foot in front of the other that makes it much more likely that if something disturbs your balance you can cope with it so the reason that people fall that don't walk with their foot one foot in front of the other is because they're not ready for any kind of change so just to review the the problems that occur that result in Falls that increase your chance of falling first of all is not having an adequate heel strike not not when the foot hits the ground the heel is not the first thing that hits the ground now that's something that you can practice you can tell yourself to to try to walk with your heel hitting first because that will improve your balance the the next thing is not having an adequate weight shift in other words when you're walking you're not putting your weight fully over the leg that's standing and a great exercise to fix that is another video that I did which is called the best exercise to improve your balance and in that video I show you how to stand practice standing on one leg at a kitchen sink and repeating that over and over until your balance and your weight shift gets better and then the third thing is not walking in in fandom not walking with your foot hitting in front of your other foot so that's also something that that single leg stance exercise can improve because as you're as you get better at shifting your weight over to one leg it becomes a lot easier to put your foot in front of the other foot but also just practicing that and telling yourself to practice that if you feel safe you can even practice that by walking Heel To Toe on a on a tape line or on a balance beam those are great exercises to help you learn to walk more in tandem now what happens if you can't do all these things what happens if you if you listen to this video and you think I I heard what this guy is saying but I can't actually do this my balance is not good enough well there's two things first of all I'm gonna tell you a test that I always tell people because I've learned that most people are very resistant to the idea of a walker or a cane so I tell them I understand that you don't want a walker and Cane let me ask you this question when you go to the supermarket and you use a shopping cart do you notice that when you use the shopping cart that you your walking is better that you feel more balanced and if they say oh yeah I feel a lot better I can walk better when I'm pushing the shopping cart then I tell them then you're making a mistake you probably need a rolling walker or a cane because if you had those you would actually walk more you would you would probably go out for walks and get a lot more activity because you'd feel safer when you walk but by you resisting using a walker or cane what's happening is you're not getting as much opportunity to walk and that's going to make your walking and your balance decline even further so you know we can't all walk around with shopping carts all day but that's really why there are rolling Walkers and four wheeled Walkers and Canes is to help people be more steady so they can walk more one way I always tell my clients to think about it is I I know most of them don't want to use a walker but I say you know this this can be just temporary if you if right now maybe you're only walking a few hundred feet a day because you're afraid of following her because you are falling so if you get a rolling walker or three World walk or a four-wheel Walker and you start going for a walk of a mile every single day in just a few weeks your balance is going to be so much better your endurance your strength and your balance will be so much better that you probably won't need the Walker anymore and you can get rid of it the big problem that people have is that they basically stop doing any activity inactivity is what causes balance and walking to decline the fastest so by not using the right assistive device whether it's a cane or a walker or or something that makes someone feel steady they're actually causing their balance to get worse as fast as possible so if this if what I'm saying hits home with you if that describes you if you're if you answer yes to my question that when you use a shopping cart in the supermarket that you walk better I definitely encourage you to think about getting some type of assistive device that makes you feel steady so that you can walk more so that you won't need that device anyway I hope this video is helpful if you like this video and you want to see more like this please subscribe to my channel thanks foreign 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Channel: Proprioceptive Rehab by Dr. Doug

Views: 1,179,631

Keywords: Balance training, fall prevention, rehabilitation, stroke rehab, fitness, wellness

Id: n4pPyE1P74M

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2023