If you fall down will you get up again? This iconic photo is of Y. A. Tittle. He sustained a concussion and a cracked sternum that game and still played in all the remaining games of the 1964 season, his last. He was 38 years old at the time, and he got up again. If you are older and get knocked down you might not get up again.
Falling is the fourteenth cause of death for the elderly. Each year, more than one-third of Americans over 65 sustain falls. Total cost of fall injuries for people 65 and older was to reach $32.4 billion in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When you increase your strength, you decrease your chances of injury from falling, as the following changes occur:
1. More muscle facilitates increased limberness. Those who lack the limberness to sufficiently rotate one’s torso, or the ability to sufficiently and quickly raise one’s arms to a stabilizing position are more prone to fall.
2. Increase in gait speed results in increased balance.
3. More muscle. Those characterized as being “all skin and bone” lack the muscle cushion to absorb the impact trauma from falling.
4. More muscle occurs concurrently with an increase in strength of connective tissue. If you do fall and land in a potentially damaging position to your joints or connective tissue you are more likely to walk away without a major injury.
5. An increase in bone density makes for stronger bones that break less easily.
6. Fewer aches and pains results in increased limberness. Pain causes us to limit our range of motion. With the right exercise, aches and pains will subside. As a result, we regain our range of motion, have more control, and avoid that life-altering fall that would take us to a whole new level of pain.
Strength is important to avoid falls, injuries, pain, and a life cut short. These strength increases don’t require hours in the gym; do just enough to stimulate a positive change, and then come back and do it again in a week. Over time these positive changes add up.
If you do nothing changes will still occur. Each year you’ll become a little weaker and more prone to injury from falling. Is it worth the time and effort to avoid that major fall that can adversely affect the rest of your life? At Kelly Personal Training we are convinced that it is.
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