According to an article I read (but cannot of course remember where) folks who cannot consistently balance on one leg, with no external. support, for more than 10 seconds are likely to die significantly younger than those who can.
Both my father and father in law fell in their homes, receiving (IMO utterly unnecessarily) half-hip replacements, but each died within weeks. Now they were in their early 90s so maybe not a good data point.
Since then I’ve been practicing my balance daily, when exercising and in simple things like when putting on my undies and pants. I think it’s better, although not consciously an issue beforehand, admittedly. I’m 68.
So, how’s your balance? Anyone have other tips on how to improve it or test it?
I think the point is that folk who cannot balance may be unhealthy in some way and the test merely brings that to light.
I don’t agree that practising to pass the test removes the underlying unhealthiness!
Your point is well-taken, but I don’t think it’s 100% one-way. Does exercising like weightlifting counteract actual weakness and replace it with increased strength? Yes. Even in the elderly. They don’t gain as much, but they gain something.
Balance is a mix of many things. Accurately perceiving your body position, feeling in your feet, vestibular sense of motion, paying attention, and having reliable blood pressure to prevent fainting. At least some of those things can be addressed by practice.
The larger point is not that an e.g. 90yo like the the OP’s father could have started balance practice two weeks previously and lived another 5 years by avoinding that fall. But rather that by starting back in your 60s with balance practice, etc., you can preserve your general state of healthiness more years before you get onto the steep part of the curve of decline to decrepitude and death.
My late aged MIL fell often. ISTM that a lot of that was she had trained herself to be willy-nilly about how she moved, not deliberate. That is a simple habit that anyone can learn.
Like holding a bannister every time you use stairs, you’ll never know which falls it prevented, but darn good bet it did prevent some.
If you don’t impulsively reach around behind yourself while carrying something in the other hand while talking about a third thing, you’re gonna do better. A 90yo probably cannot learn to avoid those dangerous moves. A 60yo can learn. And that 60yo who’s careful and aware will be 90 eventually and the decades of practice will stand them in good stead as their mental faculties decline as well.
There’s physical therapy for balance issues. I’ve started it (age 75) and what we’re working on is primarily lower-body strengthening exercises, though we’ve progressed to outright balance work. Helps to do my exercises at home, and it’s easy to fit them in: Start electric teakettle. Do sets of exercises standing at kitchen sink while it heats, then while tea steeps. And so on.
As many have talked about since the last round of New Year’s resolutions came about: Stand on one foot when you brush your teeth. I brush for two minutes, thanks to my electric toothbrush and those two minutes used to be “wasted” time. I started off standing on one foot until the 30 second indicator came on, switch to the other foot and then repeat until the 2 minutes is up. I think started doing one minute on one foot, then switch to the other. I’m now doing right foot one brushing, then left foot the next. And I’ve gotten good enough I can even start doing one legged mini-squats. So, with 3 months of doing this, my balance has significantly improved. I’m mid-50s. This is one habit that I’ve picked up and I don’t see it going away.
My balance is pretty sucky, but then so is my general fitness…which is why I started working with a personal trainer twice a week in July. I also have mild neuropathy in both feet (from several years of unchecked type 2 diabetes), which likely affects my balance to some degree. I can put pants on without sitting or holding onto anything, but hardly ever can I put socks on without some kind of support. My understanding is that the core strength exercises I do with my trainer are what will gradually improve my balance (as Beckdawreck mentioned).
I can easily stand on either leg for more than 10 seconds.
It might be that being more fit physically will both improve your balance and extend your lifespan. But just improving your balance without improving your physical fitness might do nothing.
I have no idea if what you are doing will help your lifespan or not. Just pointing out that correlation does not imply causation, as the old saying goes.
I spent 48 years in the building trades, some as a carpenter and the the bulk of 42 years as a service electrician. Maybe half of all of those workdays were spent on ladders, scaffolding or just climbing through structures.
I had balance to spare.
When I retired a few years ago and gave up the aerial act my balance, which I just took for granted, slowly declined. I guess you have to keep it up
Same here, and just a fairly short round improved my balance. I try to do the exercises when I think of them. It did improve things, I stopped feeling like the grocery sacks were going to tip me over
My balance is fine; I never fall. But standing on one leg has never been my forte. I am more careful in how I move nowadays, as it only makes sense to do so. I don’t make sudden turns and I make sure I know where the cat is.
Having been through episodes of inner-ear vertigo some years ago, which was much worse than my current instability, I’m relieved that I can deal with with the issue through exercise.
I cannot stand on one leg very long, certainly not ten seconds. After that thread on putting on pants standing up, I tried it. If I lean my right leg against the bed, I can put the left leg on. But even leaning the left leg against the bed, I cannot quite insert the right leg without a slight lean of my right hand on a desk by the bed. I will keep trying, though.
I have had significant peripheral neuropathy for 25 years and that is not going to go away.
Yep, that’s what inspired me to finally make this thread, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while! Thanks.
Well, I do that too - an hour’s power-walk a day and weight-lifting every day or two. I guess the walking, which goes up some hills and over some uneven footing, counts as balance exercises too.
Ha! As a computer engineer I spent half my working life on my knees under someone’s desk fiddling with cables, it seemed at the time anyway. Not great for one’s balance or knees!
Interesting, I would have said those were the same thing really!
I’m not sure I would completely agree. I’m an active guy…I hike every weekend and did a 14 miler this last weekend. I commute to work by bike and ride a lot outside that. I don’t fall over. However, with my active lifestyle I still found my one foot standing more difficult as I posted above. I think standing on one foot has been a benefit to me.
A practical tip that works for me: Part of my exercise routine (well, during stretching) is to hold my foot with the same side hand for 15-20 seconds while standing. I have found that focusing my eyes on something far away greatly improves my balance vs looking at something nearby.