Dec

20

How Old Are You? Stand on One Leg and I'll Tell You

I’m always interested in ways to quantify how my body is aging, independent of how many birthdays I have passed. And, according to a new study, there’s actually a really easy way to do this: Just stand on one leg.

Pamela Van Giessen writes:

I slipped on black ice a few years ago and broke my wrist. It was awful and I exclaimed that I would do everything possible to avoid that happening again. I have never had great balance to begin with. I started doing lots of planks. Minor improvement. This year I started running and walking backwards for ~10 mins/day (and I increased the planks to 4 mins). I have been doing this at least 5 days/week since January. I also do about 3 mins/day (7 days/week) sideways leg lifts (one leg at a time and then alternating) with my eyes closed.

HUGE improvement. On recent hikes I was able to rock hop over creeks without my usual falling on my rear and walked several round tree trunks over creeks (like a balance beam) successfully. Two yrs ago I would have had to scootch over those tree trunks on my butt.

Falls are one of the leading causes of mortality as we age because when people fall and hurt themselves it takes longer to recover and they get really nervous about it happening again so they become more sedentary. Peter Attia spends a lot of time discussing this in his book and podcast.

Larry Williams offers:

I had this in my February letter:

We are all aware of how dangerous falls can be for older people. I did not realize it was this dangerous; “The mortality rate for falls increases dramatically with age in both sexes and in all racial and ethnic groups, with falls accounting for 70 percent of accidental deaths in persons 75 years of age and older.” Am Fam Physician.

Most say older people fall because they lose their balance, surely that is part of it. But, there’s another part you can start working on now that costs nothing.

When you start to lose your balance, your body immediately corrects it with how you are standing. Weak ankles, as I see it, are the problem. I first realized this when training for the Sr Olympics. Faster sprinters have stronger ankles. Weak ankles mean you can’t “catch yourself” as you start to fall. To strengthen your ankles, walk barefoot. Walk on your toes, then walk on your heels (careful) to build up these muscles and protect you from falling. Lots of YouTube videos on this as well. Strong people fall less. Muscle loss and ankle strength will keep you upright.

A good exercise is to rock back on your heels, may want to hold on to something, to develop balance and strength

Andrew Moe adds:

Walking backwards uphill, dragging a big weight sled backwards and doing squats on an incline board are all favorites of the Knees Over Toes guy. He's an innovator who believes in building strength from the ground up. Also combines strength and flexibility. Worked for me and is now part of my regular exercise.


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