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Video Intro - Balance
Unfortunately, when you're 70 and over, your balance actually declines and your risk for falls increases. The good news is you can actually help solve this problem by working on your balance. And we're going to show you a no-cost solution you can do in just minutes a day. That's right. They're easy to do and anybody can do them. We'll show you. Bob and Brad, the two most famous physical therapists on the internet.
Intro Song
7 Balance exercises for Seniors introduced
All right, here we have seven balance exercises tailored for seniors. Go through all of them. There's some that you may not like so much and some you're going to say, "This is for me." Pick those out and do them daily. So, some of these are more balance and some of them are kind of a combination of balance and strength. So, do them all. Do all seven of them. And again, did you say reps in time? I wasn't really there. We're going to give that information on each one. But remember, strength is a component of balance. So everything crosses, everything works together. The yin and the yang. All right. The unison. Okay.
Stand on one leg
First one. What are we doing? Standing on one leg. Yes. Very common one. Uh Mike. Now for most people, we're not going to do this in the open air. You know, some people at this age group may have this, but I'm saying be safe. Have something to hang on to. Like Mike, if you're a little wobbly and you think, "Well, I can't stand on one leg for more than 5 seconds, back up into an open corner. Unclutter it. If you need to get rid of the stuff in the houses, probably things you don't need anyways. Use the corner. Family photos, you know. Yeah. Use the corner for you so that you can improve your balance. And then you can go right, you can go left, you can go back. And if you are really concerned and you may go forward, simply bring up a nice chair, solid one, and put it in front and then you can use that. And then you have a really good, safe single leg balance exercise. So try to go for 30 seconds with this. You can do 10 seconds at a time if you're really unstable. I would say go for the 30 and just use more support with your hands as needed. You know, you can do both hands, fingertips, and then nothing as long as you feel safe and work both sides. Yeah, I really like the fingertip option. If I'm standing here, both hands, it's really easy. But this is really hard. It's amazing what just a couple fingertips will do for your balance here or on the wall like this. You know, two fingertips to one fingertip can make quite a difference. Nice little trick. So those are the pearls that are fair as us as physical therapists. I would like to note you do not need to wear a blue shirt and black pants or shorts to be quiet. Yes, they do. People like that. They dress just like us.
Should you wear shoes?
Anyway, the next one is wait. People may wonder, should they wear shoes or not? And that's actually one of those things you're going to have to find out for yourself. Try it both ways because you typically walk with shoes or sometimes like in the house you may walk barefoot. So you may try it with or without and do what feels best for you.
Heel to toe walking
Number two is heel to toe walking. I was getting at it there. So for this you probably want to hold on to something. You can do it at a countertop at your side. You can hold on to a cane or a stick, whatever you have available. And all you're going to do is work on walking heel to toe in a nice straight line. Most people that struggle with this might have to kind of slowly get here and then in front of them. Just take your time. Most people can do it if they have some support, but if they don't, it can become kind of problematic. But wait, Mike, there's more. You can actually do this backwards as well. There you go. That was part of it. Just using a wall can be more than enough to help your balance and feel safe, but a wall and a stick is just fine as well. Now, one thing that Mike didn't mention, he mentioned going forwards or going backwards, looking down where your feet are because you do want to have your heel touch your toe. That's proprioception. So that you know where your body parts are in space. The key to finding out if you have good proprioception is look straight ahead and do that. You should be able to very clearly feel where your feet are in space when that heel touches that toe. You're going to find it's much more difficult looking straight forward. And then for the advanced people, you can try it with your eyes closed. But then things get wobbly. You better have hold of something on both sides for that. That is advanced. Now the third. Oh, wait. 10 feet forward, 10 ft back. Not nine, not 11, but 10 ft. No, I'm just kidding. About that. 20 if you want. You're probably going to go whatever your countertop is unless you have really good balance. There you go.
Sit to Stands
The next one is sit to stands. So simply standing up and sitting down. This is more of a strength exercise and I would say balance. However, some people if you really struggle to get up and stand without support, it can be challenging. The higher the surface you are on, the easier it will be. If your legs are really weak, you can use a lower surface or chair. You can also use your hands for beginners to push up with both hands and then reach back and sit down controlled. We don't want to plop into our seats. And then if this seems easy, you can just try getting up with one hand or you can try doing no hands at all. There you go. Just a little more clarification on the height of the seat. Standard seat height is about 17 in. And if you find that you have to push to get up, take a pillow or a nice cushion like this. One or two inches makes a tremendous difference on getting up. And remember, seniors who fall, fracture their hip or whatever, this is one of the most common times they fall: on a transfer, getting sit to stand or getting into a chair where they stumble, maybe a little side step, things like that. So this is a really important exercise. If you really struggle to get up even with your hands, make sure your feet are back more underneath you and then lean forward. Get your nose over your toes and then push forward. A lot of people if they go like this sometimes they're leaning back and they fall backwards. So if that's you, lean forward, then push up. There you go. It's a lot easier. All right, sit to stand. 10 repetitions is good. By the 10th one, it should be getting a little fatigue. If not, go without the hands or make it a little more difficult. Should we go to the next one, sir?
Hip abductor muscles - strengthen and balance
Number four. So, we're going to stand up for this one. We're going to do heel toe raises. Again, hold on to support if you need. You can use a stick, countertop, walker, whatever you have available, handrails, and you're just going to go up on your toes and then rock back on your heels. Most people will find up on their toes they can do. And some people when they get backwards they tip a little more or they don't feel as steady. So make sure you have something to hold on to. Actually I do want to mention for people 70 and over it's not uncommon that the calf muscles become weak and going up on your toes, particularly at a high level like this, becomes pretty challenging. So if that's the case, make sure you work on that because it is important for your balance, walking, and especially on uneven surfaces so you can stay stable. This is a really nice one to work on. Again, backwards is where people often lose. Most people too, if they're compensating, they'll go up, okay, but then they go back, they shoot their butt way back like this. So try to keep a nice upright posture as you do this exercise. And this is one if you don't feel comfortable with, even if you're holding on to something, skip it. You should feel very stable with all these or do not do them. It's pretty challenging doing one leg. Oh, yes. That is the more advanced. All right. What's the next one? Next one is working on your hip abductor muscles. We're actually going to kick out to the side. So it's a little bit of strengthening as well as balance because you are going to be standing on one leg. My leg that is standing, I'm not locking out my knee straight. Leaving a little bend. This is going to make this leg work harder. Again, hold on to something for support. Kick sideways. Foot goes straight ahead. We're not rotating out. And we are also not teeter-tottering or swaying as we kick out to the side. Just go what feels comfortable for you. You can do 10 repetitions up to 15 on each side. And you can do it a couple times a day if you want. Yeah, that whole comment about the weight bearing of the leg you're standing on, have a slight bend in the knee there. You'll find that makes a difference. It's better for that leg. The joint may be more comfortable and it makes it a little more challenging. If you find that easy, you can certainly put a cuff on your ankle to make it more challenging on both ankles. Or you can do a yellow or whatever loop band color you have and put it around your ankles and that'll make it more challenging if it's too easy. And if you live in a colder climate like we do in Minnesota or Wisconsin, you grab a pair of your winter boots and that's usually 1 to 2 pounds. That little bit will definitely make a difference. Nice cheap way to add resistance.
Marching in place
Number six is, oh, I should have stayed standing. I'm standing again. All these are standing. What am I doing? Guess we're getting tired. Next one is marching in place. So you're just going to perform some marches. Try to bring your legs up as high as you comfortably can. Again, hold on to support. Go slow and controlled. And it's good to alternate because if you just do one leg, you get a little bit of balance, but sometimes you have to work on that weight shifting to alternate them. And it is more functional. It's like going up and down steps. You get that repetitive alternate motion. One thing I want to mention: if you're holding on to a cupboard in front of you, it's nice to have a sink because you can wrap your fingers around the sink so that you won't fall backwards. But one problem is I've had people where their knees hit the cupboard. That's not fun and then it's really not as effective. So back up if you don't feel comfortable like that, simply use something here, something here like this, depending on what you have in your household. But make sure you feel safe. How high you bring the knee up will make a pretty big difference. The higher and slower you go, too. The combination, I see people do this. You're not doing a whole lot. You're working, but if you're going up, standing down slow, it's a lot more challenging, right? So go at your own level. You may just be able to go small steps and that's a challenge. So use that with good judgment.
Last exercise
Wow. The last one. Maybe we're going to set some tape up on the floor. Oh, yeah. Get a little visual. We better break.
All right. The final one. Number seven. A complete number. We're going to go with clock reach. This one takes a little bit of setup. Some of you will look at it and think it's not for you. If that's the case, that's all right. This is only going to be for certain people on the floor. Probably a hard floor. You could do it on carpet, too. It's going to be harder on carpet. So I'd start with a hard floor. You're going to use tape. There's a spot here, one there, one there, one there, and one there. The distance is variable between everyone. So just put it about a foot to a foot and a half apart. You'll see once we do it. You could use shelf liner, that sticky stuff that you can put down. It's nice because it doesn't slip. That's why it's shelf liner. Use whatever you'd like. Sometimes if you have spots, you have certain patterns on your hard floor, you may not have to do anything except use those. This is like a clock. This is the center of the clock. This is 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock. Now, what Mike is going to do is with his right foot, he is going to see if he can touch with his right toe. If you can't reach this far, like I can reach further than this, but you're 35. I'm older than that. Anyway, you can just make the circumference a little shorter. You can bring it in too if you feel unsteady. Again, I'm not locking this knee out. I'm letting it bend and making that leg work. I'm touching, and then I'm coming back to center. Then you can go to the next point. You have to kind of look behind you for the back position. If you feel unsteady with this, it's kind of challenging, but you touch behind you. If you really don't like that, you can just switch legs and go side to side this way. If you find this easy, not very challenging, you can try adding other points in there. You can go in between and do the whole around the clock, around the world, whatever you want. Some people call it the star drill and you can hit every one. But make sure you do it on both legs because you're probably going to find your dominant leg is a little bit better than your non-dominant side. And if this does feel too challenging and you're not steady, you may just want to take a cane. I would raise the cane up as tall as you can because on this it just seems to work better. You could use two canes or a cane and a stick and work with it that way. That's a nice safe way to start the first time for sure. Yes. And any activities that we just did, if you are very high level and you think they're all easy, you can certainly get a foam pad or a pillow and do everything just standing on that. It's going to make everything twice as hard. Yeah. And whether you have shoes on or not makes a difference, as I talked about. So remember, be safe. Pick out two or three of them. Do them three times per day. Maybe if you have three of them, each time you do a different one for only 30 seconds to a minute, three minutes a day will challenge your balance. You're going to feel better. You'll build up some confidence with it, and it'll be good for you. If you want to do them all, you certainly can. They're all good, and they all work slightly different areas for those overachievers. They always have a few of those.
Be safe - tips
Leg strength more videos
Now, if you're concerned about your leg strength, you can click on the video link on the screen. Five best seated leg strengthening exercises for seniors and beginners. Yeah, seated. They're all done from the chair. You can't go wrong with that.
Outro
Mike, I think we've totally bored everyone with balance exercises and now they get to never be bored with balance. Do them themselves. And once again, we can fix anything. Well, just about anything except for a broken heart, right? And balance has got nothing to do with it. So we'll look for another topic. Maybe we can use tape and shelf liner and it'll help. You really can't go wrong with shelf liner. Have a good day. Bob and Brad, the two most famous physical therapists on the internet.