E<\/span>very second of every day, someone falls down and sustains a fall injury.<\/p>\n It is not surprising, given that some 800,000 people have fall accidents every year, according to the CDC. Sadly, a large majority of fall injuries result in negative outcomes, with many resulting in mortality.<\/p>\n Therefore, taking care of your balance is critically important to maintaining your overall health, quality of life, and independence.<\/p>\n So, how do we lose our balance?<\/p>\n There are several reasons.<\/p>\n The first is simply a matter of \u201cuse it or lose it.\u201d As we age, muscles and proprioception (knowing where you are in space) tend to atrophy if we are not actively involved in activity that keeps us fit.<\/p>\n Alignment issues are also a significant cause of balance problems, including rounded shoulders, scoliosis, kyphosis, twisted hips, knocked knees, pronation, etc.<\/p>\n Other common contributing factors include using certain medications, high or low blood pressure, stress, and eye or ear problems. And on occasion, just bad luck! Our book \u201cYoga for Better Balance<\/em>\u201d provides a self-test that identifies exactly where and why your balance might be off and what to do about it.<\/p>\n The good news is that it doesn\u2019t take much to improve your balance, and the time-tested practice of yoga offers the perfect answer for almost everyone!<\/p>\n Whether you are seventy years old and have been away from activity for a long time, a competitive athlete, or someone dealing with injuries, the practice of yoga can be performed and enjoyed by anybody.<\/p>\n Of course, matching the right practice level to your specific needs is important. There are yoga classes for seniors, the terminally inflexible, classes specializing in back care, athletically challenging classes, and a wide variety of styles and themes that match almost anyone\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n Yoga is also an exceptional modality for improving and maintaining balance as there is a whole group of postures called \u201cbalance poses\u201d which are geared to working your balance.<\/p>\n Not only do these postures help improve your balance, but they also help improve overall alignment, strength, flexibility, and focus. Many people who practice yoga regularly enjoy the additional benefits of sleeping better, an improved immune system, and an enhanced feeling of overall wellbeing.<\/p>\n Below are a few easy but highly effective balance exercises to help you improve your balance: (Note: if you feel any strong discomfort or pain from any of these exercises, please avoid them and consult your healthcare practitioner.)<\/p>\n Stand upright behind a chair, holding the back of the chair with both hands or stand by a wall for support.<\/p>\n Position your feet under your hips with your toes pointing straight ahead.<\/p>\n Lift your heels, coming onto your toes as high as you can.<\/p>\n Hold for two to three seconds, then lower your heels back down.<\/p>\n Raise and lower ten times. For a second round, turn your feet out slightly (at the one o\u2019clock and eleven o\u2019clock positions) and repeat the movement ten times. For a third round, turn your heels out, toes in, and lift ten times.<\/p>\n Benefits:<\/strong> Strengthens calf and shin muscles. Help stabilize and strengthen the muscles of the feet. This exercise also helps to stretch and align the tendons and ligaments of the ankle and arches of the foot.<\/p>\n Sit at the front edge of a chair seat with feet flat on the floor, and your toes pointed straight ahead.<\/p>\n Cross your arms over your chest, lean forward slightly, and then stand up. Pause for three seconds and sit back down.<\/p>\n Try not to rock forward using your momentum when you stand; let your legs do the lifting. If needed, place your hands on your hips or thighs to assist in this exercise. Repeat this movement three times without resting. Count this as one round. Your goal is to perform three to five rounds.<\/p>\n Benefits:<\/strong> Improves leg strength (quads and hamstrings), knee flexibility, calves, feet, and lower back muscles. Chair squats also enhance the coordination of the lower and upper bodies in changing position and posture.<\/p>\n Start by standing about six inches in front of a wall, facing the wall. Your legs should be right under your hips, and your toes should be pointing straight ahead. Make sure your torso is directly over your hips, and you are lifting up through your spine.<\/p>\n Using a hand on the wall for support as needed, let your weight shift onto your left foot and bring the sole of your right foot onto your right calf with the toes pointing towards the floor. You will need to bend your right knee out to your right side to accomplish this.<\/p>\n Press your right foot into your inner calf and your inner calf to your right foot. Hold for a slow count of ten and then repeat on the other side. For more challenge, take your arms up overhead, in line with your arms with palms facing each other.<\/p>\n Benefits:<\/strong> Strengthens the standing foot, leg, and hip joints. Stretches the adductors (inner thighs), torso, shoulders, and arms. Tree pose also activates the core, improves focus, and teaches balance.<\/p>\n How do we lose our balance? Plus 3 effective exercises to help improve it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2024","category-winter-2024-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14505"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14843,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505\/revisions\/14843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Heel Raises<\/h3>\n
Chair Squats<\/h3>\n
Easy Tree Pose<\/h3>\n
Howard VanEs and Dr. Rick Harvey are the authors of \u201cYoga for Better Balance: Improve Balance * Reduce the Risk of Falls * Feel More Confident in Your Body * Enhance Vitality & Wellbeing<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"