Top 10 Balance Exercises for Seniors at Home. STOP FALLS.


Hi folks, I’m Bob Shrupp physical therapist Brad Heineck physical therapist. Together we are the most famous physical therapists on the internet. In our opinion, of course, Bob Top 10 balance exercises for seniors at home that stop those falls. Brad

Exactly we’ve been doing therapy 20 years for me and about 100 for you, 150 yup Anyways. We’Ve worked with a lot of broken hips, A lot of broken bones because of falls and face it. If you’re, you know in your 70s or 80s and you break your hip, the chances of you getting a full recovery are not real good. So the big thing is: don’t fall.

It can send you on a downward decline. I don’t want to say that, because sometimes a lot of people can bounce back, That’s true, but it’s harder.It’s harder. The biggest thing is is avoid the fall.

Yep and there’s no easy way to do this, You’ve got to put it in the work Right To some extent Exactly

So Bob I did notice right behind Lonnie. There were four hundred and seventy six people that just walked in

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All right, let’s start with the first one, Well we’re talking about people who are walking typically without a cane or a walker yet, but they know they’re a little unsteady.They’re having a hard time, maybe getting in and out of their chair, which is a very common place. Where fall occurs is getting out of a chair.

So that’s the first One. We got this on two phases from strengthening exercises and then a little more advanced ones, but it’s all for that. You know 50 and over-age or if you’re recovering from an injury at any age.

Sure these will work All right so Bob You start with a chair and everybody’s got a chair Right, Chair with armrests

Yep and then how you do this is gon na be important because, typically, when you get out of chair, if you lean forward you push here and you get up it’s much easier Right. Okay, so that’s we might as well practice good good, mechanics and then sitting down That habit of. What’S behind you make sure you can feel at the back of your legs and you can grab your armrest sit down nice and slow and don’t don’t plop down even though you’re safe, you’re gon na hit the chair, that’s a good way to get a compression fracture

Yep and then your back

Right on So you got your chair, we know the mechanics and we’re just gon na practice getting up and then get make sure you have your balance for about a second or two reach back and sit down and just working those legs and you’ll. Be amazed. If you do ten of these, even though you know it’s gon na get you tired, You may not be able to do ten right away depending on your condition, but that’s kind of the goal is to work up. The ten sit the stands and feel confident and steady between each one. I don’t think a lot of people realize Brad that this really is a source of a lot of your strength for your legs and what happens is quite often we see people get those sit to stand chairs, sure the ones that lift you up and they get So weak that they can’t even walk later Right.

And so we’re talking about the recliners with the push button that lifts you right up,

And so we’re not a big fan of those unless you just can’t get out of the chair without it Yeah I mean we’d rather have you work at it so and then do you want to show progression, or is that not the next one? Well yeah? We can do that if this is getting too easy yeah you just go to one hand and you, when you do ten with one hand and that’s too easy, then you can go like this or like this

This is quite a bit harder Yeah, But then you know you’re getting some good strength. You know if you’re concerned at all you might want to have a chair in front of you, so that if you need to grab something for balance, but by this point you should feel confident with that. Okay,

And not need that All right, We better move on Brad. Okay. Now this is a set of exercises very common. Most physical therapists will recommend this to people Right.

And I thought we can do it from two angles, Bob Sure I’ll do it from from behind. So they can see what it looks like You do it from the side and the first thing we’re going to do is you’re going to hold on to a solid chair. Maybe the kitchen countertop or the sink is you can grab for balance and simply do some marching So we’re gon na try and bring those knees up.

Make sure you don’t bump your knee into the chair or the counter top, because that might hurt

We do not want to have pain with this and you can do like ten on the side, so you count to 20 if you’re counting alternate one two, otherwise, ten on each leg. Okay, good posture, posture posture: Now the next one is going out to the side. Like this Hip abduction – and this one I don’t know about you Bob, but I usually have people just do right side.

Yep right in a row, Yep ten in a row Show them some things that they want to watch out for not to be leaning forward. You don’t want right. You don’t want to lean forward like this, but you also don’t want to dip with it.

You also want to keep the toe pointed straight forward like this Right. You don’t want to go like this Exactly, and this is an important one, because this gets that waddle out of your walk.

Yep, this is a big one for balance, without a doubt,

Yes, so we’re gon na go like this Ten on this side and ten on the other side, and then the next one probably from that angle, would be the best is hip extension and again show them Don’t be doing this Yep don’t be the dip and duck Here,

No dipping and ducking is right, Just straight back with the leg See how Bob’s got a nice straight back. Here is working a lot of hip muscle in there and he’s keeping the leg straight. Do the bend the knee thing?

Yeah, we don’t really want to do that.

Bob Dogs

We want to keep It’s gon na, be better strengthening this way Again, ten repetitions on a leg and then the next one Ready Yeah up on the toes and then back on the heels. Now this one is really a nice ankle, strengthening exercise which is a real key part of balance, and I find a lot of people that are in their 50s or 60s and older have a hard time with this one, because those muscles seem to weaken up

Do you see that Bob Absolutely especially this way, Yeah Now toes up My mom is doing all these by the way.

Oh good, We just went over them last time I was there She’s 86 86 and she’s working She’s still walking, but she’s kind of borderline, her balance. So that’s why we’re having her do these

Okay, so now we’re gon na go to some more a little more advanced Brad Yep, a little more advanced

Why don’t you slide that chair in and you can do this at your counter top? What’S it in front of you, if you have two chairs like this, besides I’m gon na, do it this way for video, and it’s simply, can you balance on one leg and hold on with both hands, then go to one hand and then see if you can Do it like this, but be ready to grab something, and if you can do that, 10 or 15 seconds, That’s good, if you’re like 60 -70 years old Brad and I talked about, if you wanted like a daily activity, while you’re brushing your teeth, you can try To do this,

That’S a little more advanced you wan na hold onto the countertop, but if you can do this and balance on one leg, Right, You’re doing pretty good because it takes a lot of Sure You’re moving. So

What do they call it? Double dose, Yeah, double dosing Right, double dosing, Another phrase for it:

They call it double dosing. Why? I don’t know? Well it’s a prescription of exercise. Okay, then, the next one is bring. Your feet, like this close together, have something to hold on to and simply slide your foot forward and as it gets easy you know it’s gon na be harder. The further you go forward from the side. It looks like this slide forward here in here. When you get in line and if you can let go boy you’re doing pretty darn good

Yes, you are Make sure you got something to hold on to

I can do that, Then you can actually separate the foot a little bit, but we’re not going to go into the splits, maybe just the length of one foot as far as you want to go You’re putting the foot right in front of the other one In Line Right,

See the red line here, we’re gon na keep it in line. We’Re gon na start out here go forward in line Okay Once that gets too easy, then this is where you need to have a countertop. I think a longer counter top

A longer counter top yep In this case Bob, why don’t you pretend we got a. I can do it on here Can slide this around real, quick. Well, that’s

Okay, oh you want to see it that way.

Well, just because it’s A little higher Yep, So we’ve got something about this height

The counter top Yeah and I’m gon na pretend this would be like a parallel bar, which we have some over there, but we don’t want to move the whole studio. Okay and we’re just gon na start try and go heel to toe. Now I don’t know where other countries, but in the United States I always get my patients say: Oh yeah, I’m doing the the DWI test to see if you’re inebriated or not, if you’re driving It’s the same test but you’re gon na start out here.

Make sure you got something to hold on to

You can do the counter top, and a cane on this side is a really good way to do it, and you see if you can touch your heel to your toe heel to your toe. Now, if you don’t feel steady with this, do not do it. Just do the do the first five that we did, but you know if you’re at the point where this is. You know a challenge but safe go ahead and let’s do that about ten feet and then try and go backwards.

And the heel should touch the toe, That’s put a little proprioception. We call that and that’s gon na help with your balance as well. So you know where your feet are without looking. That’S a real important component of balance.

All right Bob Walking the line, and you know if you’re a Johnny Cash fan. You know some of these people may know of him Sure I walk the line. You can sing that song when you’re doing this

Because you’re mine, I walk the line, Oh Bob, All right, The Tennessee Three! Isn’T it That I don’t know.

That was his name of his band. All right. Someone will chime in on a concert Now the next one, two solid chairs here and you know, with balance we talked about in line, but a lot of times, you’re twisting and moving and that’s where people do a fall. They say I just turned and

They get distracted Right,

Yep They’re looking around Right. That’S why holiday events are often bad. You bet, so you can practice that a little bit by yourself,

Bring your feet about shoulder, width apart and simply turn over and touch this chair here. Okay and as you do, that make sure you’re holding the chair and then turn and look because your vision has a lot to do with your balance. And if you look away and your holding then you’re safe, But you’re still practicing now, if this gets real easy and you can turn like this well, then you go to the little more advanced one leg, One leg And then turn make sure you got a good Hold here – and you know, if you’re really confident you’re doing well, especially if someone’s there to help you in case you lose your balance, then you can kind of let go and do your turning

Gotcha Do both legs

Okay, Wow Bob. That’S really gon na help you and again in everyday life when you’re walking along and like I said someone distracts you, I think, instead of saying double doseing, we wanted to go multi tasking, Multi, tasking

That’S what happens when the brain needs a little exercise. So did we get everything we got ta cover Brad, I think so Bob we did a nice job, but remember make sure you start at the beginning. You may not even get to the advanced one. That’S perfectly fine. The the first five are perfect for most people as a daily routine.

Right so, okay, thanks for watching you

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