In my years of practice, I’ve been quite surprised by our society’s view on balance. As I’m looking at a patient over on eval day who has come in for hip pain or knee pain or back pain or ankle pain or any pain, and I ask them to stand on one foot it never fails that I hear “Oh, I have bad balance” as they catch themselves before falling.
Two thoughts come to mind:
- Do they know there is likely a connection between their poor balance and their injury?
- Do they care to improve their balance before they are an older adult with a fall risk?
I wonder what would happen if we noticed poor balance in ourselves the way we notice pain and treated it. Looked for ways to make it better. Trained in ways that maintained it. Would we see less injury? Would we feel less pain? Would we age better?
I may be biased, but I do believe the answer is yes!
But my opinions don’t matter. Here are a few things research tells us.
- A 2018 study showed that the rate of falls in older adults decreased by 55% with strength training and balance training. If you know anything about how quickly an older adult can go downhill after a fall, you know this is HUGE.
- Another study proved that there was a significant decrease in injury and increase in vertical jump performance with balance training.
Fewer falls, higher jumps. And lots of stuff in between. This is how balance training can help any of us.
I hope now you will consider working on your balance issues rather than laughing about it. And if you don’t know where to start, holler at us!
Rachel Atufunwa PT, DPT