One of my favorite patients graduated from physical therapy today. Her name is June, and she had come in originally to rehabilitate her replaced right knee. Unfortunately, she suffered an unrelated setback earlier in this year which necessitated a hospital stay. This left June weakened, but she came back raring to go and as determined as ever. This clip is from today's final visit:
June is 87 years old.
Can you balance like June? I have seen MANY people with fewer years, fewer hospital stays, and all their original joints flail all over the place while having their single limb balance assessed. The thing that gets me is when the follow-up question is "So what if my balance isn't great?"
Balance is one of those things that is easily taken for granted when it isn't impaired. But then all of a sudden, it can become an issue. It's also trainable, just like strength and endurance. It may not seen glamorous or exciting to perform balance training (after all, there aren't really balance muscles you can show off on the beach!). But it's so important. In the later years, falls and their detrimental effects can be devastating.
One other reason you may want to pay attention to your balance abilities has less to do with injury risk from falls and more to do with athletic outcomes . Asymmetries in left to right capabilities may be negatively impacting your performance. In addition, asymmetrical balance has been identified as a risk factor for potential athletic injury.
By the way, the above clip shows June demonstrating her operative leg balance. She was also able to repeat the same time on her left leg. It was one final test to send June off on her own, with all of her hard work and dedication having paid off.
Grab a minute and test yourself. If you can't match or best June, ask yourself why? Then get to work fixing it.
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