The Art of Falling - Is there such a thing ?
This is a synopsis of "How to Prevent Falls" by Betty Carpenter. Falls and fear pretty much go hand 'n' hand. You aren't sure what to do when your body is falling into space and you freeze up because of the terror of the landing & that fear is worse especially after a fall - it seems to be somehting that we have a pretty difficult time getting over with. I've been there and I know that many of you have too.
Some things she suggests to practice:
- Lay down in bed and stretch - this promotes balance, bending, flexibility, reaching
- In bed, shake and wiggle your limbs and fingers and toes, arch your back a bit
- Tense and tighten your body then do this over again
- Reach for the ceiling & move your arms and legs around
- Turn your head around - up, down, left, right
- Flop down into a chair - don't use the armrest or anything - this might take some practice
- Get out of the chair without using anything to push yourself up. Use just your legs to get up
- Stand along side your bed - frontwards, then backwards, and just let your body flop onto the bed like when you were a little kid
- Practice rolling around
- If you fall, do not try to break your fall with your arms or brace yourself - something will probably break. These exercises are supposed to help your body prevent itelf from the bracing because you have trained your muscles to be loose and flexible. So, you need to practice practice, practice. They aren't hard. One or two times doing the exercises won't help you even a little bit. Put some effort into this.
The exercises were developed for seniors who have relatively constant crashes and injuries as a result. The older we get, the less pliable we are simply because we don't do any of the above.
Her book is good. Check it out.
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