Mindset preparations – you are worth it, the work is worth it, pay now or pay later, your love ones are worth it and you are the only one that can make a difference
Factors affect impact and therefore damage 影響衝擊嚴重度的因素
body weight – 身體重量 (Shēntǐ zhòngliàng)
distance to ground – 到地面的距離 (Dào dìmiàn de jùlí)
speed and direction of travel at time of impact – 撞擊時的速度和方向 (Zhuàngjī shí de sùdù hé fāngxiàng)
reaction speed – 反應速度 (Fǎnyìng sùdù)
rigidity – 剛性 (Gāngxìng)
spread over time and area
impact area – 影響區域 (Yǐngxiǎng qūyù)
awareness, preparation and choices 意識、準備與選擇
Exercises
Warmup – wake yourself up mentally, wake up your muscles, do all these before leaving the house
Stretch and Strength – 1) fingers and wrist, triceps (protect your wrist and face), 2) abs and neck (protect the head and tailbone), 3) thighs, hip and knees (to transition levels or rebalance) 4) calf, foot, ankle and toes (for rebalance)
Neural – reprogram your reflexes, play games that need fast reflexes or coordination
Simulations and practical situations
Sit down and stand up 坐下和站起 (Zuòxià hé zhàn qǐ)
Falling forward 前倒 (Qián dǎo)
Falling Backward 後倒 (Hòu dǎo)
Recovery from tripping over 絆倒中恢復 (bàn dǎo zhōng huīfù))
Being pushed from different directions 從不同方向被推動 (Cóng bùtóng fāngxiàng bèi tuīdòng)
Off the line of fire 避開危險區域 (Bìkāi wēixiǎn qūyù)
Change direction of fall 改變摔倒方向 (Gǎibiàn shuāidǎo fāngxiàng)
Walking up and down stairs 上下樓梯 (Shàng xià lóutī)
Getting up from a squat 從蹲下起身 (Cóng dūnxià qǐshēn)
Picking something up from ground 從地上拾起物品 (Cóng dìshàng shí qǐ wùpǐn)
Falling down is one of the biggest hazards for seniors. It is not just about the pain it caused from broken bones and bruises, it is about the long term impact to your body, mobility, quality of life and self-confidence. Some falls can actually change your life forever.
Yes, you do want to prevent avoidable mistakes. However, you cannot control every scenario, sometimes falls can be caused through no fault of your own. This workshop teach you how to recover from imbalances, how to lessen the impact, how to protect your vital body parts, etc. It also explain why just leading an active lifestyle is NOT ENOUGH.
In this workshop, you will learn all the 4 steps of preparation: Avoid, Share, Absorb and Protect. You will learn exercises that help you reduce the impact on landing. Most important of all, you will go through some every safe simulation of falling and imbalances to program your brain so that your body know how it feels and you take your first step towards reprogramming your body to react differently.
Learning how to recover after an injury is just as important as learning how to train. When we are young, we tend to trust that the body will heal itself over time, and it is true to a certain extent. However, it is usually not up to 100%. When the body heals up to around 80%-90%, your brain may feel that it is good enough because you don’t feel the pain all the time—often only a single spot versus a whole area, a very specific angle versus hurting most of the time, only when you put pressure on it, or only when it rains. The result is the same: your body is left compromised at 80%. Then, over time, as your body ages or if you reinjure the same area, an 80% heal from a starting point of only 80% will leave you at 64% functionality.
You may ask what is that last 20% that one loses? With scar tissue, you will lose mobility which in turn affect your range of motion and mechanics. You may feel weak when you perform certain function. Lack of strength often exposes you to balance issues and mechanical problems. You may start to compensate for that weakness using some other body parts and potentially causing fatigue and pain.
The following is not intended to be exhaustive, and it does not replace advice from a doctor or therapist. It simply provides a complementary perspective and highlights some key points.
Do NOT rub vigorously the injured area within the first 24-48 hours. Instead, apply ice -Avoid vigorous rubbing of severe bruises within the first 24-48 hours. Think of bruises like burst pipes; applying ice stabilizes the vessels, similar to reducing water flow to facilitate appropriate repairs. For any injuries, the best approach in the first 24 hours is still the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) unless the doctor/physio tell you otherwise for that specific instance.
Avoid intense self-massage over muscle layers, and refrain from applying excessive pressure to your lower back, as it may not be beneficial – muscles are layered over each other in multi-directions. You cannot easily access the deeper tissues from top. Intense massage by an untrained person can damage the upper layers without reaching the right muscles. Our relatively safe approach is to find the “sore spot” and then indirectly cause those muscles to move. This movement often opens up the muscle layers and allows much better access to the problem deeper muscle layer.
Exercise and activate weakened muscles – correct stretching and strengthening help heal. This is the area of physio’s expertise. However, often because of the time and cost, people stop / avoid seeing the therapist or stop doing the prescribed exercises. You have to persevere and continue with the prescribed exercises till you are completely healed.
Differentiate between the sensation of “good hurt” and “bad hurt” – Distinguish between “good hurt” and “bad hurt” especially during exercises like stretching and strengthening. You expect discomfort or some level of pain when you first get back to using the injured muscles. Make sure you do everything slow and mindful to get the maximum benefit from each of the exercises. Do pay attention to the intended muscles; a shooting pain may indicate nerve pinching, while a stretchy feeling on the target muscle is likely a positive sensation. Memorize how it felt is important because it provides a reference baseline as to how it feels in normal state versus when something is off.
Enhance blood circulation to facilitate the recovery process – Promote blood circulation to facilitate the recovery process. Blood flow acts as the transport to dispose dead or inflammatory cells, and at the same time, deliver essential nutrients to support healing. Use of the “hot and cold treatment” is quite effective in enhancing blood circulation.
Seek professional help – As a senior, it’s crucial to get an X-ray/CT scan when you hit your head or or land vertically on your tailbone. A lot of seniors, have uses blood thinner to manage their blood pressure, some have brittle bones because of osteoporosis. So you may be leaking blood or have a hairline fracture that is hardly noticeable. Even if you decide not to go to the ER initially, if the pain is not going away or get worse, do seek professional help. Medical expenses are covered, do use it when you need it!
當年長者撞到頭部或摔在尾龍骨時，進行 X 光或 CT 掃描是非常重要的。許多年長者服用血液稀釋劑來控制血壓，有些則因骨質疏鬆而骨骼脆弱。因此，可能會有內出血或不易察覺的細微骨折。即使你最初決定不去急診，但如果疼痛沒有減輕或感到噁心，一定要尋求專業幫助。在加拿大，醫療不用花錢，當你需要時務必使用！
Treating of old injuries is different. Some old injuries are treatable but some aren’t. It is much easier solving the problem earlier than later. For old injuries, therapies take a long time and can cost a lot of time and money, you have to un-stuck old scars, calcium deposits and bad compensating habits. Solutions often involve finding ways to re-opening up the scar tissues again. There are simply too many details and precautions to be covered in this article.
As seniors, our recovery rate tends to slow down, and our bones are more fragile than they were in our younger days. Healing from a broken bone takes longer, and unfortunately, it may never feel 100% again. For some seniors, breaking a hip bone can be life-changing.
Nobody can completely prevent falls. However, taking necessary precautions reduce the chance of preventable falls. Learning how to land safely reduces the extent of the injuries.
Things break when you exceed its “impact threshold”. Every person’s bone density is different and therefore its “impact threshold”. If the impact is less than your personal threshold, then you may suffer just a bruise or sprain. However, if the impact exceeds a bone’s threshold, the bone will break. We train to reduce the impact under the bone’s threshold so that nothing will break.
This article is specifically about how to regain balance / reduce the speed of falling when you lose balance in the frontal direction, resulting in a frontal fall. The imbalance can be caused by a physical push/pull or a sudden stop.
When babies learn how to walk, they fell and try again countless times. What changed is that we grew taller and heavier and we don’t play on the ground anymore. As a result, the impact is less forgiving and when we freak out, we do not respond in the best possible way.
Distance of a fall do make a difference. Lets take an example, if a crystal glass is dropped from six feet up versus dropping it inches from the ground, the likelihood of the glass breaking is dramatically reduced.
(The diagram below illustrates how to reduce a person’s height while attempting to rebalance themselves while falling forward.)
下面的圖表說明了向前跌倒時，如何降低自身的高度。
Reduce the weight in front by pushing your butt backwards 將臀部向後移，可以減少前方的重量
The force of impact is proportional to your body weight. Kids can fall without breaking any bones because they are light comparatively.
衝擊力與你的體重成正比。孩子們摔倒時通常不會骨折，因為他們的體重較輕。
If you eat healthy, remain active and maintain a healthy body weight, you are reducing the impact if you do fall. Our goal, with whatever body weight, is to reduce the impact. If you shift your body weight backwards, there is less weight in the front and therefore the hit is reduced.
(The diagram below illustrates how shifting backwards help reduce “force-towards-front”. The biggest mistake is to stiffen up which amplifies the effect of the “force-towards-front”. The diagram shows the netting effect if you fold your upper body and shift backwards.)
Absorb part of the “force-towards-front” decreases that force, you buy yourself to react while reducing the speed of the fall. Slower means less impact.
吸收部分“向前的力量”可以減少該力量，讓你有時間反應，同時減緩跌倒的速度。速度越慢，衝擊就越小
(The diagram helps illustrate how folding the body “takes away the surface” for the “force-to-front”, rendering it less effective. If you stand straight and stiff, therefore a perpendicular surface for the “force-to-front”, 100% of the delivered force will be delivered against your body).
Soften the landing
Our technique for landing softly involves a specific sequence: “finger-tip, fingers, palm, and a slight bend in the elbow.” The following animation attempts to illustrate this specific sequence of the hand.
Some seniors have very still fingers and/or wrists. It is very important to start stretching them so there is some “give” in the hands since that is the primary landing gear if one do fall. You do not need to be ultra flexible, all you need is some “give” just like the protective cover on your cell phone.
How do I know that this works? If you observe professional basketball players, they wear well-cushioned shoes to support their jumps and landings. They also control their landing: starting with the ball of the feet, lowering the heels, and bending at the knees and hips. Professionals never land with straight legs or flat feet. If it works for the pros with their number of jumps and landing, it works for us too!
If you happen to fall forward, your hands act as your default landing gears. Comparing this to landing with the legs, the sequence should mirror each other: “reach out with your finger-tips, land on all the fingers or the ball of the hands, land on your palm, and then bend your elbow to absorb.” This method, inspired by professional players, helps absorb most of the impact, with the remaining force mitigated by other skills.
If you freeze or push out while falling, or if you are so weak that your arms cannot hold your body weight, you will hurt yourself badly. Softening a landing isn’t instinctive for adults, so we need to reprogram our brains through simulations. By practicing and experiencing simulated falls, we can train ourselves to land correctly without panicking.
One additional aspect to consider to softening the landing is to avoid landing using any sharp parts of your body. For example, the tip of your elbow, the heel of your palm, your shoulder joint, your tailbone and your knees. By paying attention to these details, you can reduce the damage drastically.
A full-size extra-large pizza is overwhelming for a single person, but when shared among many, each person only gets a small slice. This principle extends to the concept of impact. If the force of an impact is distributed over a larger surface area, each part of the body absorbs only a fraction of the force. Conversely, if a specific body part has to endure the entire impact, it becomes too much.
Rolls are yet another technique that spread the impact to reduce injuries. Since it’s a more advanced technique, we’ll delve into it further in future videos and/or in-person classes.
