Senior Fit & Fall Prevention

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Sturzprevention.jpg

This a great graphic about fall prevention in elderly people, by an Austrian expert and former lecturer of mine, Jansenberger.

Fall prevention plays such an important role for seniors, however it is still a very neglected topic. 35% of all elderly, people above 65 years of age, are falling at least once per year. Scareness (post fall syndrome), fractures and dependency on care are just some of the tremendous consequences.

So, in order to diminish the effects and prevent falling, altogether,  amongst seniors, there is a need for a specific program. Such program design, consists of several important things, a coach needs to take under consideration.

 

These are the main pillars of a successful fall prevention program:

 

  • Movement/activity

    • Strength (especially maximal and explosive strength)

    • Gait

    • Coordination

    • Flexibility

    • Fall Technique

  • Behavioural education

    • Clothes (esp. shoes)

    • Activities

  • Adjustments in the living environment

    • Indoor, apartment

    • Outdoor

  • Fear reduction and building confidence and trust in own abilities

  • Medication

During the next couple of weeks, we will  cover the important theoretical fundamentals and their practical application in regards to fall prevention for the elderly population. Because of my educational background and my experiences  working  with senior clients, I feel obliged to share this information with the general public. My intention is to build more public awareness about this topic and provide helpful tools for management.

The  society we are living in, calls us to understand the consequences of an aging, more sickly and fragile population and how it impacts us all. The good news is: there are lot of things we can do to help prevent falls amongst seniors and each of us can start taking action now.

I don’t know yet the exact details of how I will cover the different aspects of this topic but I want to equip my readers with the necessary information. It will probably be a combination of some written articles of my own, reposts from other experts related to the topic, reposts of systematic scientific reviews and possibly some video content. To be honest, this will be a bit of a challenge for me, since writing is not one of my biggest strengths , so if there is anything that sounds unclear, please send me your individual questions and concerns. My main goal is to reach as many people as possible, to educate them and build awareness. So, please don’t expect crazy linguistic perfectionism or super professional and exciting videos at the beginning. I will try my best and make it as simple and informative as I  possibly can. Therefore, your feedback, questions and engagement would be highly appreciated and helpful, so you can get the most out of the content I provide.

Happy Monday and, hopefully, this will be a topic and little project, that we will all profit from.

Best,

Dennis