Fall Prevention Isn't Enough

A Case for Training What Comes Next

In 2009, I dislocated my shoulder slipping on ice on my driveway. It had snowed the night before, but it was April, so the snow had that heavy, wet quality that was no match for a shovel, let alone my windshield wipers. As I travelled from one side of my car to the other, cursing a never-ending winter, I slipped. My elbow hit the hood of my car, and my shoulder jolted upwards as I fell down. The pop was like a thunderclap.

I was lucky that my mom had a rare day off and could take me to emergency. Every stop and start sitting in the passenger seat brought a wave of pain. The shock had me sweating profusely, and as I took off my windbreaker I could see that my left shoulder resembled a Picasso painting: distorted and abstract. I sat on those plastic emergency room chairs for hours, trying to focus on my breath as my humeral head screamed for assistance. Sitting there, as the blur of other patients and nurses and ambulances whirled around me, I looked down at my dirty pant legs. Through the shock and the agony, one clear thought broke through: “I only fell to my knees?”

The five weeks spent with my left arm in a sling highlighted the myriad ways I had taken being bimanual for granted. Blow drying my hair became an awkward juggling act of hot air, head flips, and tangles. My pride at never having to take more than one trip to bring groceries in the house was shot. I needed to ask for help, accept kindness from strangers, and practice a humility that was unfamiliar. The first time I showered without my sling, I forgot that I had spent the past few weeks impaired, and lifted my arm too quickly. The sharp pain rang out as a jarring reminder that these things take time.

If we took time to consider all the things we take for granted - all the things that hum along unnoticed until they don’t - we’d emotionally spiral under the weight of it all. And yet there I was in that ER, dirty knees and all, wishing I had done more with my two good shoulders while I had them. Movement, it turns out, is only automatic until it isn’t. In that vein, let me tell you why being able to get yourself off the floor is one of the most important things you can train for.

If you’re able-bodied, it can be hard to envision a scenario where you’ve fallen and you can’t get up. For all the (very important) discussion surrounding preventing falls, we don’t often talk about how essential it is to be able to get up in the event that we do fall down. Or, in less dramatic fashion, how simply getting up in our everyday lives is paramount for quality of life long-term. I don’t know about you, but the stereotype of laying in a recliner, drinking a beer, and watching golf isn’t doing it for me. There’s too much living left to do.

After the age of 60, one’s ability to balance declines by approximately 16% every 10 years, which correlates to a higher incidence of falling as we get older. Paired with decreased muscular strength and mobility limitations, the scenarios in which a senior falls and struggles to get back up, even without injury, are more common than we’d like to think. Prolonged laying after a fall can lead to dehydration, rhabdomyolysis (the rapid decrease of muscle tissue that can damage the kidneys), pressure sores, and even pneumonia. From a psychological aspect, fear of falling and not being able to get up can lead to a withdrawal of social activities, resulting in further physical decline and in some instances depression.

Luckily for all of us, we have some agency in how we approach the last few decades of our lives, regardless of where we are starting from. Muscle strength, power, balance, and flexibility all play a role in our capacity to rise from the floor, and all of them are trainable. Let’s take a moment to address some exercises we can incorporate into our routine to help us maintain our autonomy and quality of life.

Mobility Exercises:

Instep Lunge with Rotation

Good hip mobility is crucial for getting up off the floor. We have to be able to get our leg into a position where it can lift us up.

Bar Supported Sumos

This is one where I remind you not to be modest! Bar supported sumo squats give us that hip mobility required to get you into the position to get up off the floor.

Strength Exercise:

Tall Kneeling to Standing

This is the exercise that most closely mimics getting up and down off the ground, which is exactly why we train it. Almost every client I give this to curses me (because it’s hard!), but I swear it’s doing you a lot of good.

Front Rack Step Up

Holding the kettlebell in the front rack position recruits your core muscles in a way you would not believe. Getting up and down is a full body movement, and we need to be able to hold our torso upright, which is where core strength comes into play.

Pushups

We can’t neglect the role our upper body plays in getting up off the floor. We have to be strong enough to push ourselves up, before our lower body takes us the rest of the way.

Balance

Airplane Holds

Getting up requires leg strength, yes, but it also requires some balance, especially if you have nothing beside you to rely upon. That’s where these airplane holds come in handy. They work on balance, foot strength, and hip stability.

Part of life is reflecting back and wondering if you made the most of every moment. We’ve heard the cliches: hindsight is 20/20, youth is wasted on the young. As important as reflection is, I think it’s paramount to take stock of how we are living our lives now, because regardless of our age, we have a future in front of us, and how that future takes shape is, for at least some parts, entirely in our control. You don’t need to fix your past, you don’t need to ask for permission, you can just tap in and start right now. The floor will always be there. Let’s make sure you can always get back up.

A Closing Note:

If this newsletter resonated with you, it’s probably because you’re already thinking about the long game: about what it means to stay strong, mobile, and independent not just today, but ten and twenty years from now. That’s exactly who Strong for Life at Home was built for.

Strong for Life is my online coaching program for adults 50 and older who want to move well, build real strength, and feel confident in their body as they age — without getting hurt in the process. It’s a nine month personalized program that progresses at a pace your body can actually adapt to, starting with foundational movement quality and building toward compound and power-based training over time. Every block builds on the last. You won’t just get stronger. You’ll move better and feel more capable in your daily life.

You don’t need to be an athlete. You don’t need a gym. You just need to be someone who has decided that the next few decades are worth investing in.

If that sounds like you, I’d love to connect. Send me an email at bree.steinke@gmail.com and tell me a little about where you’re at.