Ten seconds, one foot behind the other
The narrowest thing you will stand on today is your own two feet.
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Move it Monday There is a ten second test that predicts whether you will fall. It doubles as the exercise. You do not need a clinic for this one. A kitchen counter and ten seconds will do it. Put one foot directly in front of the other, heel touching toe, and stand there. That is the whole thing. Most people under sixty barely notice it… and past a certain age it gets interesting. Doctors use that position as a test. I want to hand it to you as both. A measure this morning, and a move for the rest of the week.
The test half The CDC runs a falls program for doctors, and in it sits a four stage balance test. It runs in four stages, each one narrower than the last. Feet side by side to begin. Next, the instep of one foot against the big toe of the other. After that, heel to toe. Last of all, one foot on its own. Ten seconds in each. Eyes open. No cane, no walker, and no holding on. You are allowed to put your arms out and shift your body about. What you cannot do is move your feet. And here is the line that matters. A person who cannot hold heel to toe for ten seconds is at raised risk of falling. Heel to toe is the third of those four. So if you get through it, you are past the point where the test starts to worry. How to do it without ending up on the floor Stand at a counter with your hip lightly against it. Not holding it. Close enough to catch. Right foot straight in front of the left, heel of the right touching the toes of the left. Look at a spot on the wall, not down at your feet. Count ten. Then swap feet, because nearly everybody has a worse side. If ten seconds is easy, that is your exercise. Three or four holds on each side, most days. If ten is not there yet, drop back to stage two. Instep against the big toe. Build it there first. What the exercise half is worth Balance training works, and this is not one of the shaky ones. A review gathered 108 trials and 23,407 people, average age 76. In the 59 of those that counted how often people fell, exercise cut the rate by 23%. They graded that high certainty, which is about as good as this kind of evidence gets. Balance and functional training on its own cut the rate by 24%. Programs that mixed several kinds of exercise did better still, around 34%. And the harm was small. Sore muscles, mostly. Two serious events turned up in the whole pile of trials, both in one study. A stress fracture in the pelvis, and one hernia operation. One honest note before you start The ten second count comes from a test, not from a trial of that hold as a treatment. So do not take it as the dose. Take it as the starting line… and take Wednesday as the program.
Carol timed me the first morning. Eight seconds on the left, and a grab at the counter on the right… which told me more than any scan ever has.
Here is to ten steady seconds, |