Integrating a Senior Medical Alert System with Exercises to Help Prevent Falls

While the use of a senior medical alert can be instrumental in preventing accidental falls among seniors, there is nothing more effective in falls prevention that helping the senior stay as physically fit as possible. Contrary to what may seem obvious, seniors can actually have a fighting chance against the possibility of figuring in accidental falls. Preventing accidental falls is highly important, especially due to the fact that when it happens to an elderly person, the physical damage can be serious, lasting and, sometimes fatal. So engaging in certain exercises for the specific purpose of regaining your sense of mobility, agility and balance should not only be among your top priorities, but should also become a regular part of your daily schedule. The following are just some of the simple exercises you can do on your own to protect yourself from accidental falls. Leg exercises: strengthening your legs and hips is important in enabling you to maintain and control your own stability. This stability is vital, especially when you’re walking, leaning, or standing. Accidental falls occur when, for example, an elderly person stands on a chair to fix a light bulb, and that person momentarily loses their sense of stability. To do a simple leg exercise, look for a good chair with a back rest that is about the same level as your elbows. With your feet at rest side by side and as you face the back of the chair, slowly lift one of your legs out to the side. Try to lift that leg as high up as possible without having to lean your torso in the opposite direction. Maintain for a few seconds, than slowly lower the leg down. Now do the same with the other leg. Repeat a dozen or more times for each leg. Other important parts of your legs are those muscles you use for sitting and standing. By strengthening these muscle groups, you further ensure your own stability when you sit or stand. For this strengthening exercise, you should find any chair with arms. Place it in the middle of an open room—the living room would be good as long as it is not so cramped or there is enough leg room. Sit on the said chair, and make sure that both of your feet touch the floor evenly, which also means you should be using a chair with just the right height. As you sit on the chair, slowly try to stand up, using your arms (which should be using the chair’s arms for support) to push up and out of the chair. When you are fully standing up, slowly resume the sitting position in such a way that you are lowering your upper leg muscles onto the seat. Repeat a few more times or until failure. Another leg muscle that you should work out are the quads, as they are responsible for maintaining your balance and stability while you are walking and in preventing your own legs from turning into rubber, so to speak. A good strengthening exercise for the quads is by the use of a chair. Sit on a chair with your legs naturally bent and your feet on the sides, the soles of your feet evenly planted on the floor as much as possible. Slowly lift your foot off the floor, then extend your leg by straightening it out in front of you and in such a way that the leg is parallel to the floor. Lower it back down then do the same with the other leg. Even better, try to point your toes forward during the peak of your extension so as to further work up the quads. Repeat as you feel necessary or until failure. Strengthening the ankles: the experts from the American Council on Exercise assert that having a weak ankle is a major factor in increasing one’s risk of falling. The goal, therefore, is to never forget the role of the ankles in helping you maintain stability in standing and walking. The good thing is that, like other leg muscles, the ankles can be fully strengthened with some simple exercises. Get a towel that is sufficiently long to be wrapped around the bottom of your foot—the purpose of the towel is to provide something you can hold onto while you are seated. Tug on the towel to add some resistance as you make figure 8 patterns with your foot. Repeat the same with the other foot as often as necessary or until failure. You can spend as little as 15 to 20 minutes in doing these exercises. Apart from using an actual senior medical alert to ensure that you’ll get instant medical assistance just in case an accident actually happens, engaging in these exercises daily is a truly great way to safeguard your own well-being.