Avoiding the dreaded fall on slippery roads.

Winter has arrived early and full force which means we are gauranteed to have a white Christmas. But this also means the roads are icey and a prime spot for a little mid air acrobatics. And unfortunately some of us will succumb to the slippery roads and tumble down. So let's talk about some ways you can reduce your risk of fall, or at least make the fall less damaging.

Besides taking the obvious precautionary measures such as salting, wearing appropriate shoes and walking slowly, there are certain things that help reduce your risk of fall:

Having a good balance reduces the risk of falling when you do lose your grip on the ground and are about to take a flight in the air. Having a good balance depends on having strong core, stable and strong joints and a good neuromuscular connectivty (quick reflexes).

Strong Core:

Core refers to the deep muscles that hold you up right. These muscles are deep in the abdominal cavity, around the hips and the spine. They are very different than the superficial abdominal muscles that give you the cool looking six packs. But unfortuanely due to our sedentary lifestyle most of us have weak core muscles.

Strength and reflexes:

This refers to how quick, coordinated and strong are your steps. Because lets face it, if you can barely go down the stairs without tumlbing down, then you have little chance of taking stable steps once you find yourself on ice. Although you do need healthy and robust muscles, but there is no evidence that extra strength (beefing up like Arnold) reduces your fall risk. Funcitonal agility depends more on your neuromusclular connectivity than strength. Its basically how good your nervous system is at telling your muscles to move quickly and in small fine moevements. If you have ever watch professional atheletes doing quick steps front/back and sideways before a game, that's what they are doing. They are waking up their neuromuscular connections.

Improving your balance, core strength and agility takes time. But you will gain benefit even after 1-2 weeks of training, so you still have plenty of time for this winter. Here are some exercises to help you get started. You should do these 2-3 times a week.

Balance exercises:

1)Single leg raise:

Stand on your right leg and lift your knee to about hip level. Hold for five seconds. Return to start position with both feet on the floor, and then repeat on the other side for one rep. Be sure that your upper body is erect, keep your core strong. Do this movement five times on each side. When you can hold the pose for 30 seconds on each side, stand on a less stable surface, such as a couch cushion, a step, or a Bosu ball. To make this more challenging, you can hold on to a weighted object.

Here is a video on how to start.

Caution; if you have never done this before, make sure you stand close to a wall or something that you can quickly hold in case you are about to fall. And don't be dicouraged if you start from barely one second, most people are on the same boat. Yours truly was able to stand for a total whopping half a second when I first started.

2) Heal to toe steps:

Walk forward by placing the heal of front foot against the toe of back foot. Go forward for 10 steps or 30 seconds, then come back by placing the toe of back leg behing the heal of front leg. Most of you probably have done a version of this on your younger more agile years. Those days are long gone, this takes practice now. Repeat 3 times with a 1-2 minute break in between.

3) Single stand on unstable surface:

Ok, I am the first to say that this one is hard, so unless you can do the above exercises very comfortabely I would not even attempt this. I have personally tumbled down many times. For this you need a Bosu ball, wobble boards or balance pads. You simply stand and then slowly lift one leg. This exercise engages your ankle stabiloty muscles like no other, but again it is very advanced. Try to stand on one leg for 30 seconds and then alternate. Repeat 3 times.

Core Strength:

1) The best, and most basic exercise to engage your core muscle is the plank and side plank. If you have never done these before, dont be fooled by their simplicity, they will make you cringe. Once you are able to hold a simple plank for a minute then you can introduce more advanced forms of plank.

Simple Plank video.

Simple side Plank video

2) Bridges:

These work on your buttock (hip muscles) and lower back.

Bridge exercise

3) Bridge Dog.

This exercise is a simpler form of plank, but it makes up for it by engaging your upper and lower extremities.

Brdige Dog exercise

You should do these exercises 2-3 times a week. Make sure you have the proper form. Done correctly they are hard and very effective, but done incorrectly they are easy and can actually harm your back. Either do them in front of a mirror, ask someone to video you the first couple of times or get a trainer.

Strength with agility:

There is no evidence that excess weight lifting reduces your fall risk. So we are not talking about heavy lifting. But there is evidende that healthy strong muscles reduce risk of fall. So, lets look at some exercises you can do at home to improve your strength and lower risk of falls. The exercises I have chosen also work your core and balance, which we already discussed as important factors in reducing your fall risk. When it comes to strength training, correct technique is essential, so be sure you watch the accompanied videos on proper form. Do these exercises 2-3 times a week. If you have three kids, two dogs and a full time job and time is precious, you can always do some push ups and squats while cooking or listening to your 8 year old's totally made up never ending story. Remember, these are not meant to make you big, that is not the point here, they are only meant to tone your muscles, so body weight is plenty for fall prevention purposes.

Upper body strength:

Push up: To make it easier, you can put your knees down.

Pike push ups

Pull ups: This is a hard one and most people have a mental block. But you can start easy and gradually make your wat up. Yours truly has a pull up bar attched to the door into the laundry room, thanks to 3 kids that are always dirty I have become a pull up master. You can start with one pull up, you can even ask someone to initially hold you and take some of the weight off until you get strong enough to do it on your own. You can do these at the gym, playgrounds (dont be shy), or like me install a simple doorframe pull up bar at home.

Lower body strength:

Forward, backaward and side lunges: done correctly these also tax your neuromuscular connection and help with stability. You can mix and match or done one type each day. To make it more taxing on your neuromuscular system, you can also do a walking forward lunge.

Basic Squats: the key to squats is form. How far down you go is totally up to you and depends on your strength and flexibility. So, no need to force yourself for a comlete bend all the way down, just do what feels comfortable to you. If you do not have access to a gym, you can always get creative for extra weight: those fancy decorative heavy books we call accumulate and never look at are a great way to add some weight. You can either hold them or place them in a backpack.

This is obviously a very basic but fundumental and complete set of ecerscises to reduce your risk of fall. If you already exercise, just make sure you include balance, upper, lower and core training. If this is all new to you, then start very slowly. If you notice any pain then stop and let me know. This is most likely due to weakness or poor range of motion which we should fix before you continue. And lastly, for those with an adventorous soul, you can also add to your regiment Tai Chi whcih has been shown to reduce your risk of fall. Mandel JCC gym in Beachwood has daily Tai Chi classes that includes most of these exercises.

Stay warm and stay on your legs. And always remember, the sun and the blue skies are always up there behind the clouds, so the ice is just a bad dream that will end soon!