Try Tai Chi for Balance and Fall Prevention

Villa Gardens Residents Practice Tai Chi

By Debbie L. Miller

Patricia Bethke Bing, 75, a retired community organizer in Knoxville, Tenn., has been practicing Tai chi for approximately 20 years. She practices three days a week, for 40 minutes, with a group of people around her age.

“I decided to do Tai chi for the health benefits, both mental and physical. I have no specific health issues, but I was looking to keep my good health and improve my leg strength,” said Bing. “Tai chi practice helps me to maintain my good balance, strength, and flexibility.”

Tai chi, also known as Tai chi chuan, is a Chinese martial art performed with slow, controlled postures and movements. Enthusiasts practice it for defense or health, or both.

Tai Chi Is Helpful for Balance

Recently, several studies have addressed the benefits of Tai chi for older adults. A 2014 analysis of research on Tai chi and balance, “Improvement of balance control and flexibility in the elderly Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) practitioners” in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics concluded that “TCC practice was beneficial to improve the balance control ability and flexibility of older adults, which may be the reason for preventing falls.”

Peter M. Wayne, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and director of research at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, has been studying the health effects of Tai chi for 18 years and practicing it for 40.


“Across multiple studies, Tai chi appears to reduce risk of falling by 20 to 45 percent and is considered one of the best exercises available for ambulatory older adults with balance concerns,” Wayne explained.

Falling: A Serious Risk for Older Adults

Falls are the leading cause of accidental death among people age 65 and older. “In an effort to find ways to prevent falls among older adults, researchers have been investigating specific exercises, like Tai chi, that target both the physical and cognitive fundamentals of mobility,” said Brad Manor, director of Mobility and Brain Function Lab at the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew Senior Life and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.



Credit: Michael Miller

“We and others have shown that regular Tai chi practice aids the muscular system, movement coordination, balance, and even higher-level cognitive skills such as complex reaction time and problem solving,” Manor said, “which together enable us to move throughout our environment and complete our daily activities safely without falling.”

Many factors work together to prevent falling, including balance and stability. “Unfortunately, even falls that don’t result in injury or death often have a very real and significant negative impact on quality of life,” Manor said. The result? A cycle of fear and risk of future falls. “These falls often lead to fear of falling, reduced physical activity, depression and lack of social engagement — all of which, in turn, increase the risk of suffering another fall.”

Biomechanics (how we measure and control our movement, how it changes with age and how movement relates to balance) is an important factor in the balance/fall equation.

“Our balance control system is incredibly complex and, with aging, there is a decline in sensory and muscle function,” Manor said. Tai chi helps with the ability to maintain balance, especially when we’re doing more than one thing at the same time (dual tasking), a skill which also decreases as we age.

Research Confirms the Benefits of Tai Chi

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), part of the government’s National Institutes of Health, summarized the benefits of Tai chi and concluded that “Practicing tai chi may help to improve balance and stability in older people.”

At Beacon Hill, a residential living community in Lombard, Ill., one of the residents leads an hour-long Tai chi class two days a week. “During the class, residents, who are between 62 and 93 years of age, sit or stand, depending on what feels most comfortable,” said Marc H. Raben, director of lifestyle at Beacon Hill.

Tai chi’s benefits go beyond the physical. “It is highly spiritual and also helps with focusing and calming the mind, as well as with balance,” Raben added. Several studies have shown tai chi to be helpful for those suffering from depression, hypertension, arthritis and fibromyalgia.

“Tai chi helps me mentally, as one must concentrate on the moves and the sequence in order to get the full benefit,” Bing explained. “I find the practice calming and centering, and it helps me emotionally. Tai chi is a pause from daily stresses and a safe comfortable place to be quiet.”


© Next Avenue - 2018. All rights reserved.

Stretches and Exercises for Tired, Achy Legs

4 ways to ease leg and knee pain caused by overdoing it

By Linda Melone for Next Avenue

Thinkstock

Whether you took a longer walk than usual, tried a new exercise or simply spent all day on your feet, achy legs can make your whole body hurt.

If the achiness stems from exercise, blame it on micro-tears in the muscle cells themselves, says Irv Rubenstein, an exercise physiologist and founder of S.T.E.P.S., in Nashville, Tenn. The little tears spark an inflammatory process that’s necessary for healing. “It occurs and enables proper reconstruction of the damaged tissue,” Rubenstein says.

Another cause of achy legs and knees is the normal aging process. We experience changes in connective tissue (cartilage), which can cause tightness, according to John Fenger, manager of outpatient rehabilitation at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif.

However, if your legs cramp up when you’re walking down the street for no obvious reason, it’s time to schedule a doctor’s appointment, Fenger says. “The pain may be due to an occlusion (blockage) or it may be neurological,” he notes.

For normal aches and tightness, simple stretches and specific exercises can help you ease back to your normal routine sooner.

Here are four ways you can help ease leg aches and pains:

1. Try hair of the dog. Perform a lower intensity, lower volume (reps, sets) version of the activity that made you sore, suggests Rubenstein. If you usually walk vigorously, slow down your pace and cut down the distance. If your soreness is due to lifting weights, cut the weight or do the move without weight and go with fewer sets and repetitions.

In addition, extend your warm-up, suggests Rubenstein, since muscles are not just sore but stiff.

“This way, you can be sure you’re pushing blood (and its accompaniment, oxygen) into muscles to speed healing,” he says, while helping the lymphatic system remove the "damaged" tissue and toxins.

2. Break up your workouts throughout the day. To strengthen legs and ease knee pain, try intermittent squats. “Recent studies show that performing squats may be beneficial to knees when done in small increments during the day, but not when sets are done one after the other,” says Fenger.

For example, instead of performing a set of 15 reps followed by a second set, do one set and then another four hours later and so on during the day to stave off pain without wearing down the knee joint.

Sequential sets may lead to the breakdown of the integrity of the knee cartilage. “Each set causes further breakdown," explains Fenger. "But this does not happen if you allow a rest period in between.”

3. Do tai chi or yoga. A number of studies show the benefits of tai chi on pain relief, including when the pain stems from fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and low back pain.

“This gentle martial art includes many movement patterns and benefits people with leg pain and fatigue,” says Fenger, who also recommends modified and gentle styles of yoga. Qualified tai chi instructors may be found online at AmericanTaiChi.net, or check Amazon for DVDs for guidance. (Always tell your tai chi or yoga instructor if you are in pain, and ask for modified moves if necessary.)

4. Stretch. Stretches allow for better post-exercise mobility and ease of getting around. “And they may help you feel better,” Rubenstein says. Stretches for specific, common achy muscles include:

Calf stretch:

• Stand behind a chair and hold your hands on the back for balance.
• Stand on your toes and hold the position for a few seconds then lower your heels back to the ground. Repeat several times. Avoid overstretching.

Quadriceps stretch (front of thighs):

• Stand on one leg and raise the other leg off the floor, bending at the knee.
• Gently pull your foot with the opposite hand and bring your foot close to your buttock.
• Hold onto a wall or a chair for balance. Hold 20 to 30 seconds and repeat with the other leg.

Hamstring stretch (backs of thighs):

• Sit on the ground and bend one leg, resting the foot of the bent leg on the inside of the opposite outstretched one.
• Bend at the waist and stretch forward, reaching the toes on the outstretched leg. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds and repeat on the other leg. Move slowly and gently; avoid bouncing.

Hip flexors (front of thighs, often responsible for low back tightness):

• Stand facing a bench approximately a leg’s length away; place right foot on the bench.
• Slowly lunge forward by bending the right leg to a lunge position, keep hands on hips and chest high while maintaining a straight left leg with heel on the ground. As you lean forward into the stretch you should feel a slight pull in your left hip flexor (just below the hip bone). Hold 20 to 30 seconds and switch legs.

Back pain stretch (this extended stretch takes gravity out of play, allowing back muscles to relax):

• Lie on your back, legs up and over a chair with knees bent at 90 degrees with arms straight out from the shoulders with palms up; relax and feel the body and low back settle into floor (do not force). Hold five minutes.

Copyright© 2014 Next Avenue, a division of Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.

Front Porch is a not-for-profit support system for a family of companies that serve individuals and families through full-service retirement, active adult communities, and affordable housing communities.

More information is available a www.frontporch.net.