Gravity Sucks.

On today's walk in a well paved suburban neighborhood, I was rudely reminded that when I get tired and cocky that Mother Nature will give me a sound  reminder of my human condition.  

I fell.  Not badly, nothing broken, but one small plant that will never look quite the same. Bruises to hand, arm, and ego. I caught my foot, that is I did not pick up my foot as much as I should have.  It was toward the end of my walk and I was a bit tired. But once I started down, there was no recovery.

My mother had a similar fall.  So has my daughter. So perhaps there is some inherited tendency to let the foot drop in my DNA.  I know that my mother took some Senior Mobility classes at one point.  So I decided to do a search, and I am appalled.  As usual. Most of the stuff out there is about putting handles in your shower and not having throw rugs. Not much for those of us that are active, but limited.

So here is my list of things to do to limit and deal with falls:

1. Keep your hands out of your pockets. If you fall, you will need your hands. Having your hands free may also help you to avoid the fall in the first place.  If your hands get cold, use gloves. 
2. Learn how to fall. Hopefully you had parents that made sure you had judo training, or gymnastics as a child.  You need to have training to develop the muscle memory to tuck and roll as you fall.  No matter what age you are, you can still learn. (A small note  here: get your grandkids into some good fall training.  They will thank  you long after you are gone.)
3. Be more alert as you get tired. As you near the end of your walk you will be more distracted.  You will start thinking about the next thing you are going to do, or what you are going to make for supper. Focus on your walking, on picking your foot all of the way up.
4. Carry your cell phone when you go walking. If you fall, you may need assistance. In this time of fear, people may not stop to see if you are OK.  
5. Eyes and glasses. As we age, our eyes focus more slowly. Looking down at your feet, looking up at the flowers and trees.  This focus takes more time, so we do it less.  And when you wear bifocals, the problem can be even worse.  Government Research
6. Stay active. Even if you do not walk every day, take time to stand in place and lift your knees.  Do 10 knee lifts, right/left, right/left.  Do this several times a day.
7. Nutrition. Keeping yourself in good health should be Job One. And it gets more difficult as  you age.  Calcium and Vitamin D are extremely important to your walking conditioning.

Check out these websites.  They are kind of pathetic, but better than nothing:

CDC on Senior Falls This is the CDC list of resources for elders and fall care.  

How To Prevent Falls is a good article to read.  It is a good guide to just general health care, with some bits on walking.

Ten Best Balance Exercises for Seniors is by the same folks.  It has some really good balance improvers.

What is Walking Safety? This is one of those articles that is for me in 20 years, but there is a good instruction in how to fall.