So its a new week and I’m reading films from the Emergency Room. That’s what radiologists do… right?… And what do I see?… fractures, a lot of fractures. It’s been a busy weekend and there’s no shortage of accidents… many preventable. Forearm fractures from falling on an outstretched arm... but more significantly… HIP fractures.
If there’s any one thing that can land an elderly person in the ER, its falling, and fracturing the hip…and that is a big no bueno.. because it can lead to a whole host of downstream morbidities that hasten your demise.
So how do you make yourself physically resilient and “harder to kill” ? Today’s nugget.. “don’t fall.” If you think about it, gravity is always trying to push us down and have us do a face plant or plop on our butts. The very act of standing and walking is a conscious effort to “not” fall. When you run, you are trying not to fall, one leg at a time. We need to tighten our glutes and core to stay upright and not fall.
Which then leads us to the topics of exercise and differentiating training for performance versus training for longevity. At some point in one’s life you realize that training 7 days a week to run a sub 4 hour marathon may not work for you. Walking a lot and lots of daily slow movements and doing some essential movements like squats, lunges, pushups, planks and pullups is really what us boomers need to get to maintain muscle mass. Everyone’s situation is different of course and that’s why we call it YOUR PrimalMed Prescription.
The whole idea of building and maintaining muscle as a strategy to promote longevity and delay aging and maintain and enhance your metabolic health is KEY and one that we will touch on often.
The TL:DR is move often, stand when you can, walk, take the stairs, and oh yeah…walk some more. Walk 10-15 minutes after every meal ( theres a reason for that.. we’ll talk about that later ).. engage and tighten your core and butt and thighs and wake em up.. so that they are strong enough to support your next stumble.
Today’s PrimalMed prescription, think movement rather than exercise, and engage your core in a meaningful way throughout the day to avoid falling.