3 Best Power Osteoporosis Exercises For Seniors (Prevent Falls)

imagine you're going for a walk and you accidentally trip over something and you're starting to fall and you quickly put out your arm and your leg and you catch yourself no big deal danger averted you almost fell but you cut yourself and life goes on however for some of my senior clients they'll tell me that they're falling but they can't seem to get their hands up fast enough or they can't seem to step out fast enough and I've had clients get significantly hurt facial fractures broken arms because they've lost the ability to to quickly move to protect themselves if they're falling in this video we'll go over three power exercises for both upper and lower extremities to keep you on your feet independent and without a fracture hello everyone welcome to the channel Ed Deo physical therapist from integrated physical therapy in Bellingham Washington when we talk about a power exercise we're basically referring to the speed of contraction so for example if I'm just standing and doing a bicep curl nice and slow nice and steady squeezing the top there's absolutely nothing wrong with this and if I do it with enough intensity enough weight my bicep is going to come back stronger however if we want to increase the power we have to increase the speed of contraction so for example instead of coming up nice and slow I would come up as fast as I can come up as fast as I can with that and what that's doing is it's building what we call type two muscle fibers which is more of the quick contraction which is what we need if I'm falling or if I have to reach out for something quickly so we have to train that muscle because as we get older the type two muscle fibers also tend to diminish so not only do we lose strength but we also lose the quickness that's involved and protecting ourselves if we need to the first exercise we're going to talk about is a wall pushup but we're going to make this wall push-up into a power exercise but what's first important is that when you're learning the exercise is to just first work on form and technique so what you'll do is you'll stand a little bit away from the wall and you're just going to bring your arms up here your hand should be about shoulder height and then what we'll do first is we're just going to go nice and slow and we're just going to work on wall push-ups if you have pain with this movement or if you have difficulty with your shoulders then this probably isn't a great exercise for you to do but assuming that you don't have pain and then you can do the wall push-ups without any trouble then we're going to start making into a power exercise now remember one of the big things that we have to work on is getting our arms out quickly in case we're falling so as I'm standing facing the wall what I'm going to do first is bring my arms up as fast as I can and back down and I'm just getting my arms used to moving quickly making sure there's no pain with that and I'll have you do five of those and then we're going to make it a bit more challenging you're you're going to step out just a little bit and now you're going to lean forward and obviously you need to be safe but you're going to lean forward and then you're going to practice catching yourself so what we're doing here is we're training the muscles to absorb the impact as well too and we're creating positive stress through our body if that's too much come in a little bit lean just a little bit and put your arms up here if you need to do this exercise with someone else that can help support you just in case cuz I don't want you to get hurt but we do need to practice this kind of motion now assuming you can do this and it feels pretty good this is what it looks like you're going to lean forward catch yourself do a pushup and come back out again once you have the wall pushup down we're going to add three quick up and down heel lifts as well too in between reps so this is what it's going to look like stand here catch yourself push up one two three one two three one two three and what I'll have you do is I'll have you repeat that 10 times this next exercise involves a squat with an overhead press so once again we have to make sure that you don't have pain with this exercise if you do it's just not a good exercise for you do at this point but first of all nice sturdy chair fold your arms across your chest and we're just going to practice on sitting down and standing back up again if that is pretty easy what we're going to do is we're going to make it into a power exercise which basically means increasing the speed of contraction so what I'm going to do is go down nice and slow and I'm going to come up as fast as I can so down slow and then up fast down slow and up fast as you get stronger what you can do rather than sitting all the way in the chair is just hover so slow down hover and back up as fast as you can explode slow down and then back up again once that starts to get easy we're going to add some upper body pressing to the mix as well too I recommend starting off with cans of soup basically they're one pound each what you'll do is you're going to have your cans of soup right here about shoulder height you're going to go ahead and sit down you're going to stand up as fast as you can and we're going to push up and then back to neutral slowly sit down slowly here and then explode up there we go back slow and then explode up very nice and you'll be surprised at how fast your heart rate gets going with this exercise as well too so if you want to once again three sets total the first one or two sets can be more slow and traditional and that third set let's make it powerful before we get to one of my favorite exercises the power punch I'm going to talk to you about a 14-day osteoporosis challenge I have coming up here are the details getting the diagnosis of osteoporosis can often times be overwhelming and leave you with a whole host of questions but often times you just get the generic advice take vitamin D take your calcium do weightbearing exercises but there is so much more that you can do to help manage and take care of your osteoporosis [Music] by the end of my 14-day challenge you will feel empowered to take control of your osteoporosis we will cover topics on nutrition balance posture strength training we'll learn how to manage stress but what about yoga Ed can I still do yoga with osteoporosis yes we have a full day of the challenge dedicated to Safe modifications so you can continue to do your Daily Yoga practice each day you'll watch a short video and learn a new skill to help you manage your osteoporosis hello everyone welcome to day 13 of the challenge everyone welcome to day seven of the challenge we are halfway through little friends today is day eight of the challenge and today it's all about core strengthening exercises now watching the video is great but there has to be an action component if we really want to make lasting change so I'm going to hold you accountable because everyday's challenge we'll have a little bit of homework so you will have to submit proof that you've done your homework and then I'll be happy to give you feedback encouragement and help hold you accountable remember even the longest journey starts with just one step and the best part is I'll be with you for every step of the way my name is Ed Duo and I challenge you to complete my lead month now if you're watching this video after I've already run the challenge don't worry I'm going to run it again make sure you sign up for our Facebook group put the link down below because that's where I'll be advertising my future challenges this one's osteoporosis but I got a lot more that I'm thinking about now back to the power punch the power punch is going to help us quickly gain strength and speed with our upper body so once again couple cans of soup I'm going to be in this position right here and then we're going to start off nice and slow and controlled so I'm on the balls of my feet I'm kind of light and bouncy I've engaged my core scalp in my back pocket and I'm just going to punch out nice and slow first I'm just going to get used to the motion assuming there's no pain remember if you have pain with this exercise it's just not a good exercise for you to do at this time but let's say you don't you're getting used to it you're punching back and forth one two once that starts to get a little bit easier add some speed to it one two one two one two fast as you can comfortably we'll do five punches and then what we're going to do is we're going to move our feet as as fast as we can and switch them and do five more are you ready so let's get in position here we'll do it together and here we go one two three four five now switch your feet as fast as you can one 2 three four five switch your feet as fast as you can and then repeat five more reps on each side so a total of 10 reps on each side when you're switching legs you can go ahead and give it a switch this way if that's a little bit too much just move them as fast as you can but if not go ahead and give it a jump I strongly recommend a strength training program for both upper and lower body that incorporates some power exercises that are suitable for you at least two to three times per week okay everyone thank you for watching if you have any questions about power exercises let me know and hey hopefully I'll see you at my 14-day osteoporosis challenge remember to sign up for the Facebook group group if you missed the first running of the challenge all right take care keep exercising and I'll see you with the next video