The Purpose of This Test
What one-legged standing can tell you is your fracture risk. We always hear how balance becomes an issue as we age, but at what point do we need to take balance training? You can watch the above video for a quick and dirty test that you can perform at home. From this one-legged standing test we can learn how to decrease the risk for:
- Future fracture,
- Osteoporosis complications, and
- Hip fractures
In older adults. This demographic has the most far-reaching consequences in terms of disability-reduced quality of life and increased mortality. I know it all seems like bad news, but I’ve got some good news coming your way.
Hip Fractures
How do hip fractures occur to anyone from falls, so the more we can do to reduce the likelihood of falls, the less likely we have for hip fractures. Finally, a loss of muscle strength, slower reflexes, poor vision, or drugs that impair balance can contribute to increased fall risk. The good news is that most of these factors of aging are modifiable. This means they’re under our control to some extent. We will get into these other components in future episodes, but for today, we’re going to dive into the one-legged standing test. Then, we’re going to discuss the implications of the test for your intentional aging process with fair reliability. This screening tool is able to predict your future fracture risk.
Building a Health Foundation
One tool is rarely a good replacement for a combination of overlapping yet distinct tests. If you still have concern over your balance, you might consider performing another test called the timed up and go test. Subscribe to my youtube channel for access to this additional at-home test. I encourage you to watch this series to better hone in on how to improve your balance, your strength, and most importantly, your physical resiliency as you age.
– Patrick Donovan
