The STAB:LE Program

🖐️ Balance Tip: Imagine the Wet Paint Trick! Ever tried a balance exercise and found yourself holding onto something for dear life? Or just touching it to try to hold the position? Well, this could actually be preventing you from improving your balance 😮

Physios: Whenever prescribing balance rehabilitation exercises it's important to consider that context is a form of progression... ...and that anxiety affects not just performance, but motor learning

Perhaps the single most important concept when it comes to improving balance: 👉 Select variations of the movement skill you're trying to improve BUT the level of difficulty is such such that you DO NOT need use of your hands Exercises like this 👇👇👇 do not improve balance.

The quote "exercise is medicine" is often thrown around... but imagine if a pharmacist didn't have even a basic understanding of frequency, dose & types of medication? Luckily there's A LOT of readily available data on the relationship between rep ranges, 1RM%, & training load

If an older adult can only just stand up from a chair 5 times in a row? Then every time they stand up they're working at an intensity equivalent of you doing a heavy squat at 85-90% of your 1RM several times every single day 👉 Strength training is the key to independence

🚨 Partial squats do NOT help an older adult with getting up off a low chair or toilet 🚨 👉 To improve depth of sit-to-stand, progressively lower the height of the sit-to-stand while training in the strength training repetition range

The single most important question a rehab physio can ask before they prescribe an exercise: Does the movement directly contribute to the client's functional goals? 🤔 ❌ SLS will NOT help someone hang out washing ❌ Standing heel-toe will NOT help negotiating a kerb

If your balance & mobility rehab client isn't able to at least volitionally step in ALL directions AND cross-and-step? Then they have NO business doing activities like foam mats, wobble boards, or tapping balloons C'mon physios, we can do better

🚨 Partial squats do NOT help an older adult with getting up off a low chair or toilet 🚨 👉 To improve depth of sit-to-stand, progressively lower the height of the sit-to-stand while training in the strength training repetition range

🛑 Single-leg stand is a poor predictor of falls, as well as a poor exercise to reduce falls It's a good exercise to: ✅ Improve how long someone can stand on one leg if that's the specific goal, or ✅ It's part-practice / a skill progression for a more complex motor skill

Here's an exercise program for client's who want to improve their ability to walk and get rid of their walking frame 👇👇👇 (pity there is 0% relationship between these exercises and the mobility skills clients need to reach their functional goals)

Exercises like this are FUN! But do they actually help? If a client has an over-reliance on ankle-strategy and a delayed step-response (which is A LOT of our clients) then exercises like this REINFORCE those NEGATIVE movement patterns Think before you prescribe.

If you're a Physio and you want to prevent your clients having a 'long lie'? 👉 The most simple and immediate impact you can have is by checking where clients are charging their fall alarm pendant

👉 7 tips to help prevent a ‘long lie’ ✅ Visit a physio who’s trained in coaching floor transfers If you’ve ever been stuck (or you’re just unsure) it’s worth seeing a physio who’s trained in this area (it’s possible to regain the ability to get up regardless of your age)

👉 7 tips to help prevent a ‘long lie’ ✅ Practice getting onto your hands & knees One of the biggest reasons people can't get up off the floor is: 👉 Not being able to first get onto hands & knees (the easier methods of getting up off the floor have this as the first steps)

👉 7 tips to help prevent a ‘long lie’: ✅ Practice getting up off the floor until you can do at least 10 in a row If you can get up off the floor BUT it's so hard you can only do a couple in a row... ...then you're still at VERY HIGH RISK of getting stuck on the floor

👉 7 tips to help prevent a ‘long lie’: ✅ Turn on the 'voice activation’ on your mobile phone. This feature is pretty much standard with modern phones... ...and when it's enabled, it can be a life saver after a fall.

Physios who are effective at balance and mobility rehab have some things in common 👉 Here's 4 key things the exercises they prescribe have in common:

👉 7 tips to help prevent a ‘long lie’: ✅ Keep your phone down low If you’re at risk of falling but you're not going to wear a fall alarm pendant when you're home alone?

PSA 📣 There is no age bracket where it becomes 'normal' to rely on arms to get up from a chair (people who have insufficient leg strength are one sore arm from losing their independence) 👉 HINT: All the seated leg extensions in the world DO NOT improve sit-to-stand