Comprehensive Balance Assessment and Training
Falls are a major health problem and are the leading cause of injury for those 65 and older. Each year 1 in 3 older adults falls. Up to 30% of those falls result in serious lacerations, head trauma, fractures, or other severe injuries that require hospitalization.
If you’ve become afraid to participate in activities you once enjoyed, hold onto furniture or walls to get from place to place, use an assistive device such as a walker or cane, or often trip and stumble, ask your doctor for a referral to physical therapy.
At Back in Motion Physical Therapy, we will thoroughly screen you to determine the causes of your imbalance. Vision changes, hearing loss, and taking multiple medications may affect your balance. If we find you have any of those issues, we will recommend you see the appropriate doctor. Then, we use our expertise in human movement to design a plan to address the other contributions to your imbalance. We tailor this plan to your body and your lifestyle.
Our interventions may include improving your strength, endurance, flexibility, sensation, gait, or vestibular
function. We work on any neurologic challenges to your balance such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, or
history of stroke. Finally, we provide ideas on how to set up your home to minimize trip hazards and maximize safety. If you want to improve your balance and limit your risk of falls, call us to schedule your evaluation:
Alexandria (703) 924-2650, Lorton (703) 372-5716.
- Exercising regularly
- Ask your doctor or pharmacist to review your medicines. If you are taking 4 or more medications, this puts you at an increased risk for falls.
- Have your eyes checked by an eye doctor at least once a year.
- Make your home safer by reducing tripping hazards, adding grab bars inside and outside of the tub or shower, adding railings on both sides of the stairways and improving lighting in your home.
- Decreased Strength
- Decreased Flexibility
- Abnormal walking pattern
- Decreased Endurance
- Impaired Hearing/Vision
- Decreased Sensation
- Multiple Medications
- Neurological problems. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, head injury, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury.
- Orthopedic problems such as previous joint replacement, spine, hip, knee or ankle injuries.
- Your self selected walking speed: also known as gait velocity, is the 6th vital sign! You gait speed correlates with functional ability, balance confidence, fall risk and mortality! Your walking speed even has the potential to predict your future health status.
If you would like to perform a self-assessment of your fall risk please CLICK HERE
- Are you nervous to leave your home because you’re concerned about falling?
- Do you find yourself holding on to furniture or the wall to get between rooms in your house?
- Do you use an assistive device to walk?
- Do you often stumble or trip?
- Comprehensive balance assessment using valid and reliable balance tests
- Vestibular Screen
- Dynamic and static balance exercises
- Gait training
- Multiple sensory integration techniques
- Small group classes available
- Safe and effective strengthening routine
- Home exercise program
- Tips for home safety
