It’s why the middle-aged lady falls when she runs the bases

We’ve all laughed at America’s Funniest Home Videos when the middle aged lady is running bases in the back yard and she can’t really stop and she ends up falling flat on her face (I least I laughed!)

So what happens? Why does she fall? Let’s assume she didn’t trip on anything to cause the fall​.

As she runs, she  gains a little speed as she rounds first base, but then she wants to stop on second base but she CAN’T STOP, over runs the base and ends up flat on her face because she can’t slow down. 

She cannot decelerate. That skill was lost a long time ago as life’s day to day obligations took over and she stopped taking care of herself and stopped moving and playing.

Deceleration is an important skill that prevents injury. You must be able to start, stop and control movement in an efficient way.​…and starting is usually pretty easy, it’s the stopping and controlling movement that gets people in trouble.

Here’s an example of an exercise (Banded deceleration skier swings) – it’s “sticking” the landing that we are working on. This is just one exercise to practice deceleration and control that you can do that will help you get stronger and more agile as you age.

While you may not be running bases in the back yard anytime soon, you might accidentally  step off a curb or you might be walking and suddenly remember that you need something from the other room so you pivot and turn quickly. It’s these type of “benign” activities when women get an injury doing “nothing” and it is because they’ve lost the ability to slow down and control their body’s movement.

If you’ve ever tweaked something when you were doing “nothing” you know exactly what I’m talking about!