Why Balance Is Critical for Overall Health
Balance is fundamental to nearly every movement you make, from walking and climbing stairs to reaching for objects and changing positions. Good balance allows you to move confidently through daily activities while reducing your risk of falls and injuries. As we age or recover from injury, balance naturally deteriorates, making simple tasks increasingly challenging and dangerous.
Poor balance affects more than just physical stability. It impacts your independence, confidence, and quality of life. Fear of falling often leads to reduced activity levels, which further weakens muscles and worsens balance in a destructive cycle. Falls represent a leading cause of injury-related hospitalisation, particularly among older adults, making balance training not just beneficial but essential for maintaining long-term health and autonomy.
Balance physio addresses these concerns through targeted assessment and treatment. Physiotherapists identify the underlying factors contributing to balance problems, whether muscle weakness, joint stiffness, inner ear issues, or neurological conditions, and develop personalised programs to restore stability and confidence in movement.
Key Benefits of Balance Physio
Balance physio offers comprehensive advantages that extend throughout your daily life:
- Fall prevention and injury reduction: Targeted exercises strengthen stabilising muscles and improve reaction time, significantly decreasing fall risk and the serious injuries that often accompany falls.
- Enhanced mobility and independence: Improved balance allows you to navigate various terrains, manage stairs confidently, and perform daily tasks without assistance or fear.
- Increased strength and coordination: Balance training engages multiple muscle groups simultaneously, building functional strength while improving body awareness and movement control.
- Better posture and body alignment: Balance exercises promote proper positioning of your spine and joints, reducing strain and preventing compensatory movement patterns that lead to pain.
- Improved confidence in movement: As your stability improves, you gain confidence to participate in activities you may have avoided, enhancing overall quality of life and social engagement.
- Faster recovery from injury or surgery: Balance physio accelerates rehabilitation by retraining movement patterns and rebuilding the neuromuscular connections essential for coordinated movement.
- Prevention of future balance deterioration: Regular balance training maintains and even improves stability as you age, helping you stay active and independent longer.
Conditions That Benefit from Balance Physio
Balance physio effectively addresses numerous conditions affecting stability and movement:
- Vestibular disorders: Inner ear problems like benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), labyrinthitis, and vestibular neuritis causing dizziness and balance disturbances.
- Neurological conditions: Stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and peripheral neuropathy affecting coordination and balance control.
- Post-surgical recovery: Following hip or knee replacement, ankle surgery, or spinal procedures requiring balance retraining.
- Age-related balance decline: Natural deterioration in balance systems affecting older adults, increasing fall risk.
- Sports injuries: Ankle sprains, ACL tears, and concussions disrupting proprioception and stability.
- Musculoskeletal conditions: Arthritis, chronic pain conditions, and joint instability affecting movement confidence.
- Falls history: Anyone who has experienced falls or near-falls requiring assessment and prevention strategies.
Strength and Balance Physio in Malvern, Melbourne
To request a Strength and Balance appointment with ME Physio call us on (03) 9571 6888 or click the book now button.
At ME Physio we offer a range of services to improve your strength and balance. Utilising our onsite rehabilitation gym space, we have individual sessions or group based classes designed to reduced your risk of falling and improve your day to day fitness. Our strength and balance services are designed and tailored by our physiotherapists for those over the age of 60.
Our team of physiotherapists are experts at assessing your balance and providing an individualised program. Our programs will not only help improve your balance, but improve your overall strength and fitness to get you back doing the things you love.
Regardless of whether you have exercised before, our physiotherapists will be able to assist and ensure that you feel supported with an exercise program specifically designed to challenge you safely. As these programs are performed by our physiotherapists, we will be able to modify or adapt these exercises where required if there is previous injury or surgery.
You can be assured that these exercises are not only beneficial but also social with our exercise groups often getting a coffee at the local café nearby.
“I have had 4 knee surgeries and recovery has been spectacular due to regular exercise.”
Happiness is a healthier, stronger ME.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can we improve balance and prevent falls?
Balance exercises are specifically designed to challenge your internal systems by applying changes and perturbations making your body practice it’s righting response and reflexes.
These perturbations can be created by external or internal changes. This includes challenging your vision such as closing your eyes, or by changing your centre of gravity such as balancing with your feet together.
Your physiotherapists are well placed to ensure you challenge your balance in a safe environment based on a falls and balance assessment.
Why is balance important for falls prevention?
Improving your balance has been proven to reduce the likelihood of falling. In addition, balance and strength training has also been shown to reduce the severity of injuries associated with falling when falls are sustained.
What is the management of falls?
Your physiotherapist will be well equipped to assess your balance and likelihood of falling. They will perform a series of assessments to test our balance reflex and strength.
It is very important to note, that decreased balance is not a normal part of the ageing process. It is not normal to have an increase in falls as we get older. In fact, a lot of these changes where they occur are reversable with strength and balance training.
In addition, where required, your physiotherapist is able to prescribe and recommend the best gait aid such as a walking stick or frame. This is important as the aim of the gait aid is to assist with independence and balance without exacerbating or decreasing strength.
Does balance training prevent falls?
Balance training reduces the likelihood of falls and has been shown to reduce the likelihood of injuries associated with falling.
In addition to balance training, it is important to reduce their likelihood of falling by also considering appropriate and well fitting foot wear. Given the majority of falls occur within the home environment, it is also worthwhile to ensure that hallways are kept well clear and any falls risks such as cords or rugs are secured.