Falls are a normal part of life. I don’t think any of us expect to go through life without a couple of bumps along the road. However, as we age these “bumps” can seem more like mountains and barriers to us living our highest quality of life. Here at WPT, we are not only committed to improving the issues that brought you through the door, but to ensure these “bumps” don’t happen again.

The most common causes of falling typically involve something called a “functional fall”. A functional fall typically includes an obstacle in your way that would otherwise not seem so scary. This can include loose rugs, wet floors, our even our adorable cuddly pets. These innocent obstacles can be cause for a major injury. Our goal is to give you the tools to ensure a little slip doesn’t turn into a trip to the hospital or broken bone.

How is your balance? Do you think you can stand on 1 leg for a minute? 30 seconds? 10 seconds? Even 5 seconds? Balance is one of those things that we don’t test as often as we did when we were young. We used to slide across the ice and unstable surfaces. Where now we make an effort to walk around those. We may not ever purposefully get those ice-skates back on but we want you to gain the confidence in your legs and yourself!

Studies show that some things linked to falls involve muscle weakness, foot pain, poor footwear, deficits in balance and gait, decreased range of motion, and issues with blood pressure put you at risk for falling. Therefore the best way to prevent falls is to continue to stay physically active!

Our goal in improving muscle strength is to improve a stable base for extremities. This will help us move more efficiently, provide a stable base to move more effectively, and improve anticipatory and reactive strategies.

If you have been following WPT on our social media (linked below), then you know that we have been working through the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book has been helpful for us because it is helping us establish a framework for fostering existing habits and creating new habits in a healthy, impactful way.

We want to continue to demonstrate our commitment to our patients by having resources that can help you establish and work on your own goals. Resources like these will help institute the positive behavior changes that are necessary for improving your health and well-being.

In this book there are four outlines. These outlines are:

1. It needs to be obvious.
2. It needs to be easy.
3. It needs to be attractive.
4. It needs to be satisfying.

Today we are going to talk about making it easy. The best way to do this is by using something called “implementation intention”. To break it down, an implementation intention is an “if-then plan” with the ultimate objective of leading to better goal attainment. The way it does this is with habit and behavior modification. This tool is used to portion out when, where, and how this goal-directed behavior is going to happen.

The research for this topic speaks for itself. In 2001, researchers in Great Britain conducted a study with 248 people in an effort to build better exercise habits over a 14 day period. These test subjects were divided into three different groups. Group one was the control group, their task was to track their current exercise habits with no exterior motivation. The second group was called the “motivation group”. This group was not only asked to track their habits, but also read content that focused on the benefits of exercise as it relates to coronary heart disease. The third group had the same specifications as the second group, with one added element. The third group was asked to make an exercise plan for the next two weeks. They followed a specific template, “During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME] in [PLACE].”

The results were as follows. 38% of participants in group one exercised at least one time a week, 35% of participants in group two exercised at least one time a week, and 91% of participants in group three exercised at least one time a week. So what does this mean? Simply put, by writing down their intentions, group three had a framework for what their plan was and how they were going to do it. Because they manifested this goal, it was easier for them to make it happen.

By completing implementation intention, you can start to make changes in your life that can help you with your goal. Understanding whether something is serving you well is the first step. In order to help assist you in identifying your habits, we have free worksheets that you can download here.

Stay tuned for more habits content!

Source: https://jamesclear.com/implementation-intentions

If you have been following us on our social media (linked below), then you know that we have been working through the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book has been helpful at WPT because it is helping us establish a framework for fostering existing habits and creating new habits in a healthy, impactful way.

We want to continue to demonstrate our commitment to our patients by having resources that can help you establish and work on your own goals. Resources like these will help institute the positive behavior changes that you want to see that are necessary for improving your health and well-being.

In this book there are four outlines. These outlines are:

1. It needs to be obvious.
2. It needs to be easy.
3. It needs to be attractive.
4. It needs to be satisfying.

Today we want to focus on making it obvious. The most essential way to make something obvious is to be aware of the habits that you currently have and understand if those habits are serving you well in the long term. Here is an example:

In this instance, the theoretical goal is weight loss. The work ahead of you is pretty obvious. You need to diet and you need to exercise. Before you can set out the parameters of a meal plan and a gym regimen, you need to assess your current habits. Let’s say everyday at work you drink a can of coke and every night before bed you have a bowl of ice cream, addressing these habits can help you lose weight. One way to change this is to switch the can of coke for a mug of tea or a beverage with less sugar. One of my favorite ways to add a bit of flavor to water is with a Nuun tablet. For the ice-cream, maybe try having it 2 hours before bed instead of right before bed. If you eat right before bed, your body isn’t working to get the sleep it needs because it is digesting food. Not getting enough sleep can contribute to a plateau in weight-loss and in some cases, weight gain.

By identifying these habits you can start to make changes in your life that can help you with your goal. Understanding whether something is serving you well is the first step. In order to help assist you in identifying your habits, we have free worksheets that you can download here.

Stay tuned for more habits content!