[00:00:00] Jenn Trepeck: Welcome to Salad with a side of Fries. I'm your host, Jen Tpic, talking wellness and weight loss for real life. We're here to clear up the myths, misinformation, bad science and marketing to teach you how to eat and how to cheat. Are you ready? I'm having salad with a side of Friess this week. We're talking about stability, and I mean stability as in.

[00:00:29] Balance, like physical balance, not balance in our food choices or balance between work and life or any other time or way in our lives these days. We use the word balance. I mean physical balance or stability, the ability to remain upright, to not fall over, to catch ourselves from falling. And I believe this is so foundationally important for health.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] Yet, I believe it is way too overlooked when we talk about physical fitness, and I admit even in early episodes of this podcast and earlier in my years of health coaching and lifestyle coaching, we would say there are three components of a fitness routine, cardio, strength, and flexibility. Now, almost 20 years later, the last couple years, I say there are four components.

[00:01:30] Cardio, strength, flexibility, and stability or balance. Rj, can I ask you a question?

[00:01:38] RJ: Go for it.

[00:01:40] Jenn Trepeck: If you had to guess in a year how many Americans end up in the emergency room because of a fall, what would you say?

[00:01:48] RJ: Oh my gosh. I train fighters. For living. So it happens so much. It's insane. It's insane how people neglect the intrinsic muscles in your feet and [00:02:00] their tendon stiffness and elasticity.

[00:02:02] They have no idea how conducive that is to just general joint health. Yep. Up the kinetic chain.

[00:02:07] Jenn Trepeck: Yeah.

[00:02:07] RJ: You know,

[00:02:08] Jenn Trepeck: so if you had to guess how many Americans end up at the emergency room because of a fall in a year?

[00:02:14] RJ: A a lot. How many Americans in a year? Mm-hmm. To at least a million,

[00:02:20] Jenn Trepeck: 3 million. It is the leading cause of injury, an injury related death for people over 65.

[00:02:29] RJ: Do you have a statistic on like athletes in general just

[00:02:32] Jenn Trepeck: No, we'd have to look it up.

[00:02:34] RJ: Oh, okay. Okay.

[00:02:35] Jenn Trepeck: I don't know. It would be, you know, an interesting rabbit hole for sure. I mean, certainly athletes, this is going to happen less than the average person, and we'll talk more about that in a second. If you go back to our episode with Dr.

[00:02:48] John nsta about bone density and the problem with bone density scans, we talked a little bit about some of this, and he said, and by the way, this was late 2023, so at that time [00:03:00] he said, every 30 seconds, somewhere in the world, somebody with osteoporosis is breaking a bone. Right? He also said, if you have osteoporosis and fracture a hip.

[00:03:13] There's a 36% chance that you're going to be dead within a year, and your risk of dying is elevated for up to 10 years after that. What this translates to in my mind is that our ability to keep ourselves from falling is paramount to longevity. And the beautiful thing is that what we do to build and maintain balance and stability.

[00:03:40] Also supports longevity in other ways beyond just preventing falling. So because fundamentally when we practice balance, we challenge our balance, we build strength, and studies have shown that strength and balance are related. So that's why I said to you, I think [00:04:00] athletes certainly would have a lesser number than the average person in terms of the stats of ending up, you know, in an emergency room because of a fall.

[00:04:09] And in the research resistance exercise may elicit significant improvements in balance, ability, physical strength, and muscle are your longevity.

[00:04:22] RJ: Oh yeah. Biometrics.

[00:04:24] Jenn Trepeck: So, I mean, isometric builds muscle too.

[00:04:28] RJ: Oh yeah. That, that also, yeah.

[00:04:29] Jenn Trepeck: You know, so the piece here is that building muscle resistance exercise helps support strength.

[00:04:37] And balance, right? These two things are related. Balance and stability is really what we need to prevent these falls, right? In addition to the muscle. So I'm sure some of you are going, but really right, if we just stay off ladders and step stools as we age. Isn't that enough? [00:05:00] And that I say, no, sorry, not sorry.

[00:05:05] So balance is required to do most activities of daily living, walking, standing up from a chair or getting up off the couch, leaning over, bending down to tie your shoes or someone else's activities of daily living require balance, stability, and. We also must realize that balance naturally decreases with time, with age, and not just because we're less active.

[00:05:37] That simply compounds the issue. So we have the muscles that support our bones and joints, and that's a piece of stability. The other piece of stability are our senses. So there are three sensory systems that contribute to stability, vestibular, [00:06:00] visual, and proprioceptive systems. So vestibular is connected to the inner ear.

[00:06:06] So this is referred to as like the balance sense, the visual system we know. But in this case, it's really connected, like the eye connects to the vestibular system of the inner ear. And when we move, you know, it's all connected. Then proprioception. The proprioceptive system is our internal sense of where our body is in space.

[00:06:32] So there are receptors in muscles, in joints, in ligaments, in in the skin that connect to our proprioception. So all three systems, the vestibular, the visual and proprioceptive systems decline with H and at the same time, we can use these systems. To help ourselves. So what I love about adding balance or stability training to your routine is that it doesn't have to [00:07:00] take up a ton of extra time.

[00:07:01] Maybe it's a few minutes, but it doesn't even have to be extra because we can simply adjust how we're doing certain things that we're already doing to improve our stability. So we can do exercises we're already doing and add stability challenges to strength training. The objective is anything we do that challenges our ability to keep us upright.

[00:07:24] So essentially using your core and your legs supports stability. So you could stand on one foot while doing a bicep curl. Any movement that we do standing or upright requires some level of stability, and when we alter that center of gravity, we give the body added challenge. So this might look like standing on one foot, doing a bicep curl.

[00:07:52] Maybe you stand on one foot while doing dishes. Now, I will say the caveat to that is make sure that we don't [00:08:00] lock out the knee of the standing leg and make sure that you're not sinking into that standing hip, you know? But you could stand on one leg while you're doing anything. You could make it more intense, maybe do some challenging yoga poses.

[00:08:16] Maybe close your eyes, right? Eliminate one of those other sensory systems and that's added challenge.

[00:08:26] RJ: Uhhuh, you could use a hydro.

[00:08:28] Jenn Trepeck: You do. You could use, you know, like in gyms they have the half bosu thing, or a balance board. Yeah. First of all. Yep. Well, but the half one that people will use for balance and the thing that I say on that is work with a professional if you're using it, I see a lot of people kind of.

[00:08:44] Going a little overboard on those. So work with the pro shows,

[00:08:48] RJ: surfing on it while they're doing their battle ropes.

[00:08:51] Jenn Trepeck: Exactly, exactly. And I don't know, like that's not necessarily what we need. That can even create injury.

[00:08:58] RJ: I know. How can be.

[00:08:59] Jenn Trepeck: Yeah. [00:09:00] Even doing a reverse lunge, right? Standing on one foot and stepping backward works our stability.

[00:09:07] You could walk around your house like you're on a tightrope. Where your heel is going directly in front of the toe of the other foot and walking like you're on a tightrope. That

[00:09:18] RJ: right.

[00:09:19] Jenn Trepeck: Challenges are stability.

[00:09:21] RJ: I don't know if it's on your list, but you can do, you shouldn't have to walk on your heels.

[00:09:25] Yeah, walk on your tippy toes. They're laying yellow more. You're

[00:09:28] Jenn Trepeck: changing your center of gravity with that. Exactly.

[00:09:31] RJ: Yeah. There's another called heel toe walk where you, you start on your heel, you roll onto the ball of your foot and then you tippy toe and you just keep walking like that.

[00:09:39] Jenn Trepeck: Yes. And what you're doing with that is the ankle and every tendon ligament bone in your foot is getting use and practice and staying malleable, you know, doing and moving as they're supposed to.

[00:09:56] You could not use your hands and stand up from a chair [00:10:00] or get up off the ground again. That's a great no hands. Tai Chi also works balance and stability over time to make it more challenging. You can hold various positions for longer. You could add more movement while you're holding one leg in the air, or like we said before, close your eyes while you're doing something.

[00:10:22] If you start by doing these moves and you are holding onto a chair or the wall, over time, do it without that extra support. In general, we do want to strengthen the entire body to improve balance core legs, glutes, back. Now, experts will say your arm strength doesn't support balance, but in my world, I believe that strengthening our arms.

[00:10:49] Can help in the case of falling, because if we can catch ourselves without breaking a bone in the upper body, that would be helpful. So I'm a fan of the entire [00:11:00] body, but especially when it comes to that stability piece. Core, legs, glutes, back, ankles, feet. You know, the more muscle we have to support the joints and bones, the better off we're going to be.

[00:11:14] RJ: 'cause if you fall back and you catch yourself, you can pop your shoulder out socket. If it's not strong enough. Exactly like it hasn't been, you know, trained.

[00:11:22] Jenn Trepeck: Right now, in an ideal scenario, we're not catching ourselves entirely with our upper body, which is I think the theory behind doing all of the other pieces, and I am with you, it makes sense to work everything so that in that scenario.

[00:11:37] We are safe. We're safer than the alternative. And you can Google or use YouTube to find stability exercises for every level. If you go to group fitness classes, mention it to the instructor that you wanna work on stability. If you have a trainer mention it, [00:12:00] because if it's not on their radar already, if it's not part of how they're programming your workout.

[00:12:07] I'm choosing my words carefully. I'm just gonna say, it must be part of it. Say something to ensure that it's,

[00:12:16] RJ: yeah. 'cause I, I'm not sure how good of a coach I am, but I al I play this little game for a warmup with my clients. It's like, um, especially with the group class. 'cause they're, they're older women and, um, I have him, I'll say, find something to hold onto.

[00:12:29] Stand on one foot, close your eyes, and they'll say, all right, everybody ready? 30 seconds, let go. As soon as you're about to fall, open your eyes and then look around before you even rely on using your hands. And they, they love it. Yeah, it's fun for them.

[00:12:44] Jenn Trepeck: And you can try that at home without needing any equipment or doing anything.

[00:12:49] You could do it while you're waiting for something else to happen. So there you have it, friends. Stability is the fourth pillar of proper [00:13:00] movement, fitness, activity, routines. Well, as always, everybody, I'm Jen Trebeck, your health coach and host. Connect with me on Instagram or all social media. I'm at Jen Tpic.

[00:13:11] J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is AAL to the side of fries.com. Pick your platform, send a message like RJ who joined us this week. I love hearing from you, so please send a message. This is also the easiest way to learn more about working with me as your health coach. And rj thank you again for joining me.

[00:13:31] RJ: Thank you for having me. This was awesome. I learned a lot.

[00:13:34] Jenn Trepeck: Oh, I'm so glad. And of course, everybody, if you are not already a member, I invite you to the Happy Healthy Hub. You'll go to a salad with the side of fries.com/membership. This does your support for this podcast, this community, and most importantly, it supports your health.

[00:13:51] On top of the 24 7, ask Me Anything. Community chat discounts, curated content interview episodes. In full video, you'll get this week's recipe for the [00:14:00] cauliflower rice. With Pistachio Chicken Well Friends, that's it for today's episode of Salad with a Side of Fries. Congratulations for making yourself and your health a priority.

[00:14:11] Thanks so much for joining us. Be sure to click subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast platform. Share us with a friend and we'll be back next week. Always remember you deserve it and you are worth it. Happy, healthy.