Seniors:Learn How "Fear of Falling" Causes Falls

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Does fear of falling cause falls?

[00:00:04]>> [music] >> Hi, my name is Doug. I've been a physical therapist for 30 years and I specialize in helping people with balance problems learn to walk again.

[00:00:16]In this video, I'm going to address a question that I'm asked all the time.

[00:00:21]How does fear of falling cause falls?

[00:00:25]So many of the clients that I see are afraid of falling. They might have had one or two falls and they've had some injuries or they might have never had a fall, but they're just afraid they're going to.

[00:00:37]The truth is fear of falling is actually a main and leading cause of falls.

[00:00:44]That might seem contradictory, but it's true. Studies have shown that when someone is afraid of having a fall, even if they've never fallen, that they actually walk differently. Their walking is more stiff. Their muscles and joints don't move the same way as someone that's not afraid of falling.

[00:01:02]This means that they're less likely to adjust to changes and they're much less likely to be able to resist a fall.

[00:01:09]Also, people that are afraid of falling tend to use the wrong strategy. In other words, when you walk over uneven ground, you're picking a strategy to do that.

[00:01:20]Maybe you walk with your feet a little wider apart or you have a little more bend in your knee, but if you're afraid of falling, you might do the opposite.

[00:01:29]You might walk with your legs too stiff or with your feet too close together.

[00:01:34]All of that can actually lead to more falling and studies have shown that one of the best ways to reduce your chance of falling is to reduce your fear of falling. So, how do you do this? Well, studies have shown that the best way to prevent falls and the best way to reduce someone's fear of falling is by doing balance challenging activities. Balance challenging activities are things that challenge our balance. They can be something like doing yoga or tai chi or even dancing.

[00:02:06]For a lot of people, it can be something as simple as practicing standing on one leg or practicing walking backwards.

[00:02:14]Anything that makes you feel challenged is a balance challenge.

[00:02:19]I think one of the biggest things that people make a mistake with is they want to do stuff that they feel comfortable doing. So, they're going to grab onto their walker or countertop and do exercises. But, that unfortunately will build strength, but it won't improve balance. I think one of the biggest things I've learned from all the research I've done is that while you can improve strength from doing strengthening exercises, that doesn't make you more likely to resist falls. I know a lot of people might disagree with that or feel almost that that's an offensive statement, but study after study and my own experience has proven this true.

[00:02:57]You can make someone incredibly strong.

[00:03:00]You can take an 85-year-old who's falling a lot and make their strength double, but they're still falling. The reason is because falls are not a result only of weakness. They're really a result of bad balance programming.

[00:03:16]They're a result of someone not having the familiarity of how to negotiate over uneven ground or to do things in a way that they did 30 years ago.

[00:03:27]Study after study has shown that falling does not relate to leg strength. And I know that might surprise a lot of people.

[00:03:36]But, what the studies have shown is that when you increase strength, even if you double strength in a person that's falling a lot, there's not a significant decrease in falls.

[00:03:47]But, if you take that same person and you do things that challenge their balance, have them practice standing on one leg, have them practice walking backwards, have them practice walking on uneven surfaces, that their risk of falling goes down significantly and the number of falls they have is greatly reduced.

[00:04:08]So, what we know is that doing balance challenging activities in someone that is falling, that someone that is having a problem with their balance, is actually much more effective than doing strengthening exercises.

[00:04:25]To do single leg stands, you want to have a chair that's pretty sturdy. You want to shift all your weight to one side while you're holding the chair, then let go and try to put all your weight on one leg, balancing for as long as possible. The goal of this exercise is to try to stand on each leg for about 20 seconds without holding on. But, for most people with balance problems, this is a really big challenge. The biggest and most common mistake is that when they let go, they immediately fall back down. The way to stop this is to lean more onto the leg that you're standing on. So, if you're standing on your right leg, you want to lean as far to the right as you possibly can before you let go of the chair. It becomes easier when your weight is further over the leg you're standing on. Definitely, the biggest problem is that people just don't weight shift enough and that's why this exercise is so helpful in teaching you how to weight shift. It also allows you to practice balancing on one leg, which is actually required when you're walking on unsteady ground or when you're stepping up onto something. Your ability to stand on one leg is really important to having good balance.

[00:05:31]I hope you found this video helpful.

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[00:05:39]>> [music]