Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Combining weight training with balance jumping decreased injury risk by 43% compared to balance jumping alone and sustained the benefits for several years.
According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the leading cause of injury among adults aged 65 years and older in the United States, and can result in severe injuries such as hip fractures and head traumas. An elderly person is treated in the emergency room every 13 seconds for injuries related to a fall, with one death attributed to those injuries occurring every 20 minutes (1).
In 2013, falls among older adults cost our healthcare system over $34 billion (1). Now a new study (2) suggests that combining weight training with a type of training called “balance jump training” not only significantly decreases falls but the training’s benefits last long after the program is stopped.
In the study, researchers did a 5-year follow-up on 145 women residents of Finland aged 70 to 78 who participated in the KAAMU study (3). The study showed a significant benefit of combined weight training/balance jumping done three times per week for 12 months in helping decrease falls in the women. The weight training consisted of doing exercises at 75% of their maximum strength at 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions.
According to the researchers, the balance jump training consisted of “static and dynamic balance and agility training sessions, jumps and other impacts, and changes of direction exercises (such as acceleration and deceleration back and forth, and sideways walking with stops and turns) with music.” There were four different aerobics and step aerobics programs with different combinations of the above noted balance-jumping movements during the intervention (4).
After an average of 5.1 years of follow-up, 81 falls were recorded in 61 of the 145 women, with those in the combined weight training/balance jumping group having the lowest number of falls and those in the control group having the highest number of falls:
| Group | Falls | % | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weight training / Balance jumping | 14/37 | 38% | < 0.05 |
| Balance jumping | 17/36 | 47% | < 0.05 |
| Control group | 22/35 | 63% | < 0.05 |
| Weight training | 28/37 | 75% | < 0.05 |
In addition, compared to the control group, those in the weight training/balance jumping group had a 51% reduced risk of having a fall cause injury, compared to a 34% reduced risk in the balance jumping group. For the weight training group, there was an 8% increased risk of a fall causing injury compared to the control group, though the researchers did not speculate on why the weight training increased risk of fall compared to the control group.
The researchers suggested that the superior results of the combined weight training/balance jumping over either weight training or balance jumping was that the combination not only “improved neuromuscular functioning” but also “improved their muscle strength, balance and agility, self-rated physical functioning, and bone strength, despite the rather good level of functioning already at the start of the study.”
While the researchers concluded that “a training program that includes muscle strength, balance and jumping exercises reduces older women’s risk for injurious falls and fractures for several years”, they admitted that “future confirmatory studies are needed before such a multi-component exercise program can be widely recommended for home-dwelling older women.”
Source: Karinkanta, Saija, et al. “Combined resistance and balance-jumping exercise reduces older women’s injurious falls and fractures: 5-year follow-up study.” Age and ageing (2015): afv064.
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved
Posted July 13, 2015.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com
References:
- “Cost of Fall Injuries in Older Persons in the United States” posted on the CDC website
- Karinkanta S. Combined resistance and balance-jumping exercise reduces older women’s injurious falls and fractures: 5-year follow-up study. Age Ageing 2015 May 18. pii: afv064. [Epub ahead of print]
- Karinkanta S, Heinonen A, Sievanen H et al. A multicomponent exercise regimen to prevent functional decline and on fragility in home-dwelling elderly women: randomized, controlled trial. Osteoporos Int 2007; 18: 453–62
- Karinkanta S. A multi-component exercise regimen to prevent functional decline and bone fragility in home-dwelling elderly women: randomized, controlled trial. Osteoporos Int 2007 Apr;18(4):453-62. Epub 2006 Nov 14
