Mastering the art of falling: Essential functional exercises to prevent injuries
Summary
Learn how functional exercises like bear crawls, rolling drills, and Poliquin step-ups can improve coordination, prevent falls, and build total-body resilience and prevent injuries when you fall
Like it or not, part of the process of getting fit involves getting hurt. While performing any sort of exercise, at some point, there is a chance of pulling a muscle, suffering an impact injury, and the most common of all, falling. In fact, a lot of functional training hinges on how it teaches one to avoid and be better in a situation where you take a tumble.
It’s not difficult to make the connection—doing regular bear crawls is good for runners who might fall and want to take the brunt of it on the core and overall body rather than just the limbs.
That would be an example of a full-body exercise which would promote coordination between all the muscles worked. “This exercise works the shoulders (deltoids), chest and back, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and core. Do bear crawls regularly and you can build total-body strength and endurance," states a Verywellfit.com article titled, How To Do The Bear Crawl: Proper Form, Variations, And Common Mistakes. It’s a great starting point to incorporate exercises that help prepare the body for a better landing and endurance to take the impact in case of an unavoidable fall.
Rolling is the next one to incorporate in your warm-up. The Epilepsy Foundation’s YouTube channel has a step-by-step guide on a video titled Fall Safely: Rolling Practice. “Practicing this drill can help improve your chances of falling safely. Step 1: low squat. Step 2: palms to floor. Step 3: push weight forward. Step 4: tuck chin and roll forward. Step 5: roll toward one shoulder and use momentum to stand," it says. You can start with a couple of steps and keep progressing until you can execute a full roll. Starting by doing functional exercises like the bear crawl and rolling means training for this is fun. And working on the nuances becomes a bonus.
Also Read Shock your muscles: The fitness science behind German Volume Training and Hypertrophy
Learning how to land can be approached in different ways. One is by doing explosive exercises like a push press and a jumping squat: these contribute to your ability to coordinate your lower body along with your upper body. The other way, is to train your knees separately using resistance band exercises that include isometric holds as well.
If these are too intense for you, then there are simpler ways to start out. Fitness instructor Ryan Ford creates Parkour training systems, and that means learning how to deal with falls at a higher scale than other sports. He recommends a simple walk, done with different angles of the foot muscles, to stop from twisting your ankle suddenly and being ready for such a twist if it happens.
Also Read Why you need to master the push press for stronger shoulders
The six walks are: on the tips of the toes, then to walk on the heels, then with the toes out, with the toes in, and finally with the sole inward and then outward. “Go barefoot for best results. Try adding these foot drills into your warm-ups or cool-downs. Do 10-20m of each foot drill start with bodyweight but over many months, progressively overload with 1-20% of bodyweight (dumbbells work well)," he writes in the caption of the post showing the exercise.
The best isometric exercise for this is the Poliquin step-up, which has a very doable beginner level and an advanced progression that even the strongest would find challenging. But there is a sweet progression to this. Known in the fitness world as the Patrick, Poliquin and Peterson progression, these comprise exercises where ankle mobility and knee health are given importance.
The Patrick step-up is done on a flat surface, bending one knee forward and even beyond the toes if you want, while stepping the other leg away from the body so that you’re on one foot when doing the rep.
In a blog on fitness website The Tib Bar Guy, health coach Victoria Dorsano talks about her experience learning the three. The exercise itself is basic in her words. “Your other foot is going to be stepping out in front of you tapping the heel in front and your hips are going to stay stacked over the working ankle. This is going to be a great starting point to just get used to this range of motion," she writes.
While the Patrick step-up is done on a flat surface, the Poliquin step-up is done on a slant surface. The Peterson step-up is done while lifting the heel of the working foot as well. This is the three-part progression to an exercise which is excellent for balance and stability while working on ankle mobility.
Include these exercises into your routine, and your body will feel more resilient to the rigours of fitness.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator and writer.
