Don't Get Old!

When you reach a certain age there is no better way to fall without breaking something.

Danglers always go.

That’s not true.

My dad fell frequently without ever breaking anything until almost 90. (So did my grandmother.)

He managed to angle himself on the way down, so he’d end up bruised, but never broken.

It was a particular instinct. But it can be learned. (How to get up after a fall is a different skill. He was not as good at that :joy:.)

Google fall better — there’s a lot on it out there.

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No. It’s not like when you hit 80 or 90 that you become like a porcelain doll. If you don’t take adequate precautions and maintain some level of fitness and activity, that ā€˜age’ will come sooner than it has to, perhaps as young as 60. OTOH, I know a 95-y/o man who regularly still takes the mat at his judo club. I think he won his last major tournament (World Masters? US Masters? I don’t quite remember, TBH) at around 74. He’s not breaking anything any time soon.

Granted, he’s also atypical. He’s been practicing how to fall - and MAKING OTHERS fall - for over 60 years, but that’s also my point: regularly practicing falling skills can dramatically reduce both the incidence and severity of falls. Gravity will inevitably win, but you don’t have to give up to gravity prematurely.

Edited to clean up typos. Stupid fat fingers.

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The ā€œbetter fallā€ theory depends on the faller having some control over the fall. Sometimes you may, and lots of times you don’t. I once rode a ladder to the ground, and there was no way to control how that went. Stepped off a few steps too high, too. I would not care to do that again, at any age, but especially not as an octogenarian.

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You’re right, that’s not true, hyperbole, sorry. What I’m saying is when I fell and broke something there was no way I could have fallen better unless I was an Olympic gymnast. I have fallen plenty and not broken anything.

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I have osteoporosis as a result of taking corticosteroids to stay alive. This depleted calcium in my bones, and I experienced five spinal fractures from doing mundane stuff (no falls), each of which caused extreme pain, one at a time. I CANNOT afford to fall. As is, I have to be careful about how I lie in bed, to avoid pain. It ain’t easy being me!

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Technically if one becomes and STAYS horizontal, it lowers one’s risk of falling dramatically.

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Ive been tripping and stumbling and falling over my own lack of coordination my entire life. One would think I’d be an expert at going arse over elbows by now

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The kids in my school have witnessed me fall up the stairs for many years now. I feel I’m now immune to embarrassment on the matter.

At least falling UP the stairs is easier on the body than falling DOWN the stairs!

That, and I’ve done it so many times, only the new kids laugh anymore.