By: Jacqueline Armour, PT, DPT, Board-certified Neurologic Clinical Specialist
When you lose your balance, your body can react in many different ways. With the goal of preventing injuries, we want to make sure our bodies have the strength, speed, and reflexive response to step and re-stabilize without overly relying on our arms. The slip trainer is a our newest tool to help us train your balance to optimize your ability to catch yourself fast enough with your feet to prevent injury if you slip or trip.
This type of training is called “Perturbation-based Balance Training”. Emerging evidence not only supports the effectiveness for this skilled intervention of but it’s also efficient! Positive results can be seen in a short amount of time, which is critical because falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries among older adults.
Demonstration of Slip Trainer for Perturbation Training
To practice this effectively, the slip trainer is a great tool to create these episodes of loss of balance providing training moments for you in a safe and controlled space. Training on this device requires wearing a safety harness that’s attached to the ceiling. Thank you to SoloStep for our fantastic new setup with our slip trainer from MassRehab, Inc. at our Fairfax location at 3020 Hamaker Court!
CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE ON SOLO STEP
Don’t be intimidated, our balance training rehabilitation is individualized to you and will start at the safe level for you, progressing towards using this tool with many modification options.
Utilizing Slip Trainer to simulate stepping off moving walkway
For individuals that encounter more unstable surfaces with their daily activities and travel such as stepping onto an uneven brick on your steps, stepping into a slippery tub without something to hold on to, or navigating an airport moving walkway, there is so much potential to improve your balance with the help of the slip trainer and harness system.
If you have a concern for you or your loved one’s risk of falling again or for the first time, act now! Please call us to schedule a Physical or Occupational Therapy evaluation or talk to your doctor about your concerns. Falls are not a normal part of aging – they CAN be prevented.
As the change of seasons approaches from Summer to Fall, our team supports the national campaign to raise awareness for fall prevention, helping our community to reduce its risk of injurious falls and help all our clients live without fear of falling.
To assess your risk of falls, answer this quick 13-question screen:
English: ncoa.org/FallsFreeCheckUp
Spanish: ncoa.org/ChequeoContraCaidas
Watch for more useful tips and resources from our team on our social media channels.
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Additional References -
Augustine Joshua Devasahayam, PhD and others, The Effect of Reactive Balance Training on Falls in Daily Life: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Physical Therapy, Volume 103, Issue 1, January 2023, pzac154, https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzac154
https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/older-adult-falls/index.html
https://solostep.com/benefits/patient-benefits
McCrum C, Bhatt TS, Gerards MHG, Karamanidis K, Rogers MW, Lord SR, Okubo Y (2022) Perturbation-based Balance Training: Principles, Mechanisms and Implementation in Clinical Practice. OSF Preprints. doi: 10.31219/osf.io/u8fsb