After the Fall: Embracing the Benefits of Proprioception to Keep My Balance By Nancy Peckenham

By Nancy Peckenham

It happened quickly, as all falls do. One second, I was talking merrily with two friends as we walked along the notoriously shoddy sidewalks of New Orleans, and the next second, I was on the ground. 

My mistake, I knew immediately, was allowing myself to be distracted while I walked. I knew the sidewalks were marred by broken pavement, holes, and loose bricks, and I tried to keep my eyes on the ground in front of me whenever I went out. But my friends and I had just had a glass of wine and were headed to a nighttime parade, spirits high. In retrospect, that was my mistake.

I was lucky, to a certain extent. I didn’t hit my head or have a major break in my bones. The fracture to my elbow was just large enough to require a soft cast to hold my arm in place. 

The bigger injury was to my ego. I love my mobility and try to walk at least three miles a day, often more. If anyone cautions me to be careful, I brush them off.

I’ve had poor balance issues all my life. Walking across the balance beam in gym class was torture to me. But as I got older, I started doing exercises to improve my balance, practicing squats on uneven foam surfaces and perfecting a yoga tree pose. No one would ever call me graceful, but my goal was to stem an incipient downward slide.

Since my 40s, I have fallen occasionally on hiking trails after tripping on a root. Now, I take my hiking poles on trails and use them to keep me upright, even when a root comes out of nowhere to grab my toe.

Hiking poles are fine in the country, but I live in the city nearly half the year, and, at nearly 70, I’m still vain enough to eschew hiking poles when walking amid a fashionista crowd. 

That’s why after this week’s fall, I pouted like a 5-year-old when my husband said I should start using poles in the city as well. No way in hell, I muttered to myself, I’d rather stay home.

But staying home is not in my wheelhouse, so as I calmed down, I came up with a better plan. Number one, and this is obvious, don’t drink and take long walks. That would be easy to accomplish since most of my walking is done during daylight hours. On the rare occasions when I know I will be out walking in the evening, don’t have a glass of wine.

The number two step is to double down on balance exercises. I learned it’s not enough to do yoga three times a week and perfect the tree pose. I need to find a trainer who will help me with my proprioception, that is, the ability to know where and how your body moves in space. Not everyone is born with this innate ability, resulting in people like me who say, “I’ve been a klutz all my life.”

To learn more about proprioception, I read some examples from the Cleveland Clinic that show when it comes into play. They describe how your sense of proprioception comes into play when you walk on uneven stones and automatically adjust muscle tension in your feet and legs to maintain balance. It helps your hand know how to find your nose if you have an itch. It also helps you do touch typing, a skill I still practice daily.

Proprioception is an awareness of where your body is without looking. Your brain and your inner ear sensors play a large part in processing the information you need. 

Chronic illness can impact your balance, and if, like me, you have a lifetime track record of poor balance, there are some simple exercises you can do. 

My favorite one involves standing on one foot with your eyes closed. As I mentioned, I mastered the tree pose long ago because I focus intensely on a distant spot to center my balance. When I first closed my eyes, I immediately started wobbling – five seconds into it, I had both feet on the ground. My goal is to stand on one leg for 30 seconds, a sign that I am improving my balance skills.

A physical therapist –or an online search—can give you more exercises to develop your balance and proprioception. My goal is to strengthen my balance so I don’t have to walk around the city with hiking poles- yet.

Nancy Peckenham is the founder and editor of Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age, a nonprofit that produces an online publication and a biweekly podcast. She is a former cable news executive, local news reporter, and documentary filmmaker with a focus on Latin America. She has published three books and has written about her life traveling the U.S. in a Sprinter van with her husband. When not on the move, she loves gardening and spending time with her two sons.