A physio at the MS Research day (last Monday) had done lots of work on why people with MS fall. She said that people with MS should do 15 minutes of balance exercises a day. I’m a sucker for a regime so I started this on Monday. My exercise is standing in a corner, not touching the walls (unless I fall). On Monday I managed a couple of minutes. On Tuesday, I did five, on Wednesday, I did ten and since then I’ve been doing fifteen. I have always had to touch the walls a few times while I’m doing it. And I am standing with my feet around an inch apart - I’m working towards standing with them together.
I haven’t fallen since I’ve started doing this. I’d strongly recommend it to anyone who falls. You can do more challenging balance exercises if you find standing with feet together easy - try standing heel of one foot touching the toes of the other. But maybe if you can do that, you would never fall anyway.
Sounds like you’re making good progress there Sewingchick. I think I need to take a leaf out of your book and do 15 minutes balance training a day myself
the problem I have with all exercise, is that every single part of me is failing, and if I spent 5 mins on ankle lifting, and 5 mins on bending knees, and 5mins on lifting arms, and 5 mins trying to sit up off chair, and 5 mins attempting to get up off floor etc etc etc, I’ve lost interest and I’m knackered, and of course each of those 5 mins is actually 15 mins and I’m exhausted etc etc etc, BUT that said I REALLY MUST and so am going to try your standing in corner! and try and build into day.
I have poor balance & I’ve tried a few of these exercises. Anything that helps, is worth trying.
It was first thought I had a simple case of vertigo. There’s some great videos on YouTube with kettle weights for balance problems. Strengthening the legs.
Unfortunately not many for scaring on the brain & spine. Heat is a very big issue with balance & so is stress. An argument in a sauna doesn’t help with balance. Even with both hands holding the wall.
Keeping cool & regular exercise works for all health.
It’s surprising the difference balance makes. I haven’t fallen (yet) although if I squat down to look in bottom cupboards I often find that I roll over backwards. It happened once in the supermarket when the light bulb I wanted was on the bottom shelf. That was a little embarrassing especially as getting up again requires much more of an effort than it used to!
After my relapses two years ago, I found that I eased the stiffness in my legs by doing yoga stretches while I was waiting for my turn to get to the top of the physio’s waiting list. By the time she came to see me my walking was improving quite well but I was still getting pain in my calves and thighs. It didn’t take her long to notice that the problem was that my balance was still off so every time I took a step my muscles were working overtime trying to adjust my balance.
She gave me some exercises to do and I used to do them in my kitchen which has work surface one side and wall the other side so I always had something to hang on to. It took 8 weeks of daily exercises to really notice the difference. If I am having a bad balance day I’ll just do some more of the exercises to re-train my brain.
I do go to yoga weekly and I have noticed that I can do some of the balancing a bit better there too. Perhaps I should try a little every day too just so I don’t lose what balance I have? It still isn’t perfect but it is a lot better than it was.