LET US HELP YOU FEEL SAFE AND SECURE ON YOUR FEET

People who walk at least 30–45 minutes per day at a moderate pace have lower overall risk of heart disease or illness, have lower body mass, and generally recover from illnesses more quickly. Being able to balance on one leg is a predictor of fall risk and injury with falls. Ideally you should be able to balance safely on one leg for more than 20 seconds without using your hands to help.

What is limiting your ability to walk? Are you afraid of falling? Do you worry about walking safely around your home, across a parking lot, or through a store? Have you broken your hip, or had a recent joint replacement? Let us help you achieve your optimal level of mobility and improve your balance.

Balance and Gait Training can help be the difference between staying in your own home versus moving into an assisted living facility.

What is Balance Training?

Balance Training is as simple as practicing your balance, or as complicated as helping you remap the nerve signals to your brain to learn new balance strategies.

Our highly skilled physical therapists will assist you by setting up a variety of exercises and situations. They will help you strengthen the muscles you need to keep your balance; plan the movements your body takes to achieve balance; and improve your proprioception, or your awareness of where your body is in space. Your therapist will set you up in safety, so you can practice without fear of falling. Using a variety of surfaces, obstacles, and multi-tasking activities, your therapist will prepare you for safely navigating your activities of daily living.

What is Gait Training?

Human beings are designed to walk upright. Injuries, posture, habits, illnesses, surgeries, or the natural aging process can all affect our ability to walk. Over time, we can develop compensations, or different movement patterns to accommodate an injury, a walking boot, crutches, or a cane. These compensations can cause other injuries or pain in other parts of our body.

Gait training is re-teaching your brain and your body how to walk. Our skilled therapists will use several strategies to help you optimize your walking mobility:

• Exercises to correct muscle weakness and imbalances
• Correcting your posture, alignment of your spine, head, and shoulders
• Changing your biomechanics, which way your feet, ankles, knees, and hips move as you walk
• Looking at footwear choices or recommending orthotics
• Practicing with different devices (cane, crutches, walker, boot)
• Guided practice negotiating curbs, stairs, and obstacles
• Practicing multi-tasking, like walking and talking or walking and carrying things

Our therapists are ready to help you. Call any of our offices today to schedule your Balance and Gait evaluation and treatment.