[Onscreen text:
The Ohio State University
Wexner Medical Center
Strength keys to longevity as we age]

Chris Kolba:
Foot speed and strength. So think about walking, catching your toe, you lose your balance, right? 

[Onscreen text:
Chris Kolba, PhD, PT, CSCS
Physical Therapist
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center]

Kolba:
But if you have enough kind of speed or reaction to get your foot out in front of you and then enough of the right type of strength to catch yourself and stop yourself from falling, that's really what it's all about. So, training strength throughout a lifespan and then also throwing some balance in there. Just practice standing on one leg while you brush your teeth. In between your sets of exercise, practice standing on one leg. It doesn't have to be real fancy just to help maintain that. Keeping your feet really strong. One of the major risk factors of falling — talk about falling — is toe flexor strength. So when you go forward, your toes grip the ground to help stop you. If your feet are really weak, it just tends to cause you to just continue to kind of tumble forward.
So barefoot exercises, towel crunches, standing on one leg with your bare feet, things of that nature can really help kind of keep your balance system improved, keep your foot strength improved. Because again, when we wear shoes, we don't need to use our foot intrinsic. So over time, our feet do tend to get weak. So all those things are interconnected. So balance strength all tie into decreasing your risk of falling and improving your ability to enjoy those later years.

[Onscreen text:
The Ohio State University 
Wexner Medical Center
For more information, visit:
health.osu.edu]