Why We Fall—and Why It Matters More Than You Think

Yes... even at your age ;-)

Falls don’t just happen.
They result from systems that no longer speak to one another as they used to.

You didn’t fall because you tripped. You fell because you couldn’t recover.

The number of type 2 muscle fibers (fast twitch) we need to fire quickly is diminishing rapidly as we age. Similarly, the satellite cells, which create new muscle fibers, are disappearing. The nervous system loses connections to muscle cells that the body is not using often. This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Why waste energy maintaining systems that you’re not using? But now that those connections are lost, the function of that denervated muscle tissue is lost.

So we start losing connections from the brain to existing muscle tissue, we are losing the muscle cells responsible for quick movements and power, and the stem cells responsible for creating new muscle tissue are also diminishing.

This process begins in our late 30s. It progresses more rapidly in people who are largely sedentary. But it can also progress if we’re not challenging our type 2 muscle fibers. Our body uses type 2 muscle fibers for quick and powerful movement. We also use them if we are running and recruit all our type one fibers and need more power. We recruit type 2 fibers during sprints because they respond when our brain calls for quickness.

Not all is lost. We can regain the number of type 2 fibers. We can get the brain to reconnect to lost muscle cells. But we need to push our bodies in a manner that will recruit them.

A healthy body anticipates, adjusts, and reacts fast. When those systems start to slow down or misfire, the margin for error disappears. That’s when simple missteps turn into life-altering events.

Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in adults over 65.
They cause more hip fractures, traumatic brain injuries, and nursing home admissions than nearly anything else. It’s often not the fall that kills us. But it sets in motion a series of events that can ultimately lead to our demise. Each fall, each injury, each time we need to recover for a few days, resets our baseline fitness level lower and lower. Ultimately, this will lead to our demise as our world shrinks, we lose residual capacity to recover, and become frail.

You know how fast the last ten years went. Well, the next ten will go quickly as well. We lose power and balance far faster than muscle mass and strength. Paying attention to power and balance in our 40s and beyond is critical if you plan to be an active, robust participant in life beyond 65-70.

But what’s behind the fall?

It’s not just bad luck. It’s usually a combination of:

• Impaired balance — your body’s internal GPS isn’t calibrated

• Poor neuromuscular power — You lost connections to many of your muscle groups. Your ability to react quickly fades

• Poor Power — Loss of type 2 muscle fibers. Your leg can’t get under you fast enough…

• Reduced proprioception — your brain doesn’t know where your body is in space- is common in folks with diabetes and other nervous system disorders.

In short:
You didn’t fall because you tripped. You fell because you couldn’t recover.

That’s the key insight. We all trip and stumble. But some of us can stop ourselves from falling. Balance training might minimize the trips, but combined with power, it will dramatically improve your ability to prevent the trip from turning into a fall.

Over this summer, I will publish articles specifically addressing how we can move about and exercise to improve our power, balance, and agility. Last week was just a glimpse into some exercises you can consider.

Power and Balance.

They’re deeply intertwined.

Power is your body’s ability to move quickly and explosively.
Balance is your body’s ability to stay upright when things get chaotic.
Both decline rapidly without intentional training. And both are critical for preventing falls, maintaining independence, and moving confidently through life.

Coming later this summer, we’ll discuss:

• Why power declines faster than strength

• How to train your nervous system to react faster

• Simple ways to improve your balance starting today

• Why “fall-proofing” your life is about movement, not fear

You can’t prevent every fall. But you can train your body to recover better, land softer, and move with more control.

That training starts soon.