The holiday season is a time for decorating—making things merry and bright. Decorating often involves moving, standing, and balancing in ways that we don’t commonly do.
In rehab, we can expect to receive a significant amount of business from inadvertent falls during the holiday season—and many of them are avoidable. Like Santa’s elves, we want to be fit and jolly enough to accomplish the tasks before us.
3 Simple Tips for a Safe Holiday Season
There are some simple things you can do to potentially stave off injuries during the holidays.
- Think It Through: I’ve had numerous patients over the years tell me that they wouldn’t have gotten injured if they’d “just thought it through.” Before engaging in any decorating activity, especially when it involves ladders and reaching, take a moment to devise a safe plan of action to help prevent falls.
- Avoid Distractions: Whether retrieving a turkey or ham from the oven or standing on a ladder to get that final decoration in place, getting distracted can lead to falls or injuries. Hold conversations until these tasks are completed, and avoid unnecessary head turns when talking to others.
- Mind the Clutter: It’s easy to let clutter build up on the floor when decorating, creating an unintentional obstacle course. All it takes is one unfortunate step to cause a fall, so take the time to keep walkways clear and keep your eyes open for potential hazards.
- Don’t Take Risks: I get it. You only have one more ornament to put up, or a long stretch to hang that finishing touch. The temptation to reach further rather than take the time and effort to reposition your ladder or chair beckons. Please, however, consider moving your chair or ladder closer instead of taking risks. Falls and muscle strains can happen fast at your balance limits, and you don’t want to spoil a perfectly good holiday with a trip to the hospital.
These are easy ways to potentially avoid unwanted falls and injuries. Next, let’s consider some exercises to help you get stronger and improve your balance.
5 Merry Exercises to Make Your Holidays Safer
These exercises strengthen your postural muscles and fine-tune your balance. My patients typically tolerate them well, and I’m sure you will too, but I suggest you speak with your medical provider to ensure they are right for you.
1. Goblet Carry
The goblet carry simulates safely carrying an object while walking, and replicates many of the movements you make during holiday decorating.
Step 1: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a weight with both hands at chin level. Keep the weight off your chest so that all weight-bearing is performed by your arms.
Step 2: Begin walking slowly, being careful to maintain the weight in position. Try walking for one minute.
Step 3: Performing this exercise for one minute counts as one set. Try to perform three one-minute sets.
Modifications: If carrying the weight is challenging, you can intermittently rest it on your chest or lighten the weight. Feel free to modify sets and repetitions as you see fit.
Why I Like It: The goblet carry translates well to other functional tasks and helps increase postural control while carrying ungainly or heavy objects.
2. Stair Step-Ups
Stepping up, down, and around while decorating is unavoidable and may involve climbing on ladders and chairs. Stair step-ups strengthen your legs, core, and balance for such activities.
Step 1: Stand in front of a step or staircase and step up onto the stair with your right foot and briefly pause.
Step 2: Step quickly but smoothly with the right leg, then come up onto the step with your left foot without bouncing or jumping.
Step 3: Step back down with your right foot, then your left, and continue the pattern.
Step 4: Stepping up and then back down counts as one repetition. Try to perform three sets of 15 steps with each leg. You can alternate sides as you go, or perform all repetitions on one side, then the other.
Modifications: Want to make it more challenging? Hold a weight in both hands to make the exercise more intense. Increase your step speed to increase the cardiovascular intensity.
Why I Like It: You’ll strengthen your muscles and improve your balance with stair steps.
3. Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
These Romanian deadlifts are performed on one leg at a time and involve reaching all the way down to the ground, then back up. Thus, they are great for strengthening and challenging your balance.
Step 1: Stand with your feet approximately hip-width apart. Hold a weight in your right hand. I suggest about 2 pounds, but you can use more or less to suit your needs.
Step 2: Slowly lower the weight to the ground while keeping your back straight, lift your left foot off the ground, and let your left leg rise as you touch the weight to the floor—you want your left leg to stay in line with your trunk as you move downward.
Step 3: Rise back up to standing as you lower your left leg to the ground.
Step 4: Lowering the weight to the floor and lifting back up counts as one repetition. Try to perform three sets of 12 repetitions on both sides, either performing all movements on one side and then the other, or alternating sides as you go.
Modifications: Stand next to a stable object, such as a wall, if you struggle to maintain your balance.
Why I Like It: Balance-intensive, this exercise can help improve your balance and stability, getting you ready for all the boxes and decorations you’ll be putting down and picking up.
4. Tiptoe Overhead Reach
I don’t think there’s another time of the year that we use our tiptoes as much as we do during the holiday season. Your balance is compromised when you’re up on your toes, and this exercise is great for keeping you on your toes—while you’re on your toes.
Step 1: Reach up as high as you can toward the ceiling with both hands. Once you do, rise onto your toes, then begin walking slowly.
Step 2: While keeping your hands in the air, try to walk for 30 seconds before resting. We won’t start too aggressively, because doing so can make your calves amazingly sore.
Step 3: Walking for 30 seconds counts as one set. Try to perform three total sets.
Modifications: If you can’t walk for 30 seconds, just do what you can. It will still be effective. If you can’t hold your hands overhead while walking, you can keep them down or out to the sides for balance while remaining on your tiptoes. Another option is to stand near a wall, with the arm closest to it lightly touching the wall while the other is raised. Then reverse direction.
Why I Like It: Tiptoe walking is a great balance exercise that also works on overhead reaching and endurance—two skills you’ll use while decorating.
5. Single-Leg Lateral Reach
We’ve worked on reaching down and reaching up—now, let’s work on reaching to the sides, including lifting a leg to counterbalance your weight.
Step 1: Stand with a medium-sized ball, yoga block, or small pillow in both hands at chin level—just like you did with the goblet walk.
Step 2: Carefully lift your right leg until your hip is at 90 degrees of flexion.
Step 3: Move your object upward and out to the left side, while simultaneously moving your right foot out to the right side for counterbalance. Proceed carefully, as you’ll be performing some challenging postural movements while constantly correcting your balance.
Step 4: Reach out as far as you comfortably can before moving back into the starting position. Take about two seconds to move into and out of position, and hold position for approximately three to four seconds at your farthest reach. Moving out and then back counts as one repetition. Try to perform three sets of 12 repetitions per side.
Modifications: Only move as far as you comfortably can at first. If you can’t stay extended to the full three to four seconds, be sure to safely pull back in before toppling over like a side-heavy Christmas tree.
Why I Like It: This balance-intensive exercise can really help you dial in your single-leg balance while reaching to the sides.
These tips and exercises can help make your holiday decorating and festivities safer and more productive. I suggest you perform them at least three times per week, preferably five times for optimal benefit. I hope these work well for you, and above all, stay safe and enjoy the holidays!
About the fitness model: Aerowenn Hunter is a health editor and fitness model for The Epoch Times. Vibrant in her 60s, she’s an accredited yoga therapist who has dedicated three decades to teaching yoga.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.