Falling is part of life. Whether tripping over a pet or uneven pavement, tumbling off a bike, slipping on ice, or wiping out while skiing, unintentional falls can occur at any age and are a leading cause of injury-related ER visits.
What you can learn to avoid — or at least minimize — is getting injured. Training agility, coordination, and multiplanar movement can build resilience in the event of a fall. And learning how to fall safely can help you react quickly when you do take a tumble.
“If you have to go through the thought process of I’m tipping backward — what do I do?, you’re too late,” says Dan Kirkpatrick, PT, DPT, NCS, a board-certified clinical specialist in neurological physical therapy with Motion Physical Therapy in Minnesota.
Just knowing the right way to fall isn’t enough, he says. Building muscle memory and creating a new, safer default reaction in the event of a fall requires repetition.
In other words, you have to practice falling — and practice often.
The Basics
There are several key principles to falling safely, though some go against our instincts. For instance, many of us naturally become rigid when we lose our balance. However, allowing our bodies to relax helps us better absorb the impact.
“Don’t stiffen up,” says Olivia Freeman, CPT, a personal trainer and football player with the Atlanta Rage. “When we tense up, it typically makes the impact worse.”
Keep these tips in mind in the event of a fall:
- Lean in. You have some control over the direction of your fall, so lean your weight forward and to the side, if possible. Aim toward grass, dirt, sand, or snow and away from concrete, obstacles, and sharp objects.
- Stay loose. Bend your arms and legs, and never try to catch yourself with your hands with straight arms. Try exhaling through your fall to encourage a relaxed frame.
- Protect your head. If you’re falling forward, turn your face to the side and try to shift your weight sideways to roll onto a shoulder. If you’re falling backward, tuck your chin to your chest to avoid hitting your head on the ground.
- Aim for the meat. Landing on a meaty part of your body, like the muscles of your back, butt, or thighs, can help protect your tailbone, hips, knees, elbows, and wrists. If you’re falling straight forward or backward, try to turn your body to land on your side.
- Roll with it. Rolling into the fall is a good technique to help spread the impact over more of your body and avoid concentrating the impact on just one area.
- Slap out. If you’re falling backward or sideways, try extending your arms to the sides with palms down and slap the ground. This can help fight the instinct to catch yourself with your hands or elbows while also helping you position and brace for impact. This isn’t a requirement for a safe fall, but it can be helpful with practice.
Fall Practice
To put these principles into practice, functional-fitness specialist Ryan Hurst offers three techniques: falling backward, falling forward, and falling sideways.
“Falling can be scary no matter when and where you are,” says Hurst, the head coach and program director of GMB Fitness. “If you’re unprepared, it can have devastating consequences. The good news is the body is really good at adapting when you train it to do something, so if you practice these techniques often, you’ll be much better prepared if and when an unexpected fall happens.”
Hurst, a former competitive gymnast and martial artist, recommends adding these techniques to your warm-up whenever you can. “It’s going to make a big difference in protecting you from future injuries.”
Falling 101
How to Fall Backward
Practicing this technique is important for instances of slipping or being knocked backward. Protect your head by tucking your chin to your chest and using a slapping motion with your arms to break your fall.
1) Start by lying down on a mat with knees bent, feet planted. Tuck your chin to your chest, curling up through your core to raise your head away from the ground. Extend your arms straight in front of you, in the direction of your knees, with palms down. Reach your arms out to the sides and down to slap your palms on the mat.
2) Sit up with your feet planted on the mat. Roll back along your spine, taking care to keep your chin tucked and head away from the floor, and again practice slapping the mat at your sides on each rep.
3) Assume a squat position. From here, lower your hips as close to the floor as you can and begin the backward roll. Gradually work on starting the squat higher and higher so you have to lower your hips more before initiating the roll.
4) Finally, practice from a full standing position.
How to Fall Forward
This technique can help prepare you for an event like tripping or getting bumped forward. As in the backward fall, the position of your arms is extremely important.
1) In a high kneeling position, bend your arms in front of your face with palms open and facing outward. Push your butt backward as you lean forward. Rock forward on your knees and catch yourself with your forearms and palms. Turn your head slightly to either side, and keep your hands in front of your face to protect your head. Avoid landing with your elbows first.
2) Practice this same movement while keeping your hips extended and body straight, without pushing your hips back.
3) Move to your feet and practice this movement from a squat position.
4) Gradually work up to a full standing position. This can be scary, notes Hurst, so work up to it and make sure to practice on a soft surface. Again, remember not to fall on your elbows. You want to land on your forearms.
How to Fall Sideways
Falls don’t always happen either straight forward or straight backward. For instance, you might fall while rounding a corner, lose balance on a bike or skateboard, or try to correct a forward/backward fall and shift your weight to one side. Practicing falling to the side can help you prepare for dynamic, real-life situations. This drill follows the same steps as the backward fall, but with your weight shifted to one side.
1) Sit on a mat with your feet planted and arms extended. Roll back along your spine, taking care to keep your chin tucked and head away from the floor, while turning your body slightly to the left. Reach your left arm out to the side, and slap that palm on the mat on each rep.
2) Practice the full progression (sitting, squatting, standing) on both sides.
3) For a more advanced variation, lean your weight into the side that you’re falling toward — so much that you actually end up falling forward. From here, catch yourself on your forearms, as in the forward-fall stance.
2 Exercises for Safer (and Fewer) Falls
In addition to practicing safe falls, you can improve your reaction time and coordination by training your agility and lateral movement. The better you can change direction and decelerate and accelerate your body with control, the less likely you are to fall, says Kirkpatrick. If you do fall, you can react quickly to minimize or avoid injury. Sprinkle these two exercises into your weekly routine.
Lateral Cone Step-Overs
Agility drills like the lateral cone step-over can teach you how to side-step obstacles without tangling your feet, a skill that can decrease your risk of stumbling. “If you can’t move sideways without crossing one foot over the other, you’re going to be at a higher risk for falling,” Freeman says.
Do this exercise two or three times per week. She recommends pairing it with a lower-body exercise during one of your weekly strength sessions.
- Set three or four cones in a line on the floor about a foot apart. If you don’t have cones, use objects that are roughly the same size, like yoga blocks or water bottles.
- Stand to the right of the first cone with your feet hip width apart, knees slightly bent, and arms by your sides.
- Lift your left knee and step your left leg sideways over the first cone. Follow with the right leg.
- Continue stepping sideways over each cone until you reach the end. Then perform the exercise in the opposite direction to return to your starting point.
- Repeat until you’ve gone in each direction two or three times. Do three or four rounds.
- Move at a slow, comfortable pace; increase your speed as your coordination improves. Add more cones for a greater challenge.
Forward Step, Backward Step
A great way to prevent falling when you feel off-balance is to kick a leg out, either in front or behind you, depending on the direction you’re falling. “By throwing a leg out, you can catch your momentum and stop yourself from falling. Otherwise, you’re at the mercy of gravity and your body weight,” Kirkpatrick says.
He advises practicing this fall-prevention strategy by simply stepping one foot forward or backward as quickly as possible. Do this drill at least two or three times per week.
- Stand with feet hip width apart.
- Step forward with your right foot, keeping the left foot planted. Return your right foot to the starting position.
- Repeat until you’ve completed 30 repetitions with your right foot. Then switch to the left foot.
- Aim to step faster and farther forward with each rep (without lifting your back foot).
- Once you’ve completed 30 forward steps with each foot, do 30 backward steps with each foot.
- Hold on to a chair, countertop, or bar during this exercise if you need help with balance.
Illustrations by Kveta. This article originally appeared as “Fall Better” in the November/December 2024 issue of Experience Life.
This Post Has One Comment
I really appreciate these exercises, but there’s no way I’ll ever “practice from a full standing position. “