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Comments on Burpee Modification
Love this write up!!!
I will at to Brian's info:
When an older person is injured from falling, the difficulties of daily living increase by 166%, heart problems increase 46% and depression 58%, according to a report, “The Shock of Falling Among Older Americans,” distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which looked at the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study and the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s nonfatal injury data. The probability of heart disease, a stroke or psychological problems also increases. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bob-barker-is-one-of-millions-of-older-americans-who-fall-but-hes-lucky-2017-06-19
I've seen you comment on other articles in here, I love your take on things and the statistics you provide. Is there someplace we can follow you elsewhere like blogs, research, twitter, social media?? Keep it up :)
For Games athletes the burpee is a staple. For seniors it's practicing a controlled descent to prone and the nearly as important return to standing. The old refrain of "Help I've fallen, and I can't get up!" from the Life Alert company television adds in the '80's may have amused some of us, but the underlying reality of falling and not being able to get back up represents a two-headed lethal monster of hip fracture and rhabdomyolysis for the elderly and marginally ambulatory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1WMQYd6IwE&t=
I mention Games athletes and seniors and specifically and deliberately left out the middle - the bulk of us who are quite fit but not Games athletes. I am not a fan of the burpee for the vast middle because my clinical practice was marked by occasional lower back tweak in people fit but not very flexible. The problem, I believe, is a high-impact landing in a squat with lumbar spine in full flexion. It's happened several times with people with regular issues with sciatica and low back problems and way less frequently but more alarmingly in a few people with no history of back issues. That got me to abandon it for all but my fire-breathers and seniors.
Teaching seniors to slowly, carefully, go to ground and then work back up to their feet increases the marginal capacity for exactly that. The training effect, I cannot help but believe, would benefit someone with limited balance and strength all perhaps exacerbated by health or drug complication that produces vertigo where the risk of falling is historically enormous.
In our "CrossFit Underserved" gym/lab in Santa Cruz we have seen people who last went to ground a decade ago where paramedics had to put them back on the couch recover that capacity to willingly go to ground and then stand right back up. In several cases this happened with concomitant weight loss in excess of 100 pounds, but don't think this problem isn't common with the frail and underweight.
I'll leave it to someone else to share some links and info here regarding the costs and consequences of seniors falling. Especially alarming are the underlying realities of hip fracture. It's often deadly.
It's a problem in our aging population and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. We are!!!
The costs and consequences of seniors falling are dire.
Peter Gøtzsche in The BMJ:
"Our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. Based on the best research I could find, I have estimated that psychiatric drugs alone are also the third major killer, mainly because antidepressants kill many elderly people through falls."
If Gøtzsche is correct, preventable fall is the third leading cause of death globally. Safely going to ground is a life saving trainable skill for all ages.
The CDC on deaths from falls age 65 and older:
"Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults age 65 and older, and the age-adjusted rate of fall death is increasing."
https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/fallcost/deaths-from-falls.html
The referenced reporting is for deaths where fall was recorded as cause of death. It does not address the bleak prognosis for a senior who survives a fall that requires hospitalization.
A fall is often what starts the downward spiral towards incapacity in previously active, independent-living seniors. Here is a study that compared different exercise regimens in their ability to reduce falls: Effects of Different Exercise Interventions on Risk of Falls, Gait Ability, and Balance in Physically Frail Older Adults: A Systematic Review
They concluded that mixed programs combining aerobic conditioning, resistance training and balance training were the most effective. Keep in mind that these studies were applying resistance training in the form of seated muscle isolation exercises. Seniors do not typically experience fall injuries while seated. I can only imagine that a a program of progressive, functional movement-based training (from a standing position) would be far more effective. Developing strength, coordination and balance in realistic movements in a safe setting does a lot more than simply stimulate muscle activation. Squatting, deadlifting and pressing are all essential life skills.
Brian, thanks for sharing the Gøtzsche study. Very interesting commentary on NSAIDs.
Amazing. More power to CrossFit.
Burpee Modification
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