Stability: The Missing Piece to Longevity

It’s been an incredible shift to see women talking about the importance of strength and weight training for movement longevity! What was once thought of as a modality more for gym bro’s has risen in popularity due to the fact that women need to mitigate the natural loss of muscle that comes with declines in estrogen beginning in the late 30’s.

While muscle helps to boost metabolic health, supports managing blood sugars, helps prevent frailty, and provides joint stability, we wanted to also shed light on the incredibly important role that stability plays in furthering the pursuit of movement longevity. Stability is a crucial component to protecting independence later in life and needs to be a part of the ongoing conversation about increasing health span!

Balance training is important in preventing falls which are often debilitating later in life. Did you know that osteoporosis affects 1 in 3 women after the age of 50, and that the mortality rate of individuals who experience a debilitating fall is 33% within 1-year for older adults? Stability can play a critical role in helping to prevent these falls, as people build up their balance. Additionally, stability training also plays a part in maintaining and building bone density. There is even science that suggests that people who practice balance improve their attention, memory and overall cognition! Let’s explore some concepts further:

Single Leg Training

Single leg training impacts bone growth. When we bear weight through one leg (or any part of the body for this matter), we are loading through our skeletal system and sending a signal to our body that our bones need to be able to withstand this load. Bones are regenerative and will rise to the occasion of the stresses placed on them. We can get this positive stress one of two ways; by incorporating single leg balances and weight-bearing activities to promote a denser skeletal system and through impact activity and plyometrics that help to promote bone growth. Many studies have shown that jump training, or plyometrics, has a significant positive impact on bone mineral density, especially at the hip. Hip fractures are one of the most common types of fractures seen in aging women.

Reflexes

Our reflexes also decline with age unless we are proactively mitigating this loss through stability and reflex training! Have you ever wondered why the Pvolve trainers move suddenly from 2 feet to one and make you hold balance work for a few seconds at the top of each rep? We want you to train your reflexes and build a stronger neuromuscular connection. This means you are able to maintain stability and make real-time adjustments to your balance and equilibrium when put to the test. By training this way, you are building up the ability to prevent falls later in life. 

Vestibular

Our vestibular system consists of 3 parts: our vision, our inner ear and our proprioception (our awareness of where our body rests or moves in space). This is the system that allows us to maintain upright posture and move throughout our activities. As we age, our proprioception becomes less sensitive and can affect our postural control and awareness. Pvolve helps us to connect with the intricate movements of our body to strengthen those neural pathways and maintain the sensitivity and connection between the brain and the body. This type of exercise plays a crucial role in maintaining stability and balance.

Pvolve incorporates various stability exercises into each workout to help you future-proof your body!