Hello and welcome back to another blog post from ARC Therapy! We hope everyone is staying happy and healthy as the seasons change and we get closer to more daylight 😊 This weeks’ post will cover something that we all probably have had to deal with at some point in our lives, and that is, taking care of our health. We will discuss some tests you can perform in the safety of your own home to determine if there may be any additional exercises you could add to your routine. These tests will cover strength and balance. Now before you start any training program, it is important you consult with your physician if it is right for you. We ask that safety be your number one priority prior to attempting these tests and that you stop should you feel any discomfort during or after; or if you feel at any time unsafe.
For strength testing, we will perform a 30 second sit to stand test. To set up, sit in a chair, firmly planted on the ground (no wheels or stool). Sit up tall, arms crossed over your chest or raised out in front. You cannot use your arms at any point to assist you to stand during the test. Set a timer for 30 seconds and begin the process of standing up from a sit, and return to a sit as many repetitions as you can during that time. You may count any repetition that commenced prior to the time expiring and is more than halfway through the process, even if you have not completed the full sit to stand. Normative values for this test set by rehab measures are as follows (any scores less than these are indicative of fall risk):
| Age | 60-64 | 65-69 | 70-74 | 75-79 | 80-84 | 85-89 | 90-94 |
| Women | 15 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 9 |
| Men | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 9 |
For our balance assessment, we will be utilizing three tests: Romberg, sharpened Romberg, and single leg stance. These are listed in order of difficulty. If you are unable to complete the test, do not move to the next test. Once again, safety is number one, so please perform these tests on a firm surface and near an immoveable counter top to assist in holding on should you lose your balance. For the Romberg test, these involves standing tall with feet placed firmly together on the floor. Arms will cross the chest. Begin the timer and hold still, trying to stay balanced, minimizing your sway. A normative score here is 30 seconds without loss of balance. Perform three times and average the scores. Any score less than this is indicative of a fall risk. For an extra challenge, you may try this test eyes closed, removing our largest sensory input symptoms, vision. If this goes well, you may advance to the next test, the sharpened Romberg. The test is set up and performed identically with one minor tweak. Instead of keeping feet together, place one foot in front of the other in a heel to toe position. Perform three rounds with each foot position for a total of six scores. Take the average of the scores and any score less than 30 seconds is indicative of a fall risk. For an extra challenge, close your eyes. Should this cause a loss of balance, this may suggest an over reliance on vision and more attention should be placed on our vestibular and proprioception input systems. More on these in a future post. For the last balance test, we will ask that you perform a single leg stance test. Simply lift one foot from the ground and hold still, making sure not to make contact with your stance leg or the counter. Any score less than five seconds in indicative of a fall risk.
Once again, we ask that safety be your number one priority during these tests. An additional person standing by to assist may be useful. As always, should you have any concerns with any of these scores, we are more than happy to help you out in any way we can here. Please stay happy and safe and we hope you enjoyed this information.