Question

Please write down your opinions on Square Stepping Exercise.

Answer 1

Opinions on Square Stepping Exercise.

introduction

The squares stepping exercise is an exercise where the elderly individuals are made to perform multidirectional stepping exercises of various patterns and complexities on a mat containing 40 squares, each square having area of 25 cm square with the steps being performed in forward, backward and sideways directions along with different patterns and instructions in order to decrease the risk of falls.It is a health promotion and preventive strategy to prevent falls in the elderly individuals [based on the literature research with findings of p value=0.0015 on metaanalysis of three consecutive studies for the role of square stepping exercises in falls prevention].

The Principle and the rationale for the square stepping exercises

The common problems faced by elderly individuals are decreased skeletal muscle strength,decrease in the lower limb strength, problems of balance and gait and slow sensorimotor processing with cognition deficits.

Elderly individuals are at risk of falls and it is essential that they receive training for compensatory steps in case of facing obstacles or losing balance while walking in order to maintain the body balance and prevent the falls as a part of the health promotion and preventive measures.The square stepping exercise is one such exercise that effectively trains the elderly individuals for prevention of accidental falls by providing directed training exercises.for the elderly individuals.

My opinion

I strongly uphold that prevention is better than cure and believe in health promotion and injury preventive health measures. Hence I view the square stepping exercises as an effective and valuable tool for fall-prevention and rehabilitation of the elderly individuals.

My opinions regarding the benefits and advantages of the square stepping exercises are:

1. It is an effective method for exercise training of the elderly individuals in order to prevent the risk of falls.

2. It helps in muscle strengthening of the lower limbs for the elderly individuals as it causes the stimulation of both the agonist and the antagonist muscles of the lower limb in the formation of the stepping response.

3.it provides the correct balance of the sensory stimulation and the motor response for the elderly individual with the provision of time for response formation and learned movement thereby improving the body balance, movement coordination, the muscle strength and muscle performance as well as the cognitive functions, decreasing the risk of falls which occur as a result of age-related changes in the spatiotemporal features of balancing and walking for elderly individuals.

4. it provides health promotion and injury prevention for the elderly individuals at risk of falls through trained movements directed at improving balance,coordination and movement.The learning of higher step/ foot placement and balancing the body; maintaining the centre of mass trains the elderly individual to walk correctly in presence of obstacles in the path without falling or losing balance.

5.The squares stepping exercises are beneficial to the elderly individuals and protect them against diseases like cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke,cognitive decline by providing active yet safe exercise for their body and is a very valuable alternative to walking for the elderly individuals especially in cases of extreme weather and rain as it can be performed indoors.

6.The activity can be performed safely under supervision,indoors and is easy to be picked up by the elderly individuals. It is also equally easy for the care providers to monitor and train more number of elderly individuals to perform the activity at the same time on account of the ease of training.

7.The square stepping exercises Is convenient and cost effective and can be performed indoors in a small space and does not require costly equipment and can be used both for individual and group training.

8. The increase in the severity of complexities of the exercise sessions based on the principles of the gradual increase in execution speed, gradual increase in the step pattern length, gradual increase in the complexity of the stepping patterns and the gradual increase in multi-tasking steps execution helps to train the motor cortex thereby modifying the motor component related to the falls.As the person has to understand, memorize and follow the steps as explained to them on the mat, there is stimulation of both the motor and the cognitive responses in the individual causing both motor function and cognitive function improvement.

9.The performance of the forward and backward stepping exercises helps to protect the elderly individuals in stepping backwards from a perceived danger as in traffic or moving away from danger/speeding vehicle.

10.The performance of the lateral stepping exercises helps the elderly individual to regain balance in cases of their legs collision which is common in elderly walking thereby preventing the risk of falls and hip fractures due to fall in the lateral direction.The performance of multi directional square stepping exercises causes greater motor learning resulting in functional ambulation,increased confidence,better health and function perception and helps in fall prevention.

My opinion regarding the limitations of the square stepping exercises are

1.The square stepping exercises have limited applicability as a means of exercise in elderly patients with the diseases like stroke ,advanced Parkinson's disease, advanced Alzheimer's disease and those using walkers or wheelchairs for ambulation.

2.There is a small risk of falls in the initial stages of training and hence the exercise training should be held with gradual slow steps first; slowly increasing the complexity of the steps in order to prevent the falls during the training stages.

3.As the performance of the square stepping exercise also requires the presence of clear vision and reasonable visual acuity,it cannot be performed by elderly individuals with moderate to high visual defect /visual loss.

Conclusion:

Thus,in my opinion,square stepping exercises training is very beneficial to the elderly individuals first in the form of a simple stepping gradually increasing the complexity of the  patterns of the stepping exercises and helps to improve the motor function,cognitive function ,balance maintenance and decreases the risk of falls in the elderly.