Falling over can happen when you least expect it. A twist of the ankle as your foot goes into a hole whilst walking; an embarrassing fall on your bottom as you slip on the ice; or perhaps accidentally falling off a chair whilst cleaning in the house.

How you land, where you fall and what part of your body takes the main impact all affect the outcome and its severity.

Children fall over all the time – in the playground, running around or on holiday, perhaps while skiing – and they just get up and deal with the situation. Conversely, as people get older, depending on their physical condition and level of relaxation, they may not recover so quickly or be as robust.

Recovering from a fall depends on your nature, your current physical condition, your mindset and the efficiency of your healing process, not to mention the degree and severity of the injury.

In the Japanese Martial Art of Aikido, one of the first things you learn to do is to fall over and be able to execute a roll without injury. Stunt men involved in movie making all have to be able to fall down or do an impressive manoeuvre without suffering lasting injury.

It is generally acknowledged that children fall over “better” because they are more relaxed and more supple. The degree of tension in older people affects their bodies’ motor function ability and they can accidentally increase the detrimental effect of the impact in proportion to their level of tension.

So the moral here is to generally be more relaxed in life, not only in case of the unexpected accident, but also because the human body seems to recover better from injury when you are relaxed. This state seems to facilitate the healing process. In Chi Kung they say that the Chi (energy) circulates more freely through the body when the mind is calm and the body is relaxed, thus speeding up the healing process.

So, as you get older, do not worry about falling, just work on being more relaxed and aligned. Make sure that you are fit and healthy so that if something happens, your body deals with it as naturally as possible.

As F M Alexander is purported to have said – “ it is not keeping it that is important, but knowing how to get it back”.

Tags: alexander technique, Chi Kung, falls, falls prevention, Personal Trainers