Just a quick article this time on the theme of highlighting recent research or interesting topics in physiotherapy. This blog will look at a recent review around strength and balance exercises. Now, this review is one of those areas where probably most physios (including myself) will be feeling a bit like saying “I told you so!” because it has seemed so obvious for so long that being strong and having good balance is a good thing!! However, sometimes despite the clear benefits that we as physiotherapists see on a daily basis in the clinic when patients get stronger and their balance improves, the evidence surrounding its benefits were not as clear.

Now, there has been a lot of evidence surrounding the benefits of aerobic exercise and the government has clear recommendations about the level of aerobic exercise that everyone should do as a minimum each week but there wasn’t such a focus on the strengthening and balance element of exercising. A recent review of the evidence by Public Health England showed that there were clear benefits of doing activities that increased strength and improved balance. The review found consistent evidence to show that keeping muscle strength in middle and older age was associated with lower mortality.

Personally, I think that, even though it seems obvious that being stronger and having better balance will be good for you in old age, this review is great news. It clearly shows a link between being strong and lower mortality and will hopefully help the importance of doing strengthening exercises become more widely spread. It also vindicates the work that our physiotherapists here at ThreeSpires Physiotherapy have been doing for a long time with our patients with great success.

Okay, I hope that you have found this article helpful. If you or anyone you know would like physiotherapy then please feel free to get in touch. We are a home visit physiotherapy service serving Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Cannock, Rugeley and Walsall.