Nobody wants a broken hip in their future. These low-pressure moves will help

And that’s exactly what Sara Stace, 48, decided to do. A few years back her grandmother fell and broke her hip. Stace was already fit but decided to add a balance element in to help her avoid falling.

“I had three examples of elderly family members falling and it had a big impact on their lives,” she said.

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So she went to a physio for help who advised specific exercises including what I’d call a modified flamingo.

Stand on one leg. Hold out your wing (or arm) with a weight attached and bend over keeping leg, arm and body in a straight line. It’s pretty tough at the outset but Stace now does eight of those in a row, in three separate sets. She also bought a balance board ostensibly for her kids to practise surfing but Stace now uses it as well.

David Barnes, 53, does calf raises while going to the loo and stands on one leg while brushing his teeth. When he started, he was already in a bit of pain and struggling to run. An orthopaedic surgeon told him he would need a hip replacement unless he took action.

“I found the right people to help me, including exercise physiologists, and I rehabbed the crap out of it,” he said.

Barnes was determined to get back to playing soccer with his mates. He’s now doing one better – playing on a team with 18 year olds and refusing to take a fall.

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Sherrington, who is working with the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society and NEURA, says there is an extraordinary gap between what we know works to prevent falls and then putting it into practice. She says physios and exercise physiologists are brilliant at understanding how to help us but for many, access to those allied health services is out of reach.

Her advice? “Start soon, no matter how old you are.”

These days I might trip but rarely fall. Me and the other flamingos.

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