It's a rude shock when you discover you can't get up off the ground.
We know learned motor skills, like riding a bike or writing, are stored in our cerebellum as an
engram (pattern of movement) as we practice an activity. Then, once we've mastered a skill, that stored engram can be accessed at will and we can perform the task almost without thinking about it.
We also know that the glial cells in our brain are brilliant declutterers ~ a-la Marie Kondo [read more here]. Only skills we use often are kept, maintained and put where we can access them easily. If we don't access the engram for a skill often enough the declutterers vanish that movement pattern as an option. Gone.
There's also the fact that if we don't use our bodies, maintaining our muscular strength and bone density, then we decondition, and these physical resources disappear. We no longer have good quality tools - bones, muscles, joints - to do the job.
So. How recently have you traversed the acrobatic act of getting down onto the floor and then standing back up from the floor again? If you have a go now...is it easy and graceful...or not?
In our youth getting down to the floor and back up again is an action we do without thought. Somewhere in in the realm of 35 -50 it can fade from our regular movement patterns. This doesn't seem a major issue until we have more twinkles in our wrinkles and "upping and downing" in the garden, with grandkids, or, heaven forbid, a fall, reveal our inability to us. It's often a rude shock!
The inability to get up from the floor really becomes an issue when it coincides with increased falls risk. Falls risk increases when we have deterioration in our joints, vision or inner ear (balance centres)...all of which unfortunately increase with our vintage. Falls risk also increases if you are on more than 3 prescribed medicines, something to keep in mind.
Falling is associated with people withdrawing from life. The instinct is to reduce the risk of this painful and undignified event ever happening again ~ just to stick to places where you are safe from tripping or falling. Seems reasonable. However, wrapping yourself in cotton wool is not the answer. The result is further deconditioning, social withdrawal and increased risk of mortality.
Ideally we instead maintain our strength and fitness, and practice getting down to the floor and up again regularly, so we don't fall afoul of disuse in the frame and efficient decluttering in the cerebellum in the first place. However, for those who didn't receive this memo in a timely fashion (!), the good news is that bioplasticity and neuroplasticity [read more here] gift us an avenue back to good function no matter our vintage. Practice can bring this skill back!! Click on the link below and you can access a short YouTube video in which Dr Jo (a physical therapist) demonstrates two different techniques for getting up off the ground (with variations).
Practice really does bring this skill of getting down-to and up-from the floor back much more quickly than you'd think. The payback of a little effort on this front is huge ~ increased strength and mobility; improved condition of tissues and happier joints; improved coordination and balance; improved headspace; and reduced falls risk and mortality risk. It's a no-brainer!