The Life-Saving Trick to Get Up After a Fall!

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in February 2025. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/3H7eSIvife4

Brad: Oh yeah, that works well. Hi there. We're going to talk to you about how to get up off the floor, and this comes with a story of mine personally. During the last year my mother was living, she had two falls. One time, she was able to get to a chair and get up to the chair all by herself. Another time, it took the staff. So I thought, let's make a video to show people how to always be successful and avoid being stuck on the floor.

Mike: Anyway, as therapists, we've worked with many people over the years who have fallen down. Some of them luckily can get up on their own, and others lie for hours, even days sometimes, and luckily they survive. But this is a very scary situation. So we want to give you some tips on ways you can help prevent this from happening in the future.

Brad: That's right, we're going to go through in detail on how you can figure out which leg is your strongest, which makes a big difference in getting up easier. And not only that, but actually a practice procedure that you can use to keep yourself strong, mobile, and get off the floor. It all turns into a big circle of success.

Mike: Now, if you are already strong and have good mobility, this is still something important to practice, to prepare for the future, keeping yourself strong, mobile, and agile. However, if you do have issues with doing this on your own, make sure to have an able-bodied person there to help you through it.

Brad: Exactly right. So we're going to go through the very first step, and this is something you may not have thought of, but it is important, and you'll see why as we get into it. Usually, someone will have one leg that is dominant, or stronger than the other. Knowing which leg is dominant or stronger can make a mighty big difference in getting up off the floor and onto a chair, or to a standing position. So you're going to go up to a firm chair with armrests like this, and if you don't feel comfortable doing this by yourself, you should not. You should have somebody helping you and maybe holding onto your belt or around your waist. But what we're going to do is stand and stagger your stance. My right foot is behind, and I'm going to actually bring my right knee slowly down and see if you can go up and down easily, if that's okay. Then you can go a little farther. And the goal is to see if you can touch your knee. Now you may want to actually take a cushion, a pillow, a cushion of some sort, so that your knee is cushioned. If you have a tender or uncomfortable knee from arthritis. Go down and then go up and just gauge, well, that wasn't too bad, or it was really hard getting up. Then do the other leg. Okay, and then the same thing. Now I'm testing the strength in my right leg.

Brad: And you'll probably find one of two things. Either one leg is obviously stronger than the other, or maybe they're about the same, and you could do it. If that's the case, it doesn't matter for the future system of getting up. But if you've got a stronger leg, you definitely want to know that.

Mike: So we're going to go through a step-by-step process of how to practice getting down to the floor and then getting back up. These are things you want to do before you actually have a fall. So first, Brad, how do we get down?

Brad: Well, I know my right leg is my stronger leg, from the previous test, so I'm going to put that leg in front. I'm going to have a couch or something stable if you need it. Otherwise, we're going to go down on the knee. This is the strongest leg; it's taking most of the brunt. And I'm going to take my time and get down on my hip and roll.

Brad: And you're going to learn how you can actually adjust yourself by scooting, which is going to be important if you do fall, it's not going to be new. You're going to know from experience how your body works and how it works more easily. And we're going to start right down here on my back. So we want to get to the side. What's the next step, Mike?

Mike: So, what we're going to do is actually start to get on your side. So you're going to use your strong leg to roll in the opposite direction. So Brad's going to push off with his right leg.

Brad: Yep.

Mike: And roll to his left side if possible.

Brad: Yeah, and I'm actually going to take the left leg and bring it underneath my right leg, so it's out of the way, so I can roll over that way. And simply pushing here and over here onto my shoulder, hand out, and there we go. I've got one step done, to the side with this strong leg to the top.

Mike: Now Brad is going to take his bottom arm, which is his left arm in this case, and he's actually going to bring it towards him and lean up on his elbow a little bit.

Brad: There we go.

Mike: That's step two. And he is going to take his right hand, bring it closer to his body, and he'll start pushing up, trying to use his arms. And you can see his right leg is moving, trying to get flat. So he is trying to get over onto his knees, which is what he's going for.

Brad: There we go. Yeah, so we have to do a little of this trunk control here. We get up and slide this through until we get to here. And at that point, I'm on my elbow, and my hand here, and I'm going to get my hips over my knees, and that's going to make it easier, so I can get into this quadruped or all fours position.

Mike: Now, for practice's sake, what we're going to do is, hopefully, there is an object somewhere nearby, and we're going to actually crawl to the object if you can't get up from this position. And then Brad will kind of show what we did earlier with the testing again.

Brad: Right, so if you are strong enough, you could bring your strong leg up first. It's always the one you want to go up first with. A hand on your knee, and if you're strong enough, and this is easy for you to do, or relatively easy and safe, you can certainly work yourself right up.

Brad: And that's one repetition of the exercise. And then you will repeat that a number of times, so it just becomes a habit. You don't have to think about it anymore. But if you're in a situation and you're on all fours, and this is way too difficult, you're going to need to either crawl. In my mother's case, she just scooted her body until she got to a chair with armrests, which luckily wasn't too far away. And again, over onto your knee, hand up on the chair, forearm up. And again, that right leg is the strong leg. That's the one we're going to lead with. Use everything here, shift the weight towards the chair and arms and legs, all working together. And then we're going to turn and sit, because you're probably going to be pretty fatigued at that point.

Brad: If it's very difficult for you, which it probably will be if you need the chair to get up, then you rest. Simply rest, rest, rest. And then get up if you have a walker or walk around safely. So what do you say, Mike?

Mike: I say hopefully their floor at home is cleaner than ours when you're practicing this, so you don't get dirty.

Brad: Should I do it one more time without pausing?

Mike: We can go through it real quick. That way, if people want to re-watch and just see the sequencing, you can skip to this section.

Brad: Again, practice this, get down on the floor. I'll do it with my left leg. We'll turn it around so it's different. My left leg would be the strong one this time. The right one goes down, over, so the strong leg is on top. Get that elbow underneath, hands here, and then roll. Get that foot, I'm going to actually bring it underneath here. You'll figure all these things out after you do it a couple of times, over here up to here. Again, if you need something to hold onto, use a chair, strong leg, oh, there, my left leg is strong. Hands on the knees, very helpful sometimes. Up we go.

Brad: And then we just simply go down and we repeat, and this is the practice part. Oh, do do do, I'm over here. Here, roll, here, up. There we go.

Mike: Do you do this at home? What does your wife say? Just watching?

Brad: She enjoys watching this. No, seriously, I'm actually getting warm. I'm getting a little exercise. My joints are getting mobilized. It can be a really healthy exercise as long as it's done appropriately, safely, and only if you need some help initially starting. As therapists, we practice this in the gym. You've done it before with people before sending them home.

Mike: Yeah, we put them on the floor, make them work on it. I mean, we're normally safe. We put a big mat down normally, so they don't hurt themselves too much.

Brad: Right, well, we need to be safe.

Mike: Anyway, if this is beneficial for you, there's another video called "7 Creative Ways to Get Off the Floor!" This one we talk much more in depth, if you actually fall, what to do initially, and many different ways to get up using different objects.

Brad: Yeah, it gets quite creative, actually.

Mike: It does.

Brad: All right, very good. Be safe. Hopefully, you don't have to be in that position.