#PTonICE Podcast Episode 702 - Vestibular fitness
May 27, 2020
A deep dive into vestibular fitness and why balance training should be treated like strength or cardio work. Discussion of how reduced head and eye movement leads to deconditioning in older adults. Practical programming tips, dosage guidance, and ways to integrate gaze stability, eyes-closed drills, and head-trunk dissociation into regular sessions.
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Vestibular Fitness Mirrors Muscle Fitness
- Vestibular fitness parallels muscular and cardiovascular fitness and weakens with disuse.
- Zach Long highlights everyday head/eye movements as constant vestibular training we rarely notice, explaining why active people avoid dizziness during exercise.
Disuse Explains Age Related Vestibular Decline
- Vestibular deconditioning follows reduced movement and avoidance behaviors in older adults.
- Zach Long ties less reaching, avoiding turning, and stopping chores (like dishwasher use) to lost vestibular reps that degrade balance.
Age Changes Don't Eliminate Vestibular Plasticity
- Age causes measurable vestibular changes but not complete loss; key reflexes like VOR can remain until ~80.
- Zach Long notes hair cell and neuron reductions but argues these changes don't make vestibular training pointless.