Falling

I took a step off the curb on Central Park West and noticed myself flying through the air - slowly, as falls always tend to happen - and landed flat on my belly out on the street. "Shiiiiiiiit..." I thought to myself as my body accelerated towards the ground.

But I caught the fall gracefully and landed as if I was doing a push-up, sort of. How awesome! I had just read in The New York Times that a push-up is "a symbol of health and wellness".

"...push-ups can provide the strength and muscle memory to reach out and break a fall. When people fall forward, they typically reach out to catch themselves, ending in a move that mimics the push-up. The hands hit the ground, the wrists and arms absorb much of the impact, and the elbows bend slightly to reduce the force...."

That's exactly how I fell! There's more:

“What so many people really need to do is develop enough strength so they can break a fall safely without hitting their head on the ground,” Dr. Ashton-Miller said. “If you can’t do a single push-up, it’s going to be difficult to resist that kind of loading on your wrists in a fall.”

Ha! Obviously I'm strong and fit enough to take that load. My fall put me in an excellent mood for the rest of the day, what an athlete! (Though, I must have hit my knee in the fall because now it's swollen and it hurts a lot and I can hardly walk, stand, or sit.)