Maybe it was the wintry morning when I stepped out of the carpool van, hit an icy patch and went skidding on my backside toward the doors of my middle school as my classmates looked on. Or the day I stood on my front porch waving goodbye to a friend and watched in terror as she slid all the way down my frozen front steps.
At some point along the way, I became scared of slipping on ice. In the wintertime, I shuffle down the sidewalks of Boston an inch at a time, lest I go down like a cartoon character on a banana peel.
The reality, experts said, is that I should be concerned, at least a little. “Our brains are trained to be threat-identifying machines,” said Allison Logemann, a neuropsychologist with the University of Minnesota Medical School — and slick surfaces can be dangerous.
But there are ways to worry less when you’re out for a walk, and to lower the risk that you do lose your footing.
Brace yourself physically.
“Footwear is the first layer of the defense,” said Sophia Yue Li, a biomedical engineer who has studied how hundreds of types of winter boots fare on ice in her work at the KITE Research Institute at The University Health Network in Toronto.
To start, you need well-fitting shoes or boots with good traction. Dr. Li said her research suggests that some of the best boots for walking on ice are made of newer materials, like Arctic Grip or IceBite Grip, which use both rubber and hard particles like fiberglass to grip icy surfaces, even on a slope. Generally speaking, Dr. Li said, on slippery ice, the pattern of your shoe treads is less important than the material and how worn they are. If you’re not sure what shoes to wear, you can test various pairs in a safe spot, like an icy patch next to a fence you can hold onto for support.
You can also use trekking poles with carbide or steel tips for stability. Or wear ice cleats over your shoes for more traction, said Alissa Ahrenholtz, a physical therapist with M Health Fairview in Minnesota — though Dr. Li said to use them only on longer stretches of ice. If you’re walking on a sidewalk with both icy and clear patches, the cleats can catch on the concrete and cause you to trip.
If you use an assistive device like a walker or a cane, or wear glasses, don’t go out for a walk without them. You can also work on improving your balance and strengthening your core and legs, all of which can help your body respond quickly if you slip.
Some at high risk of falling and injuring themselves — including older people, those with frail bones from conditions like osteoporosis and people with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s — might also benefit from reactive balance training, which helps people stay upright when something shakes their balance.
“When it’s snowing or there’s ice on the ground, a lot of patients who are frail or have balance problems, they tend to stay home,” said Dr. Jason Strelzow, director of orthopedic trauma at University of Chicago Medicine. For these people, it may be safest to stick to indoor walking or only venture out with a companion who can help you if you fall.
Then, brace yourself mentally.
Having the right gear — and working on your strength — can help you build confidence. So can going for short outings, and gradually building up the distance you walk, Dr. Logemann said. For those who can go out safely, she added, it’s key not to avoid the activity altogether.
If you’re nervous, consider taking a “mindful minute” before you go. “Notice the heaviness of the coat, the warmth of the boots. Just take your time with the process,” she said. This can keep your sympathetic nervous system less activated, she added, which can help you respond more calmly if you do slip.
Take it slow.
A common piece of advice is to walk like a penguin: Stick your arms out and take short, shuffling steps. Bigger steps can shift your center of gravity in a way that makes it harder to keep your balance.
And “make sure that the area you’re walking in is as clear as possible,” Dr. Strelzow said, even if that means you need to zigzag between salted parts of the sidewalk. You should also avoid looking down at your phone or letting pets walk too close to your feet, as it’s easy to trip over them and slip, he added.
Falls happen quickly — “by the time you realize, you’re already on the floor,” Dr. Li said. If you slip, try to keep your arms close to your body and tuck your chin to protect your wrists and head. Take a minute to check for injuries before you get up, and move slowly to avoid hurting yourself or slipping again, Ms. Ahrenholtz said.
Ultimately, some of the risk of falling comes down to “just bad luck,” Dr. Strelzow said. But, he added, “a lot of it is things we can control.”