Back to Basics: Balance

Balance work is, like flexibility, both essential and often neglected.  The statistics on older people who fall are not pretty.  Hint:  we are all getting older.

With my clients, I make sure that we work on having a strong core.  This means more than doing a few ab exercises.  The core is all the trunk musculature, all the way around.  We can’t neglect working those deep back muscles that support and move our spines.

 

Additionally, I make sure we do asymmetric work.  When we work one side of the body differently than the other (in a one arm clean and press, for example), our bodies have to figure out how to stabilize us.  And, of course, this means straight-up balance work, like single leg squats, single leg deadlifts, and the like.

 

Pilates, by nature, enhances both core strength and balance.  Yoga, likewise, is a great practice for those who want to improve balance.

 

The best thing for balance?  Practice.  I often suggest using the time we are standing around anyway to practice balance.  I have at least one client who has taken me up on this (and told me about it).  She works on her calf raises while she’s waiting in line at the grocery store.  (Because she is awesome, she thinks of the amusement caused in her fellow shoppers as bonus points.)  I can say that her constant practice has yielded results, both in her actual balance and her confidence.  Those of us who don’t want to practice in public can use tooth-brushing time, microwave time, or commercials time for mini-practice.

 

Go play.