Fat & Fit AF (AgapeFit style) - Yes, that's the name of my blog
Something that a lot of people don’t realize is that balance needs to be worked regularly by everyone, not just older folks. Work it into your daily routine. It’s easy to do – can be done anywhere, no equipment needed, unless you need a chair or a wall, and the payoffs are great.
Balance Training is Important for Every Body
We balance all of the time - sitting, standing, walking, running, whatever we do requires balance. You can develop it, improve it, and maintain it, all with consistent training. Balancing exercises work the stabilizer muscles, improves stability in the joints and helps with focus. Below are some benefits of working your balance on the daily.
"Balance training (BT) … aims at an improved postural control" – Institute of Sport Science
Benefits of Working Balance Exercises into Your Daily Life
Injury Prevention
You can prevent falls, or even learn HOW to fall correctly (especially for those in climates where there is ice and snow) and can help decrease risk of ankle sprains. When you balance train, you build neuromuscular (mind-body) connections, which means your body springs into action in situations where your body is off-balance, stabilizing you and keeping you upright.
Enhanced Physical Performance
You can help your body with increased agility, control, quicker reaction times, walk on uneven surfaces more easily (especially helpful during walks/hikes/trail runs). Your coordination improves, helping to make you move more efficiently and with more confidence (helping your brain) in not only Acitivities of Daily Living (ADLs), but in exercising and other movements as well. It also improves your reflexes, which is what helps in preventing falls.
Increased Proprioception
Proprioception is just a fancy word for your body knowing where you are in space, whether stationary or moving. Working your balance helps to increase your proprioception and helps your body to more quickly react and adjust to prevent falls (also known as reflexes, see above).
Perhaps a little more balance training would have helped?
It May Help Your Cognitive Ability
In other words, it can help make you (and your body) smarter. Your body definitely gets smarter, building muscle memory and mind-body connections (neuromuscular), but it can also have a beneficial effect on your brain function as a whole, improving memory and spatial awareness.
Balancing Challenges Your Whole Body
All your muscle groups learn to work together to stabilize you, improve your posture, strengthen you, and can help lessen pain, like back pain or arthritis. It strengthens your kinetic chain, from toes to head. It also helps to improve your posture and counteracts the time we spend hunched over devices or sitting.
It's Easy to Do Wherever You Are
Standing in line, at work, at home, outside – wherever your body is, you can train your balance in just a few minutes each day!
How to Get Balancing
If you have an exercise routine already established, easy ways to add balance exercises is to do things that challenge your balance: one-legged deadlifts, calf raises with your feet close together, bicep curls on one leg, bird dogs, side planks with head turns up and down, work with a bosu or wobble board - the sky's the limit!
If your balance isn’t the best, or where you want it to be, here are some things you can do to get started. Perform each move for 20-30 seconds 2-3 times on each side to start, then increase time and reps as your balance improves. If you need a chair or wall, please use it until you no longer need it. Each exercise gets progressively more challenging, so don't feel you have to move on until you are ready. Let's get balanced!
Stand Tall - simply stand on your two feet, hip distance apart, for time. If you wish to challenge yourself, close your eyes. Breathe deeply, loosen your shoulders and just stand.
Walk the Tightrope - walk across a room, putting one foot in front of the other, like a tightrope walker, or a gymnast on a balance beam. If you are unsure of your balance, walk along a wall, with just your fingertips touching it, to keep you steady.
Stand on One Foot - if you need a chair or wall, stand near one. Lift your foot up off the ground, or just place your big toe on the floor next to your ankle. As you gain more confidence, lift your leg higher, keeping your foot in contact with your standing leg - that tactile information will help build your balance and proprioception.
One Leg Foot Slide -
just like it sounds, stand on one foot with your big toe by the ankle of the standing leg, then slide it up and down your leg, just tapping that big toe on the ground.
Pelican Kick Out -
Standing on one leg with your foot against your shin, slowly extend your leg out in front of you, then pull it back in again.
When you're ready, start moving your head!
Single Leg Stand w/Head Turn -
Standing on one leg, foot on shin, knee or big toe on the ground, SLOWLY turn your head from right to left.
Now that you know...
Try it out! At home, in line, at work, in an online meeting (video on or off, it's up to you), whereever you are, it takes only a few minutes a day. As your balance improves, so will your confidence!
This is just the beginning!
Want more balance training? AgapeFit's Cardio Yoga™ class specializes in working balance, and getting you strong and centered from the ground up. Visit the website for more information!
Resources
Balance training improves memory and spatial cognition in healthy adults
Ann-Kathrin Rogge, Brigitte Röder, Astrid Zech, Volker Nagel, Karsten Hollander, Klaus-Michael Braumann, and Kirsten Hötting
Sci Rep. 2017; 7: 5661.
Published online 2017 Jul 18. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06071-9
PMCID: PMC5515881
PMID: 28720898
An exercise sequence for progression in balance training
Thomas Muehlbauer 1, Ralf Roth, Micha Bopp, Urs Granacher
PMID: 22067238
Evidence supporting balance training in healthy individuals: a systemic review
Lindsay J DiStefano 1, Micheal A Clark, Darin A Padua
Affiliations expand
PMID: 19910803
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