Everything in life is conspiring to make you fall. The ground is smooth, slippery and full of protrusions. The earth moves under your feet. Discarded banana peels are an ever-present threat. Gravity itself creates a constant downward pull.
You may only think about balance when you decide to test it — or when you lose it. But you’re counting on it every second that you’re not on your stomach. Whenever you work from your standing desk, step out of the bathroom, rush across a busy intersection, or drive your kids to school by bike, you can thank your balance for allowing it. you successfully move during the day without getting injured.
Stop for a second and think how much to maintain balance:
- Musculoskeletal strength and coordination: Balance requires not only strong bones, muscles and joints, but also proper alignment. Muscles that are too tight or too weak can cause imbalance.
- Vision: Visual input provides an overview of our surroundings and external focus (looking at a point in the environment) keeps us from losing our balance easily.
- Vestibular system: The fluid in our inner ear acts as a sort of level, telling us where our body is in space.
- Sensory memory system: Nerves in muscles and connective tissues relay information about our position in our surroundings.
- Awareness: The brain must integrate all the information coming from the body and make adjustments on the fly to counteract the force of gravity.
The fact that we (usually) manage to stay upright is impressive!
Why is balance important?
This may be obvious, but let’s run through it. The balance is not just standing on a stable surface without tipping over (static stabilization). It also maintains your posture and technique while walking, running, jumping, cycling, or anything else that involves movement (dynamic stabilization). Balance is essential for all of us, and especially for athletes whose feats have kept them constantly in the face of forces that threaten to throw them to the ground. Athletes with better balance are less likely to fall and get injured, especially if they have a history of trauma.
The older you get, the harder it becomes to keep your balance, which makes sense. Muscle strength, bone density, vision, and acoustic function all decline with age. Bone loss often accompanies menopause, which is why more than 70% of hip fractures in the elderly occur in women. If you are unlucky enough to break your hip after age 50, you have a 24% chance of dying within a year. Balance assessment is an effective predictor of fall risk in the elderly. Better balance, less risk, as you’d expect.
What can I do to improve my balance?
Get enough sleep.
I don’t care if you’re sick of hearing me crow about sleep. Its that important and I will continue to detail the many aspects of life that are affected by poor sleep.
After a night of sleep deprivation, your dynamic balance will suffer. Your ability to integrate sensor functionality with intuitive input to control posture reduction. Your postural stability becomes difficult. If you keep it chronic, even missing “just a few hours” a night, you will decrease your postural control.
Spend more time walking barefoot.
The foot, with its complex structure of small bones, connective tissue, and muscles, is designed to collect acoustic information from the ground. Your toes are firmly planted on the ground, and small adjustments to your feet and ankles will help correct a temporary, even imperceptible (to your conscious self) loss of balance. ). When your feet are wrapped in thick, “supportive” footwear, you prevent your feet from performing these most important functions.
Move intentionally.
Don’t rush to make movements all the time. Move gently and really feel the movement. Maintain control over the entire span.
Walking meditation involves slow, controlled walking with purposeful mindfulness of your body and surroundings.
I really like the different plank variations, including the side and side, as they affect your balance slowly but strongly.
Build strength.
Balance is not all in the head. You don’t think of yourself for stability. Ultimately, you have to use your muscles to stabilize yourself. And although you don’t need to add 30 pounds of muscle, squatting three times your body weight improves balance, becomes stronger. do Help. If you already know that balance is a problem for you, see a physical therapist who specializes in balance exercises.
Balance the work of the day.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. There are countless ways to balance the work of the day and have fun doing it. Here are some of my favorites.
- Stand on one leg while you wait for your coffee.
- Get out of the concrete and go for more natural surfaces — grass, sand, even gravel.
- Walk along the sidewalk.
- Leap.
- When you go to the gym to lift heavy, incorporate one-leg lifts like single-leg deadlifts and pistol squats.
Maintain a neutral spine.
Balance is about maintaining a stable, neutral spine between whatever gravity and life throws at you. So always focus on the spine.
Keep your shoulders back and chest up. Don’t push your payout, but also don’t allow your shoulders to point forward. Keep everything in a nice line. Keep your feet, ankles, knees, and hips mobile, exercised, and prepared for action. Watch your knees (knees inward) when doing movements like squats.
This is the basic pose, but it’s very important. If your head is facing forward, you are out of position. You’ve just put an 11-pound skull, flesh, and brain into a bad position where gravity can pull down on it. Now, imagine running, jumping, or even just walking down the street with your big head around upset your balance.
Get some air.
Jumping — and landing — is perhaps the best test of balance. You are flying in the air then landing. Your body wants to keep working, and you need to stop that without tearing anything or falling. There’s so much going on, too much to intellectualize.
That’s why actually getting out and jumping is so important for balance. Keep the basics in mind:
- Land gently on the ball of your foot, then reach your heel
- Land with a hip flex, and absorb the impact with your glutes, glutes, and hamstrings
- Don’t let your knees drift inward.
- Maintain that neutral spine.
Start small, and your body will take care of the rest. You do it, you land, you do it again, you improve, you learn.
Want more fun? Try a trampoline or an elastic. I recently found myself on a 15-foot trampoline. The difference between jumping and landing with a neutral spine, aligned and jumping and landing evenly scornful stooped was jarring. The former felt fluid and strong and right. The second person felt completely unwell, and I only jumped about halfway. Trampolines rewards good balances. They also enhance it.
Stay young.
Aging worsens everything related to balance, so do your best not to age. I’m joking, kinda. Everyone advances through space-time. We all “get old”. But your biological age — the health and resilience of tissues, organs, and abilities — is more malleable. You can’t go back in time, but you can compress illness:
- Continue working. Walk a ton. Lift heavy objects several times a week.
- Eat the right amount of protein and carbs for your needs. Prioritize food quality where you can.
- Stop eating often. Quick sometimes. Limit snacking.
- Get sunlight on your skin and eyes.
- Limit stress.
- Play.
Do dynamic movements and practice balance.
Balance follows the maxim “use it or lose it”. Take it for granted and don’t maintain it, and you will surely regret it. If you’ve noticed that your balance slips (no pun intended), it’s probably not too late to fix it.
Everyone should incorporate targeted balance exercises into their regular routine. Get started with basic balance exercises here. These movements can be done anytime, anywhere. Treat them like microwaves, scattered throughout the day as part of your daily commitment to being active and/or taking some time out at the beginning or end of your exercise session. to focus on this important skill.
That’s about it for today, folks. How is your balance? How has balance affected your life, performance, and injury risk? How do you train it?
Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care.
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