Surprisingly Simple Ways to Improve Your Balance
How easy do you find it to balance? Balance is obviously something that is really important for our movement confidence and a skill that will ultimately determine how independent and active we can be as we get older. If we struggle with balance, then we will be more prone to falls. The good news is that we can improve our balance through practice and today, I am going to share some surprisingly easy ways you can improve your balance and improve your movement confidence.
Balance is something that can get more difficult as we get older, but it doesn’t have to. It might also be something that we need to work on following an injury as we tend to lose some proprioception ability, especially if the injury is to our legs or feet.
As with most things when it comes to movement, if we don’t use it, we lose it, and balance is no exception. Unless lack of balance is caused by a problem in the ear, then generally balance can be improved with practice. As we get older we tend to have less natural opportunities to practice balancing and therefore it may become more difficult. However, we can create easy opportunities to balance and make an effort to keep up this important skill. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are this is a great skill to work on at any stage of life. If balance is already difficult, don’t worry, it’s never too late to improve.
Before we begin, remember to always start at your own ability and you may want to consult with a doctor or physiotherapist to get personalised advice.
Improve Your Balance By Being Playful
Kids are always testing and challenging their balance. They love to walk across logs in the woods, balance on the curb in a quiet street, hop on one leg, or stand on one leg while leaning forwards with their arms out like an aeroplane and proudly say, “Look at me Mum, look what I can do!”
Kids are playful and they are always moving. As we advance into adulthood we tend to lose that desire to play around with the way we move. We fall into routines and habits, and unless we play a sport that demands more challenging movements, we tend not to challenge ourselves anymore.
Being playful is a great way to improve our balance and our movement confidence. Here are some ideas: When you go out for a walk, don’t just walk. Think about how you could challenge yourself. Is there a line you could walk along, a log to climb on, stepping stones to get you across a stream? Even just walking on differing terrains rather than always sticking to the path can challenge your balance.
At home you can challenge yourself while doing everyday tasks like cleaning. Reach up on your tip toes to dust up high. Allow yourself to reach across for something and be slightly off balance as you do it. If you are not confident, make sure there is something you can hold on to to start with so you don’t fall.
Try and do something everyday that challenges your balance.
For Good Balance You Need a Wide Base
If you are building a tower, it will be more sturdy if you give it a wide base as a foundation, so let’s convert that idea and make it relevant for the human body. What do we stand on? Our feet. Which I admit do seem surprisingly small for having to support the rest of us. There are however, two things that we can do to make us more stable when we are standing.
The other thing you can do to make your base wider is to stand, and walk with your feet and legs hip-width apart and your weight over your heels. A lot of people actually walk with their feet narrower than their hips and their pelvis pushed forwards. Which, by the way, is how you have to walk if your shoes have high heels, which is why wearing flat shoes is important for good balance.
By ensuring that our weight is in our heels, our pelvis is neutral, and our legs are hip width, not only are we making our base wider, but we are also strengthening our gluteal muscles. Our glutes are the biggest muscle in the body, rightfully so as they should be the main supporting muscle when standing and walking, but we often bypass the glutes in favour of other muscles such as hip flexors and hamstrings. Our muscles then get out of balance and that in turn can make our balance less stable. So, working on correct alignment can actually strengthen our foundation.
Stand on One Leg for better balance
Standing on one leg is a movement that we can end up dropping as we get older. If we practice standing on one leg each day, we won’t lose this skill and will even get better at it. Start by standing next to a chair or wall that you can hold onto for stability if you need it. Lift one foot just off the floor and when you feel ready, let go of what ever you are holding and see how long you can balance for. Eventually you can challenge yourself more by lifting the foot higher, or even adding a body tilt or see if you can pick something off the ground while standing on one leg.
Transferring Weight from foot to foot
The other part of balancing is being able to transfer our weight quickly from foot to foot. You can do this by standing still and lifting one leg then the other. You can progress onto dance steps like the box step or grape vine to get moving in different directions, including crossing legs one over the other.
Make Your base Narrower to Challenge Your Balance
So we explored how having a wide base can make balance easier, however if we want to challenge our balance, making our base narrower is a great thing to do. Try walking, placing one foot in front of another along a line. For more of a challenge you can raise up the height. You could walk along a curb, a low balance beam and then progress to things like walking along a log or even a slack line.
What Will You Do to Improve Your Balance This Week?
So there you have it, 5 easy ways to improve your balance. I hope that has given you some ideas to get you started. What idea will you add to your movement practice this week?