How to Perform Easy Balance Exercises

Whether you realize it or not, balance is essential to all of your daily activities. However, balance works on a use it or lose it principle. As you get older, you tend to lose balance, which explains why older people often suffer hip fractures due to frequent falling. That said, it's not just older people who suffer from loss of balance. If you've ever sprained and ankle, you might find that you have limited balance on that foot. The good news is that balance exercise has become very popular. The bad news is that people will often attempt advanced balance exercises before developing basic balance skills. Since balance is directly related to core activation, it behooves you to learn to activate your core muscles prior to attempting balance exercises.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Comfortable clothing

From a Standing Position

1. Activate your core. Take a deep breath. As you exhale, draw your navel to your spine. Hold your belly tight for ten seconds. Practice this ten times a day. This works your transverse abdominal muscle, which is your deeper abdominal muscle.
2. Activate you pelvic floor. These are the deep core muscles that support your pelvis. Imagine you are going to the bathroom trying to stop the urine flow. Perform ten repetitions. When you practice your balance exercises, you can use either use your pelvic floor or your transverse abdominal muscle to help you balance.
3. Stand up tall. Shift your weight back and forth from your heels to your toes, without actually lifting your heels or toes from the floor. This is called postural sway. It allows you to gauge how far you can let your weight shift in either direction, without losing balance.
4. Try the same exercise with your eyes closed.
5. Stand tall. Take a breath in. As you exhale, bend your right knee and lift your right foot from the floor. Draw your navel to your spine, and balance on your left leg. Hold for ten seconds, and then switch sides.
6. Try the same exercise with your eyes closed.
7. Open your eyes, and go back to the one-legged balance. This time, shift your weight from your heel to your toes, like you did in the two-legged balance warmup.
8. Perform the above exercise with your eyes closed.

Exercises on All Fours

9. Kneel on all fours.
10. Check your alignment. Shoulders should be relaxed and core muscles need to be engaged. Do not let your lower back sag.
11. Inhale to prepare.
12. Engage your pelvic floor as you exhale. Simultaneously lift your right leg so that it extends back behind you, and your left arm so that it reaches over head.
13. Repeat on the other side.

Tips & Warnings

• When you get good at these exercises, try performing them on a balance board or a bosu.
• Do not lean into either hip as you perform these exercises.
• If you have knee problems, avoid performing the exercise on your hands and knees.