As a certified personal trainer, I’ve heard clients say, “I have no balance!” My response is, “Let’s work on it!”
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Exercises to Improve Balance
To improve balance, you should focus on four key areas: increasing core strength, strengthening the muscles of the lower body, shifting your focus and putting it into practice. Here are some exercises to improve balance.
Increase Core Strength
Core strength is absolutely imperative to our overall health and well-being, especially when it comes to building balance.Researchindicates that core strength exercises can also improve balance and stability.
When you think of your core, you may just think of your abdominal muscles. While the abdominal muscles are a part of it, your core is made up of all of the muscles between your shoulders and your hips—basically the trunk of your body. It’s also what provides support for your bones and keeps your musculoskeletal system working properly.
To strengthen your core, you want to strengthen the abdominal muscles, including the obliques; the muscles in the back, including the spinal erectors; and the muscles of the pelvic floor.
Exercises to Increase Core Strength:
Strengthen the Lower Body
To improve your balance, you must also improve your stability. To improve your stability, you must improve your lower body strength.
Exercises to Build Lower Body Strength:
Once you feel confident about your standing balance and can stand on one foot for at least 30 seconds, you can try incorporating additional instability to your lower body exercises.
Lower Body Exercises to Build Strength and Incorporate Instability:
There are also a number of tools available that can elevate your balance training. In our studio, we use both the Bosu Balance Trainer and the Airex Balance Pad to work with clients on improving their balance, stability and strength.
The TRX Suspension Trainer is another great option. We frequently use this piece of equipment when beginning to work with clients on balance as it provides the ability to hold on to the handles for extra stability and a feeling of security.
Shift Your Focus
I see examples of this often with my clients—initially, they either try to focus on their feet or they focus on the exercise itself. This almost always causes trouble with balance. To address this, I use these simple cues to help keep the focus external:
Byfocusing externally, you allow your body to work on autopilot and reflexively to complete the action without your brain getting in the way.
Practice for Progress
Balance is use it or lose it. You simply have to practice it to make it better.
In addition to the exercises to improve balance we’ve discussed, there are a number of easy ways to incorporate balance practices into your daily routine:
By adding simple activities to your daily routine, you can make a noticeable improvement in your balance.
Build Balance, Build Confidence
Building balance also means building confidence. When you are afraid of being unstable or have a fear of falling, it can keep you from doing the activities that you enjoy. By building core strength, building lower body strength, focusing externally and practicing, you’ll find that as your balance improves, so does your confidence!
When to Seek Additional Help
It’s important to note that the exercises provided here are to be used as a general guideline. If you feel uncertain about how to safely do any of these exercises, we suggest that you seek the assistance of a fitness professional or physical therapist to help you find a baseline measurement and create a plan to progress.
If you find that you have new, strong or persistent issues with your balance or if you feel faint, dizzy, lightheaded, shaky or generally physical unstable or insecure, contact your health care provider for an evaluation.
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