Keeping Fit: Four ways to improve your balance

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, August 26, 2023

When discussing fitness and health, we often mention improving endurance, building muscles or maintaining a healthy weight. However, balance is often overlooked.

Balance is what keeps us grounded, quite literally. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than three million older Americans land in the emergency room due to a fall, making it the leading cause of injury and injury-related death for adults 65 and older. But not to worry. The good news is there are simple ways to help improve your overall balance. Are you ready to sort out your balancing act?

Strengthen your core

Building the muscles in the center of your body helps you feel centered, too. Having a strong core can encourage you to stand tall and allows you to control your muscles better, making you more likely to regain your balance if you slip. Plus, when you can rely on the support of your core, everyday balance tasks like carrying groceries and laundry are done with ease.

Try focusing on your abdominal, lower back and pelvic muscles. These areas help keep you upright and stabilize your spine, providing the foundation for balance. Classic core strengthening exercises include glute bridges, planks and bird dogs.

Practice yoga

Research shows that yoga improves balance by strengthening and stretching your muscles while developing core strength and stability. Even some of the simplest postures, like Mountain Pose (standing tall with your feet together, arms at your sides and palms facing forward) can help strengthen your balance as you practice remaining still. The more you train your body to shift in space and control movement during a yoga class or from home, the more you’ll be able to maintain balance and prevent falls off the mat.

Build lower body strength

To improve your balance you must also improve your stability. To improve your stability, you must strengthen your lower body. The muscles in the lower body — the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles — are some of our largest muscle groups. Your adductors (inner thigh muscles) are also important for balance because they align the hips. Yet as we age, it becomes harder for us to maintain muscle mass, which can lead to balance issues. Try incorporating leg exercises such as squats, lunges, step-ups, leg extensions, leg curls and calf raises.

Practice for progress

Balance is use it or lose it. You have to practice it to make it better. In addition to the balance exercises we’ve discussed, here are more easy ways to incorporate balance practices into your daily routine.

• Stand on one foot to do any common chore: brushing your teeth, washing the dishes or reading the mail.

• Stand on one foot while doing any upper body exercise during your workout: biceps curls, shoulder press, overhead triceps extension, upright row and side shoulder raise.

• Look around while you’re walking. This may seem strange, but moving your head back and forth as you stroll helps retrain how your eyes and inner ears integrate to keep you balanced.

• Shift your weight from one foot to the other while standing in line, or try walking in a straight line heel-to-toe.

Final thoughts

Building balance also means building confidence. When you are afraid of being unstable or fear falling it can keep you from doing the activities you enjoy. By strengthening your core, incorporating yoga, building lower body strength and implementing balance practices, you’ll find that as your balance improves, so does your confidence.

Aaron Mendez is a fitness consultant at the Bradley Wellness Center.