The Secret Of Balance

Have you ever thought about your balance?  I hear that a lot especially when people do exercises that require them to stand on one leg.  Let’s get to the definition.  Balance is a biological system that lets the body know where it is in space.  This is dependent on the vestibular system which includes the inner ear, the visual system which gives the body information about the environment, as well as the sense of touch and joint receptors.

Balance in the body is controlled by an interaction of the inner ear which aids in the sense of direction; the eyes give info on the dimensions of the environment; your skin lets you know where you are actually touching the ground; the muscle and joint receptors work together to maintain posture and stability in relation to a changing environment; and finally the brain puts it all together.

With so many interconnected parts, it is easy to see that any break in this chain could cause you to lose balance.   For example, anything affecting the inner ear such as an infection or calcium deposit can cause you to have a bout of vertigo or that spinning room feeling.  There are also disease processes such as multiple sclerosis that diminish the information that the joint receptors get from the environment which can also affect how the muscular system works to stabilize the body.

For our purposes we are going to look at what we can control which is how the muscles contract to stabilize our bodies in the environment.  For some of us, this isn’t due to a disease or a traumatic injury process, but rather something less insidious – inactivity.

Here is a drill:  Try standing on one leg as long as possible.  If you could stand at least one minute then try to make things more difficult by changing the body position such as doing a single leg toe touch or controlled kicking exercises.  If this is still easy, close your eyes.  If you are still wondering what the big deal is then consider yourself a rockstar.

If you found any of that difficult, make this correction:  Push the foot through the floor, tigthen the glute or butt muscle, and brace those abs.  If you are able to stand with no problems now, well congrats!  You just told your muscles what they were supposed to be doing.  If you made some improvement but still found it difficult then time for a few remedial exercises.  Bridges, posterior rocks, and lower body rolls are on the exercise menu for a few weeks to make those adaptations.

With those stabilization exercises, 1-2 sets for 15-20 reps should do the trick.  Practice balancing as you do the stabilization drills so that you are actually patterning the balance drills.  Just like that, you will be a pillar.

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