Shore Fit
By Bonnie Miller
What is balance training and why is it so important, especially as we age. It may have not crossed your mind, but you need good balance to do just about everything. I have been teaching water aerobics for about ten years but it wasn’t until I started filling in for an older adult class that I realized the importance of balance exercises. Just grabbing towels from a shelf or picking up a piece of luggage or trash bag all requires good balance. I decided that it was time to get certified in Older Adult to further educate myself on providing basic functional training with a strong focus on balance. It includes but is not limited to walking, getting out of a chair, and leaning over to tie your shoes. Strong muscles and being able to keep yourself steady make all the difference in those and many other things you do every day.
Balance training involves doing exercises that strengthen the muscles that help keep you upright, including your legs and core. Balance training involves doing exercises that strengthen the muscles that help keep you upright, including your legs and core. These kinds of exercises can improve stability and help prevent falls. It helps the body to produce smooth, controlled movements with a lower risk of injury. How many older adults have you known that have fallen and incurred injury? Balance training helps reduce the risk of falls in older adults with balance problems and women with low bone mass. It also improves postural stability after a stroke. Some of these exercises can be intense and some can be as simple as standing on one leg for a few seconds. You can use equipment that forces your body to stabilize itself, like a Bosu half-circle stability ball or a balance board.
Stand with your weight on one leg while raising the other leg to the side or behind you. Perform this move while holding onto a back of a chair. Putting your heel right in front of your toe, like walking a tightrope is a great one for balance and standing up and sitting down from a chair without using your hands is another one of my favorites. Over time, you can improve your balance with these exercises by: Holding the position for a a longer period of time, adding a little movement to a pose, closing your eyes and possibly letting go of your chair.
You can do balance exercises as often as you’d like, even every day. I would recommend adding in two days of strength training which also helps improve your balance by working the muscles that keep you stable. To improve your balance train, you don’t have to run, jump, or do any other high-impact or high-intensity exercises. Balance training involves slow, methodical movements. It’s what I call, slow and controlled. You need strong core muscles for good balance. Many stability exercises will work your abs and other core muscles. Exercises in which you balance on one leg and then squat or bend forward also work the leg muscles. The same balance exercises that work the legs also tone the glutes. There is no impact involved in doing balance exercises which is ideal for our older population.
Balance training is good for people of any age and fitness level. Athletes use balance training to become lighter on their feet and more powerful . A strong core enables us to do so much more. Through balance training, the body learns to quickly correct, but not overcompensate. Through repeated training, reaction time decreases. Young athletes can also benefit from this type of training after an injury.
People suffering from chronic back pain can significantly benefit from balance training. If you have back pain, balance work is one of the best ways to strengthen your core and prevent back pain from becoming a recurring issue. It’ll help prevent more problems in the future. When you strengthen muscles, it also helps arthritis by giving more support to painful joints. This is also an ailment that we see in a lot of older adults.
You can do balance exercises on your own, with nothing more than a chair. They also can be done anywhere such as your backyard, on a beach, or in a park.
Balance training should be considered the cornerstone of quality movement. Quality of life is the goal. We don’t want to spend our golden years rehabbing an injury. Many people seek yoga and /or Tai Chi classes for this very reason. Efficient movement requires a strong and stable core and you get that from balance training. It improves overall fitness and quality of life and isn’t that what we need as we age? We need to stay healthy and injury free as we age and balance training is one of the ways to get us there.
Bonnie Miller is certified fitness instructor at the Ocean City Aquatic and Fitness Center and the JCC in Margate. She is a mom of three and resides Somers Point.
