Why You Need To Improve Your Balance

Balance is one of those things that seems to get worse with age. It’s also something that we need to keep us stable in the activities we do every day: reaching, leaning, and even walking require balance. If you make an effort to maintain and improve your balance, you’ll be able to keep doing the things you love for a long time. 

Why Does Balance Get Worse With Age? 

The thing with balance (and so many others), is that you need to use it or lose it! When you’re a kid, a lot of play and sports involve balancing, like climbing play structures, ice skating, and even playing baseball. As we get older, we simply do fewer activities that require balance, so we naturally get worse at it. 

Another reason balance gets harder as we get older is because we tend to avoid (consciously or not,) movements that are challenging. For example, putting on socks. Can you put on a sock standing up? Or do you sit down to do it because even that few seconds of balance is too difficult? It makes me sad when I hear someone say that when they go out, they need to plan ahead because they are afraid of having a fall. They consider parking, if there are stairs, or hills they should be concerned about. Better balance can certainly help in situations like these. 

*I’d like to point out here that there are health conditions that can affect your balance. If you notice a sudden decline in yours, please see a doctor! 

Body Imbalances Can Cause Poor Balance

I first noticed my own balance challenges when I was assessed by a personal trainer. We did several physical tests that had me wobbly and frustrated. At the time, I was dealing with a pain in my left butt cheek that he told me was because I was quad-dominant and not engaging my hamstrings or glutes as much as I should be. It also turned out that my left side was much weaker than my right. 

Thanks to my job in fitness, I was strong; but due to a lot of repetitive movements, I had imbalances of strength in my body and some small overuse injuries. I started to become aware of these imbalances when I discovered Pilates, and then the trainer made me even more aware. I’m grateful that I made these discoveries when I did so I could make changes to my workout routine to improve my balance. 

How To Improve Your Balance

There are several ways to improve your balance, such as doing Pilates and/or a good strength training program. The essential movements in either, though, are ones that have you working one leg at a time and that build a strong core and glutes. Pilates still challenges me to find my balance, but I like the challenge to execute those wobbly-exercises with precision and control. 

The Hundred is an excellent exercise to help improve your balance, as it shows up on the mat and all the apparatuses. You are building core and glute strength which help with your balance. Then there is rolling like a ball, where you start in a balanced position, then roll down and up, trying to “stick” the balance point once again. On the apparatuses, there are lots of great exercises that will challenge and improve your balance; some of my favourites are the single-leg springs on the tower and the standing leg presses on the chair.   

There are so many movements that you can do to help you either improve your balance directly, or by strengthening the muscles you need to balance better. Some you can try at home are: 

• Simply practice balancing on one foot at a time. If you are really wobbly, do it near a counter or chair for support at first. Work up to not holding it at all, and then the length of time you can stand on each foot. 
• Do glute bridges. As you get stronger, add in marches while bridging or doing single-leg glute bridges. 
• Clamshells are great, too. 

Keep Balancing!

However you decide to work on your balance, keep at it! You may not notice better balance right away, but maybe one day you might just find yourself putting your socks on while standing up. You never know!