Want to improve your Balance?
First, grab a partner to make sure you don't fall, then try these 4 Simple Exercises from Lance Dreher ("Doctor Fitness") to improve your balance.
GENERAL DISCLAIMER: There is a possibility of physical injury when participating in any exercise program.
Transcript by Rev.com
- Today we're gonna demonstrate a few simple exercises to improve your balance.
- Lance, we had a viewer write in and ask us if we could show them some exercises to help improve balance, what can we show them?
- First, you want to start out with a four core exercise that we showed you last week.
- Okay, so Lance, now that they know the four core exercises, what's the first thing that they can do to really focus on balance?
- The most important things they need to do is make sure that they're safe in a spot where they won't fall and hurt themselves. Right, so balance is critical as we get older, so you need to be in a safe spot, which means have someone with you, alright, or be next to a counter that you can grab on with your hands if you start to fall or stumble.
- What's the first exercise that we can do?
- Well, real simple, find a straight line on your floor, and practice walking one foot in front of the other, looking down at your feet, don't look up. So, one foot in front of the other for about 10 feet. That's your first exercise. Either you can repeat it, do it a couple times back and forth, or you can practice walking backwards, which would be the second exercise. It's much more difficult. You have to look down and see where your feet are at, which you're actually gonna help to do is develop those stabilizer muscles, and those sensory nerves that give you spacial awareness.
- So, what's exercise number three?
- Turn and walk sideways on the line. To the right, to the left. Exercise number four, stand on one leg, easy version, leg in front, harder version, leg behind, hardest version, leg behind, eyes closed. Stand on one foot for about 10 seconds and go the other side.
- And then maybe just kinda alternate it.
- Back and forth, right.
- That's really good.
- It would be good to actually probably do this maybe once or twice a day.
- Oh, good.
- Also, just make sure you have someone around you, you do not want to fall over.
- Yeah, be careful out there everybody.
- We see older people, they have the tendency to drag their feet because they're unsure where they're going and their feet are usually wide apart, they're not close together because it gives them more stability. The longer they do that, the less ability they're gonna have, they need to learn to walk properly.
- That's really important.
- Also, why it's important to make sure you exercise those core muscles too because all your power and stability comes out of this center of your body. Doesn't come out of your leg's or your arms, it's here first.
- Yeah. If they have a weak core, then you have a tendency to crumble up, and all the weight is passing through the legs and if they don't have good stability, they have less stability that way.
- Guys, you can connect with Lance at doctorfitnessaz.com. also, his radio show runs on Saturday morning, 8a.m. to 9a.m. here locally in Pheonix on 550KFYI, and streaming across the internet on
- iHeartRadio.
- iHeartRadio. So, look it up, it's the "Doctor Fitness Show." Lance.
- Thank you Patrick. Thank you.
