Balance Training Program

Balance Training Tips

• Begin each exercise with your standing leg bent. Hold the "START" position for 30 seconds, then gradually straighten the standing leg as much as possible, without losing the feeling of center.
• Do this routine 2-3 times per week for optimal performance.
• Try to keep the "lift in your ribcage" throughout each exercise.
• Don't hold your breath -- breath deeply and rythmically to keep your center.
• Do these exercises close to a wall or keep a chair nearby for balance. Even just your fingertips lightly resting on a stable surface can help you maintain your balance until you master these exercises.
• When the routine is getting "too easy," do exercises 1, 2, and 3 IN A ROW on the right, then switch to the left leg.

You may have done versions of these exercises lying on the floor in an exercise class or with a videotape. These standing exercises have several advantages over the prone versions:

1. Standing during these moves alleviates a lot of the pressure on your lower back. Be sure to contract your abdominals throughout the exercises to support your back.
2. By standing, you work both legs at once. If you keep your standing knee slightly bent with your weight in your heels, you will feel the quadriceps and gluteals of your standing leg working just as hard as the leg that is moving.
3. You are actively in charge of your posture during these standing exercises. Your posture will not only improve, but you'll develop a greater sense of body awareness.

Balance Training Program

1. Posture Alignment This exercise helps you align your posture and find your "center." Remember the feeling of straight posture throughout the other exercises. This is a great way to improve your kinesthetic awareness. 1. Stand with feet about hip width apart (The farther apart your feet are, the more balanced you will feel.) 2. As you reach your arms overhead, slowly rise up onto the tips of your toes at the same time. 3. Tighten your abdominal muscles and glutes (buns). 4. Relax your shoulders and slowly lower your heels to the floor. 5. Let your arms float down to hang loosely by your sides. You should feel like there is a lot of room between the bottom of your ribcage and the top of your hip bones. Feel the way your vetebrae are stacked up, one on top of the other. This is aligned posture. Keep this feeling throughout your workout. As you feel more comfortable with this exercise, you may want to add another step: After Step #3, gently wiggle your hips and shoulders until you feel your rib cage separate from your hips. Then continue on to Step #4.

2. Front Knee Lift + Extension 1. Stand on your left foot, knee slightly bent. 2. Lift your right knee up to hip level. Breathe deeply and hold for 30 seconds. 3. Point your right toes and, without moving your knee, extend your right leg. Pause and bend to the starting position. Repeat 10-15 times. 4. Switch legs and repeat.

3. Lateral Extension + Pulse 1. Stand on your left foot, knee slightly bent. 2. Lift your right leg out to the side, up to hip level. Breathe deeply and hold for 30 seconds. 3. Slowly lower your toes to the floor and raise up to hip level. Repeat 10-15 times. 4. Hold your leg in the lifted position for 10 seconds, then do 10 small, pulsing lifts. Slowly lower to the floor. 5. Switch legs and repeat.

4. Rear Extension + Hamstring Curl 1. Stand on your left foot, knee slightly bent. 2. Without bending your right knee, lift your right leg behind you, squeezing your glutes. Breathe deeply and hold for 30 seconds. 3. Slowly lower your toes to the floor and raise up to hip level. Repeat 10-15 times. 4. Hold your leg in the lifted position for 10 seconds, then flex your foot and bend your foot in toward your buns. Extend and bend 10-15 times. Slowly lower to the floor. 5. Switch legs and repeat.

5. Calf Raises: Gastroc + Soleus This exercise works both muscles in your calf. 1. Stand with feet about hip width apart, knees soft. 2. Slowly lift up onto your toes, pause, and lower your heels to the floor. Repeat 15-20 times. 3. Now, bend both knees so you are in a slight squat position. Make sure your weight in focused in the heels of your feet and not on your toes. 4. Keeping both knees bent, slowly rise up onto your toes. (This may feel awkward, but it's the best way to isolate the soleus muscle.) Lower your heels to the floor and repeat 15-20 times.

6. Wall Press 1. Stand with feet shoulder width apart, arms overhead with fingers laced togehter and palms facing the ceiling. 2. Pull in abs and tighten buns. 3. Slowly lower into a squat position, with toes toruned out, while you lower your arms to shoulder level and press out toward the walls with your palms. 4. Move your upper torso to the left, then to the right -- as if you're trying to reach out to press your palm against the wall. Then drop you arms to your sides, relax, and repeat.

Exercises to Improve Precision and Strength

What visual image pops into your head when someone says the word "balance?" Shannon Miller on the balance beam? A tightrope walker suspended above the circus stands? Or maybe even a ballerina en pointe? From now on, when you think "balance," visualize yourself doing whatever YOUR favorite physical activity. We all use and need balance in everything we do.

For most of us, having "good balance" means we can walk and chew gum at the same time. To determine how good your balance really is, ask yourself these three questions about your physical condition:

1. Do your quadriceps and core muscles provide a solid foundation for movement?
2. Are you able to maintain precision in your movements?
3. Are your muscle groups symmetrical in terms of strength?

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Solid as a Rock: Quad & core strength

One of the first exercises I do with a new client is evaluate the strength of their "foundation," or lower body. I have them stand on one leg with a bend in their knee. We always keep a chair nearby, just in case, while they stand on one leg as long as they can. If the don't wobble, they're encouraged to gradually straighten their standing leg. This "test" is a wonderful way to check on postural alignment, as well as quadricep and abdominal strength. Try it yourself and see how you do. Most people benefit from working on exercises designed to increase the strength of their "foundation."

By strengthening your foundation, you prevent a host of injuries -- especially if you play a sport marred by the threat of falls. In-line skating, ice hockey, hiking, and gymnastics are just a few of the sports that benefit from balance training. Strengthening the muscles of your quads and gluts helps you recover more quickly when your balance is compromised and can keep you from "losing your balance" in the first place. For example, when you're skating across the ice rink, start to wobble, and get that "I'm gonna fall!" feeling, strong abdominals and quadriceps can pull your body back into balance. And by strengthening these muscles even more, you avoid reaching the panic stage in the first place.

In addition, by conditioning your foundation, you help fight fatigue in these important muscle groups. By the end of a game, a hike, or a race, our muscles have been pushed close to their limits. Through training, these muscles gain endurance that keeps us upright to cross the finish line, take a victory lap around the field, or trudge up the stairs of the house to the tub for a relaxing soak.

To the Point: Precision Movements

According to Robyn Eresfield, a champion rock climber, precision is the key to impeccable performance, no matter what your sport may be. "Think of the best athlete in your sport," she says. "It's the precision that defines the distane between your level and hers." By training with precision you begin to find your body in the same position in space every time you perform a certain movement. And that leads to perfect balance and performance. You're always steady. You're always physically prepared.

Precision has 3 important components:

Time: Think ahead and be prepared for your next move. In swimming, that means planning for the flip-turn at the wall ... in biking it means shifting to meet the incline of a hill ... Plan your attack on the opponent or obstacle in your path to perform at your best every time.

Space: Know where you are in space. The technical term for this is "kinesthetic awareness." Good kinesthetic awareness means that if your coach says to you, "Your left shoulder is easing up when you shoot. Press your shoulders down." you'll begin to sense when your left shoulder is creeping up and will instinctually press it down in reponse. This kind of body awareness can be difficult to learn. If you have trouble, practice moving in front of a mirror tom memorize how different positions feel. For example, watch yourself in a mirror and shrug your shoulders up and down. Relax them into the down position and memorize that feeling. Shrug your shoulders up and down with your eyes closed. Try to relax them into the down position again and check yourself in the mirror. Are they down? This drill works for just about any position you are trying to master. With practice, they will eventually become second-nature and you'll be able to re-create them on the field, court, or exercise floor.

Energy: To perform with the highest level of endurance and skill, it's essential to learn just how much energy is enough to get the job done. Exert too much too early and you may not finish. Hold back and you might miss the winning shot or blow your opportunity for a really killer workout. So how much is "just right"? Only practice will tell you. One of the things we tend ot forget is that training and exercising aren't only for the immediate beenfits -- they also teach us about our bodies and their abilities. Take the time during your workouts to test your limits a little bit. Add sprints to your running workout, see just how far from the basket you can stand and still sink it, test how many times in a row you can spike the volleyball ... whatever it takes to push yourself past the limits you may have set in your head.

By combining these three components, you begin to improve the precision of your movements; you'll be able to accurately predict where your body will be and when it will be there. That, in turn, leads to excellent balance.

Mirror Images: Muscular symmetry

Another key to preventing injury and improving performance is maintaining equality among the strength of your opposing muscle groups. For the most part, muscles are in pairs:

• biceps and triceps
• quadriceps and hamstrings
• calf (gastrocnemius) and shin (anterior tibialis)
• chest (pectorals) and back(trapezius, rhomboids, latisimuss dorsi)

Sports that encourage us to be one-handed (tennis, baseball, softball, etc.) can develop more strength in one side of our bodies than the other. These imbalances are often more obvious, and easier to correct, than the ones that can occur through a natural inclination to use one side of our bodies more than the other. And this second kind of imbalance can affect all of us.

The easiest way to prevent and correct this favoritism is to be sure to always train muscle groups in pairs and, when you do you strength training exercises, don't move on to a heavier weight until both sides of your body are ready for the increase. Also, an emphasis on exercises that use many muscle groups simultaneously -- push-ups, overhead presses, squats, and lunges, for example, can help restore symmetry.

If you play one sport exclusively, you'll want to add some cross training to your fitness routine to avoid over-use injuries and maintain muscular balance. Research has shown that rather than detract from performance in an athlete's primary sport, cross-training actually helped athletes improve their speed, accuracy, and endurance. Here are some ideas on ways to add cross-training to your workout plan:

Primary Activity	Try adding ...
Aerobics classes	Cycling, Swimming
Cycling	In-line skating, Rowing
In-line skating	Running, Cycling, Rowing
Running	Cycling, Swimming
Stair climbing, Step aerobics	Walking, X-country skiing, Rowing
Swimming	Rowing, In-line skating, Running
Walking	Cycling, Swimming, In-line skating

The last word

Improving your balance can enhance your performance and enjoyment of every activity in which you participate. The confidence that results from knowing the strength of your body can't be beat. In addition, your posture will improve, you'll avoid falls that might put the brakes on your sports season, ... and you'll always win bets based on how long you can stand on one foot! Add some balance exercises to your regular workout routine and build a strong foundation on which you can build all of your movements.