It All Centers on Balance
Start Improving Your Balance Right Now, at Home
Can you stand on one leg for 10 seconds? And now the other leg? Can you get fully dressed and undressed while standing up, including underwear, socks, and shoes? Can you very slowly (and safely) climb one stairstep, and then back down, without holding onto the handrail? Can you raise yourself off the floor, cross-legged, without touching the floor with your hands, grabbing onto a piece of furniture, or getting a helping hand?
The ability to do any of these activities indicates how well you can balance. I practice most of these in the course of most days to check in with my balance, an often overlooked, critical area of health. (If you want to know how precarious balance is and how much we take it for granted, see what happens when you slowly spin yourself in place five or ten times.)
Physical balance is a complicated ability that relies on strength, flexibility, focus, and integration. It is where all these qualities come together in a seamless whole. Just watch a trained dancer to appreciate human balance at its most developed and graceful.
Unlike our primate cousins, who only stand up occasionally on both legs either to intimidate or reach, being human requires constant balance on our two legs. The array of muscles, tendons, joints, nerves, and organs, like our eyes and the semicircular canals in our ears, working in harmony to achieve this is a wonder. We take it for granted as one foot leaves the ground with every step.
There is nothing more telling about later-life frailty than seeing someone walking slowly and tentatively, shuffling along, afraid of losing their balance if one foot is off the ground for more than a fraction of a second. The ability to balance on one leg is a primary indicator of later-life mobility as well as mortality.
Falling is also one of the major factors in later-life decline. The fall itself might not be a fatal injury. But the knock-on effects of being sidelined while recovering, needing assistance, and losing independence often lead to a decline that is irreversible. In hoping to avoid this fate, balance in all its aspects is an essential part of my practice.
How can you improve your balance and avoid the frightening ripple effects if you fall? The following paragraphs offer some easy and effective activities you can do every day at home. No gym membership required!
Tips to Start Your Balance Practice
Leg strength is the foundation of balance and the first step on the journey to better balance. There are many ways to make your legs stronger, from using weights and doing leg presses on equipment (in your home or at a gym) to doing a series of lunges, squats, and step-ups that don’t require any equipment at all.
You can do these exercises with both legs or with just one leg at a time. We all have one leg that is stronger or more dominant than the other. Try to keep them equally strong when exercising them, both in duration and amount of weight. A good reference given to me by a physiotherapist is to be able to press 1½ times your body weight with both legs and 1 time your body weight with one leg. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, try to gradually work your way up to pressing 225 pounds with both legs and 150 pounds with each leg. If you are just starting, a rule of thumb is to aim for half of your body weight; in this example, that would be 75 pounds.
He also said that just body weight alone is not enough to keep our legs strong enough. Our ancestors not only had to carry themselves around, often they were carrying or dragging food, such as the carcass of a heavy deer or elk; stone tools; and items to make shelter in their arms or on their backs, sometimes for great distances.
Once your legs are strong enough, you can begin practicing the subtle aspects of balance. Start by standing on one leg as well as using both legs in stressed positions. (Be sure to stand next to a chair or table in case you get wobbly and need to grab onto something for support.) Adding weight and duration to single-leg postures and movements or using elastic bands to add stress to squats and lunges are excellent ways to practice balancing exercises.
You can also try some of the many yoga poses that focus on standing on, or primarily putting weight on one leg, like tree pose and warrior pose. These are ultimately balance poses despite their reliance on leg strength.
Lifting one leg off the ground and holding it that way for as long as possible while shifting your weight around is a great practice. And you can try standing up from the floor cross-legged without holding on, which is the main aspect of the “Brazilian sit/stand test” developed by Claudio Araujo, a Brazilian doctor. (He linked the results to near-term mortality rates, indicating that people who had severe trouble doing this activity had a much higher chance of dying within the next few years. Google it!)
Cloud Walk
A favorite practice that I learned many years ago is called Cloud Walk. It is part walking meditation and part balance practice, and brings awareness to the infinitesimal subtlety that is at the heart of balance.
Here’s how I Cloud Walk: I stand barefoot with my feet shoulder width apart. Ever so slowly, I shift my weight to one foot and start to lift my other foot off the floor, stopping for a moment when the big toe of the lifting foot barely touches the floor. Then, once that foot is off the ground, I hold the pose for a while on one leg. (You can sense a lot of tiny muscles at work while balancing on one leg.) Then I do the same series of movements on the other side. Once I am comfortable going side to side this way I add small forward steps, ever so slowly. I am not thinking or trying to figure anything out. Rather, I am focused completely on my breathing and my body’s extremely subtle sensations as each slow movement comes into awareness. Doing this for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes or more is a meditative practice as well as a strength and balance workout. It’s even harder with my eyes closed. Again, stand next to a chair or table to stabilize yourself if need be.
(This summer I will write a post about paddleboarding, a favorite warm-weather activity that combines balance with aerobics. Stay tuned.)
Deeper Factors
Many deeper and more subtle factors might affect balance as well. I write about some of these dynamics in my book and how they have affected me. One simple factor is how balanced my muscle strength is. If I am spending too much time doing pushing exercises and not enough time doing pulling exercises, it will show up as imbalance. This is why natural, coordinated movements using my entire body are the foundations of my exercise routines.
On an even deeper level, how well balanced is my life? Is my brain trying to do all the work and my visceral, feeling body isn’t being listened to? Is how I spend my time balanced and healthy for me in my best interest? Do I live as much for myself as I do for others, or vice versa?
The integration between inner balance and physical balance is uncharted territory. Yet I believe a connection exists inside me. I do know that when I am feeling “good” inside, when I am in a good mood, that physical balance comes easier. I feel lighter and have more “space” inside. This is a big subject that I will leave to another post later on. But I’m bringing it up now to see if it resonates with you.
For now, just remember that balance, like posture (see other article this week), can be practiced anywhere, all day long. Standing, sitting, riding on a bus or a subway, or just walking are all opportunities to become more aware of these subtle yet essential aspects of our wonderful bodies.
I would love to hear about YOUR balance practice or a balance story you would like to share. Just email me at info@RonKastner.com or leave a comment on my Facebook page.
