Transcription
It is possible to improve your balance, but you need the right exercises. As a physical therapist, I see a lot of people making the mistake of only practicing balance: one foot in front of the other, or only practicing standing on one leg. While those are great basics, if you want to improve your balance, say, walking on uneven surfaces, feeling confident out and about shopping, going up and/or down the stairs, you need more.
In this video, I'm going to show you my favorite 11 movements that can help take your balance to the next level. Here's the deal: we're going to progress in difficulty. We're starting with the simplest and then working our way up. Before we get started, please, please set yourself up for success and safety, of course. When we are working on balance exercises, you are challenging your balance, which can result in a loss of balance. Of course, we don't want falls. The corner of a wall is my favorite place to work on balance exercises, especially new ones. You can also use a chair next to you or use any other stable surface, just in case.
This first exercise comes in handy, especially for walking balance. Start by shifting your full weight to your left side. With the right leg, step forwards and backwards without stopping in the middle. We're going to do 10 repetitions on this side, and then we'll switch and do 10 repetitions. One repetition is forward and back. Ready? Here we go. Step forward and backwards. There's one. Two. You're focusing on balancing on the stationary leg. Three. Take larger steps to make it more challenging. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Three more. Eight. Nine. And last one. Ten. A little bit of wobbliness is okay. Your goal is just to prevent any big losses of balance.
Let's switch to the other side. I'm just going to turn around here. Shift your full weight now to your right side. Same thing. You're stepping forwards and back, but now with the left. 10 repetitions here. Here we go. Forward and back is one. Two. Three. Do you notice any differences side to side? Do you feel more stable or less stable? Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Two more. Nine. And last one.
We're moving on to exercise number two. You may have seen how we start out one foot in front of the other in this sort of balance beam position, but we're taking this a step further. Not only do I want you to master this stance, but now we're going to add movement to it. My left foot is slightly behind my right. The hardest variation of this is one foot 100% in front of the other. Find a stance, widen it if you need to, then add in an arm swing forward and back. I'm going to count 12 forward swings, and then we're going to switch to the other side. Here we go. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. I'm only counting the right arm as it comes forward. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. And twelve. Feel those feet dig into the ground again. A little wobbliness is okay. That means your body is reacting. Switch your foot orientation now. My right leg is behind. Get your bearings here first before you add movement. Ready? Here we go. Twelve. Two. Three. Four. Five. Use those feet. Use those toes. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. And twelve. Excellent. Not only do you want to master standing here, but you now want to master movement. Typically, people lose their balance when they're moving.
For this third exercise, you will need a spot on the floor, whether it's a certain tile that's in front of you, if it's just a different color on the floor. Find a target that's in front of you, maybe about a foot or two. We are alternating tapping forwards, right, then left. It's a quick shift of your weight, which can make walking and even stair climbing a little bit challenging. If you do not feel comfortable doing this, you can also grab an object. So the higher the object, the harder this will be. You can use any household object, a pillow. The further out it is in front of you, also will make this more challenging. Find a spot on the floor or find an object. We are alternating 20 forward taps. Make sure you have a target though. We're not just tapping forwards. The target is going to make this more challenging. Here we go. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. How we doing? Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen. And twenty.
For exercise number four, we're going to add in some sideways movement. Moving sideways in itself can be a challenge on balance, especially if you're not used to doing it. We're going to take this a step further though, and we're stepping over a target. You're going to imagine a line that's running right next to you. You can also just use a line on the floor if you're on, say, wood floor or tile floor. Step over both feet, step back both feet again. You're imagining a target to make this more challenging instead of simply just stepping side to side. The further away this line is from you, the harder this will be because you will have to take a larger step. Keep it close to make it easier. You can also use an object. The higher the object, the harder this will be, as now you have to step over a higher spot. We're doing 12 total steps. Ready? Here we go. One. Two. Three. Make sure you get set. Four. Before you move again. Five. Six. Nice deliberate steps. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. One more each side. Eleven. And twelve.
Now we're going to kick it up a notch and start working a little bit towards single leg stance. Shift your full weight to your left leg, or most of your weight. Take this right leg, heel tap, toe tap. I want you to try to be as light as you can on this heel and toe. If you need to shift more weight onto this heel and onto this toe, this will make this easier. The lighter you are and the more weight you have on the left leg, the harder this will be. We are doing 10 total repetitions. Heel, toe is one. Ready? Here we go. One. Heel, toe. Two. Three. Try not to let your left foot, so the stationary leg, that arch collapse in. Try to keep your foot in a tripod with the ball of your foot and then the heel in contact with the floor. Don't let it collapse. Four. Five. Six. This one takes some concentration. Seven. Eight. Nine. And one more. That's ten.
Now let's switch to the other side. I'm just going to turn around. Shift your full weight to your right. Right side, heel tap, toe tap with that left. Ready? Here we go. Heel, toe. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. You might feel those hip muscles of that stationary leg start to kick in. There's six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Last one. And ten.
Exercise number six is going to be looking at single leg balance. Start by shifting full weight to that left side. Take your right leg and bring it behind you, just as far as is comfortable. I'm going to drive my right knee forward and then come back. So notice as I do that, now I'm shifting my full weight to that left side and on one leg for a brief period of time. If you have difficulty with that marching position, what you can do is bring your leg forward, but do a nice light tap. So it's not like the first exercise where you're taking those full steps. Bring that leg forward, but lightly tap those toes. Don't shift too much weight that way. Increase the height of the march to make this harder. We're doing 10 each side. Ready? Here we go. Bring that knee up. One. Then you can shift some weight back. Back here. Two. We're just working on single leg stance for that brief period of time. Three. Focus on this foot. Four. Five. This also works the core. Think about driving that knee up with the core. There's six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Last one.
Now we're switching sides. So I will just turn around. Shift your full weight to that right leg and then take your left leg back. Drive that left knee forward for 10. Here we go. One. Nice slow and controlled. Two. Three. You can also do that hover. Four. Five. Six. Nice slow and controlled. Seven. Eight. Nine. Nice slow and controlled. And ten. Great work.
Exercise number seven is actually a common calf strengthening exercise, but we're going to put a balance twist on it. Usually, when you're doing this exercise, which is a heel raise, it's recommended that you hold on to something so you get those heels up as high as you can. But we're now going to try this without support, and what this is going to help with is this forwards and backwards reaction. Lift up onto your toes by bringing those heels off the ground and keep your balance. We're going to do 12 of these. Ready? Here we go. One. Two. Again, nice slow and controlled. We're trying not to come up and then quickly down. There's three. Try to slowly lower those heels. There's four. Five. Six. This one can be tough to go slow, so really try to focus. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. And twelve. Great work.
If you've been needing to use support as we're moving through this, for exercise number eight, I would grab an object. So this is a resistance band. You can use a small pillow, a water bottle. What you're going to do is find this tandem stance again, so one foot in front of the other. Take this object and you're going to pass it from one hand to the other, challenging lateral or side-to-side balance, something that we do not challenge very often. If you've been flying through these exercises or doing them successfully, you can grab a weight. The heavier the weight, the harder this will be. You're doing the same thing though, passing it back and forth, one hand to the other. If you do want to take the stance up a notch, you can take that back foot and just lightly tap those toes, so it's a more of a modified single leg stance, and then you would do the same thing. About three to maybe eight or 10 pounds is a good range to start with. We always want to start a little bit on the conservative side, and then you can always make it heavier. One foot in front of the other. We're doing 10 total passes on this side, and then we'll switch. Ready? Here we go. One. Two. Feel those feet wobble. Three. Four. This one can be harder than it looks. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. One more. And ten.
Switch the orientation of your feet. So now my right foot's going in the back, my left foot's in front. You do want to follow the distance. I was doing a lot of people like to do it this way, and that's not going to challenge balance as much as we need it to. The further away you get, the harder this will be. Ready? Here we go. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. We're building those lateral supports for the knees, for the hips. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. And last one. Great work. Ten.
For exercise number nine, I'm going to use the weight that I just was for the previous exercise. You can also use an object, if you were using that, as long as if you put it on the floor, it's not going to move. We're taking the lateral step over and adding a level of difficulty to it. Start on one side of your object. I'm going to step over with my right and then drive my left knee up. So it's going to look like this: step over, drive that left knee. Opposite, drive that knee. Your body essentially wants to shift the way that you're stepping, so you need to use your balance to help correct yourself and remain upright. You can also add a little bit of a hop if you want to for an increased challenge. The one thing is you want to make sure that this object is far enough away where you're appropriately challenged. So as I step, you want to make sure that you are regaining your composure. You just want to avoid the object being too close, as doing something like this might not get you the benefit that we're after. We're doing 12 total steps. That's one. Two. Three. All the way to 12. Ready? Here we go. Step. Step over and bring that leg up. One. Two. I like to keep my composure here for a few seconds. Three. Get your bearings before you step. Five. Six. Seven. The slower you go, actually, the harder this will be. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. And last one. Twelve. Great work.
Exercise number 10, we are heating up single leg balance. You will need an object that's about a chair height to work as a target for you. I'm going to show you the movement, and then you can find an object. Shift full weight to my left leg. Bend my chest forward. I'm going to bring my right leg back behind me. Looks like this. I want you to imagine there's a pole running from the back of your head to the heel of the leg that's moving, so you move as one. As I bend forward, that leg comes up. A lot of times I see people bending way forward and then not allowing their leg to come back far enough. Now, if you don't have a lot of mobility moving back that way, or perhaps don't feel comfortable doing that, grab a higher object. So say I just turn this chair around. Little bend forward. You have to match the bend with the amount that your leg can go back. We are going to do eight on one side and then eight on the other. You can also use a couch to tap on to. You can use a flight of stairs, maybe the second or third from the bottom. You standing on the bottom, of course. Here we go. Bend that torso forwards as you take that leg back. There's one. Two. Nice slow and controlled. Three. Also working the glutes, the backs of the legs. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Last one. Woo. Eight. Do not be afraid to choose a higher object for this one. There's always room for improvement, and you can always work towards these harder variations. I just want you to master the basics first.
Shift your full weight to now your right leg, and now as you bend forward, that left leg is coming back. Eight of them. Here we go. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. And rest.
Number 11. Start by shifting your full weight to your left side. With the right leg, I want you to think about drawing a half circle forwards and backwards. So it looks like this: half circle, and come back the other way. But the key is seeing if you can hover above the floor, trying not to let your body use that right leg for stability. You are relying solely on this left leg for stability. The goal is going to be eight forwards and backwards, keeping that leg up the entire time before we switch to the other side. If you need to, you can lightly trace your foot, or use support. Ready? Here we go. Half circle, come back. There's one. Two. Three. Feel that left leg really working hard. Four. Five. Six. If you do need to place your foot down, just for a brief period of time, you can do that. Seven. One more. And eight. You should also feel the muscles in that hip of the stationary leg working as well, really fighting to keep you upright.
Shift your full weight to now your right side. Half circles with that left. Try to hover that leg if you can. One. Two. Like I said, if you need to, just take a quick break here in the middle. Three. Four. The bigger your circle, the harder this is. Five. If you're just making a really little one, that's going to be easier. Six. Seven. One more. And eight. Great work.
You have made it through all 11 exercises. If you're saying to yourself, "Wow, that feels really good. I want more where this came from. I want to keep challenging my body in new ways." The next step is joining Adventures for Life, my arthritis workout membership. Inside of here, you will find so many new ways to challenge your strength, challenge your balance, and your stamina, but it's going to meet you where you're currently at. You're going to take a quiz upon entering to see which exercises are best to start with. Then you will gain access to follow-along workouts with me that are going to help you build your confidence and make your adventures possible. There is a link to a free trial down below. Take this opportunity right now, and let's get started. Click the link down below to join.