Life is a balancing act in everything that we do but how our physical balance affects our lives is too important to take for granted. Every day we manage to go up and down stairs, bend and lift, walk on uneven surfaces and maneuver through crowded rooms or around misplaced furniture. Balance is a matter of changing your center of gravity to match your moves. But it is more than that. Just as we are able to sense our outside world as in temperature changes and our inside world by having a sense or feeling about our internal organs, we are able to sense our body relative to its three dimensional space. The term for that is proprioception, which simply put means knowing your position in space. Proprioception allows you to touch your finger tips together behind your body even though you can’t see them. To feel it at work, stand with your feet together, then close your eyes and see what happens. You most likely will sway one way or another and you will feel the muscles around your ankles and feet contracting off and on to keep you upright. Now put one foot in front of the other and close your eyes. You are more than likely even less stable.

Balance diminishes with age. That is a fact of life. Sensory information in the bottom of your feet dulls and your are less able to feel changes in the surface you are navigating. Other things such as inner ear problems and medications can also affect your balance. It is no wonder that so many falls occur with the elderly and the number one cause of death in the aged adult is complications from broken hips.

To help maintain balance as long as possible, it is important to challenge it. Those who include walking in their daily exercise seem to fair better than those who don’t. There is a wide range of drills and exercises that can be performed to add balance to your exercise regimens, from simply standing on one foot to balancing on balls and balance boards. Start with just small changes to test your proprioception. Stand on one foot or a soft surface when performing upper body exercises. (Yes, get off the selectorized equipment and use free weights.) Stand in a split stance like you would in a lunge and come up to the toes of your back foot. Now try doing lateral raises or arm curls. Try sitting on a ball or standing on a Bosu like you see in the featured picture. Try more body weight exercises which are sure to challenge your balance by positioning alone. Adding a balance component to your workout is easy, necessary, and fun! It is a great way to change a stale workout and benefit in so many ways. You will be burning more calories too with the added muscle contractions!