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| Strive for a Balanced Workout by Michael Adesso |
| Sporting activities, as well as our daily lives, place balance demands on our bodies. Balance training may enhance both your sporting activities as well as your daily life. That's why it's important to add balance training to your workout. |
| Think of a skier, who must be able to sense the position of his body relative to the terrain while gliding down the mountain, making constant adjustments. Your central nervous system automatically collects and relays such information to your muscles and turns that information into action. |
| How is training balance important to sports performance and the activities of daily living? In theory, by enhancing our balance, we may be able to reduce injury and improve the body's ability to produce force. For example, if you miss a step as you are going down stairs, your ankle may start to roll over. If your nervous system reacts quickly enough, it can turn on the muscles around your ankle to prevent or lessen injury to your ankle. |
| In physical therapy, we use balance exercises in almost all of our rehabilitation programs. After an injury to a joint, the balancing ability of that joint is diminished. This leaves the person prone to re-injury. As in the above example, re-injury is more likely if the nervous system cannot fire the muscles around your ankle fast enough to prevent it from rolling over. |
| How do you incorporate balance training into your workout? To better challenge the balance system, move away from machine-based exercises (where most of the balance is provided for you), and incorporate movement patterns that mimic sport and life activities. Use medicine balls and dumb bells. |
| Challenge your balance by performing exercises while standing on one leg. Start with standing with one leg on a flat surface, then progress to standing on one leg while reaching out with your arms in different directions. Then keep your upper body still and reach out with the unweighted leg in different directions. |
| You can then progress to standing on an unstable surface, like a foam pad or a wobble board. |
| Start with both legs on the board, and then move to one leg. You can perform arm and leg movements, or do squat and lunge patterns. |
| Higher-level balance training can incorporate two- and one-leg hopping, in different directions (hop scotch is a great balance drill). Remember to train with a purpose. If you are trying to improve for a particular sport, try to mimic the patterns used in that sport. |
| There are many gadgets available to enhance balance training. Make sure to consult with a health care professional before engaging in a balance program, especially if you are recovering from an injury. |
| Michael Adesso, PT, ATC Director of Physical Therapy University Sports Medicine Amherst Location |