Balance training can benefit people at any age and any level of fitness. 

Older people should improve balance to avoid falls and maintain independence, but younger athletes can use balance training to become fitter and perform better in sports, too.

So what is balance training? 

Balance refers to a person’s ability to control their center of gravity within their base of support. So balance training improves that ability.

Balance is an intuitive thing most people don’t think about, but it’s incredibly complex. It involves proprioception, muscular strength, coordination and range of motion. To maintain balance, your brain must keep track of where your body is in space and trigger strong muscles to make swift but often very fine adjustments to positions.

On one end of the spectrum, older people can use balance training to improve their ability to avoid injurious falls. On the other end of the spectrum, athletes can use balance training to accomplish incredible things.

A few examples: 

• A figure skater glides along the ice on a steel blade, launches into the air, spins and lands gracefully. 
• A gymnast flips and lands on a four-inch beam at the Olympics.
• A cross-country skier effortlessly transfers weight from ski to ski to cover a long distance very quickly with great efficiency.
• A skateboarder performs an incredible series of jumps and board flips, all while rolling across a parking lot.
• A basketball player spins one way, then the other to shed a defender before pushing off one leg to launch a perfect fadeaway jump shot.

How to Improve Balance

A great balance-training program should address muscular strength first. Your muscles must be able to support you in any position and make changes to that position. 

The legs and core are obvious areas of focus, but it doesn’t hurt to train the upper body as well. A general full-body strength program is ideal.

From there, you can use a host of drills to work on your mind-muscle connection and improve proprioception and body control. These drills can be basic or very challenging, depending on your level. 

A word of caution: Make sure you perform balance training in a safe area and use support—such as a strong railing—if needed. The drills you select should not put you at risk of injury. Some balance drills and devices are very challenging and come with risks. 

Here’s an example of a balance-training exercise: You could simply stand on one foot and try to hold your position for 30 seconds. If that’s very easy, you could try the same drill but perform arm movements as you balance. Still easy? You could stand on a special device called a “wobble board,” which is a very low platform with an object on the bottom that makes it unstable. 

Another progression: Stand on one leg and then hinge at the hips to bring your fingers to or toward the floor, then come back to the upright position. If that’s too easy, you could do the same movement with a light weight held in one hand—this is called a “single-leg deadlift,” and it’s useful for building strength, too. You could do the same exercise using a “balance pad” that decreases stability underfoot and forces you to work much harder to control your body.

One more: You might put a line of tape on the floor and try to “heel-toe walk” along it by moving the heel of your trailing foot just in front of the toes of your lead foot. For more difficulty, you might consider looking up instead of down or holding your arms across your chest instead of out to your sides. To really challenge yourself and work on core strength at the same time, you could hold a dumbbell overhead while performing the drill.

What’s Best for You?

If you’re interested in improving your balance for daily life or sport, the best plan is to talk with a fitness pro who can find out about your goals, assess your current abilities and put together a perfect plan to accomplish your goals.

The plan will almost certainly involve some strength work and specific drills chosen to help you improve body control safely. 

The good news: Balance can be improved at any age. That means you can perform better at sports if that’s your goal or simply avoid injury and maintain independence.

To book a consultation to talk about balance training with a fitness expert, click here.