Better Balance in 3 Steps

If you want to improve you balance and prevent falls, there are three things that need to happen.

Step 1. - Understand - You need to understand and believe that your balance can be improved. If you believek, like many people, that your deteriorating balance is solely due to old age, then it makes no sense to train your balance. But if you believe that your balance is poor because it hasn't gotten enough use in the last 10 or 20 years, then it makes sense that it could be improved if you used it more.

Step 2 - Program - Now you'll want to find a book or video that outlines a good system of balance exercises. Your balance isn't going to improve from doing one or two exercises you saw in a magazine. If you wanted to improve your flexibility would you just do one stretch? If you wanted to get stronger would you just do one strength exercise? No and No. You need a well-rounded program with a variety of balance exercises that challenge you.

Step 3 - Consistency - This may seem obvious. You have to do the exercises regularly. Week after week. Many people understand that their balance can be improved, get a good balance training program, and then only do it once a week. Or they do it every day for two weeks and then stop doing it because they don't have the balance of a 20 year old. It takes time. You balance diminished slowly over the course of many years. It will not improve over night.

To read more about these three steps, click here.

What Are You Telling Your Body to Do?

It would be great if we could just talk to our body and say, "Hey, I want to be strong and healthy, and I want to have good balance. Thank you." Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

We do communicate with our body, and tell it what to do, but this communication is through actions, not words.

When you walk, you put pressure on your bones, and that tells your body, "Make my bones stronger."

When you strength train with dumbbells, that strains your muscles, which tells your body, "Make my muscles stronger so next time lifting that weight isn't as hard."

When you do balancing exercises, that tells your brain, "Improve the coordination between my brain and body so I can balance better."

So what do you think happens when you don't exercise? What messages are you sending your body then? Click here to find out.