Balance Practice, Two Ways

A Shut and Open Case 

Practice I: Eyes closed.  Last week I wrote about what an energy hog lack of balance can be – and I noted that becoming more relaxed contributes to an increased sense of balance.  Want to test the notion? Experiment using the Real Age© test at the end of today's well note.  The first time through, perform it exactly as written (stop and do this before reading further).  Now try it again – and this time add the following step between steps two and three: “Inhale deeply and while exhaling (slowly) consciously relax your muscles (shoulders, abs, calves . . .),” then proceed with the test.  Your balance time is probably a bit longer with the added relaxation step (and your RealAge is bit lower). 

Now PRACTICE:  Commit to practicing (the test) twice a day for the next two weeks (including the conscious relaxation step).  Hint: If you don’t have or don’t care to work with a partner in your balance trial, set a household timer (I use the microwave in our kitchen).  Just make sure you open your eyes and reset your timer as soon as you begin to lose balance if you don’t use a partner.

And you thought it was impossible to grow younger . . . 

Practice II : Eyes open: Now open your eyes. Yep, most of your everyday balance effort is done in real world situations with eyes wide open.  To use your eyes to calm your balance, adopt the dancer’s (skater’s, yogi’s, gymnast’s) trick of “spotting.”  To do this, pick a fixed spot in front of you and train your eyes on it (spotting).  Now, while holding your spot with your eyes, move your balance practice into increasingly challenging positions.  For example, this time when you lift one foot, lean forward at the waist and extend your lifted foot behind you while holding your open-eyed spot.  

How do you use this in real life?  Quite simply, in physical balance (as in work/life balance) we generally stabilize movement in the direction in which we focus.  Keep your focus where you want to go to practice the dynamic balance that you’ll use in activities like riding a bike, skating or trekking on a rugged trail.

Returning to my slack line example of balance from last week, take a look at the guide on the slack line in the adjacent photo.  Notice the orientation of his head.  He is focused straight ahead – along the axis of the slack line to where it is secured to the tree.  Looking toward the photographer may have made for a great photo for mom – but a short-lived traverse.  The slack liner is using spotting to enhance balance.   And you can too!

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The RealAge© Balance Test

1. Find a partner and a watch. Enlist the help of a friend or family member who has a watch with a second hand and five minutes to spare.

2. Take off your shoes. Stand barefoot on a flat, hard surface. Ask your partner to hold the watch and stand close by to catch you in case you start to fall.

3. Close your eyes.

4. Lift your foot. Lift one foot (left foot if you’re right-handed, right foot if you’re left-handed) about 6 inches off the floor, bending your knee at a 45-degree angle.

Ask your partner to start timing.

5. Hold this position. Keep still as long as you can without jiggling or teetering, falling, or opening your eyes.

6. Stop the clock. Stop timing if the raised foot begins to lower or touch the ground, if you begin to sway, or if you open your eyes.

7. Repeat the test three times. Note the time for each test, and calculate the average of the three times by adding them together and dividing by 3.

8. Check your average against this results chart.

What's your balance-based RealAge?
Balance Time	Balance-Based RealAge
4 seconds	70 years
5 seconds	65 years
7 seconds	60 years
8 seconds	55 years
9 seconds	50 years
12 seconds	45 years
16 seconds	40 years
22 seconds	30-35 years
28 seconds	25-30 years

Balance -- How Are Your Slackline Skills?

For the next year I'll be focusing my blog on the subject of balance.  Balance, that is, of all kinds: 

•            Physical balance
•            Emotional balance
•            Intellectual balance
•            Spiritual balance
•            Environmental balance
•            Situational balance
•            Energy balance
•            Nutritional balance
•            Aesthetic balance
•            Work/Life balance

I invite you to check in often to consider the current balance topic.  This week (and next) I'm talking about physical balance.

So, what’s slacklining?  Well, according to Slackline.com, slacklining “is the sport of walking a small, flat nylon rope between two points”  (a tightrope walker of sorts).

Over the past two weeks I gained some up-close respect for slacklining as I watched (in awe) the balance feats of our Patagonian guides practicing their slacklining skills at campsites along our trek of the Paine Circuit in Southern Chile.

Slacklining has been making its way into fitness programs with increasing frequency in recent years for good reason.  Slack-line walking is good for balance development.  And physical balance is good for fitness and wellness. 

Balance improves coordination, athletic skill and posture – and those improvements translate into fewer falls, greater speed and accuracy, and more energy in movement.

Let's take a look:

1.  Falls.  According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control (CDC), “Each year, one in every three adults ages 65 or older falls and 2 million are treated in emergency departments for fall-related injuries.”  A fall rate of one in three is frighteningly high.  But even if you are younger than 65, it’s significant to know that each year about 4 in 1,000 individuals from the overall population experiences a nonfatal fall (to include contusions, fractures, concussions and traumatic brain injury), for which a health-care professional is contacted.  Dr. Tiffany Shubert of UNC’s Institute on Aging has spearheaded some of the most comprehensive studies ever completed regarding balance training and falls.  A practicing physical therapist and educator of medical students, Dr. Shubert repeatedly has found that participation in balance programs reduces falls by having a positive impact on cognition and physical outcomes. 

2.  Speed and accuracy in movement.  Think of the “as the crow flies” concept of covering a known distance when you think of how balance enables active people, exercisers and athletes to improve speed and accuracy.  Truly, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line – and balanced propulsion supports linear movement.  From stumbles and falls to simply veering off course, poor balance introduces many deviations that ultimately hinder speed.  If you want to be a faster runner, walker, swimmer or cycler, true your course with balance.

3.  Posture and energy.  Have you ever noticed how, when working to “keep your balance,” you tense your muscles?  That tensing takes a lot of energy – energy that otherwise could go toward your ability to go further, exercise longer and experience faster recovery (you’ll experience less muscle soreness when you have better balance).  The true essence of balance is relaxation – and that relaxation comes through learning and practice.  Come with me once again to the slack line in Patagonia . . .

Our guides used the slack line for fun.  It was a game of sorts in which these fit young men displayed great finesse and competed to “out trick” one another (through a breathtaking series of jumps and turns and poses on the line).  When one of our fellow trekkers decided to try the slack line, his tension of the novice first became apparent in his furled brow, then worked its way down to his hunched shoulders and finally was most evident in his shaking knees.  To be honest, this was most likely the same posture that our slack-line proficient Chilean guides had assumed in their earliest attempts on the line – before learning and practice delivered the relaxation that became the foundation for their increasingly challenging acts of balance!

So maybe your goal isn’t to master the slack line.  Still, if you want to be safer, turn in a new “personal best” for your spring 10K, or just feel better after that next workout – balance can help.

Next week, I’ll talk about some simple things you can do to improve your physical balance. 

'Til then, remember -- Balance, it does a body good.