Advanced Balance Skills
Cardiovascular conditioning, strength development and flexibility exercises are considered the foundations of an effective fitness program yet often overlooked is an important component in safe and effective workouts — balance training.
Everyone from the professional athlete to the fitness novice can benefit from practical balance training exercises. Balance training done on a regular and consistent basis can improve a person’s coordination, motor skills and body control. In addition, including this sort of functional stability training in an exercise program helps prevent unnecessary injuries during a workout and in day-to-day activities. Athletes are finding that balance training, while enhancing a person’s body control, is having positive effects that can be seen in several different ways: Athletes improve their posture as they learn to center their weight-bearing joints on top of each other; Centered posture improves the athlete’s muscle balance and leads to more efficient movement; Movement efficiency spares the joints from excessive wear and tear and saves energy; and perhaps most important, athletes develop kinesthetic awareness or the feeling of proper body positioning, something we call today proprioception. The ability to apply this increased body awareness to resistance training and endurance exercises makes for safe, effective workouts. Balance training is often done with inexpensive pieces of equipment that can include a beam, a wobble board, a gymnastic ball, a mini-trampoline and foam rollers. Everyday movements, postures and exercises are performed on this unstable equipment. By challenging their equilibrium, athletes will improve their control of balance, posture, stability and efficiency in functional movements.
Examples of balance drills
A.Use a 12’ or 16’ 2x4 placed on edge and supported
1.Walk forward and backward
2.Walk forward and back with your eyes shut
3.Walk and then turn 180 degrees
4.180’s then walk forward/backward
5.Hop landing on two feet (one foot in front of the other)
6.Hop on one foot
7.Tucks facing the length of the beam (one foot in front of the other
8.Tucks facing perpendicular to the length of the beam
9.Repeat #7 and #8 from standing to low tuck to high tuck and combinations of the movement
10.Repeat #7 on one leg only (switch using both legs)
11.Perform drills 1-10 with ski poles, helmet and goggles
B.Once you can do all the above on the beam. Erect a tight rope between two sturdy trees. The rope can be pulled tight enough by using a “Come-Along.”
1.Perform drills 1-10 above
Once you get pretty good on the tight rope loosen the “Come-Along” just a bit and continue to practice. Progressively allowing more slack in the rope will make accomplishing the skills more difficult.
C.Rollerblading
D.Skateboarding
E.Ice Skating
F.Stability Ball
Balance Skills On Physio Ball
