Why is balance training important?

By training to develop greater balance, you will recognize improvements in coordination, athletic skill, and posture. This in turn should result in fewer injuries and greater stability.  Through a complex system of environmental feedback, cues from the bottom of your feet, the relation of your inner ear to gravity and what you see, your body senses which muscles to activate or deactivate to maintain your desired position.  When the information received is too complex to translate, the system gets overwhelmed and you lose your balance.  With balance training, you can master what once seemed like impossible tasks—just like you did when you first removed the training wheels from your childhood bike or made it to the bottom of the bunny hill the first time without falling.

I consider BALANCE TRAINING, along with CORE training, to be a fundamental aspect of any training program for overall health and fitness.Every move we make effects the body's balance. Functional fitness is all about the demands of everyday life ... climbing stairs, carrying groceries, bending to pick up things. A strong and flexible core which stabililizes your mid-section along with a good sense balance in stable and unstable environments enables you to safely and efficienlty stay active and engaged in your daily routines.

 

Including balance training into your workout is very important as life is a balance challenge. Walking, climbing stairs, stepping on uneven surfaces, bending, twisting, to name a few. Balance training challenges the ability to stabilize outside of the base of support and challenges the nervous systems ability to activate the correct muscles in the correct sequence. By improving your postural control, joint stability, and ability to make coordinated efficient movements and corrections you will increase the ease of daily tasks and decrease the chance of injury.

Balance training is important as it can improve postural alignment of the body & develop coordinated movement.  It's best to develop balance early in the exercise program.  Then all of your cardio, resistance & functional exercises should be performed with your body centered in proper alignment. 

Balance training is extremely important to include in your workout because it is an activity of daily living that you do every day.  When you are walking you are balancing.  When you are getting in and out of a car, you are balancing.  There are many things we do without even thinking about it that involves some sort of balancing component.  Including proper balance training into your workout will help teach your brain and body how to work together and covert those patterns over to what we do on a daily basis.  Think of it this way…you get what you train for.  So proper balance training can reduce the chances of falling and increase the chances of moving correctly while limiting the chance of injury.

As we get older, our fear of falling increases. So balance, like anything else if we do not use it we lose it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every hour, fall-related injuries like wrist and hip fractures, head traumas are just to name a few that send more than 180 older adults to the emergency room and one of those individuals dies as a result of falling. As a suggestion, utilize a personal trainer or a workout partner for safety while performing new exercises. I hope this helps and have fun!

Balance training is important to improve daily life activity.  It improves coordination and posture.  This helps prevent injuries.  As we get older, good balance is very important to help prevent potentially debilitating falls. 

Balance Training is Very Important!  Without Balance Training Athletes get hurt and your average Joe's and Jane's Fall.  Injuries and falls can be prevented with Balance Training.  Balance is key to all functional movement and everyone should be including it in their training program.

More and more research is being published that demonstrates that balance training can greatly reduce the number and severity of falls, thus also reducing the risk for serious injuries such as fractures.

Balance training can be done in the doctor's office and/or at your own home or office. Your doctor of chiropractic will instruct you on appropriate balance training activities. Balance training incorporates strength, endurance, body position awareness and muscle activation sequencing to ensure that your body responds appropriately, thereby limiting the chances of a fall.

Adults over the age of 50, or those with previous injuries to the spine or lower extremities, should talk to a doctor of chiropractic about simple and safe ways to improve balance.

Our bodies adapt to the training that we perform.  Balance training is important because balance is a part of everything we do.  When we walk, run, bike or swim, we are balancing ourselves.  If we reach for something in a closet that is on a high shelf, we are balancing.  As we age, it’s important to maintain our balance, and if we don’t train for balance, we’ll lose it.  Keeping our balance as we grow older will help us avoid falls and bone fractures. 

Balance training helps your brain to recognize changes in terrain and your muscles to respond to those changes.

No matter who you are you use balance throughout the day.

Balance will keep you from injuring your joints, muscles, and even your bones by lowering your risk of falling. Developing a strong sense of balance can be a lifesaver, especially in the elderly who are at higher risk for falls due to neuro-muscular deterioration.

Athletes benefit by being quicker to respond to the demands of their sport.

Life is dynamic and ever-changing. Whether an individual is navigating through a soccer field, a garden, or a shopping center - balance is needed. Once thought to be a measure of stillness, it has been discovered balance is extremely dynamic. An individual’s level of balance is challenged on their ability to move away from their center with varying motions (lunging, running, jumping, reaching, etc..), and return to center. When an individual loses balance, a decrease in performance and an increase in injury due to compensations or falls results.

Balance is key to all functional movement. It helps your postural equilibrium, muscular balance, joint dynamics, neuromuscular and stability. When you get middle aged, balance, stability and flexibility get harder to maintain.