Many people strive to perfect their balance for a number of reasons. Some may be to do with helping their posture and walking style, others may be to help improve their performance in other sports. Whatever your reasons for attempting to improve your balance, these exercises will help you to achieve your goals. Complete them on a regular basis, perhaps once or twice a week, and you should notice improvements in no time whatsoever.
One Legged Balance Disk
Firstly you will need to locate a balance disk in your gym, most good gyms will have one, if they don’t, then alternatives can include 2 cushions on top of each other, or purchasing one, as they are inexpensive. Position this disk near a wall, and stand on it with one side facing the wall. Firstly stand with both feet in order to get a feel for the movement. Once you are comfortable with standing on both feet, raise the foot nearest the wall off the ground. Use your hand against the wall only if you are going to fall, try and correct balance otherwise. Once you are stood on one leg, you can try leaning forward to touch your toes. This is the first exercise. The second is attempting to almost ‘sit down’ when on the disk. This is just bending your knee as low as you can go while maintaining your balance. These are both fantastic exercises and should be completed on both legs. They will help improve your balance endlessly. Try doing 3 sets of between 10 and 30 seconds on each leg for the best results.
Lunge Balance Disk
This exercise combines the simple lunge with the balance disk. First of all, you should place the balance disk against a wall, about 1 meter in front of you. Ensure the disk is at a slight angle towards you. Once this disk is positioned you should step forward onto the disk in a lunge motion. Put your hands on your hips for balance. Repeat this 10-15 times per leg. Ensure you do 3 sets per leg. Although this may seem relatively easy, the further away the balance disk is, the harder this exercise will be. And with the greater difficulty comes greater results. Ensure that you do not overstretch, however, as this could result in injury. Therefore, take it easy when first calculating the distance you can stretch to.
Jump Step!
For this exercise all you require is a step. This could be at home or an actual exercise step in the gym. The higher the step the harder this will be. Perhaps when first trying this you may want someone behind you just to give you a sense of security. All you need to do is jump up onto the step from the floor and try and land on the balls of your feet as close to the edge of the step as possible. Take care not to miss the step. Once this has been managed you should try and get a fluid bouncing motion, where you bounce up to the step and then straight back down without any hesitation. For added difficulty you may wish to try this on 1 leg. Please not that this is very difficult and should only be done once the original has been mastered. Try and do 3 sets of 15 jumps, where 1 jump is classed as up and down together.
Core
The final exercise which is designed to help balance is the 1 arm, 1 leg plank. This will help give you a stronger core, which in turn will aid the better balance. Firstly go into the regular plank position. From here you should raise one arm and the opposite leg off the ground. This will more than likely make your body rotate. Try and maintain the straight position by tensing your core and abdominals. Try and hold this for around 20 seconds. Rest for a few seconds before swapping arm and leg; holding in that position for a further 20 seconds. If this is classed as one set, then you should attempt to do 3 sets. Strengthening your core along with the other exercises should help to improve your balance.