Improving balance - what works

Posted April 24, 2020

Lots of good access to guidance about strength, CV exercise, even range of motion. Sadly, some of that guidance is misguided like exercise programs that take four hours to do with too many steps that nobody can remember.

But has somebody given much thought to improving balance? Balance is the most cognitive of the fitness foundations. While 'most any improvement in fitness leads to improvements in cognition, balance (and related skils like juggling) seems to truly activate the little gray cells comparable to cognitive tasks per se.

For sure, we all know about standing on one foot and putting on your socks while standing. Both are sort of drastic; are there more every-day motions that teach balance that might not occur to us? Is it the same benefit to practice balance eyes open or closed or while touching one finger to a chair back? Shoes on or off?

(While carrying heavy burdens up stairs, I find myself shifting the weight forward and back like one of those tall building cranes to maintain my balance and bias forwards. Balance quite a difference story going down stairs since it isn't feasible to re-jig your balance the same way.)