Welcome to this video where you'll learn some home exercises to improve your balance.
Balance is in my opinion, one of the building blocks of improving your movements but tends to get overlooked.
And improving your balance can reduce the risk of falls. That gets a little bit more
relevant the older you get but certainly for any age it's actually a pretty good thing to do.
Have a chair at hand whenever you do your balance exercises just to hold on to if you need to.
Just for a little bit of extra support. Now, before I go through these exercises I would suggest
that in order to do them, you need to be able to be, you need to be fairly confident balancing on
one leg for 30 - 60 seconds. So, if you're not I'd suggest going back to perhaps the beginners
video that we've got. Try some more of those out and then come back to this one.
My name's Claire. I'm a Physiotherapist from PhysioFit Health.
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So, the first exercise. I'm just going to turn so, you can see this a little better.
You're up nice and tall. I want you to be balancing on that right leg. So, take your weight
all around to that right leg which you should be fairly happy to do. And then that left one.
I'm going to get you to straighten that left one out behind you. Now, you can tap the toes
on the floor just for a little bit of balance if you want to. And then you're going to bring
that foot back. So, take that leg out behind you. So, you're trying to really lengthen and straighten it.
Touch the toes on the floor if you want balance but if you want to challenge yourself, those toes
can stay off the floor and then i get you doing perhaps 8 - 10 repetitions of moving this leg.
So, whilst you're doing those 8 - 10 repetitions, please check for me that your
toes are nice and relaxed on that right side. That they're not clawing too much into the floor.
Your second exercise progresses on from the first one. So, I'm going to get you taking your weight
over onto that right leg. Now, the weights on my right leg, my left foot is just kind of
touching the floor at the moment just for a little bit of balance. First of all, you're going to reach
with your right arm up and diagonally. As if you're reaching up into a cupboard and then
you're going to lower that arm down. So, just get a few movements with that arm reaching up and down.
But ultimately, what you want to do is actually get the arm and the leg moving together. So, as
you're straightening that right arm up, you want to be lengthening that left leg behind you.
As you were with exercise one and then you're going to return both to your start position.
So, you're reaching up and then back down again.
So, the second exercise is with the arm and the leg together
But just to get yourself used to or preparing for the movement you can
just do the arm first and then you can do the arm and leg together. So, 8 - 10 repetitions.
Check the right toes are nice and relaxed and then you can obviously try on the other side.
Your third exercise, we are following the theme through. So, we're progressing on from exercise one and two.
You're going to get your weight onto that right leg as you have been. You're going to just
get that left foot just touching the floor just for a little bit of balance.
Now, step one of this. You're going to raise yourself up onto your tiptoes and lower
yourself down again. So, raising yourself up onto the right tiptoe. So, you're raising that heel
and then you're lowering it back down again. Go for your 8 - 10 repetitions and then you're going to
pause when your foot is then flat on the floor. So, right foot is now flat.
Step two is a repetition of that second exercise we've gone through. So, that's where you'll straighten
and raise your right arm and left leg. And then you're going to lower them both back down again.
So, 8-10 of this just to remind your body what you're doing. You're imagining you are
reaching up into a high cupboard at home. So, 8 - 10 repetitions, that's your step two.
And then going on to your step three, you can put all of that together. So, you're going to raise right
arm, left leg goes back behind you and you're going to raise yourself up onto your tiptoes on that
right foot. And then you're going to lower the heel, lower your right arm and bring that left foot back.
So, you're wanting to do it all in a lovely smooth sequence, raising the arm, straightening the leg and
going up and down on your tiptoes. Now, this is to try and mimic rooting up into a cupboard.
You're your left foot, a couple of things you can do with that left foot. You can have that
left foot on the floor for a little bit of support. So, toes can just be onto the floor.
But if you really want to challenge your balance then you're going to have that left foot hovered.
So, 8 - 10 repetitions and then you can try on the other side
So, give those exercises a go. Like I say they're all in a little bit of a sequence
and the idea is really just getting you used on one leg kind of reaching up into those
high covers awkward places that sometimes you find yourself trying to get to when you're at home.
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