Welcome to this video where you'll find out some simple balance exercises for beginners.
We'll go through three different exercises that you can try out.
Balance can get overlooked as an exercise but it's actually in my opinion, one of the building blocks for great movement.
And improving your balance can actually reduce the risk of falls,
which becomes a little bit more important the older you get.
I'd suggest having a chair at hand when you're doing these exercises just so you can hold on to if you want to.
It's a good idea when you're doing any balance exercises just to make sure
that you're feeling nice and safe and secure when you do them.
At the end of the video, we'll go through how to monitor your progress with the exercises.
My name's Claire. I'm a Physiotherapist from PhysioFit Health.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel so, you can keep updated with all the videos that we'll post.
So, the first exercise that you can try is this one. I'd get your feet about hip width apart.
And you've got an imaginary bit of string attached to the front of your chest or the top
of your head and it's just pulling yourself up a little bit taller, relax your arms down
by the side of the body or you can hold on if you want to just for a little bit of support.
I want you to take your weight onto the front of your toes and then take your weight back onto your heels.
So, it's a little bit of a body sway movement. Should be nice and nice and simple nice and easy.
Body's staying upright so, you're bringing the body forward onto your toes back onto your heels.
So, try that for a few repetitions. Try it holding on, try it not holding on. See how you feel.
With you, the body sway movement so, that's your forward and backwards. You can take the weight
to the right and to the left as well. So, you're taking it onto one leg and then you're taking the
weight over onto the other leg. Again, you can hold on if you want to, don't hold on. Just check it out,
just see how comfortable you are with these small movements.
Your other option with your body sway is to take your body around in a circle.
So, take the weight forward onto your toes and then you're taking away back onto your heels.
You're trying to draw a circle with your body.
So, try it out and see again, how you feel holding on if you need to.
You can go circling in the opposite direction.
When you're doing these body sway exercises, I'd get you to do them for at least 30 seconds.
If you're able to, that would be a good time frame just to go with initially.
So, that's your first exercise to try out.
Your second exercise you're going to try, is with these feet, just changing the position a little bit.
You want to get one foot in front of the other. So, you're in step standing
but you actually want the front heel to touch the toes of the back foot
and you're going to see how you feel. Can you stand here not holding on
or are you feeling that you're swaying a little bit. If you need to, as always feel free
just hold on to the back of the chair and you're just like I say, just seeing how you can do.
Now, you're aiming for up to 30 seconds. If you're able to, can you stand like this? Now, because you've got
one foot in front of the other then it's an idea to try with the other foot in front and you can
just check see if there is a difference between having one foot in front versus the other one .
Now, if you want to add a little variation to this if you're like "oh yeah no, I can do this, not a problem".
30 seconds".. You can add a heel raise. So, you're going to raise yourself up onto your tiptoes.
And again holding it there, see if you can hold it for your 30 seconds. I'll just turn and face the
other way so, you can see a slightly different view. So, you're just raising up on your tiptoes holding
on or not holding on. And timing yourself to see how long you can go.
So, that's your second exercise.
So, your third exercise that you can try, is one way you're imagining yourself in the center.
Center of a compass or a star. So, you've got points coming in front and behind you, and points out to the side.
For this one, you're going to take your weight onto one leg. So, see how you feel just balancing on that
one leg and then with the other leg, you're going to reach it out and step it forward.
So, you're going nice and slowly and see how far you can step forward onto that other leg.
And then you're going to step yourself back.
So, try stepping forward a few times.
It's really the slowness of the movement will really help with that balance challenge.
Once you've tried forward a couple of times, you can then try out to the side. So, can you step
out to the side and then step yourself back. So, again it's just the slower you can go
the better. Because it's that time spent on that stance leg that will really challenge your balance
and it just gives a little bit of movement with this one. You can go backwards,
you can go forward, you can go diagonally. So, choose just slightly different directions.
Your progression, if you want to just try, if stepping is just a little bit too easy for you. You can just
try and tap your foot, you're reaching your foot as far away from your stance leg as you can do.
Touch the toes onto the floor and then return them. So, it's just a foot tap rather than a step.
And like I say, you can just try tapping that foot in many different directions. It's that variety
that is pretty good. And so, that it's called the star test this one. If you want to
look the official name up. That's your third suggestion.
So, I did say at the beginning that we'd go through how to monitor your progress.
and there is a few different ways that you can monitor.
One of them is whether you need to hold on or not holding on. Obviously if you need to hold on,
the balance is slightly more reduced and you get a little bit more confident if you are not holding on for support.
Another way that you can check your progress is to time yourself.
Aim for your 30 seconds but if you can only do one of the suggestions and it's 5 seconds.
That's your baseline and then every time you do it you're just checking to see can you increase it.
You know, up to 10 seconds, can you do 20 seconds, can you do 30 and so, that can give
you just that little bit of guidance that you're improving.
another way just to monitor the progress is perhaps
choosing your confidence level or the ease of how you're doing the exercise.
That's your 0 - 10 scale. So, 0 is just can't do the exercise at all. 10 is like "oh yeah, see
easy, no problems".. and then you can write yourself doing the exercises and so each time you do it
then, you know maybe you're a 3 or a 4. You're not too confident having to hold on.
and then slowly as you repeat it that confidence level improves aiming, for you know, 6, 7, 8.
And then with those scores you can check and see how you're improving.
With the third exercise, the star test that we went through and the way that you can check with this one
is and you can actually add a measurement of how far away you're happy to to step
that foot out to the side and that can give you another objective measure. Obviously, if you're less
confident you don't want to step that foot too far forward but the more that you do the repetitions
the more you're happy doing the exercise and you'll be able to reach out further and further.
So, distance with your star one.
Those are your three exercises to try out.
Don't forget to subscribe to our channel
or share the video with somebody you think may find it useful and I'll see you soon!