Would you like to learn how to improve your balance from the comfort of your own home
with very little special equipment in less than five minutes three days a week?
If so stay tuned to this video
Hi everybody my name is CJ Johnson.
Balance is important no matter what sport we’re playing whether we're playing pickleball
or skiing whatever we happen to be doing.
The fact is that as we age for a variety of reasons balance gets more and more difficult
and can lead to injuries.
it's important that you incorporate some balance routines into your exercise.
You can get better balance just by doing these five easy exercises for 30 to 60 seconds only
three times a week.
Let me show you.
I'm going to give you a beginner, intermediate and an advanced
level for each and every exercise.
I recommend for those people who like the advanced level that you get either wobble
board or the BOSU ball.
I love the BOSU.
It's a very unstable service and not only challenges my balance it also helps me to
build strength.
Let's go ahead and let's get started.
The first one we're going to do just a standing one leg lift.
I want you to stand very tall.
Feel like you're pulling up in your spine.
Be balanced foot to foot.
Now we're simply going to do is just lift up one leg.
If this hard enough for you let's stay here for 30 seconds and at the end of 30 seconds
then you go over to the other side.
Now if that one was too easy let's go down to our starting position again.
Stand nice and tall we're pulling in our core.
We're going to lift that leg up but this time what I want you to do is close your eyes.
That got a little harder.
I know it did for me.
I just put my foot down.
Closing our eyes definitely makes this exercise harder so 30 seconds on one leg30 seconds
on the other leg.
Now if both of those were too easy for you were going to move over to Bosu.
Stand on the ball on the ball nice and comfortable again.
Core pulled in nice and tall.
What I'm simply going to do here is I'm going to lift my leg up and hold on one leg.
Little harder to do on the BOSU ball right?
I really have to engage my core do one leg and then the other.
Exercise number 2 heel digs.
We're standing position again we're going to lift up we're going to lift on our core
all we have to simply for do is touch our heel forward.
I'm not leaning very far forward just going to touch my heel forward going from foot to
foot.
As I get my confidence and I get my balance I can move a little bit faster testing my
balance from leg to leg.
If this is too easy for you close your eyes.
Let's see what happens here?
Hmm still a little easy.
Let's take it over to the BOSU ball.
I stand close to the ball and heel to heel.
Faster.
If it’s still not a challenge add a hop in between.
See if you can land on the ball and be nice and balanced.
Exercise number 3
Every sport you play has an athletic stance from which we have to move.
What I want to do here feet are about shoulder width apart, squat down just a little bit.
Ii'm gonna get my hands up here and front of me and now what I'm going to start to do
is rotate from side side.
Moving my head back and forth.
Feels like I'm playing pickleball and maybe I'm watching a dinking game go back and forth
between my partner one of our opponents.
Too easy?
You guessed it close your eyes.
Back and forth.
How do you feel?
Do you feel balanced?
Do you feel like you're too far on your Toes?
Are too far back?
Make the adjustment.
Take it up to the BOSU ball.
Get down in your position we're going to turn side-to-side.
You notice my legs are definitely wobbling as my little muscles work to keep me in balance.
If you've got a ball and that was too easy, you can simply take BOSU turn it over.
Be very careful of used as you step on.
I like to step on one side to the other.
I get my balance first.
Stand nice and tall engage my core and squat down.
I'm going to take it side to side.
You notice the ball is moving a lot again.
Be very careful to tilt it down and step off the ball.
Exercise number four
Is a push step.
If you're a beginner we're going to stand nice and tall.
Now we're going to do a step out onto one foot and step back.
This isn’t a full lunge.
I'm just pushing off the forward foot.
Pushing back with my front heel.
This is about balance.
If this is too easy close those eyes.
Can you keep your balance as you push yourself back?
Want a bigger challenge?
You know it we're going to take it up to the BOSU.
Step off push Back, step up push back.
I want to be real careful in this that my front leg the knee of my front leg is never
going past my toe.
That's not what I'm trying to do in this exercise.
I'm just simply trying to push off that front foot.
If this is too easy on the BOSU we can add a little hop to it so it looks something like
this.
If this is too easy on the BOSU we can pick up the pace.
Stepping right to the front of the BOSU.
Last exercise we're going to work a little bit on our lateral motion.
We're going to stand tall.
Get centered.
We're going to step out to the side and back with that same fun out and back out and back.
As you get the feeling of it start to pick up the pace and stay in balance.
Make it harder by closing your eyes as you move side-to-side.
Up for a bigger challenge step on top the BOSU step down and up down and up.
Still too easy?
Stay up here and hop side to side.
Start by incorporating these five easy balance exercises into your weekly workout routine
three times a week.
In a very short time you're going to start seeing improvements in your balance which
translates into your pickleball and you're skiing as well as healthy aging.
Together we can Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well