hey everybody it's Doctor Jo. today I'm going to show you my top 7 advanced
balance exercises. so let's get started.
so for these balance exercises, I'm going to use a half foam roll. well what if you
don't have a hat foam roll? sure you can just cut a foam roll in half, but if you
don't want to do that, either you can just roll up a big like beach towel and
that should give you enough to work with, but it probably won't be quite the same
as this. so if you can get access to a half foam roll, I really recommend it.
we're going to use both sides of the half foam roll which is neat because
it's gonna strengthen in different ways for those balance exercises. so you're
gonna I call this flat end down and flatten up. so we're gonna start with a
flat end down. I usually find this way a little bit easier. it's a little bit
different for everybody. people always ask shoes on shoes off? I
have my shoes off. I feel like it's harder with your shoes off because if
you have your shoes on, the soles of the shoes give you a little more balance. so
as you can see right now, my ankles are already working. so this strengthens
your ankles, it strengthens your knees, and it strengthens your hip. all of
those muscles have to do with your balance or muscles, so it's important to
strengthen all those in balance exercises, strengthen all of them. so what
you're gonna do is just start off by putting your feet close together. we call
this the Romberg position. so all you're gonna do is just try and stay on the
foam roll. you don't want your toes going forward and touching like this, and you
don't want your heels going back and touching on the other side. you really
want to kind of stay on top of that foam roll. you can see I'm moving around.
that's what's gonna happen when you're balancing. it's normal. if you feel like
you're swaying a lot, make sure you try this first with something to hold on to
like a countertop or have someone next to you just in case you feel very
unbalanced. so I just start off with 10 to 15 seconds, and work your way up from
there. and then after that, you're going to roll it over. so as you can see less
of a surface on the bottom so it's going to be harder to balance on. so I oh
that's why I always do flat end down first, and then flat end up. so same thing,
you're gonna kind of get into that Romberg position. you can see here I
gotta get going feet close together, and then you're just
gonna balance. so you can see that my feet are working a little bit more
because of that uneven surface on the bottom, and so this is okay if I rock a
little bit that's fine. if I have to touch a little bit with my toes that's
okay, but try not to just give up. really try and use those ankles, those knees,
those hip muscles to work on that balance. and again, if you have to hold on
to something just a little bit that's fine. you can do that. no big deal. so
again ten to fifteen seconds to start off with. your goal would be to work up to a
minute and have that easy to do. so after you do the Rhomberg, then you're gonna
flip it back over start with the flat end back down, and you're gonna do a
tandem stance. I'm gonna doing a little bit of an angle so you can see it. so
tandem is basically just one foot in front of the other.
my foot's gonna hang off just a little bit. in actuality if you had something a
little bit longer that would work better, but you're basically just like you're
trying to stand on a tightrope. so I tell people it's easiest to find the spot in
front of you and focus on it. if if you're feeling like you're wobbling all
over the place, if you've got a picture on the wall or a light switch on the
wall, look at that and focus on that and that usually helps with your balance.
make sure that you're switching feet so you know if your left one's in the front
and then switch to your left one's in the back because that works your muscles in
different ways. having the one in the front and the one in the back. so again
you can see I focus if I'm focusing forwards, I get a little bit better a
back balance than when I'm looking at the camera. so just again trying to keep
that balance. if you're wobbling, that's completely normal. that's just those
muscles trying to find that balance. then you're gonna flip it over so again a
little bit harder trying to find that balance. just that one foot in front of
the other. so again looking straight ahead. if you need to use your arms for
balancers a little bit, that's fine. usually more of the weight it goes into the
back foot, not always but that's what I found.
most of the time your back leg is doing most of the balancing. so that's why it's
important to switch after that ten to fifteen seconds or whatever time you're
up to. and then just again keeping that balance. trying to find that focus and
trying to wobble as little as possible. And if you need to put your arms out
like that, you can. you don't have to. even put them by your side and get those
muscles a little bit stronger. so then the next one is just going to be going
back to standing on it. this time it doesn't have to be the Romberg you're
just kind of standing with your feet about shoulder width apart. you're gonna
clasp your hands in front of you, and just at your upper body, so try and keep
your hips level. your hips aren't going with you.
just with your upper body, you're going to kind of rotate back and forth. so what
this does is it just changes the movement. so now I have more weight on
this side. now I have more weight on this side. so starting off with just your
hands should be fine. If this becomes easy, you can hold a
little weight, five pounds, working your way up to ten pounds, and then just going
back and forth trying to do the balance like that. and then same thing, then you
just flip it over find your balance first, which is sometimes takes a second
or two. and then once you find that balance, hands out in front, just rotating,
try and keep those hips pretty straight forward as you rotate back and forth. so
again you can do this as a timed. you can just do ten to fifteen seconds or you
can say I'm going to rotate by x on each side kind of thing, and then work your
way from there. so now we're going to start getting a little bit harder but
not too hard. so now you're going to go into doing a squat on the foam roll. and
so again this one this one will work it's about shoulder width apart. if
you're having a little bit of balance issues if you have maybe two more inches
on the end so you can get a little bit wider base of support that's fine, just
make sure it's at least shoulder width apart. so once you get that balance then
you're just gonna go into a squat and then come
back up. still following all the same concepts with a good proper squat. stick
your booty back, keep your knees behind your toes, keep your back straight, going
into that squat. if you need to use your hands as a balancer, you can and just go
nice and slow and controlled. so you know squatting down you see those muscles
working and then coming back up. so you don't have to go far, but just make sure
you're trying to control it as much as you can, and then same thing, flipping it
over getting that balance first. see, make sure you get the balance first
before you go into the exercise, and then squatting, whoa, squatting down. very good
and squatting back up. so you see I'm doing a little bit less of a squat
because this one's a little tougher for me. so I just kind of reset myself, get
that good squat, and then come back up. so again maybe just starting with five of
these. you don't want to overdo it because you can see how much my legs are
working. how much is wobbling all those muscles that stabilize your muscles are
working hard to make sure that I don't fall over. so it's a lot more work than
you think it is. so after you master the squat, you're going to add on to the
squat. so for this one you're getting some upper body movement as well. so what
I'm gonna do is once I find my balance, I'm gonna go into a squat and then reach
down towards the opposite knee. so I'm going to go into the squat kind of or
your shin, whichever way you want to go, and then squat down and just touch the
opposite side. so again I'm shifting weight to one side, the other side, and
that's what's gonna make it a little bit harder. so again there you go, don't feel
like you have to do a lot, you can do two on each side, and then go from there and
then flip it over.
find that balance. this one's gonna be a little bit harder, and then once you get
that balance, which I haven't got yet. once you get that balance,
then you're going to go into the squat, touch the opposite side up, and then
squatting down. and so see you can reset yourself you know if you feel like
you're gonna fall, reset yourself. catch your, catch your balance, and then start
back over. so if you have to step off that that's fine, but if you don't need
to, if you can reset yourself that's good. and then coming down and then coming
back up. so see they're getting harder and harder, so if you're not ready for
that if you can't do the regular squat, don't try the rest of these. make sure
you master each one first and then keep on going. so then you're gonna go into
some single leg balance. so again it's getting harder. if you can't get the
other ones down, you're probably not going to be ready for a single leg. so
first usually what I do is I keep the other one down until I can find a good
spot for my foot. and then slowly just lift it up for the balance. so same thing
if you can find something on your wall, I'm looking off towards my wall focusing
on a specific spot. that's usually going to help with the balance. so a lot of
times people want to look at their feet, but that's gonna make it a little bit
harder. so make sure you're doing both sides for the single leg sides and each
leg. and then once you master one and you can go to the other one. and so again you
know just trying to get 10 to 15 seconds to start off with. you don't have to lock
out your knee, you can have a little bit of a bend in your knee sometimes that
helps and you don't want to end up irritating your knee. so if you want to
unlock it just a little bit, that's fine. and then so the last one so kind of
doing a balance I'm turning it this time so my foot is long wise long wise, long
ways. and then you're just going to do a hip flexion. so you're balancing and now
you're just bringing that leg forward. so I'm not kicking far, I'm keeping my upper
body upright. just like in a regular hip flexion. pulling my toes up
to kind of lock out those muscles, but I'm feeling more of the work here. so
that's why you want to do both sides because you're working them in different
ways. so again even if you just want to start with three on one side and then
switch and then do three on the other side because now I'm doing the
stabilizers on this hip, oh, and then doing the hip flexor on this side. so
again it doesn't have to be a whole lot, but that's just getting some movement in
there some dynamic movement to make those muscles work harder. well there you
go, those were my top seven advanced balance exercises. if you like to help
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subscribe by clicking down there. remember be safe (try not to fall off), have
fun, and I hope you feel better soon.