the survey said that next applying better pickleball the most important
part for you was staying injury free if you're willing to spend a few minutes
off the pickleball court to do that then you're going to want to stay tuned hey
everybody it's CJ Johnson staying injury free is so important after all if we're
injured we don't get to play as much pickleball
as we age things start to change for us in the five key areas of fitness now if
you're not sure what those five key areas of fitness are just click on the
link that's coming up above and it's going to take you to something that will
help you today we're going to talk about one of those
things that tends to deteriorate as we age and most of us don't do anything to
improve it and we can't that's called balance as we age our
balance decreases in part for four reasons number one our muscular strength
decreases our muscular flexibility and joint flexibility decreases our
vestibular inside of our ears those cells decrease and certainly our eyes
change with those four things decreasing it becomes more important than ever to
Train balance today I'm going to share with you six different exercises don't
be a beginner in intermediate and an advanced version pick one or two of
these and do them a couple times during the course of the day
you
let's start with the head nods in the beginner position stand with your feet
about shoulder width apart you're going to start by looking to the right and
then move the head up and down then look to the opposite direction again moving
the head up and down do that multiple times if it feels like it's too easy for
you try it with your eyes closed now let's move into the intermediate
position this time we're going to stand heel toe
start by moving your head left to right forget the up and down for just a moment
move left to right once that feels comfortable then move to
one side would then the head up and down then over to the other side and up and
down for the advanced position you're gonna stand on one foot let's start the
exercise the same way we did the intermediate one simply move the head
from right to left once you feel comfortable doing that and it can be
really hard to get this one you can see even I'm having a hard time with it then
move to one side go up and down and then back to the other side up and down
okay now we're gonna move into the single leg deadlift for the beginner
position simply stand on one leg let's do your best leg first and we're going
to lift the trailing leg as high as we possibly can that may only be a little
bit off the floor but what you're trying to do is lift the
trailing leg up keeping the other leg straight
now for the intermediate position let's lift that trailing leg so that it is
parallel to the floor with the base leg staying as straight as possible
for the advanced version of this exercise we're going to add some weight
take a small medicine ball or whatever you may have the dumbbell is fine as
well we're going to lower up and down making sure that the supporting leg
stays straight and that we don't ban forward from the waist
for the overhead reach in the beginner position the first thing we're going to
try and do is to stabilize and have balance on one leg so stand on one leg
start on your dominant leg first because that's usually the easiest one to you
for the intermediate version of this exercise we're going to stand on one leg
open our palms up towards the ceiling and simply raise them overhead until our
hands touch then lower them down slowly for the advanced version of this
exercise we're going to add a small medicine ball or a dumbbell whatever you
may have have it travel from one hand over to the other keeping your balance
on one leg if any of these are too easy at any point in time
feel free to close your eyes that will definitely make it harder
for the beginner version of the kneeling bird dog get on all fours and making
sure that your hands are directly underneath your shoulders and that your
hips are squarely over your knees begin by raising one leg off the ground so
that it's parallel to the floor as you're comfortable with that raise the
arm on the opposite side for the intermediate version of this position
we're simply going to bring the arm and the leg together to the center seeing if
we can make them touch at the same point in time keeping our balance if you
really want to test your stability in the bird dog position raise one leg and
then raise the arm on the same side once you feel balance there move the arm back
and the knee forward at the same time trying to touch the elbow to the knee a
stability ball is a great way to help us to improve our balance chances are the
gym you go to has one and if you don't have access to it you may purchase one
they cost about twenty dollars or so start by sitting on the ball and
reaching your arms out in front of you we're going to keep our arms directly in
front of our chest as we turn side to side maintaining our balance on the ball
if this is too easy for you close your eyes
in the intermediate version of the stability ball twist we're going to do
the same twisting motion side to side but we're going to lift one leg again if
you find this easy close your eyes and give that a try
for the advanced version of this exercise we're going to lift the legs
off the ground and see if we can maintain our balance on the ball
for the beginner version of the stability ball Superman simply put the
ball underneath your hips roll on to your hands and maintain your balance for
the intermediate version of this exercise we're going to try lifting one
hand off the ground at a time again if you're finding this too simple make sure
you close your eyes that'll definitely make it harder in the advanced version
of the stability ball Superman we're going to try and lift our arms and our
legs off the ground at the same time
don't neglect your balance as I mentioned at the beginning of this take
one or two of these exercises do them a couple of times a day it's only going to
take you a very short amount of time to do them and you're gonna see about a
balance improve quickly if you got value from this video if you want mine giving
a little thumbs up I'm curious do you already do things to help you with your
balance if you do put it down in the comments below and let me know what your
favorite exercises are if you wouldn't mind share this with your pickleball
playing friends because after all if they're healthy they're going to be on
the court with you cuz together we can train smart live bold and aged