Home exercises to test your balance
Having a good balance is crucial to our safety in life. Just a wrong step on a slippery floor and if you can’t catch yourself you can break a bone. As we get older our balance starts to decline. Therefore, it is important to test if your balance is good or need to take action to improve it. YouTube video links are added!
Article by our guest yoga expert, Lena Kalchenko (click here to read about her)
There are three sensory systems that provide input to the cerebellum (which is Latin for “little brain”). This part of the brain is responsible for coordinating voluntary movements, such as leg and hand movements, and many motor skills like balance, coordination and posture. (Motor skills are something that most of us do without even thinking - BWG note):
Eyes - Visual system
Proprioception - The body’s sense of where it is in space (for example knowing whether your feet are on a soft carpet or hard floor without looking, even while wearing shoes – BWG note)
Inner ears - Vestibular system (part of the inner ear that provides the sense of balance – BWG note).
In order to maintain balance we need all 3 of these systems and it might be interesting to check how well they work. In the following videos I show a couple of exercises that can be used as home tests. No equipment need!
The first exercise is called the Romberg test that was designed for testing proprioception. You can start with two feet together or with a slightly more difficult variation where one foot is in front of the other:
Imagine there are 3 spots to each side - top left, bottom left and one in the middle. Move your hand to these directions and follow your hand with your eyes. Pause for a moment while you turn your eyes to look at it then look in front again. Make sure the position of your head does not change. Only your eyes move. Do it with each hand. Then place the other foot in front and repeat the same thing!
A progression for this would be standing on one leg while the other one is bent in front of you - I demonstrate this variation. It might be worth trying to see if and how your balance is affected.
