How Your Ability to Balance Affects Working Out

If you’ve read the HiDow Blog before, we focus on working out, recovering from injuries, and improving your overall health. Part of that includes improving your balance to perform your functional body movements to the best of your ability. Balancing is no different. If you have ever taken a yoga class before, you know how hard balancing can be! Being able to balance and hold poses requires a lot of core strength that is important outside of just yoga but to your overall athleticism.

Balance is one of the most important yet overlooked aspects of working out, and it has a huge impact on cardiovascular and strength training. Your ability to balance affects working out in ways that you probably haven’t thought of before, but there are also ways that you can work out to help improve your balance.

the Importance of Balance

Balance is immensely important for navigating your surroundings in your day-to-day life. It allows you to walk on uneven surfaces, in poorly lit areas, and in the dark, and it allows you to walk in crowded spaces without having to keep your head down looking at your feet.

Balance also allows you to get through exercise of every kind. That’s why it’s so important to work on your balance whenever you work out.

Balance and Age

The ability to balance is increasingly more important as you age too! As we age, our body naturally experiences a level of deterioration that makes life more difficult. As we see a natural decline in our body functions, we also see a decline in our ability to balance.

Because of this, it is more important than ever to make sure that we are working on our balance as we age. Especially if we hope to maintain our athletic ability to hike, run, ride bikes, and play sports.

Balance and Strength

One of the ways that we can improve our balance at any age is to focus on how we strengthen our bodies. People with a lot of balance also have a lot of core strength and strong ankles and legs.

To improve your strength and balance. It is important to work out in ways that develop those core muscles in your abdomen.

Workout to Improve Balance

To improve your balance and core strength, you should do exercises that strengthen your abs. Modified push-ups, planks, and dumbbell workouts are pretty standard exercises for this. Additionally, you can work on exercises that focus on balance and coordination.

One exercise I enjoy is taking a Bosu Ball and placing it near a wall. I then take a soccer ball or basketball and stand on one leg on the Bosu ball. While balancing, I give myself wall passes. Alternate legs, and repeat!

Building core strength and balance isn’t easy, but it’s necessary!