I’ve heard several clients just brush if off and say, “I have never had good balance” or my ultimate favorite, “I’m just getting old.”  Balance  involves your nerves communicating to your muscles and then your muscles responding to that communication.  That communication may be slow, sluggish, or just imbalanced.  But this is my favorite thing: our bodies are amazing.  You can train your body’s response to balance.  Micro-progression is the key (this is just a fancy word for “baby steps”).   Teach your body new skills and then slowly change the difficultly upon your successful completion of the movement.

Examples of balance training:

1.  For those who are new to balance training:  try standing on your left foot but hanging onto something with your right arm.  Once you can do that for 30 seconds, try standing on your left foot and use your left arm to hang onto something.  Upon completion, try letting go of the wall, or just holding on with a few fingers.  Get the idea.

2.  Another example is to try standing on one foot while doing typical “two foot” exersices.  For example, while doing a bicep curl or shoulder press, try standing on one foot or use your other foot to just barely touch the floor for a little bit of support.  NOTE:  When you take away 1/2 of your support base, you will not be as strong as you would be with your full support base.  For this reason, use as lighter form of resistance so that you can still complete the exercise in good form.

It is important to incorporate balance training into your exercise routine no matter your age or activity level.  This will keep you “healthy” overall and active for a lifetime.

Do you have questions about balance?  Drop me a note!

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For the TRX Push up, position yourself at an angle with your feet behind you and your hands in front of your shoulders. Slowly bend your arms at the elbows creating a 90 degree angle. While you are in this movement, you need to keep your core (abdominal and low back muscles) tight. I usually give the cue “be ready for someone to poke you in the stomach.” If your core is not tight, you might do some damage.

The benefit of doing a TRX push-up vs a standard push-up is that your offer more instability which means your shoulders (shoulder girdle) and your core are working much hard to maintain control. This is also a great way to teach a push-up because of the ability to control the difficulty. The more upright you are, the easier the movement. The more you move your feet behind you, the steeper the angle and the movement will be more challenging. I have also included images of the advance version, which involves picking up one leg. If you are doing two sets, alternate the leg you use on each set.

If you want to a more advanced move, you can move the ball closer to your shins/shoelaces thus making the force on your shoulders/chest more intense.

For those who want to be fancy , you can do the push up in the same way as above, but this time lift one leg.  Alternate the leg half way through.

Caution:  If you have a history of wrist issues, push-ups are not going to be ideal for your body.  Many people like to use push-ups bars to help with this issue, but I would NOT advice using push-ups at same time as a stability ball.

*Before you try this exercise, make sure you can do a regular or modified (on your knees) pushup before attempting the Push-up with a Stability Ball.

Benefits of this exercise include core stabilization and glute activation.  In order to execute this exercise, you need to understand and be able to perform a pelvic tilt and the overall “drawing in” process of the core.  You should have a reasonable level of flexibility that will all the motion required of your lumbo-pelvic-hip complex as well as the knees and ankles.

Prep:

1. Lying flat on the floor on your back with knees bent, feet flat and toes point straight ahead and arms by your sides.
2. Activate your core by “drawing in” your belly button towards the spine and squeezing your glutes.

Movement:

1. While keep your core activate and glutes tight; lift your hips up and off the ground to form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders.  (Imagine that a boat needs to pass under you, thus the name “bridge).
2. Once you lift up, hold for a sec and then slowly return to the floor, but avoid completely resting on the ground.  If you rest of the ground too long, then you are relaxing the muscles and that goes against what we are trying to accomplish.
3. Repeat movement.

Note:  If you feel any sort of cramping your hamstrings, try placing your weight in your heels or reassess the alignment of your hips/pelvis.

There are many ways to add difficult and challenge to a Bridge once you have mastered it.  I am continually reminding clients that adding weight is only ONE way to make something harder.  Another way to make this more difficult is by adding instability whether by using a Stability Ball or Bosu under either your back/shoulders or under your feet or by trying it with one leg.

If you have any questions or want more details on how to incorporate this into your exercise regime, contact me!