Working out last week with my trainer & indirect Physical Therapist, Robbie, I asked him if we could work on my balance. The reason that I had asked him to do this was because the night before I was doing P90X's Yoga workout and found out how much my balance really did stink. For any of you who are familiar with P90X, whether it be Yoga or not, your balance is important. More so, you rely on balance every minute of everyday, without even thinking about it. For those of us who have some sort of 'equilibrium deficiency', performing certain mundane tasks can seem rather difficult and frustrating. Personally, the reason my balance is off, can be summed up as a clusterf*** of problems, rooting from my battle with Guillian-Barre Syndrome 21 years ago.
To truly understand how important your balance is to you, let's start with the basics. Balance is layman's terms is your ability to maintain a line of gravity, whether it be when you are moving or when you are standing still. Another ingredient for balance is sway. Sway is basically factors that let your body naturally 'sway' from one point to another while sitting or standing in place. These factors may be breathing, shifting weight from foot to foot or from outside forces, such as wind currents, etc. For everybody, a certain level of sway is normal & essential, but that amount is determined by structural and neurological issues that may be present in the individual at the current time. There are three systems that are working in tandem to ensure that your balance stays in tact. They are your Vestibular or sensory systems, Somatosensory System (sense of where your body is is relation to space) & your Visual system. There's also another word that is used with postural and balance quite a lot called Proprioception. Proprioception is the sense of the positions of the neighboring parts of the body in relation to strength of the body's movements. Basically, if your eyes are closed, you still know where your arms and legs are in relation to the space around you. During my session with Robbie, the exercises that we were doing tapped into these systems and how well my body adjusted to things once one was taken away. I was standing on a Bosu ball (basically it looks like half of a ball...one side is flat and the other isn't), Robbie had me stand with my eyes closed and my hands down at my sides, trying to maintain my balance. Needless to say, I was all over the place. You really aren't aware of the trouble you have when you close your eyes! The reason I, like many people, was all over the place is that your senses must compensate for the loss of the other. If your base of support is wobbly, your vestibular and visual systems must come into play more, for example. Although we often associate bad balance with aging, EVERYONE suffers from balance and support issues, no matter how old you are. But the older you get, the more you are likely to fall. One in three elderly people, over the age of 65, fall each year.
So you've got balance issues? Now what??
Many physical, occupational and physiotherapists when treating a patient have balance testing built into a person's treatment plans. There are many functional balance tests that a person may go through to rule out what is causing the balance deficiency. Many of these tests you can do, in the comfort of your own home. One is called the Romberg Test. All this requires of the person is to stand still, with your arms at your sides, keeping your eyes open. There are variations of this test that may be performed, depending on your level of severity.
There's also the Functional Reach Test. Ever been asked to touch your toes? Yeah, this is THAT test. While touching your toes, you must try and maintain your feet from coming off the floor. This test measures the maximal distance that one's arms can reach forward without having your feet come off the floor.
Of course with all balance issues, your spine is one of the main players in this game. For someone with neurological issues, like myself, in a word, it sucks. The fact that everything is pretty much connected with your core stinks for a person like me because on top of my balance issues, I also have to deal with something I've blogged about before called Pelvic Tilt (PT). PT is where your pelvis is oriented in relation to your femurs (upper leg bones). Specifically, the PT that I have is called Anterior pelvic tilt due to the fact that my butt sticks out and my hips are shifted backwards. This creates back pain, weak hamstrings and a multitude of other issues as well. There's hope though! There's are exercises that you can perform to help strengthen the weakened muscles. Any physical therapist will tell you that for pelvic tilt issues the easiest exercise to do is called 'pelvic tilt'. All one needs to do is to lay on the floor with your knees bent. All you are doing from here is 'tilting' your pelvis upward and pressing your lower back into the floor.
If you are having balance issues or concerns, my advice is go see a Physical Therapist or Personal Trainer. These professionals will give you exercises and different ways of treating your balance and posture. You don't want to be like Donald Duck and walk with your butt sticking out all the time. And you definitely don't want to be the old man walking around all hunched over because it hurts too much to stand up straight. Back care is essential for all our daily living activities and the older you get, the more important it is to take it seriously. You only get one body and one shot at a healthy life!
To truly understand how important your balance is to you, let's start with the basics. Balance is layman's terms is your ability to maintain a line of gravity, whether it be when you are moving or when you are standing still. Another ingredient for balance is sway. Sway is basically factors that let your body naturally 'sway' from one point to another while sitting or standing in place. These factors may be breathing, shifting weight from foot to foot or from outside forces, such as wind currents, etc. For everybody, a certain level of sway is normal & essential, but that amount is determined by structural and neurological issues that may be present in the individual at the current time. There are three systems that are working in tandem to ensure that your balance stays in tact. They are your Vestibular or sensory systems, Somatosensory System (sense of where your body is is relation to space) & your Visual system. There's also another word that is used with postural and balance quite a lot called Proprioception. Proprioception is the sense of the positions of the neighboring parts of the body in relation to strength of the body's movements. Basically, if your eyes are closed, you still know where your arms and legs are in relation to the space around you. During my session with Robbie, the exercises that we were doing tapped into these systems and how well my body adjusted to things once one was taken away. I was standing on a Bosu ball (basically it looks like half of a ball...one side is flat and the other isn't), Robbie had me stand with my eyes closed and my hands down at my sides, trying to maintain my balance. Needless to say, I was all over the place. You really aren't aware of the trouble you have when you close your eyes! The reason I, like many people, was all over the place is that your senses must compensate for the loss of the other. If your base of support is wobbly, your vestibular and visual systems must come into play more, for example. Although we often associate bad balance with aging, EVERYONE suffers from balance and support issues, no matter how old you are. But the older you get, the more you are likely to fall. One in three elderly people, over the age of 65, fall each year.
So you've got balance issues? Now what??
Many physical, occupational and physiotherapists when treating a patient have balance testing built into a person's treatment plans. There are many functional balance tests that a person may go through to rule out what is causing the balance deficiency. Many of these tests you can do, in the comfort of your own home. One is called the Romberg Test. All this requires of the person is to stand still, with your arms at your sides, keeping your eyes open. There are variations of this test that may be performed, depending on your level of severity.
There's also the Functional Reach Test. Ever been asked to touch your toes? Yeah, this is THAT test. While touching your toes, you must try and maintain your feet from coming off the floor. This test measures the maximal distance that one's arms can reach forward without having your feet come off the floor.
Of course with all balance issues, your spine is one of the main players in this game. For someone with neurological issues, like myself, in a word, it sucks. The fact that everything is pretty much connected with your core stinks for a person like me because on top of my balance issues, I also have to deal with something I've blogged about before called Pelvic Tilt (PT). PT is where your pelvis is oriented in relation to your femurs (upper leg bones). Specifically, the PT that I have is called Anterior pelvic tilt due to the fact that my butt sticks out and my hips are shifted backwards. This creates back pain, weak hamstrings and a multitude of other issues as well. There's hope though! There's are exercises that you can perform to help strengthen the weakened muscles. Any physical therapist will tell you that for pelvic tilt issues the easiest exercise to do is called 'pelvic tilt'. All one needs to do is to lay on the floor with your knees bent. All you are doing from here is 'tilting' your pelvis upward and pressing your lower back into the floor.
If you are having balance issues or concerns, my advice is go see a Physical Therapist or Personal Trainer. These professionals will give you exercises and different ways of treating your balance and posture. You don't want to be like Donald Duck and walk with your butt sticking out all the time. And you definitely don't want to be the old man walking around all hunched over because it hurts too much to stand up straight. Back care is essential for all our daily living activities and the older you get, the more important it is to take it seriously. You only get one body and one shot at a healthy life!
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