What does my strength have to do with my balance?

People make the mistake of thinking that improving their balance is all about balancing on one foot, or doing an advanced yoga pose and holding it for a full 3 minutes without losing form. 

The truth? Simply working on your STRENGTH - especially in the muscles in your legs & core - can have a dramatic effect on improving your balance, even without spending any time at all working on that perfect yoga tree pose! 

Think of it in these simple terms: if your muscles are weak, how would they be able to keep you stable and steady? They won’t! By building up our strength, we automatically begin building our stability as well. The result is that we are less wobbly! 

This becomes increasingly important as we age, due to increased prevalence of sarcopenia, or muscle loss. A sarcomere is the medical term for an individual muscle fiber. The more sedentary we are, the higher risk we are for more severe sarcopenia, or the loss of muscle mass and muscle strength, especially as we age. Sarcopenia is also strongly associated with a greater incidence of falls and increased risk of fractures [1].

So how do we combat and reduce sarcopenia? I’m guessing you already know the answer: with strengthening exercises, of course! 

There are specific muscle groups that when strengthened, will have a larger impact on our balance than others. We want to incorporate exercises that are geared towards strengthening our hip & glute muscles (especially psoas, gluteus maximus, & gluteus medius), our thigh muscles (quadriceps & hamstrings), as well as our foot & ankle muscles (namely gastrocsoleus & anterior tibialis). 

Let’s go through some examples of exercises that are good at targeting these particular muscle groups. Squats, lunges, and step-ups are great because they are functional - meaning they look similar to our typical day-to-day activities, so they have great carryover into our daily lives. Plus, they target several different muscle groups that help us stay steady on our feet when they are strong. You get a lot of bang for your buck with these - because they pull in so many key muscle groups all at once. 

Heel raises and toe raises are wonderful for targeting those foot & ankle muscles. You can do these holding onto your kitchen sink to focus on building strength in these muscles, or you can try them without holding on in order to challenge your balance a bit more. 

If you like going to the gym and using weight machines, you can incorporate the leg press, hamstring curl machine, and hip abduction machine into your routine in order to hit these key muscles to help you feel more stable. Pro tip: the leg press machine can also be used to strengthen your calf muscles - have you ever tried doing heel raises on it? 

My hope is that you can now clearly see how just incorporating some simple strengthening exercises into your routine can have a tremendous impact on your overall balance, stability, and wellbeing- especially as you get older. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not encouraging you to quit your yoga class or stop working on your single-leg balance time- those are great for balance and stability work as well. However, I AM encouraging you to pick a few strengthening exercises and work them into your exercise regimen. Try them for a few weeks and let me know whether you notice a difference in your balance!

If you'd like a more specific starting point, I have you covered! You can get my Top 3 Balance-Building Exercises for free by clicking here, and I will send it straight to your inbox. Hint: 2 out of 3 of these exercises are- you guessed it- strengthening exercises!

References: 
1. Yeung SSY, Reijnierse EM, Pham VK, Trappenburg MC, Lim WK, Meskers CGM, Maier AB. Sarcopenia and its association with falls and fractures in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2019 Jun;10(3):485-500.

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A fun fact about myself: This is actually the second blog I have created. I started my first blog in the summer of 2010, just before I left to study abroad for a semester in Thailand! I created the blog to keep my friends and family up-to-date on my travels, stories, and experiences while overseas. I had such a fun time with that blog, and I'm looking forward to getting back to some writing, and seeing where The Balance Boost Blog goes from here.