The Critical Form of Anti-Aging Exercise Even Many Fit People Are Lacking

Photo by shu lei:https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-doing-a-yoga-tree-pose-on-a-boat-by-a-lake-13849306/ 

The quote above is from the scene where Mr. Miyagi is training Daniel by having him stand up in a rowboat which the wise karate sensei promptly rocks side to side and sends his student tumbling into the water, at which the old man laughs his ass off.

While the lesson is initially about the sense of balance that keeps us upright in gravity, which is of considerable importance when one is planning to dispatch one’s enemies with a crane kick to the face, Mr. Miyagi later explains that it’s about having balance in life as well.

While the latter is definitely worth discussing when on the subject of health, I’m actually going to be focusing on the former — the balance that keeps you from falling on your butt (or worse, your head) and sustaining physical injuries.

While it’s pretty common-knowledge that physical exercise is good for our health, cardio and strength-training tend to be the stars of the show.

If you ask what form of exercise is important for preventing sudden death, I think most people would primarily think cardio for heart health.

Balance training probably wouldn’t even be in the running on that question for most people, but you might be surprised at how important it actually is.

A recent study in Brazil found that subjects aged 51 to 75 who failed a simple balance test (standing on one leg for 10 seconds) had a much higher mortality rate in the seven years following the test than those who successfully completed it. The higher mortality rate in the poor balance group was independent of other risk factors.

Given that falls are a significant cause of serious injury and death among older people, the study results aren’t so much surprising as they are illustrative of the importance of balance to health and anti-aging.

Yet most attention to one’s sense of balance typically comes after a major fall has taken place and the loss of balance is already fairly advanced.

Our sense of balance comes from three neurological systems:

• The visual system (with sensory inputs coming from our eyes).

• The vestibular system (with sensory inputs coming from our inner ear structures).

• The mechanoreceptive system (with sensory inputs coming from our joints and muscles).

A deficiency in one system can usually be compensated for by the other systems pretty well, but as we age, we typically lose some function in all three.

Vision becomes less sharp, structures in the inner ear may become impaired, and muscles and joints fall prey to arthritis and other degenerative changes.

Vision is largely correctable with glasses, contact lenses, and various surgeries, but it’s not quite as easy to deal with vestibular and mechanoreceptive deficiencies.

While general health and fitness do usually help maintain these other systems and the sense of balance to some degree, even people who are quite fit otherwise may be weak in the balance department.

The good news is that, as with maintaining muscle strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance through other forms of exercise, there are exercises that can help you maintain and often greatly improve your balance.

Some forms of exercise may incorporate balance training along with other types of fitness. Yoga, for instance, in addition to providing challenges that increase muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility, also provides a fair amount of balance training.

But if yoga isn’t your thing, you can add in balance training to whatever your exercise regimen is with minimal equipment expense and without it taking up a lot of additional time.

For example, I do some of my leg strength training exercises on a wobble board. If you’re not familiar with it, a wobble board is a small platform with a half-sphere shaped base, so that the platform tilts in any direction when not perfectly balanced.

Prices and complexity of wobble and other types of balance boards vary considerably, but you can get a decent basic one for $20-$30.

But if your balance kind of sucks — for instance if you can’t pass the 10 second stand on one foot test from the study mentioned earlier — I recommend you start very simply with no equipment at all.

That test itself can be a good starting balance exercise. Stand on one foot for 10 seconds (or as long as you can), switch feet and stand on the other foot for 10 seconds, and repeat on both sides several times. Make sure to have plenty of space to catch your balance and/or a sturdy something or someone within arm’s reach to help catch yourself as needed.

Once you can easily stand on each foot for 10 seconds (you may find that you can do it a lot easier on one foot than the other, so keep it easy until you can comfortably do it on both), you can increase the challenge by doing things like moving your arms around while on one foot.

Then you can do things like doing partial squats while balanced on one leg, or rising from a chair (make sure it’s not going to slide out from under you) with one leg on the floor and the other crossed on top of it.

After getting good at balancing on a flat, fixed surface, then you might want to consider a balance board of some type.

The easiest version is a rocker board, which is basically a platform on a rocking chair base, or just a curved board . It only tilts in back and forth in one plane of motion, but you can vary the challenge by setting it so that it rocks front to back or side to side, or even at an angle.

The next progression in difficulty is the wobble board, discussed earlier. The next step up from there is a whirly board, which looks kind of like a skateboard, but instead of wheels, it has three half-spherical bases on the bottom to challenge you at multiple angles depending on where you stand on it. There’s also surfing training boards that have an elongated platform that sits on top of a roller, so it not only tilts, but moves side to side.

Besides balance boards with flat surfaces on the top, there are balance training devices with the spherical part on top — essentially like half of an exercise ball (I’ve even seen people use regular exercise balls for training, but I don’t recommend it — even if your balance is really good, there’s a chance you could slip and fall off or even for the ball to pop, potentially leading to injury).

Doing balance exercises on thick mats or on sand (or other material that will move and change contours as you place weight on it) can also add to the challenge and enhance the results of the training. I’ve taken a few yoga classes on a beach in the past, and it’s definitely a lot tougher than doing it on a firm, level surface.

Finally, there’s high-tech balance training equipment that is electronic and the balance challenges are computer controlled, but this type of equipment is typically for professional use. It’s cost prohibitive for home use and with the exception of more severe cases, is not really necessary for those just looking to improve their sense of balance.

Regardless of what type of equipment you use (or whether you don’t use any equipment at all), there’s a few basic rules to keep in mind:

• Give yourself plenty of space to do balance exercises — especially around anything glass or easily breakable.

• It’s best to have something or someone within arm’s reach to steady yourself with if needed.

• As with any exercise, balance training works best if you do it on a regular schedule, at least a few times per week.

• Your training should be at least somewhat challenging, but be cautious when upping the degree of difficulty. If you try to progress too quickly, there’s a significant risk of getting hurt, so take it slowly!

How much you can improve your balance will depend on a lot of factors. You may never reach a point where you can easily walk a tightrope across the Grand Canyon, but any improvement (or even just maintenance of your current level) is worthwhile and can help you avoid falls and associated injuries now and as you get older.

The sooner you start, the easier it will be to improve and maintain your sense of balance, so I recommend you start now to maximize the anti-aging effects of your balance training.

Until next time,

George Best, D.C.