2 ways to immediately improve balance
The morning I lost my balance
I woke up sweating. 4 am. I sat up, stared out the window and the room swirled. Something was amiss.
I went to the bathroom, tried to pee and missed the bowl. Badly. I tried to sit and missed again; falling on my ass.
Was this a hangover. No. I never drink. Covid? Probably not. I had it a few months earlier. Cancer? Oh shit. Don't start with the hypochondria.
For now all I knew was that my balance was gone. Any time I turned left I felt I was going to crash.
No one appreciates Balance until it's Gone
I think we all realize the importance of balance but few know how to train it effectively. If you asked people how they imagine that training would go you'd probably be flooded with footage of the Flying Wallendas, tight rope walks and single leg exercises done while standing on a Bosu ball.
You don't need to do these things (I strongly argue against ever standing on a boss ball). Effective balance training is easy and works instantly, but very few people do it because:
It's weird.
It ain't sexy/fun.
Most people don't believe that what I'm about to recommend will work.
A funny thing about training the human body/mind. If the client/patient doesn't think what you are doing will work, it will not work. I read an entire book about this phenomena (Pain Neuroscience Education). I'll show you these 2 simple balance hacks, explain a bit about how they work, but you may not believe they'll work. I'll have to prove it. So let's do it. Let's measure your balance. If you're not assessing you're guessing.
How do you measure your balance?
1- Stand on one leg. Time how long you can stay standing.
2- Heightened Rhomberg's test.
What is #2? Here's the scoop: Stand with one foot directly in front of the other. Wait until you cease wobbling left to right. Now close your eyes. The number of seconds you can stand without falling is your score. Test with both foot patterns. Watch this video- I demo it for you.
So now we have some test scores and we want to improve. This does not take days or week. It takes minutes. In mere minutes you can greatly improve your balance. But...
If you want that improvement to stick then you need to keep doing these drills.
Drill # 1: Roll out your feet.
There's something called sensory motor amnesia. Meaning: if we don't actively use parts of our bodies we develop amnesia and forget how to use them properly. Luckily that amnesia can be cured very quickly.
We treat our feet dreadfully. We stuff them in crumby shoes all day, never stretch them, never train them, strengthen them, or get those lovely foot massages from our significant others. Thus our feet forget how to move efficiently and how to see the floor underneath us. This connection of foot to floor sends vital information into the ankles, knees and straight up the kinetic chain to our brains. The feet are ground zero for balance. And sometimes we need to take the shoes off, wake 'em up and jog their memory.
If you roll your feet on a golf ball, a lax ball, or some massage tool (like I do in this video) your brain will immediately pay closer attention to your feet. The muscles in your feet awaken, the nerves alight, the brain awakens to signals from your feet and your balance will improve. So roll out your feet (like in the video) and then retest your balance. I'm betting you improved a little.
No dice? Let's try another balance drill that may improve your tests.
Drill #2: Train your ears
Has he lost his mind? Ears? Balance? I told you that you weren't gonna believe me. Per the National Library of Medicine:
"Your ears are the home for your vestibular system which provides the sense of balance and the information about body position that allows rapid compensatory movements in response to both self-induced and externally generated forces."
Sometimes the vestibular system gets maligned via a knock on the head, or even a bad cough (I once got vertigo from a particularly nasty flu). Vestibular problems cause an absolute array of symptoms from dizziness, to depression, schizophrenia and scoliosis. That's quite a range. Let me show you a quick way to reset your vestibular system via something called the VOR (Vestibular Ocular Reflex). Let me let my more eloquent friends at the Library of Medicine tell you about your VOR:
"To maintain a stable perception of the world around us while we engage in normal movements throughout our day, such as walking, we have something known as the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). This reflex keeps us steady and balanced even though our eyes and head are continuously moving when we perform most actions."
How do we train it? There are two ways and they are both easy. And weird. Click on the links to watch a demo I put together for you.
VOR stabilazation- Stare at an unmoving object. Now nod your head up and down while keeping the object in clear focus. Now shake your head right to left. Now diagonal. When you're done retest your balance. I've seen this one REALLY do amazing things for people's balance. If it didn't work then let's try a VOR Cancellation.
VOR Cancellation- Lock your eyes on an object, your thumb nail will do. Now without moving your head follow the thumbnail as you raise it up and down, now right to left, now diagonal. Make sure to keep the object clear and don't move your head; just your eyes. Retest your balance.
Did any of those work? Is your balance a little better? If yes. Wonderful. If not. Don't despair. There are more things we can try, they're even weirder, and I know because they fixed me
That night my balance returned... Mostly
My balance did not improve that morning. I tried all the drills above and still felt drunk whenever I turned left.
Thankfully 2 of my clients are ear doctors. They know the vestibular system. They assured me I didn't have cancer. They would fix me.
They lay me on my side and the room spun. Violently. I broke into a cold sweat. The reaction indicated vertigo. They put me through an ear drill where I lied down on a bench and twisted my head in different directions, allowing the crystals in my ear to resettle. I nearly vomited, the room spun faster and more violently than earlier.
"Focus on an object."
The room slowed down.
"Relax."
The room stopped.
I rose, carefully. An ear drill fixed my vertigo.
Quickly.
Dramatically.
That's how balance drills work.
And if you're serious about training balance they'll work for you.
