Bal-ance:  a state of equilibrium or parity characterized by cancellation of all forces by equal opposing forces.

“One should seek good balance in motion and not in stillness.”
Bruce Lee

Balance may be the most important component of high level function because it is the foundation of all movement. Most of us think of balance as standing on one leg.  This is surely a measure of what we call “core balance”.  Core balance means maintaining your center of gravity within your base of support.  This is an important skill but a very basic one.  Static posture requires core balance.  Balance plays a central role in all movements, from walking to running, to high level sports whether the movement is dominated by the need for strength, flexibility, endurance or power.

When you see an athlete performing at a high level, close observation will demonstrate that the beauty and symmetry in athletic motion has a great deal to do with  balance. The greatest athletes are able to maintain their balance while displacing their center of gravity away from the base of support.  Our goal will be to train your body to improve your ability to demonstrate good balance in motion.  This will require you to exercise with controlled instability.  We will ask you to work on your Peripheral Balance (the displacement of your center of gravity away from your base of support and back again).

Challenges to your balance are controlled by various systems in your body.  Your inner ear has what is called the vestibular system.  Your muscles have sense organs called muscle spindles which help them respond to changes in the length of muscle by contracting.  Your joints have nerve endings in the ligaments that surround the joints which create reflexive muscular contractions in response to balance challenges. 

Many of the injuries and falls that occur in elderly people are due to a loss of Peripheral Balance.  Your balance can be improved through a regimen which exposes you to a variety of different exercises which safely challenges your sensory systems.  In order to train balance, we will manipulate the extrinsic forces you have to balance against:  gravity, altered ground surfaces, the direction of movement, your arms and legs, and the resistance provided by weights, pulleys and resistive cords. Balance must be trained in a progressive manner.  You will start with both legs on the ground and progress to single leg balance.  The goal is to continually increase your awareness of the balance threshold by creating challenges to your balance with the exercises.