Exercises to Improve Stability and Balance

[Robbie son of Lucky]

Exactly. I do tai chi and it’s all balance. At the gym, I do full torso rotations and run without hanging on to the stupid bar— both have made golfing action pretty easy. 

[JCrane]

43 minutes ago, Robbie son of Lucky said:

Exactly. I do tai chi and it’s all balance. At the gym, I do full torso rotations and run without hanging on to the stupid bar— both have made golfing action pretty easy. 

that is excellent ! I am going to do a post, maybe today on the best exercise for golf. I have done posts  before but now I have an national organization saying what I have been saying for years. Keep it up

[adampaul]

20 hours ago, Robbie son of Lucky said:

Exactly. I do tai chi and it’s all balance. At the gym, I do full torso rotations and run without hanging on to the stupid bar— both have made golfing action pretty easy. 

I am not aware of tai chi, its an exercise or kind of martial arts. Please explain it, Can I do this to stay fit? please give your suggestion on this.

[Robbie son of Lucky]

Tai Chi is an exercise primarily, but has similar actions as king fu (obviously more martial art) and QiGong (more meditative). It involves a lot of stretching, breathing, and balance. If you’re new to it, you’ll be tired and sore after a short time.  I’ve done 4 hour sets and it’s exhausting. 

Yes, it’s a great way to get/stay fit, and better your health. You’ll be more toned in your arms and legs, but won’t build big muscles. It’s not high cardio, so it’s easy on your heart, and you’ll likely lose some fat around the waist and kidneys due to the rotations and positions you hold. There’s a lot of breathing and calming aspects as well, so it’s good at clearing your mind. 

There’s a lot of videos on YouTube, and most community colleges seem to offer classes at low cost. I do QiGong (White Crane) as well, which also has many of the same qualities. My wife is chinese and does both, but her QiGong is different and basically maintains a meditative position for hours, but her Kung fu is low and vey explosive. What you learn in one is easily transferred to another. While there is nothing explosive in most tai chi routines, it can be, and the movements are definitely akin to martial arts. 

 

Edited June 30, 2018 by Robbie son of Lucky

[desdevdep1]

The technique I used was practicing on one foot. Once I got better at balancing myself, I noticed my swing improved. Give it a try 🙂

[adampaul]

On 6/30/2018 at 5:38 PM, Robbie son of Lucky said:

Tai Chi is an exercise primarily, but has similar actions as king fu (obviously more martial art) and QiGong (more meditative). It involves a lot of stretching, breathing, and balance. If you’re new to it, you’ll be tired and sore after a short time.  I’ve done 4 hour sets and it’s exhausting. 

Yes, it’s a great way to get/stay fit, and better your health. You’ll be more toned in your arms and legs, but won’t build big muscles. It’s not high cardio, so it’s easy on your heart, and you’ll likely lose some fat around the waist and kidneys due to the rotations and positions you hold. There’s a lot of breathing and calming aspects as well, so it’s good at clearing your mind. 

There’s a lot of videos on YouTube, and most community colleges seem to offer classes at low cost. I do QiGong (White Crane) as well, which also has many of the same qualities. My wife is chinese and does both, but her QiGong is different and basically maintains a meditative position for hours, but her Kung fu is low and vey explosive. What you learn in one is easily transferred to another. While there is nothing explosive in most tai chi routines, it can be, and the movements are definitely akin to martial arts. 

 

Thanks for your suggestion, I have never done this before and wanna try it. is it okay to do exercise from the videos or should I go for training classes? I am so excited about this and surely learn this. 

[Robbie son of Lucky]

4 hours ago, adampaul said:

Thanks for your suggestion, I have never done this before and wanna try it. is it okay to do exercise from the videos or should I go for training classes? I am so excited about this and surely learn this. 

The videos seem to just cover the movements; I haven’t seen many cover the breathing aspects and energy flow, but this video seems ok—

He’s got some haters, and honestly I’ve only seen 1 other video from him that I like. (I was just searching for you.) I hold many of the positions for a long time (especially the leg-up ones for balance), so this 20 minute video can become 60 easily. 

This one needs to be done at ⅓ speed:

 

[adampaul]

these videos are very helpful to learn tai-chi. Good Share!

[NM Bruce]

On 3/3/2016 at 12:35 PM, RandallT said:

Thread bump. A source I trust linked to this as good information:

http://startingstrength.com/site/article/balance_training#.VtiP25MrIdW

It looks pretty thorough

Good article; thanks for posting.  I've read a lot of stuff on that site, but that was a new one. 

I also like the distinctions they make between exercise (the verb), training, practice, and performance. 

Edited July 23, 2018 by NM Bruce
Small addition

[JCrane]

11 hours ago, NM Bruce said:

Good article; thanks for posting.  I've read a lot of stuff on that site, but that was a new one. 

I also like the distinctions they make between exercise (the verb), training, practice, and performance. 

 

 

11 hours ago, NM Bruce said:

Good article; thanks for posting.  I've read a lot of stuff on that site, but that was a new one. 

I also like the distinctions they make between exercise (the verb), training, practice, and performance. 

 

Great article, very technical. Excellent information on balance and what it is. 

I just do not agree on the solutions. It is very easy to increase balance without using weights.

Practice by standing on one leg then gradually moving the center of gravity to different places over time. This will build a lot of strength in the standing leg and create more control. I have used this method for 20 years and have trained many others.

As a long time weightlifter I came to the point where my body started to break down due to all that heavy workload on the body. It took until I was 48, but it did happen.

Think about it. We have gravity pushing us down all day every day and then I was throwing 450 pounds on top of my shoulders. Also most of us spend too much time on hard surfaces such as cement. That is like putting our spine in a vice.

What happened at 48 ? Compression of the spine and herniated disks. Fortunately I found a way of decompressing the spine over time and creating space between the vertebra.

Now at 68, I have great balance and no back problems and do all the things I did at 30.

Sure some people may get away with heavy weights their whole life if they want to take that chance, but there are other ways. I know

[adampaul]

Below are the best exercises known very helpful in improving stability and balance.

• Single leg squats.
• Single leg Jump Squats.
• Speed Skaters.
• Lunge to Front Kick.
• Single Leg Deadlift.
   

[saevel25]

If you struggle with single leg squats, try using one leg to stand up from a chair. This will help build strength up. It can be tough to try that one out early.

Just single leg lunches or split squats are good.

Also, play some rec sports were you need to move athletically. I play in volleyball and try to move around constantly. It's a great workout, but also works a lot of the smaller muscles used for balance.

 

[boogielicious]

2 hours ago, saevel25 said:

If you struggle with single leg squats, try using one leg to stand up from a chair. This will help build strength up. It can be tough to try that one out early.

Just single leg lunches or split squats are good.

Also, play some rec sports were you need to move athletically. I play in volleyball and try to move around constantly. It's a great workout, but also works a lot of the smaller muscles used for balance.

 

Err...lunges or are we talking a leg of lamb? 

Nice tip on balancing on a chair. I do these for my knee therapy several times a week. You can also get a slide to put under one foot and do them sliding the other leg out to the side and behind at 45 degrees. The balance is a bit easier.

[Shindig]

5 hours ago, saevel25 said:

If you struggle with single leg squats, try using one leg to stand up from a chair.

What do I do with the other leg while attempting this?

Does it matter if the chair has wheels?

[JCrane]

On 9/16/2014 at 2:14 AM, MH1979 said:

Those goblet squats look crazy! I'm sure I'll be feeling that very quickly.

 

I don't know how your balance is already, but if it's pretty bad (you wobble when you stand on one food kind of thing), it might be good to start  by doing stuff without weights. Light doing one leg squats where you stand on one leg, arms out and do a half squat without shaking. You can also stand on one foot with arms up or out and then raise your heel so you are going up and down on the balls of your feet. They are really simple exercises but can really help you if your balance or ankle strength isn't great.

you got it. no one wants to start at the beginning, but that is always the best way. You have to crawl before you walk

 

[fever]

Ice skating! once to learn to skate, pivot, cut and stop on a 3mm wide steel blade, balance will become like breathing... automatic.

[mrjohnsmitt]

On 12/5/2018 at 5:40 PM, fever said:

Ice skating! once to learn to skate, pivot, cut and stop on a 3mm wide steel blade, balance will become like breathing... automatic.

Really, once you're an adult your balance ability is pretty much set. As long as you have cause to use it you'll keep it. I'm not sure that you can do much to increase your balance (I could be totally wrong here, but I know that I've read something to that effect). 

And I'd imagine that Ice skating, snowboarding is likely going to be better for this than anything that you can do in the gym.

[Righty to Lefty]

Definitely a lot of good advice being put out for you to digest.  I found that overhead squats worked wonders for me as they quickly improved my stability and balance at the same time!  I hate them...but I love them!