How’s Your Balance?
I’m not referring to the work/life kind. Find out what I mean by balance and why it matters so much.
As a midlife woman with three children and a career, I’ve been making efforts to balance work, family, and my sanity for decades. At this point, the type of balance I’m looking to improve is purely physical.
Why Balance Matters to Your Health
“Balance is your ability to move your body weight and remain upright over your base of support,” says Rebekah Rotstein, the founder of the Buff Bones® exercise method for bone and joint health. “Balance is essential to prevent falls, which may be the biggest threat to maintaining independence as we age.”
Good balance is the reason you're able to do the simplest of everyday activities, including walking on uneven ground, stepping off a sidewalk curb, and bending down to tie your shoe without toppling over. Most people don’t give their stability a second thought until they lose it and hurt themselves.
Balance Involves Several Body Systems
Balance is a whole-body endeavor. It requires strong muscles and bones, flexible joints, and good eyesight to stay upright when challenged. Balance also involves the central nervous system, which must respond rapidly to a slew of information, including through proprioception.
Proprioception is the ability to sense the position of your body as well as how different body parts are moving in relation to each other and the environment. Proprioception relies on proprioceptors found in skeletal muscle, tendons, and ligaments that constantly transmit messages to the brain to help stabilize the rest of your body.
How Balance Affects The Body
Balance is about more than injury prevention. A 2019 review of 25 studies found that exercise and balance training resulted in people reporting an increased quality of life and better cognitive function, including improved memory. A 2022 study that followed people ages 51 to 75 for seven years discovered that the ability to balance on one leg for 10 seconds or more was linked to a longer life. Other evidence suggests that the inability to stand on one leg for less than 20 seconds indicates muscle mass loss in older adults.
I spoke with Rebekah Rotstein about the importance of balance and how to improve it. A former ballet dancer, Rotstein was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age 28, motivating her to advocate for others with low bone mass and provide innovative education and exercise.
Rebekah Rotstein, founder of the Buff Bones® exercise method. Courtesy photo.
EW: Why is balance so critical, especially as we age?
RR: Balance assures us a better quality of life. It helps us in our daily activities that all involve transferring weight, which is something we take for granted until it becomes impaired. Every time you take a step, go up or down stairs, reach for an object, kick a rock out of the way, or pick up a pet, you shift your weight away from your center of gravity. The ability to perform these activities, and feel confident doing so, matters greatly and affects our social interactions and willingness to engage in activities with others.
Additionally, the fear of falling increases the likelihood of falling, so establishing - or reestablishing - confidence in moving affects every aspect of our lives. Falls are the main cause of injury for adults age 65 and over, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Falls also cause 95% of hip fractures in older adults, and only one-third to one-half of those fracture patients regain independence afterward.
Balance has also been linked to brain health and cognition. Poor balance may be indicative of cognitive decline, while balance training, which involves focus, attention, and coordination, has been shown to improve memory.
EW: Do you think we overlook balance when we talk about supporting bones?
RR: I definitely think balance gets overlooked in the midlife messaging that focuses on weight lifting and bone density. Those of us in the bone health sphere and the osteoporosis societies have long been advocating for balance training as a critical part of exercise programming.
Certain strength training exercises also improve balance, and some outrightly involve it, such as forward lunges or a single-leg Romanian deadlift, two classic strength training exercises involving weight shifts between legs or on one leg. Aside from that, there are specific ways to train balance involving the nervous system which include nuance, something that social media is not good at conveying.
What I find especially fascinating is that midlife women don’t typically consider balance as a factor they need to work on, and yet wrist fractures – resulting from falls – are the most common fracture in this demographic. Hip fractures like those mentioned earlier are the big concern for seniors, but at midlife, we need to consider what a fall can mean to our arms. This is thankfully not fatal, but it certainly impedes our quality of life and ability to do everything from going to the bathroom, dressing, and feeding ourselves.
Most of the midlife women who work with us as clients say they want to improve their bone density. It’s rare that they recognize their balance deficits until they have to perform certain exercises and drills, and then they are shocked by the challenge, usually since they’ve not been confronted with it before so directly. It’s as if a lightbulb went off for them that balance is in fact a highly overlooked skill they needed to address.
EW: What can we do to improve balance?
RR: Better balance involves a variety of elements from neuromuscular control and proprioception. Here’s what to consider when improving balance.
Make it dynamic. Don’t just practice standing on one leg. Try to move your limbs or trunk, if you’re able. Walk and move in different directions.
Involve your eyes, ears, and feet. Try balancing while with your eyes closed, while moving your head and eyes, or standing barefoot on different surfaces or textures.
Body organization, which is related to neuromuscular control and where you initiate movement and often involves a lot of proprioception. The Buff Bones® method starts out with body organization as the foundation because it’s fundamental to everything else and makes a marked difference in balance performance.
Core control and trunk stabilization which include planks and back exercises.
Improve leg, thigh, and hip strength with squats and lunges.
Work on making ankle, hips and knees more mobile.
Improve agility, speed, and power as your skills advance so that you can move more quickly and work on recovering when your balance is challenged.
4 At-Home Exercises for Better Balance
Though balance can decline as you get older, it’s possible to have poor balance at any age. Good balance involves nearly all muscles, but a strong core and hips are critical, and so is flexibility. Yoga and Tai chi can improve balance, strength, and flexibility and help prevent falls. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggest that older adults (65 years plus) do a variety of physical activity that includes balance training as well as aerobic and strength training, but there’s no need to wait to practice staying upright.
In my past life, I was a high school gymnast and dancer and my balance was far better than it is now. It was only when I had physical therapy for an injury that I realized I’m much more likely to fall over than I thought. I regularly include balance exercises, like biceps curls while standing on one leg, as part of my strength training work outs.
You don’t have to go to a gym to build balance. Try these no-equipment exercises at home to stay steady:
Stand on one foot, then the other, with the goal of 20 to 30 seconds on each leg. If it’s challenging to stand on one foot, hold on to a chair or countertop, first with both hands, then with one hand when you become more confident. Progress to balancing with just one finger, then let go when you feel your balance has improved.
When you get good at standing on one foot, try doing it when brushing your teeth, while standing up and talking, or during commercial breaks when watching TV.
Try walking heel-to-toe around the house. Watch this how-to video from the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
Put on each sock while standing on one leg and trying to keep your balance. You can also do this exercise when putting your pants on instead of sitting on the bed or a chair.
If you’d like more information on Rebekah’s programs, check them out here and follow her on Instagram @gotbuffbones for helpful tips and strategies.
What do you think? Do you regularly practice your balance?
Excellent article.
After taking chemo that caused balance issues (along with several other issues) I worked for quite a while with an excellent physical therapist to strengthen core and legs, improve mobility and balance. It was a game changer. Now continue with exercise to keep the progress. Very important for safer life.
Great article! Thanks for the tips.