How much time do you spend waiting in your kitchen? Waiting for the microwave, waiting for the water to boil, waiting and stirring the pasta sauce. It can be relaxing, but aren’t you just wasting that time scrolling through your social media feeds? You could actually be using that waiting time to be improving your balance and stabilizing your core. Stop scrolling and start balancing.
Story time – why focusing on balance is important to me. You’ve probably seen ads from perky young trainers who advise their older clients to work on their balance – a simple 30-minute program to improve your balance. Guess what? Not gonna happen. Working on balance is not the most fun thing. And if you have to do it for 30 minutes at a time, you’re only going to do it once. And that won’t help anything. You probably know someone who’s taken a fall, so you know you need to start working on your balance, but a half hour at a time?
A few years ago (okay, more than a few…) I lost my balance and fell, wrecking my knee and triggering bursitis in both hips. That hurt. I couldn’t do my regular workouts for a while, so in my extra free time I started researching why people tend to fall more as they age. It turns out that it’s a natural phenomenon. We just lose stuff as we get older. Hair, eyesight, hearing, sense of balance. But, unlike hair, eyesight and hearing, balance is a “use it or lose it” thing. You can actually improve it. And, it really doesn’t take that long.
I should know. I do 2 minutes of balance exercises every day. Standing on one foot for a minute while I brush my teeth, and then the other one sometimes gets messy, but bathrooms wash. Some days I do more, but most days just those 2 minutes. And my balance has improved.
When you’re starting to develop a new habit, it’s hard to remember it some days. That’s why stacking the new one (a balance move) on an old one (brushing teeth) is so helpful. Pretty soon you don’t even have to think about the new one, and it just feels wrong if you miss it.
So, use that counter if you need it to stabilize yourself. Stand on one foot. Make sure your back is straight, your hips are level, and your core is tight. You’ve got a built-in ballet barre to help you with your balance moves. And if you don’t need to hold on, so much the better. Use your formerly wasted time – stop scrolling and start balancing. You’re not only improving your balance, you’re improving your resilience, too. Those who’ve fallen and not done anything about it are more likely to become isolated and withdrawn. But not us – we’re out there. Independent and able to do what we want, when we want.
And if you want more variety, download Your Week of Core-Centered Balance Moves. Simple but effective.
