Balance, Strength & Flexibility Training

Playing a competitive sport, going for a run, or standing at the top of a ladder all require balance, strength & flexibility. Balance is involved in every aspect of daily life, including standing, walking, bending over to tie your shoes, and walking up and down a flight of stairs. If you partake in a strenuous activity like playing a demanding sport, are a professional or dedicated athlete, or working in a physically taxing environment, balance, strength & flexibility become critical not only to your success, but your overall safety as well.

Most of us take our sense of balance for granted. We started walking as a toddler and improved our balance and coordination as we grew up playing sports or participating in a variety of activities after school. But balance & flexibility over our lifetime is not guaranteed, and as we age our sense of balance can diminish slowly over time without our realizing it. Add in a chronic injury like repetitive ankle sprains or knee and hip injuries, and the affected joint can lose its proprioception and become weak and unstable, and the muscles that attach to that affected joint can become stiff and lose pliability.

Because the joints in our body are complex, every injury has the potential to subsequently reduce your balance and proprioception (the perception and awareness of the position and movement of your body). However, you can quickly improve both your proprioception and balance with exercises tailored specifically for this. When a joint is sprained, such as a common ankle sprain, it loses proprioception, feels unstable, and may give out without warning. Exercises involving proprioceptive and balance will help the body relearn ways to control the position of the joint and prevent injury in physically active individuals and athletes.

Finally, improved balance and stability will equalize the strength of antagonistic muscle pairs – where one muscle contracts while the other muscle relaxes or lengthens – as well as greatly improve the  performance of smaller, stabilizing muscles necessary for more strenuous sports or activities. Following a consistent  balance training program will lead to greater strength in your larger strength training movements while providing greater stability due to your improved balance.