On balance

Please forgive the directness of the question but do you feel “well balanced”? I think most people would agree that a balanced diet is healthy, a good work/life balance is desirable and a decent bank balance can be a joy to behold. There is, however, another form of balance I would like you to consider: the ability to remain upright.

Physical balance is not a single skill but a quiet collaboration between several systems:

• Your eyes tell you where you are in space.

• Your inner ear detects movement and orientation.

• Your joints, muscles and tendons send a constant stream of information about limb position, via nerves, to your brain.

Your brain takes it all in, performs a series of rapid calculations, activates the right muscles and (when all goes well) keeps you elegantly vertical. When it does not go well, we call it wobbling. When wobbling goes badly, we call it falling over.

Balance is easy to take for granted - right up until it isn’t. It tends to decline with age unless practised. It is one of the strongest predictors of falls - and falls, rather inconveniently, are one of the most common causes of injury.

Even in younger people, good balance improves coordination, efficiency and confidence in movement. In short, balance is not a party trick. It is a life skill, which is one reason I always include some balance exercises in my Pilates classes. With careful, safe exercises, we train the body to respond, adjust and remain composed when conditions change - which, in life as in movement, they have a tendency to do.

A few things you might not know about balance:

• Even when you think you are standing still, you are not. The body is constantly making small adjustments - a phenomenon known as postural sway - to maintain an upright, balanced stance.

• Most people tend to over-rely on vision for balance, which is why it becomes significantly more difficult when you close your eyes.

• A 2022 study found that being unable to stand on one leg for 10 seconds in middle and later life was associated with an almost doubled risk of all-cause mortality. 

• Fortunately (bearing in mind the above), balance can be improved quite quickly with regular practice. The nervous system is, in this respect, refreshingly adaptable.

There is, of course, another meaning to being “well balanced”. Calm. Measured. Not easily knocked off course. Physical balance and mental balance are not the same thing - but they are not entirely unrelated. There is something quietly reassuring about knowing you can stand on your own two feet  - or even one - without undue drama.

If all that makes you want to improve your balance, why not stand upright, strong and stable with me in a Pilates class?

For more details and to book an online class, go to the online classes page of my website by clicking here.

#balance #wellbalanced #standingupright #pilates