Want Better Balance?

Last week, I was having a conversation with a member who was asking about improving their balance. They asked about balance-specific programs and exercises designed specifically to challenge stability.

Those exercises absolutely have a place. In fact, you’ll find balance-specific exercises in some of your programs at Core.

But they’re far from the only way to improve your balance.

One of the best things you can do to improve balance is something we’re already doing every week:

Resistance training.

When we think about strength training, we usually think about building muscle or getting stronger. But resistance training does much more than that.

Balance ultimately requires your body to recognize when you’re out of position and then have the strength and coordination to do something about it.

Think about stumbling on an uneven sidewalk, slipping slightly on ice, or losing your footing while hiking.

It’s one thing for your brain to recognize that you’re falling. Your body still needs to be capable of producing enough force to stop it.

That’s where strength matters.

The stronger your legs, hips, feet, ankles, and trunk become, the greater your ability to produce force into the ground, control your body, and recover when you get knocked out of position.

And this is one of the reasons single-leg strength work is so important.

Walking is essentially a series of single-leg movements. So are stairs, running, stepping over something, changing direction, and catching yourself when you stumble.

Exercises like split squats, lunges, step-ups, single-leg RDLs, and loaded carries aren’t necessarily exercises you’d see in a conventional “balance program.”

But they’re absolutely training your ability to balance.

You’re learning to produce and absorb force while controlling your body on a smaller base of support. You’re strengthening your hips and legs while your trunk works to keep everything stable.

But there’s another benefit of resistance training that’s just as important and doesn’t get talked about nearly as much:

You’re training your nervous system, too.

Every movement you perform requires communication between your brain, nerves, and muscles.

When you strength train consistently, your nervous system gets better at recruiting the muscles you need, coordinating when they contract, and synchronizing different muscles to work together to complete a movement.

In other words, you don’t just become stronger.

You become better at using the strength you have!

That matters tremendously for balance.

If you start to fall, you need your body to recognize what’s happening, coordinate multiple muscles, put your foot where it needs to go, produce force into the ground, and bring your body back toward center.

And you need all of that to happen quickly.

The same thing happens when you wobble during a single-leg movement. Your ankle, hip, and trunk are constantly making tiny adjustments to keep you centered. Over time, resistance training gives your nervous system more opportunities to practice coordinating those adjustments under increasingly challenging conditions.

This is one of the reasons someone can become noticeably more coordinated after months of consistent strength training, even without spending every workout doing traditional “balance exercises.”

None of this means balance-specific training isn’t valuable.

Standing on one leg, changing visual with eyes closed or head turns, narrowing your base of support, reaching in different directions, or challenging stability in other ways can all be useful tools. We use them as tools when we feel a program needs them.

But balance isn’t one isolated skill that needs its own completely separate style of training.

It’s the combination of strength, coordination, body awareness, reaction, and your ability to produce force when you need it.

So if improving your balance is one of your goals, keep practicing balance.

But also keep squatting.

Keep lunging.

Keep stepping up.

Keep carrying.

Keep getting stronger.

Because when you unexpectedly lose your footing, your body doesn’t care how long you can stand on one leg.

It cares whether you can recognize what’s happening, produce force, coordinate your movement, and find your center again.

And that’s something we’re training every time you walk through the doors at Core.