Element Three: The 3 Types of Balance

Balance is crucial in everyday life. You got out of bed this morning and stood on two feet. You balanced! You got out of bed this morning and brushed your teeth, took a shower, made breakfast, prepared lunch for your kids, and took the dog for a walk. You balanced! You made sure to include a piece of fruit, some protein, and something sweet for your child’s lunch. You balanced!

Our lives are full of balancing acts, and they all seem to work in unison with exercise. Let’s explore the three types of balancing and how they relate to exercise.

Physical balance, like standing on one foot, is something I focus on with all my clients. As we age, our balance gets increasingly worse. Unfortunately, so does our bone density. When you combine those two, you couple a higher risk of falling with more damage if you do fall. It’s a combination primed for disaster.

There are simple ways to improve your balance. Working on your core (abs, lower back, and glutes) will help stabilize you throughout your day. If you happen to lose your balance or lean too far in one direction, your core does the work to hold you up. Your core is important, but the only way to really work on your balance is to, well, balance. My favorite trick for this is to balance while brushing your teeth. You brush your teeth for up to 5 minutes per day. Even if you brush less, you’re not doing anything else while brushing your teeth (usually). So why not create a workout during that time? Stand on your right foot in the morning, and your left foot at night. Just this will improve your balance immensely.*

Proprioception is defined as “the sense of the relative position of one's own parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement.” This basically means being aware of the position of the moving parts of one’s body. Proprioceptive workouts are a great supplement to resistance training. This is a great article detailing all about proprioception.

Balance also affects your ability to perform various resistance workouts. The better you become at balance, the more advanced workouts you can do, and the stronger you will become. It all builds upon itself.

Mental Balance is just as important as physical balance. Also known as wellness (which is another of the Elements of Fitness), mental balance is all about moderation. I will go into further detail in a couple weeks when I talk about wellness. But in short, mental balance is about finding the right mixture for your life. You don’t have to get to the gym every day; you have chores to do at home, and lots of other things to get done. If you can find the right mix of chores and fun, your mental state will thank you for it.

Nutritional Balance is about moderation. Some people will tell you to stop eating carbs. Some say cut out the sugar. Or they’ll tell you to go vegan. In extreme circumstances, they’re right. (Especially if it’s your doctor. You should probably listen to your doctor) But often times, cutting something out to lose weight just doesn’t work. If you cut out carbohydrates, you’ll be hungrier throughout the day and you’ll probably end up eating too much of a different highly caloric food. So the solution to this is everything in moderation. Obviously this is astronomically easier said than done, but it’s something we should all strive for.

I am not a certified nutritionist. It’s probably a good idea to do some research on your own to figure out what type of diet your body needs. Just be sure to weigh all your research before making a rash decision. There are studies all over about what you should and shouldn’t eat, and they seem to change weekly. This video just about sums it up.

Perfect balance is unattainable, but if we constantly work to improve our balance and indulge in things in moderation, we will live a much healthier and happier life.

*Make sure to be close to something to hold on to when you’re first starting out. The last thing we want is for you to fall.