Practice: Steady & Strong: Balance 101

Jenna Zaffino  

Hi, everyone. I'm Jenna. Welcome to your balance session. We're going to be doing the majority of this class in a seated position. However, you can do any of these exercises standing and adapt them to your personal needs. Our objective with this class is to get our systems of vision and hearing and musculoskeletal, our movement systems, online to help improve your balance. So for this class, I have a little stick with a dot on the end of it. I'm guessing you most likely don't have one of those at home unless you do, in which case, go ahead and get it. 

A pen or pencil will work perfectly for our purposes. I also have a small weight. This one is £2, so a soup can or anything that has a little bit of resistance to it will be beautiful for this practice. Alright. Let's put our props away for a moment, and then we're just going to start. If you need to hold on to the wall or to your chair, just let's take a balance check. So if you don't need any assistance, I'm just gonna ask you to put your hands on your hips and just lift one knee. Just see on a scale of 1 to 10, how easy is it for you to stay balanced. 

No need to judge yourself here, whatsoever. Let's go to the other side. This is just a little check-in. Alright. So we've done that one. Now the second check-in we'll do, hands on your shoulders and or holding something that you need and then you're just going to pick up your leg behind you keeping your knees side by side. It's like I think a bit like a little flamingo almost and then pick up your other side And good. Alright. 

So we've got an idea. We're either really strong in our balance right now or there's room for improvement. So let's go ahead and sit into our chair. Remember, we wanna be perched at the edge so we can be really supporting ourselves through the muscles of our trunk. And then your legs will be just about hip width distance apart or maybe even chair width distance to give you a good deal of stability here. Alright. Let's warm up our spine a little bit. Hands onto your knees. 

We'll round the spine back. Again, just taking a little stretch of your lower back. And then lift your chest up, taking a stretch of the front of your body. Rounding again to go back. And lifting to come up. Come back to center. Let's just turn the spine to the right side, looking over your right shoulder. And come back to center. 

Turn to the left side, looking over your left shoulder. Come back to center. Let's try one more of these on either side, just a little turn. As you turn, look to see something interesting. And then go the opposite way and come back to center. Good. Taking your arms down by your side, let's do a little lateral flexion or side bending. Just reaching to the ground, feeling space on the side you're bending away from, maybe a little compression on the side you're bending towards, and then come back up through center and other side. 

And bring it back to center. Couple more. Reach and back to center. One more time And back to center. Good. Take your hands forward. Backs of the hands facing each other and then just reach your hands towards me if you're facing your screen and round your spine forward and feel a little bit of a stretch between your shoulder blades. As you come back up, we're gonna bend your elbows, open your chest to the sky, and feel a nice opening in the front of your body. 

Let's go back and forth a couple times reaching and rounding. And then pulling back. And again, reaching and rounding. And pulling all the way back. Good. Release your arms out to the side. Shake it out. Of course, if you need more of a warm up than that, please feel free to pause the video and continue to go. 

But we're gonna move into some balance exercises that will not be too overwhelming, but will also keep you moving. So we're starting with our favorite, the hip hinge. Let's take your hands, index fingers right into the crease of your hip fold, and then we're just going to lean forward as if you're going to break those fingers. You won't. Please don't try for real, but feel that sense of the compression in your joint, and then come back up to center. So moving forward and back. Now, the hip hinge is really important for balance because if we do have an instance where we lose our balance or we trip and fall, it's really nice to know that we can fold at our hips, and that gives us a little bit more support rather than just falling towards the ground. So every single one of my clients, they have to learn and master the hip hinge for their life, and it does affect the rate that they tend to fall, especially in Chicago winters where it can be a little slippery out here. 

So let's do 2 more. Good. Last one. And sometimes this can just feel like a nice way to warm up your pelvis. Good. From here, we're gonna take the hands down to the chair. You might need to slide forward just a tiny bit more. Let's extend your right leg out, and now we're gonna hinge the hips by trying to lift the right leg up and down. 

Don't worry how high or high low or how low your leg goes. Just do as best you can even if it's just feeling like making your foot a little lighter on the floor, that's perfect. The goal is to experience the movement on your terms and truth be told, most people don't love this one, but it's a really good one to try to find the strength of your hips. We've got 3 more. All the way up and all the way down. 2 and last 1. Good. Step all the way in. 

Give a little rounded back to release, maybe a little arched back to bring some space. And then let's take the other side. So we're gonna lift it up and lower down. And lift and lower. Really good. Up and down. Standing really nicely into that supporting leg, remembering that part of the challenge of this exercise is to keep our spine really long and not collapse as we lift the leg up and down. We wanna think about our breath being easy as best we can. 

Let's go one more. Oh. This one got tired fast. Alright. Bend your knee back in. Give it a little wiggle in your chair. And then go ahead and gather your pencil or if you have a little stick. We're going to look at the tip of the pencil or the stick. 

And the first exercise we'll do, we'll start with the object at arm's length. So extend your arm, hold your pen or pencil away from you, and just see if you can focus in on the very top of whatever you are holding. Now once you have that focus, slowly begin to bring the pencil or the object in towards the tip of your nose. If at any point in time you start to see 2 of them, you're going to stop and see if you can try to use the muscles of your eyes to bring 2 images back together to make 1. If you can't do that, if it's really challenging, then you can move the object away until you can and then start over. So if you've been working with me, let's all reach out again and then slowly bring the object in. Again, our objective is to try to see one tip of the pen, pencil, or object. The moment you start seeing 2, your job is to pause and think of using your eye muscles to bring those 2 images back together. 

If there's one image, then you can keep moving it closer. If you start to see 2, then you want to move it back out or pause. And if you're doing a great job here. We're all doing a great job. This is a hard one. If you can keep one image in focus and bring it in to touch the bridge of your nose, then that's where we're going to. And then you're gonna keep those eyes working as you reach the object back out, maintaining one focus. And then continue to reach until it's back at arm's length and then take a break. 

Now if you've never done an eye exercise before, it can be kind of exhausting to work your eyes. So do it, as many times as you feel you are enjoying it, that you are intrigued by it, but if it starts to feel a little too much for your eyes, then know that you can come back to it another day when you're maybe a little refreshed and that might be enough for today. Okay? We're gonna try one more exercise after this one. Let's do this one one more time and or rest your eyes if you need to, and then I'll give you, one more challenge with your pen or pencil. So let's reach it out. Let's find that single tip and then slowly start to bring it in, doing the best you can to maintain one object with your eyes. If you've got any vision issues, this is a really often challenging but good one to add into your regular routine. Good. 

Lots of concentration here. We'll start to make our way back out. And then release. And the question I always get with that one is do my eyes go cross eyed? They probably will, but what we're teaching your eyes is to be able to focus in really finely on one object and then also broaden the horizon. The eyes are one of the systems of balance that play into your ability to stand on one leg or navigate a trip or what have you. So we're trying to orient ourself through exercising the eyes to help them get stronger and help our balance become more efficient. Alright. One more exercise with our pen or pencil. 

We're going to hold that object just about halfway between the distance of arm's length and your nose. So choose a point that's halfway. Focus in on the tip, and then from here, we're going to jump our focus from the tip of the object to something that's about 15 or 20 feet away. So look out at something that's far away and then look back at the object. See if you can really focus, laser focus right back in. And then something that's 15 feet away And then back at the object. And then something 15 feet away. Focus. 

And back at the object. And again, 15. And back at the object. And last 1. Good. Alright. Relax. Blink those eyes. 

Let it go. Okay. Let's take our pen or pencil or object and place it off to the side. And then I'll have you gather your weight. So from here, we're just gonna work with a little counterbalance. So you can use your right hand on your chair for a little extra help. We're gonna reach the left hand out to the side. You can also do this just with your arm without a weight if it's too challenging to hold the weight up. 

Alright. So we've got this heavy arm and then we've got this grounded arm, and we're gonna see if you can lift your right heel off. And then, if possible, pick your toes up and just hold your leg off. If this feels okay, then reach your other arm out to the side and we're just gonna try to balance here for 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Lower your foot. Lower your arm. Lower your other arm. Okay. 

Let's try the other side. So find your arm out to the side first. Hand on the chair if you like. Lift your left heel. This might be enough. If you want to lift your toes, that's the next level. And then add your other arm if you'd like to And we'll hold for 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Lower down. 

Lower down. Lower down. So often, I find that one side is much stronger than the other. And we'll see if we can balance that out. So let's try again. If you need your hand on the chair at the beginning, please take it. Otherwise, maybe start with both arms out to the side. Lift your heel. 

And then if you're ready, lift your toes and hold for 5. Nice and tall through your spine. 32 and 1. Lower your toe, your heel, your arms and exchange the weight. I wonder if that one felt a little stronger for anyone. Let's see. Other side. Reach it out to the side. 

Lift your heel. If you'd like, lift your toes and hold for 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Good. All the way down with everything. Excellent. Alright. We're gonna play a tiny bit with our balance and with this very small weight. So hold the weight in your right hand. 

Take your legs out to the side. And then take your left foot extended. So we're in a little bit of an asymmetrical shape. Let's see if we can keep the left hip down while we lean out to the right. If you reach that arm out by your ear, it's going to get heavy. If you need to lose the weight from your hand and just use body weight, go for it. Reach your arms out overhead and just hold it for 4, 321. Bend your elbows. 

Bring yourself in. That's not easy. Step and reach. Again, you can not do this with a dumbbell if you'd like to do it just with your body weight. So we're going to lean away from the leg. Keep this hip down, reach out on the diagonal, reach your other arm up and hold for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Lower down. Come all the way in. 

Not easy indeed. Alright. Take the dumbbell back into your right hand. We're gonna do that one more time just with the arm in a different position. So left foot out. Lean out on the side. Send your arm straight out. Send your other arm straight up. 

Here it goes. 54 321 and come all the way in. Switch sides. Extend out. Reach with your torso. Reach with your arm. Reach with your other arm. We're here for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 

And come in. Come in. And come in. Good. Let's take the dumbbell off to the side as well. Take your hands on the chair. We're just gonna march. I want you to feel some weight through your feet. 

Going as fast as me or slower. Think of these steps being more of a stomp than anything else. Okay. Just getting some sensation into the bottoms of your feet. Good. We're gonna open the legs. Go out for 4 and in for 4. Stomp it. 

Make your neighbors mad. I am. Good. Bring it back in. Excellent. If you want to add some arms, we can just move them side to side if that feels good to you. Keeping that spine tall, of course. Otherwise, always holding on to the chair is an option. 

Here we go. March it out. Good. March it in. One more time. March it out. Good work. March it in. 

All the way. Excellent. Alright. Take your feet into a wider stance out to the side. Our last exercise is to see how far we can take this hip hinge. So hands were on the hips earlier. Maybe they'll go on your shoulders or maybe they'll go behind your head or maybe they'll go overhead. It's your choice. 

Choose the position of the arms that allows you to breathe easily and without a lot of resistance. So I'm gonna go behind my head and we're going to hinge forward. I want you to feel that your legs get some of your weight, almost like you could stand. You're still taking a flat back. And then you're coming all the way up. Adjust your feet if you need to. And then let's go again, hinging forward, feeling your weight press into those legs, almost standing but not standing and coming back up. 2 more times. 

Reach reach reach. Almost standing but not standing. Come back up. Last time. Come forward. No matter where your arms are, can you reach them out overhead just for a moment? Stretch stretch stretch and then come all the way back up. Alright, friends. Let's come to standing easily, as easily as you can. 

You can have this chair by your side for balance if you need to. Now, remember, we've done a lot of different things with our body but in seated so we wanna feel a nice standing posture. Our knees are unlocked and we've got a sense of energy coming up the front of the body reaching down through the back of the body. So grounded in your heels and really energized through your front. If you're ready, you can take your hands on your hips or out to the side and let's lift the left leg up. Checking in. Compare and contrast to what you experienced earlier. Maybe it's a little better. 

Maybe it's a little easier. Let's see. Other side. Sometimes we still have to work for that balance but there's a little bit less wobble for me. I hope the same is true for you. Now, let's take hands over our shoulders and then go ahead and bend one leg up. That feels better for me. I hope it does for you. 

You can choose, as you're trying to balance, to focus on something that's close to you or far away. That might help. Let's go the other side. Good. And relax. And the last thing I'll ask you to do is just take a walk around your space as slow or as quickly as you like. See what it feels like to actually locomote, to move throughout your space. Are you more confident in your steps at all? Do you have a little bit of a open eye, a more open eye, a bigger perspective to what's happening in your space? These are the things we're looking out for in terms of balance. 

Now, balance is not about perfection. It's actually about being able to navigate a dynamic landscape which is the world we live in, right? So rather than practicing the perfection of standing still on one leg, let's think about how we can warm up our hips, warm up our spine, warm up our vision, take ourselves off center a little bit and see if we can find some orientation to being off center and then trying to stand on one leg and see if that works. If you like this class, your weaving well-being tip is to either choose something out of this class to repeat maybe later today or later this week or come back and do the class again. It's a simple series that will absolutely help to inform your balance and hopefully bring your whole body online so it's more ready to navigate that dynamic landscape. Thank you for moving with me today. I hope you had a good time and remember you are strong and resilient and the small moments matter. I will see you next time.