Just as with core stabilization and strength, balance is not only vital for optimal sports performance, but also for everyday life no matter what your age. Many people mistakenly believe that great balance is just for athletes, but that’s not true.

Think about it! If you tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, wouldn’t it be great to be able to catch yourself before falling to the ground? That’s what great balance will do for you. As a matter of fact, it just happened to me a few weeks ago. I tripped over a raised crack in the sidewalk, but regained my balance and didn’t fall. The first thing that I thought was how thankful I was that I have great balance. I could have fallen and broken my arm or injured myself in some other way.

Balance is part of your everyday life without you even thinking about it. You are actually balancing when you walk down the street or get up out of a chair. Improving your balance can have a profound effect on your quality of life. Not only can it reduce your risk of injury, but it will give you a better since of well being. It’s a piece of the fitness puzzle that many people ignore, especially as we age.

Improving your balance is really quite easy, but you do need to work at it.

Try this simple balance exercise…

·          Stand behind a chair

·          Hold on to the back of the chair with both hands

·          Lift one leg off the ground about 6 inches while maintaining good posture

·          Hold for 5 to 20 seconds

·          Slowly return to original position

·          Switch legs and repeat as instructed

As your balance improves, you can progress to the next level to gain even better balance. Here are some natural exercise progressions…

·          Repeat the above balance exercise with only one hand on the chair

·          Repeat with no hands on the chair

·          Repeat with lifting leg higher

There are even more advanced balance exercises that are great for more active people. I have to go for now, but I’ll plan on covering them in future posts.

Please leave your comment to let me know if these exercises were helpful or if you have any questions.

Be Organic God’s Way!

Edwin

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As I mentioned yesterday, making your brain and body better for everyday life involves more than just walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes everyday or doing some other form of boring exercise.

In the next few days, I will be posting throughout the day, some benefits of adding different types of exercises to your program. These types of exercises include core stability and strength; balance; and flexibility. And if you really want to boost your brain power, you should consider adding some form of exercise that requires you to think.  For example, learning martial arts movements, which are sometimes called forms.

Martial Arts forms are, in my opinion, a perfect form of exercise to make your brain better, since they require moving your body in ways that challenge your brain. Although, I am a black belt, you don’t have to be a black belt to experience the benefits of learning the forms. You don’t even have to join a martial arts studio; you can simply learn to perform basic moves by watching videos. I am in the process of developing a DVD series that will incorporate forms in a daily exercise program.  In the near future I will be posting sample videos demonstrating basic movements that anyone can do.  I’ll keep you posted on that.  

Please come back to discover how you can benefit by adding different types of exercises to your program.

Be Organic God’s Way!

Edwin

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Okay, now that we’ve covered some important aspects of foundational health through forgiveness and giving, I’d like to start talking about some ways to build on that foundation. If you missed the last few posts, I encourage you to take a moment to read them.

Making your brain and body better for everyday life involves more than just walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes everyday or doing some other form of boring exercise.  Many people settle for boring exercises, because they think it’s helping them. But it may actually be hurting them. I stopped long-duration treadmill exercise sessions years ago and I don’t miss it at all.  I’ll talk more about this in future posts.

If you want to function better in your everyday life (and who doesn’t), you need to work on making your brain better with new learning experiences and proper eating that feeds your brain. You need to work on your core stability and strength, balance, and flexibility using exercises right for your fitness level.  Many people get discouraged and quit exercising simply because they are trying to exercise beyond their fitness level. This is a mistake that can be avoided by starting an exercise program that is right for you.

I know you’re probably thinking that it sounds like a lot of work and very time consuming. But it really isn’t. I’ll show you how to pick exercises that are right for your fitness level. Once you are exercising at the right level for your fitness, it then can become very enjoyable.  For me exercising is fun and I look forward to it.

Before going on, let me just tell you a little bit about myself…   

I recently retired at the early age of 47. Before retiring I spent nearly 28 years of my life working for a major health insurance company. Although, I was a Technology Manager/Consultant, and not directly involved in patient care issues, I saw indirectly the impact of an unhealthy lifestyle on rising healthcare costs as well as the implications of not dealing with the root causes of poor health and wellness. By the way, this experience is what drives me to help people become healthier.

While working in the corporate world in a demanding high stress position, I was challenged to find time to exercise and take care of myself, but I managed to because I value my health. When you consider your health as an asset and not just something that you deal with when you get sick, you have a whole new perspective on what you eat and how you exercise.  

Well I have to go for now, but please come back to visit tomorrow. I will be talking about why different forms of exercise are so important.  Many people think that aerobic exercise is the only form of exercise they need to do after age 40. This could not be further from the truth.

I am doing an informal survey of the types of exercises people over 40 do. For example, do you do aerobic exercises (treadmill, walking)? Do you play golf? Do you workout with weights or weight machines? And so on …

I’d love to hear from you, so post your answers via a comment to this blog. Your participation will make this blog more beneficial for everyone.

Be Organic God’s Way!

Edwin

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