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“I Have a Problem With my Balance” – Q & A
- chelsie462
- 5 hours ago
- 10 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in September 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/PYhDfNpskDw
Mike: So, today we took questions from our viewers and we decided to answer them.
Brad: That's right. We have four different scenarios. Real cases, real viewers, and we're going to give them our advice.
Mike: So our first question comes from @roadwayrona, that's a mouthful to say. "What should I focus on if I want to be strong and flexible while getting older? Balance seems to be important to practice as well. Feet should remain strong?"
Brad: That's right. Excellent question. As we age, including myself, we want to continue to be mobile. So @roadwayrona, we don't have your name, so we're just going to use your username there. Hope that's okay. So we're going to go through some of the exercises that are really important for strength, balance, and everything that you asked for. We have four different exercises. Should we get right to it?
Mike: Let's get to it.
Brad: Okay. The first thing, ankle strength, along with balance. So, look down at my ankles, and we're going to simply go up on your toes. And you can see, I'm challenging my balance, plus I'm strengthening my ankle. Then I'm going to go back like this. Now, a lot of people, particularly if you're a little older, will not be able to do this without holding onto something. So Mike, you can maybe do it against the door.
Mike: Or I can do it seated if I've really lost balance.
Brad: That's actually a good idea. I could use the wall and just go up on your toes and back on your heels. So, do 10 of these, and it's going to be great. A good idea for getting your goals established and completed. If it's too easy, you can simply go to one foot, and that'll make it harder for those people who are at that level. Okay, let's go to number two.
Mike: So number two, we're going to start working our way up our body. Oftentimes, as we age, we start to get tight hamstrings. I have tight hamstrings, and I'm only 36. So we're going to work on hamstring stretching along with some exercises for the legs. To stretch the hamstrings, you can do it in numerous ways. If you have good balance, you can stand up, put it on a countertop, a table, something lower on the ground, maybe a box or an ottoman, whatever you have. Stretch. To get more of a stretch, simply lean forward. Make sure to hold it for 30 seconds and do it on each leg. If you don't feel balanced this way, you can certainly do it in a chair, like Brad's going to show.
Brad: Yep, do it on a firm chair. You can put your leg out like this with a straight knee and straight back, lean forward. Or you can have a chair or a stool and simply do this. There you go. Hold it for 15 or 30 seconds, or on and off, five to 10 times. Let's go to number three.
Mike: So we're still on number two, because we didn't do squats yet.
Brad: Oh, yeah.
Mike: So if you're good at squats, you can certainly just do them holding onto something, not holding onto something. Do them in the air. Brad's holding on. If you feel unsteady, like you're going to tip backwards, you can certainly use a chair or something taller to sit in and just simply do sit-to-stand instead. You can just kind of touch and go back up. You don't have to sit all the way down. You can do 10 to 15 reps. Keep your legs nice and strong.
Brad: And with all these, do them once or twice a day, depending on how you feel, if you're sore or not as a result of doing the exercise. This is an excellent shoulder posture in keeping you upright. Critical for balance. If you're flexed forward, you will be unsteady. If you're upright, much easier to balance. Mike is going to show it one way, I'm going to do it another way. Go ahead, Mike, with the door open, of course.
Mike: So we're going to stretch our pec muscles. This is going to stretch for your upper back as well. Just make a kind of "W" shape with your arms on the side here, then lean into the door frame. Try to keep good posture. Don't lean forward. Hold this again for roughly 30 seconds, or you can kind of repeat in and out. If you have really bad shoulder problems, you can't get here, but you can certainly put your arms down and stretch this way as well. You're just not going to get as much of a stretch.
Brad: That's right. Now you can do that just standing without the door if you want, and stretch back, or use the wall. It's a nice way to know if you're getting back far enough. Do the same repetitions as Mike was talking about.
Brad: Then we're going to go right into number four. Arm strength. Once you do the stretch, you can simply do wall pushups if you're having difficulty with pushups. If you're more advanced and that's too easy to do 10, you can do them as Mike is doing them on the cupboard, or simply go down, if you're really strong, to do the GI pushup, as I call them.
Brad: Alright, I think that covers everything for @roadwayrona. Please, look at those. It's a great combination. Do the ones that work best for you, or all of them. Should we go on to the second person?
Mike: We should. Our next question comes from @doraperry1578. "Hello! Dora from Philadelphia. I'm 67, and was diagnosed with osteoporosis. "Where do I begin with exercises? Thanks."
Brad: Oh, good question, Dora. Good to stay ahead of the ball game here. This is good news, because there are a lot of things you can do. We have expert advice. First of all, weight-bearing exercise like walking can be a great start. Actually, just consistently walk. Or weight training or resistance training. You don't have to do it real fancy. And actually, Mike, who is the expert and has been doing this for years? We've had excellent feedback from people who've seen her.
Mike: So Sarah Meeks, who's a physical therapist, made a whole program that's completely free on our channel. It's on our website in the program section, and you'll see one on Osteoporosis. She has a whole series of videos, very in-depth on what you can do and how to strengthen your bones.
Brad: Yeah, she is the best. There's no sense in listening to us when you could go to the best.
Mike: Our next question comes from @ivanquartulli6765. "I have a problem with my balance. Do you think I should start using a walking stick?"
Brad: Excellent question. And if you have a problem with your balance, you feel a little unsteady, or you're stumbling, absolutely, you do need to get a walking stick or a cane. The walking stick, you could adjust to whatever level to keep your elbow at about a 90-degree angle, you have a little more variance. If it's a cane, you do want to adjust it so that when your arm hangs down, the handle goes right at the crease of the wrist, and use it for whichever side allows you to feel more stable.
Brad: There are a few exercises we can give you. They're very simple, and you can do them at home once or twice a day. Mike.
Mike: The first one is simply standing on one leg, and you try to hold this for a duration of time, 15 to 30 seconds. If you feel unsteady, you can certainly hold onto a stick, a countertop, or something steady. If it starts to become easy, try just using fingertips for support. Eventually, try to do nothing if possible. Make sure to do both sides.
Brad: The next one I call heel-to-toe walking. And when you do this, make sure you're holding onto the wall, your cane, or something on both sides, but your heel should touch the toes of the foot that you're standing on. And that gives you proprioception training, which is really critical, so your mind knows where your feet are. It is really helpful for balance. Do it that way. Let's go to the third one.
Mike: It's also important to do that one backwards, because many people fall when they're going backwards or tip this way.
Mike: So the last one we want to do is working on sideways movement. You could do a couple of variations. Simply sidestepping for beginners. Make sure to go right and left. If you have a railing at home you can hold onto for this, a stick, a countertop. Don't let Brad push you around. That seems easy, you can try karaoke where you cross the foot over, back behind, over, behind. Just watch my foot segment. It's kind of hard to talk through this one. So you go both ways with this. This will help you prevent tripping if you happen to get your legs tangled up.
Brad: I want to emphasize, if any of these feel too difficult, you don't feel steady, do not do them. You need to have good judgment. Make sure you're challenging your balance, but not too much.
Mike: And our last question comes from @YTFloveforever. "How to take care of pain in the wrist joints, and palms? I sit at a desk for work, and typing and using the keyboard makes my wrist and palms hurt, and sometimes my elbows."
Brad: And you're not the only one, Love. I'm telling you, we have some excellent remedies. You just need to do these every hour to one to two hours. The first one is that we need to work on the wrist. You're always pronating or palms down as you type. So we're going to actually stretch the wrist and forearm in the other direction. Move your keyboard forward, palms up, and then actually grab the wrist and keep your shoulder still with good posture, and stretch the other direction, just like that. Mike is showing a good sample for going from underneath. You can do it from on top. Do about three to four stretches on each side. You'll probably find one side a little tighter than the other.
Brad: And then some good range of motion with the wrist. Again, good posture. If your posture is not good while you're working, make sure that's attended to as well. And we do our, what do we call these, Mike? The flippers.
Mike: The flippers.
Brad: Yeah. Simply wrist up, wrist down. And do that five to 10 times. Gentle fist and do rotations, one direction, five to 10 times, and go five to 10 times the other way. There you go.
Brad: All right. And now Mike has excellent advice on arm position.
Mike: So, when you're at your computer desk, since you probably have a chair for a computer chair, you want to make sure your arm rests are elevated to a proper height. You don't want to be too high up if your table's way down here. You don't want to be too far down, way down here. You want a good in the middle neutral wrist position like this when you are typing at your setup. A lot of people might be flexed too much or even extended, so make sure your wrists are also neutral.
Mike: If you do not have adjustable arms on a chair and you have a normal chair, you can try putting a pillow in there and folding it for optimal support, and that may help as well.
Brad: Right, so the big idea, with good posture, the weight of your arms is being supported by your armrest. Makes a big difference in everything throughout. Alright, that was four people. We had four solutions. And I'm sure that we're going to give you some good, healthy advice, at least on maybe one of these people, huh?
Mike: Yes!
Brad: That's right. Enjoy the day. And be healthy, fit, and pain-free.
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