Improve Your Balance & Posture in 2 Minutes!

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March 2025. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/7-BWo3YTy5I

Brad: Oh, all right. We're going to talk about improving poor posture, and it's going to help you balance better to get around, with less chance of falls. What else, Mike?

Mike: And the only thing you need is some sort of kickball.

Brad: You don't have to kick it, though. Don't worry. It's simple. Now I do want to talk about and clarify why this is the best for both posture and balance. The thing with posture is, you're going to be upright, shoulders back, everything like we always talk about, and you have much better balance when you have good posture. They go together, back to back. That was a good pun, wasn't it?

Mike: Maybe a little bit.

Brad: The other thing is, we're going to incorporate mobility. Things going on in your life when you're walking, and your balance is off, and then you look over this way or someone you know pops a balloon and scares you a little bit; that can make you lose your balance. We're going to do some activity that makes it dynamic to fill in that void.

Mike: It's a fun activity I like to do at home. People walk by, just pop balloons from around the corner.

Brad: We'll get on with it. Now we'll get on with that dynamic balance exercise I was talking about, but first, address the posture. For both of these, you're going to need a ball that's soft and squishy. Here's one: a small one, a large one. Something like this will probably work better, but a really rigid ball will not work very well. So first of all, for the first posture one with the ball, we're going to be standing. Mike, get over there.

Mike: Oh, I get the move now?

Brad: I'm going to be standing back against the wall. Mike, can you talk about it?

Mike: So we're going to take a ball. You're going to place it behind your back. You want me to go up in my shoulder blade area, correct?

Brad: Right, right. Exactly. Now, Mike actually invented this, but in a seated position, which we'll get to, you don't have to use a ball. But the ball gives a good opportunity to really stretch out the muscles in front, which are tight with poor posture. So he is squeezing and trying to touch his shoulders back to the wall. Now he is going to go into a "W" position. There we go. Can you touch your hands to the wall?

Mike: Well, I can, but I'm running into the wall anchors.

Brad: Don't worry about that. Everyone has those on their wall. Now, yeah. And then you can get the elbows back so you can make sure you're breathing. Are you breathing, Mike?

Mike: I'm breathing through my nose. I'm just a quiet breather.

Brad: Start out with just three of these. If that's easy, go up to five. No more than 10 for sure. Now, if you want to get more aggressive, we're going to show this done on the floor. Okay, so you can see what we're trying to do is get that forward, rounded posture back upright, as well as getting the head back at the same time. Using the ball on the wall while standing is nice and easy to do, but if you want to get a little more aggressive, and it's actually easier because you use gravity, we're going down on the floor, with Mike having the ball between the shoulder blades. That's comfortable. It's really helpful to have a pillow or two to allow your head to rest. Mike, can you explain to him how you're doing that?

Mike: So you're going to have to find the right spot for your back. Maybe it's higher up, maybe it's a little lower down. I would say a larger ball for this is gonna be more aggressive. The smaller ball will be easier. So all I'm going to do is have some pillows here; you notice because I have the large ball. For your head, we have two of them here, and I'm much more relaxed. And what this is doing is slowly stretching out my shoulder muscles, my pec muscles here, and just starting in this position. If this feels too much of a stretch, maybe add another pillow or get a smaller ball, as I had mentioned earlier. If this feels adequate to you and good, you can try getting rid of a pillow if need be. And oh, now I'm really feeling it.

Brad: Ooh.

Mike: And if you want more, you can move your arms out to the side and sit like this. Or you can go overhead, or we can kind of do those "W" repetitions we were doing against the wall, as well. On the floor, I like to just kind of hold it here because gravity is naturally going to pull you down, and I just kind of like to hang out and stretch, and it feels good.

Brad: Yeah. One thing I do, if I'm in that position, I'll take my hands. Can you show them that? Going behind your head. And you know, you may be able to do it that way without the pillow and use your hands.

Mike: Whoa, this is a bit; I don't know if I can get to the floor.

Brad: That's pretty aggressive, isn't it?

Mike: Oh gosh.

Brad: Yeah. Sorry, Mike, that's advanced.

Mike: Yeah, that's a very large ball. I knew this was different than at home, but it works.

Brad: All right. Let's stop this because you're already stretched out. There's another way you can do it in a chair, at your desk, at the table. Now, this next one in the chair, as I said, you can do it wherever you are in a chair. And Mike actually patented this. Well, not literally,

Mike: I don't have a patent on it.

Brad: It was about 10 years ago, and he started to do this in the clinic with patients with really good success. Well accepted. Go ahead, Mike. It's your ball.

Mike: So just take a ball and place it behind your back. You can go lower or higher up; feel the area where you feel like you're hunched over the most. And then we're going to do the same concept. It's just that you're seated in a chair. So if you're uncomfortable against the wall or on the floor, the chair might be a good place for you. So what you want to do is just try to roll back into the ball like this, and get your shoulder blades back. That's beginner. But we eventually want to try to do some of those "W"s or "Y"s, just to work on that back extension with shoulder retraction, like this.

Brad: Nice job. And again, three repetitions, five repetitions. Hold it as long as you feel comfortable, and make sure you breathe and relax with all of these.

Mike: Go to your happy place.

Brad: Yeah. Yeah, Mike is happy right now. I can tell. All right, well now we have to go to the balance aspect to get that dynamic balance set settled in. Mike, come on.

Mike: Seems kind of nice.

Brad: We've got work to do.

Mike: It's like a massage too.

Brad: Quit it. All right, for the balance exercise, we're going to go to a wall in a corner like this, back into it as I am here. Now, if you are a little unsteady and you don't feel comfortable standing on one leg or with your feet together, we're going to start with a chair in front so you're safe. So if you lose your balance, you can grab the chair or the wall. You're very safe. I'm going to remove this now so you can see the instruction.

Mike: I'll take that.

Brad: Oh, thank you, Mike. With the leg work. So we're here. The first thing you do is feet close together. If this is easy, the next thing you're going to do is line your feet up, one in front of the other. It's a little harder. We've got the wall to balance on. The goal is to stay here for 15 to 30 seconds. If you can get the 30 seconds, it's not a big deal.

Brad: Then we advance to one leg, and we'll be there, and again, hold it as long as you can. You can see I'm working; my ankle's working. And then the other leg. Make sure you can do both sides.

Brad: You'll probably find one leg has better balance than the other. Work that one a little bit more. Okay, and once you get to the point where you want to have the advanced part, the dynamic balance, something where your mind pays attention to another area, something else. So you're not thinking about balance; you're thinking about what you're doing. We're going to use a ball. Can you throw me a ball, Mike?

Mike: I suppose I'll let you play a bit.

Brad: Well, thank you. Yeah. So take a ball that bounces well. So I'm already through; I'm doing 30 seconds on one leg. I feel pretty confident. I'm going to go to two legs close together, and now I have to start bouncing like this.

Brad: Now I'm thinking about the ball and not the balance. So that makes it harder, especially when I look up and things like that happen. Thanks, Mike. And it is good to have help from another person. Then you go one leg and start to dribble. There we go. And this is definitely harder than when I'm not dribbling the ball. So I get my balance when I need it. There we go.

Brad: Now this is the next thing I've done with a lot of patients in the clinic. Okay, Mike's a therapist or your friend at home, and you simply start passing the ball, two feet. Now you're looking, and you've got more things to think about. You're not thinking about so much balance anymore. And Mike is throwing the ball at different parts to try and challenge me.

Mike: Yeah, I'm not that bad at throwing the ball.

Brad: Right. Now, if you're that person, don't make it hard on the person unless they're clearly safe while wearing the ball.

Mike: We can play dodgeball.

Brad: I'm going to go one leg now. Yeah. And if you're talking back and forth, that also distracts you a little bit more. Makes your body try to balance a little bit harder.

Mike: Do they have to wear yellow socks while doing it, though?

Brad: Well, those socks are my favorite. You know that. Okay, now, if there isn't a friend in the house, what you can do is go up and use the wall. I've done this many times. Put a chair behind you. Again, you should be able to stand like this very comfortably on one leg, very comfortably. And then go like this very comfortably. And then you simply start bouncing the ball like this. One foot. I don't know if you can see that. There we go. That really makes it harder. And then you turn and just go this way, really makes a difference.

Brad: So you can see how you can progress, obviously, on both sides. If you're up to this level, you're probably doing quite well. Then that's more the athletic level. Start with whatever level you need. You'll probably want to start in the corner as I did, maybe without the ball, and then progress.

Mike: I think the question we all have is, do you play ball with your wife or just by yourself and the wall?

Brad: Well, that's a personal question. My wife and I have a good time at home. That's all I got to see.

Mike: Oh, okay.

Brad: So anything else, Mike? Do we have another video?

Mike: We have another video. If you want to check out more videos on how to improve your balance, watch  "Seniors: How To Instantly Improve Balance & 2 Best Exercises".

Brad: Anyways, yeah, that was fun. It's really a nice challenge.

Mike: I'm glad you were challenged.

Brad: You bet. Have a good day.

Mike: Do you want to take this home with you or?

Brad: No.

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