Top 3 Balance Exercises For Seniors, The BEST Of The Best!
- chelsie462
- Jun 17
- 10 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in July 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/_ENSGw0g7VU
Brad: So, balance is today's topic, and there are a lot of videos that have a lot of good exercises on balance and how to improve it. I wanted to get the best of the best, and we've got three of them that, in my opinion, are the best of the best. Mike?
Mike: These can be done in less than two minutes, this whole routine, so it won't waste a lot of your time.
Brad: To get the best of the best, I looked at it from a therapist's perspective, and we're going to tell you why they're the best of the best. It's going to make sense. And as you do them, you're going to improve day to day, perhaps week to week, and have better balance. Follow us and we'll show you how.
Mike: So we're going to cover the three areas of balance. First are dynamic challenges. So these are functional movements you may be doing at home, and people often commonly fall down during these movements.
Brad: You're right. In this case, we're going to do some sidestepping, which is a very common way to lose, catch, or lose your balance and fall. The next is challenges when your vision becomes poor, which almost everybody, once you get above 50, your vision does decrease. Vision is a critical aspect of balance, and you'll understand that when we show you and you actually do it.
Mike: The third component is called proprioception. It's a fancy word for knowing where your feet are in space, so if you're able to walk and move around without staring at your feet, and know what they are doing.
Brad: That's right. This is something that you're really not aware of when you're younger, but as you get older, and we demonstrate it, you're going to say, "Oh, this makes so much sense," and you'll understand it. Let's go, Mike, one, two, three. Balance away.
Mike: L-M-N-O-P.
Brad: Okay, we're going to go through each of them. We're going to instruct on how to do them. We're going to do a beginner version and an advanced version of each one. And then at the end, we're just going to go through them without any explanation, so you can see how it's going to look once you have them memorized and you're comfortable with them. So number one is...
Mike: Sidestepping for beginners. So hold onto something for support, whether you're at a countertop, use a railing or a cane of sorts, and you're simply gonna step sideways. The shorter your steps, the easier it'll be. The wider the steps, the more challenging it'll become. Brad's doing it at the wall there. So just go back and forth, whatever room you have in your house, maybe it's 5 feet, maybe it's 10 feet, go back and forth a few times. Now, if this is easy, you can advance to the next thing, which Brad will show.
Brad: What do we call this?
Mike: Carioca, grapevine, it has a hundred names.
Brad: Yeah, we don't know what you really should call it, but you'll recognize it right away. And for this, I definitely want you to hold onto a wall, a cupboard, or a stick, especially when you get started. It's a little confusing, but where you cross your feet, and then you go over, and then you cross behind. So the leg that's moving alternates in front and then behind. I'll go the other direction.
Brad: Now, I would advise you to look at what you're doing, so you feel comfortable with it. And you know, if you get mixed up, it doesn't matter. The whole idea is you get that motion and you can control it. If you do have to catch your balance and cross your legs, it's not unusual. You've been practicing it, and you're going to have a much lower risk of falling when something like that happens. So again, cross and back. If you use a wall at first, then go to the cupboard, and that's maybe where you will stay. If you want to use a stick, because you feel confident, do that, but use good judgment and do not do it unless you really feel solid. All right, let's go to number two. Now, on this, we're going to talk about vision, and you'll find out how important seeing things around you really is to your balance. So Mike's going to do it, and he's going to do it in the corner, back to the corner like this. Highly recommend it, without you don't want to do it, without being in the corner is what I'm trying to say. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike: So you can use a cane, walker, or a chair for support if needed in front of you. The corner's nice because if you lose your balance, you can just tip into the wall and it'll catch you. So, for beginners, start with a wide base of support, feet shoulder width apart roughly. Hold onto something if you need to. Just stand here. If you can try not to hold onto whatever you normally use, that's a beginner position to start in. After that seems easy, try closing your eyes in this position. Just start with 5 to 10 seconds, eventually work up to 15 to 30 seconds. Once that feels easy, try narrowing your base of support, so bring your feet together, touch your feet. Again, start with eyes open. That seems easy. Progress to eyes closed.
Mike: If you feel wobbly or shaky here, stay there for a while. Make sure you have support around you, so you don't actually fall down. Now, once that becomes easy, you can do this for 30 seconds, no issues, try progressing to one leg. Just lift one slightly off the ground. The higher the leg up, the more challenging it'll become. But you could see for me, once I close my eyes and do this, my ankles start to move a little bit more, it becomes more challenging even at a younger age. Woo!
Brad: Now, three points I want to bring up with this one are that you may never get to the single-leg stance. That's quite advanced, and you know, Mike, are you 20 years old, 30 years old, and he's having a hard time with it. So you may only get to both feet, and maybe touching. Be careful, have good judgment. Number two is footwear, or doing it with your socks or without, barefoot. Whatever you feel comfortable with. I'd probably use the footwear that you normally wear, use, so you're used to it. And thirdly, make sure you're relaxed and you breathe with this. If you're kind of nervous, your breathing will get shallow. It's going to make your balance off a little bit. It'll make a big difference when you learn to relax, breathe. Your balance always feels better when you're in a relaxed state. All right, anything else, Mike?
Mike: No, let's go on proprioception.
Brad: Number three. All right, proprioception, it's a big word, and to really understand it, I'm going to demonstrate it. So it means your mind, your brain, knows where your feet and legs are without looking down at them, just through the sensation and the feedback to your brain. In other words, when you take a step forward, you know where things are down there. Now, people, a good example, have difficulty with are people with neuropathy. They may be diabetic. You cannot feel; there's numbness in your feet. Those people really need to practice this. So the way I always do this with patients is I have them what I call walk the line. So imagine there's a line on the floor, or you could, maybe you have a line on your floor, just by the way it's made with the decoration, or the tiling. So you can do this with shoes on or without. Now, we go heel to toe. Heel to toe. Now, I know my heel is touching my toe because I can see it and I can feel it. Now, some people with neuropathy may not be able to feel it or may not feel it so well. So we want to get really sensitive and really monitor what's going on down there. And we're going to look at it. I'm using the table for balance. You can use a cupboard or a wall. And then you go backwards where your toe literally touches your heel, toe literally touches your heel.
Brad: Now, when you can do it and you can feel it and you understand that, the next step is to look straight ahead, and again, make sure you feel it. Now, some people, you'll be kind of like, where's that toe? Oh, there it is. And then it'll be a little practice, but eventually, with practice, you'll get better. Going backwards is more difficult. When you go backwards, things are like, where are they? And feel that toe, touch the heel. Get it right, there we go. And you may end up needing to feel around a little, and that's okay, that's why we're practicing. You could use a cane in one hand, the wall, and a cupboard, whatever it is, to be stable.
Brad: After you do this for a while, it'll become very simple, and you'll get used to it. You'll relax more. When you relax, like I mentioned earlier, things go better, and your balance is better. It's a wonderful tool for proprioception and balance. Mike, do you have anything to add?
Mike: As it becomes easier, try to become less dependent upon your hands for support and put more weight on your feet. Early on, you may have to heavily depend upon your cane, countertop, or whatever to feel safe. Later, just touch it in case you lose your balance, but don't heavily lean on it.
Brad: Now, we covered a lot of information here, and it took a few minutes, but once you do this and you get used to each technique, it becomes easy, and quite quickly, you'll have it done in less than two minutes. We're going to give an example of it after you feel comfortable with it. Okay, here we go. We're going to start with the sidestepping, and we're just going to take our time. Look down, then we're going to look up at the wall, go back and forth, and we're going to do this two or three times. You can do more of that if you want, or you can go longer distances, right to left, if you have it available. Advance to karaoke or the grapevine if you feel like you want to challenge. Only do it if you feel comfortable with it. It does take practice. There we go. And that's enough for that one. Now we're going to go to the next one. In the corner, Mike will demonstrate. I'll babble on.
Mike: So again, start with the basic feet wide apart. This is where you need to begin. Close your eyes, 5, 10 seconds. Work up to 30 seconds. This is pretty easy for me. I'm going to bring my feet together, close my eyes, and say I hit 30 seconds now. Pretty easy. I'm going to go on one leg, standing. When you do one leg, make sure to do both sides. Build up over time to 15 to 30 seconds, and to make that added challenge, you can close your eyes.
Brad: And just remember, you may only get to the point where your feet are wide apart. Maybe you'll be challenged once you close your eyes. Don't advance to a higher level than you're ready for. And finally, we're going to do, again, the proprioception. Look down as you need. Ah, I'm getting the hang of that now. Make sure you go backwards. There we go. Look straight ahead. Don't look down and see how it goes. Breathe and relax. Oh, that makes a big difference. "Oh, he's right," you're going to say. I'm just, you know, talking to myself.
Mike: Yes, you are.
Brad: I do that. You should see my wife when she wonders, "What's going on? Who are you talking to down in the basement?" Anyways, it works very well, and that's it. And you can do that, that took about what? 72 seconds.
Mike: Were you timing exactly?
Brad: No, I wasn't, but it'll be about two minutes once you get used to it. Do it daily. If you want to do it in the morning after you've been up for a while, and then later in the afternoon, twice a day. It'll take four minutes of your day, and you will notice a difference. You're going to become more confident, and you're going to know where those feet are and feel much more comfortable. There you go. There's another video, isn't there?
Mike: If you want to check out another video on how to improve your balance, watch "Balance Exercises for Seniors, Beginners to Advanced."
Brad: There you go. Just some more options for you. Always looking for something new. Mike, do you have anything else to say, whether it's intelligent or not?
Mike: He does talk to himself quite a bit.
Brad: There you go. Thank you. Have a good day.
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