To train for balance improvement, Stability incorporates a three-pronged approach to exercise design. Exercises selected will be performed statically, dynamically, and/or with somatosensory variations.
Static Balance is the ability to control postural sway during quiet standing, maintaining the body’s center of mass with its base of support. Feeling the sway is OK and provides information on how the body should respond. Static balance exercises require the body to stay in one position for a fairly long period of time. The technique is effective for increasing strength and endurance.
Dynamic balance is the ability to react to changes in balance and to anticipate changes as the body moves. Dynamic balance exercises involve staying balanced while incorporating slow and controlled movements or quick movements.
Try this! Stand on your left leg, lift your right leg with knee flexed, and abduct right hip to the right and repeat.
A combination of static and dynamic exercises is recommended to improve balance, strength, gait, and power. In each Stability class, there is a static balance segment and a dynamic balance segment. The recommendation is to teach four to five drills in each segment and add progressions when appropriate.
Somatosensory exercises are recommended to improve balance. The brain uses sensory information to accurately produce motor commands. Motor learning is associated with systemic changes to proprioception. Proprioception is knowing where your body is in space without looking. As we age, we lose this spatial kinesthetic awareness. Proprioceptive training can augment motor learning, recognizing that the brain uses sensory information to accurately produce motor commands. Closing the eyes and moving the head in different directions improves cognitive development. Walking forward and backward turning the head side to side, as you gaze side to side, is an example of a somatosensory exercise. Exercises found in the Stability format are performed to regain the proprioception that is lost in the aging process.