As people age, being able to meet the demands of daily life is a growing focus for preventing disease and living longer and healthier. Personal fitness trainer Andy Fata-Chan tells us that the capacity to balance on one leg for a minute is a surprisingly good predictor of your life expectancy. According to Fata-Chan, individuals in their 50s who cannot balance on one leg for at least ten seconds face a higher risk of mortality. Such all-inclusive and straightforward exercise could act as a key barometer of a person’s physical health.
The only thing that really matters with one leg balancing is you get to ten. Try to keep your weight centered without using the opposite leg for balance. Fata-Chan recommends going for ten repetitions on each side with this exercise. This will allow you a great opportunity to really test your balance and strength. As adults get older, their balance skills decline, so it’s important to add these types of exercises into seniors’ workouts.
Standing on one leg improves not only one’s physical fitness but strengthens the mind-body connection. Fata-Chan adds that this exercise teaches body coordination, developing gross and fine motor skills that are essential to performing tasks of daily living. In order to do this practice safely, people should not forget to bend the standing knee and not hyperextend it. This new feature promotes more natural movement mechanics and decreases pressure on injured joints, ligaments and tendons.
To do the balance challenge well, try it one one foot. Hinge at your hips, keeping a micro-bend in your standing leg’s knee. You want that opposite leg to be kicked back behind you, keeping the base of your movement nice and stable. This movement goes beyond hammering out the legs and reinforces better posture and core stability.
Beyond simple standing poses, Fata-Chan recommends including more advanced movements, like the “hop and stick.” This simple technique entails making a controlled jump then landing in a stable position on the same leg. First, the person stands on one leg. Then, they jump in a diagonal hop forward or to the side, gently landing back on that same foot. This explosive free range movement is valuable in developing explosive power production and agility. Both qualities are necessary for fall avoidance and participation in leisure activities.
There are research studies showing that loss of muscle power happens faster than loss of muscle strength as we age. Fata-Chan points out that strength decreases by about 10% per decade starting from age 40. To reach those objectives, it is important to understand that explosive strength contributes to agility, fall prevention, and greater physical performance in general. So adding in a little bit of balance and power exercises in everything we do starts to lead us down that road to healthier aging.
Research finds that improving balance and muscle power are the keys to fall prevention. These same factors allow older adults to age in place and remain independent. Fata-Chan highlights that improving balance not only helps with physical performance but boosts confidence in everyday activities, from walking down stairs to playing sports.
Especially as people enter their 50s and retirement age, making balance training part of a regular routine can have lifelong health benefits. Frequent practice of balance exercises can reduce the loss of stability that can occur with age. Fata-Chan wants everyone to be doing these patterns of movements in their fitness regimens, no matter what shape they’re in.