Why is balance important?
Balance isn't just standing on a stable surface without toppling over (static stability). It's also maintaining your posture and technique while walking, running, jumping, cycling, or anything else that involves movement (dynamic stability). Balance is essential for all of us, and especially for athletes whose feats put them at regular odds with the forces that threaten to throw them off kilter. Athletes with better balance are less prone to falls and injury, especially if they have a prior history of injury.
The older you get, the more challenging balancing becomes, which makes sense. Muscular strength, bone density, vision, and somatosensory function all decline with age. Bone loss typically accompanies menopause, which is why over 70 percent of hip fractures in seniors occur in women.
What can you do to improve your balance?
Get enough sleep
The day after a night of sleep deprivation, your dynamic balance suffers. Your ability to integrate sensorimotor function with visual input to control posture drops. Your postural stability gets wonky. If you keep it up at a chronic level, even missing "just a few hours" each night, you impair postural control.
Build strength
Balance isn't all in the head. You don't think yourself to stability. You must ultimately use your muscles to stabilize yourself. And while you don't need to add 30 pounds of muscle and squat three times your bodyweight to improve balance, getting stronger does help. If you already know that balance is an issue for you, seek out a physiotherapist who specializes in balance exercises.
Spend more time barefoot
The foot, with its intricate architecture of small bones, connective tissue, and musculature, are designed to collective somatosensory information from the ground. Your toes grip the ground, and small adjustments in the feet and ankles correct for temporary, even imperceptible (to your conscious self) losses of balance. When your feet are encased in thick-soled, "supportive" footwear, you prevent your feet from serving these most important of functions.
Get some air
Jumping is perhaps the single best test of balance. You're flying through the air and then landing. Your body wants to keep going, and you need to prevent that without tearing anything or falling over. There's a lot going on, too much to intellectualize. That's why actually getting out and jumping is so important for balance.
