Balance, perhaps more than anything else, is essential to a happy and satisfying life. We need balance in everything from our emotions to our daily responsibilities; otherwise, we get stressed out, we despair, and we feel altogether out of sorts. But physical balance in particular, while not nearly as emphasized as the inner kind, is an integral part of a healthy life as well. When you’re young, the idea of not being able to stand up or walk without falling seems far-fetched. However, that’s a risk that grows increasingly more likely the older you get and the longer you go without making good physical balance a priority. So how does achieving balance now affect well-being later? And how do you go about acquiring it in the first place?
“Help! I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up!”
Part of the aging process in humans includes the gradual loss of muscle strength, vision, sensory perception, and hearing—all things that contribute to our ability to balance. As a result, falling is a common and alarming problem among older adults. According to the CDC, one out of three Americans who are at least sixty-five years old will fall over the course of a year. Younger people might be able to pick themselves up and dust themselves off after falling, but for older folks, it can be debilitating. Falls are the primary cause of injury deaths among the sixty-five-and-older crowd; in fact, more than eighteen thousand people in this demographic died because of falling-related injuries in 2007. And the danger only increases with age—adults ages eighty-five and up who’ve fallen are four times more likely to get put in a nursing home for a year or longer.
However, the elderly aren’t the only ones who should be concerned about balance. “It really doesn’t matter how old you are,” says Brooke Schreiner, a certified personal trainer with 24 Hour Fitness in San Leandro, California. “I’ve trained fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds who have terrible balance.” She works with clients on strength training, specifically when it comes to the core, which aids with balance. Her objective is to develop muscles past their normal movements, such as doing bicep curls on a BOSU ball or push-ups on a stability ball. The point is to, as Brooke puts it, “trick your body into progressing.” If you start working toward and maintaining good balance earlier in life with similar strength-training exercises, you’ll be that much more prepared for the natural deterioration of physical abilities that comes with age. A study described in the November 2007 issue of the Mayo Clinic Health Letter showed that older adults who exercise regularly throughout their lives have better balance than the rest of those tested.
