Let's Talk about Balance

Myth: Some people are born with better balance than others

Truth: No one is born with balance! It’s a skill we learn and need to work to maintain. Anyone can have good balance with a little work!

Let’s delve a little deeper into balance and how Pilates can help you have great Balance! In order to have good balance, one needs to develop their muscles in a uniform and symmetrical way. Having imbalances in the body can lead to issues with balance. You can be very strong and lack balance. Balance requires the smaller muscles to fire not just the big ones!

So how do we improve our balance? For starters we work those small muscles. We create scenarios that challenge our body to create stability. Pilates works those smaller muscles and puts the body though instability challenges helping to create balance. It’s sneaky like that!

Often when we think of balance, we assume this means standing or standing on one foot, for example. While this is one form of balance - we can have balance in all planes of movement. Being able to kneel on all fours requires balance. Being able to kneel upright requires balance. Holding a Teaser requires balance. Holding your shape in a criss cross exercise on our back requires balance. Balance can show up on our front, back, side, etc. That is why it is so important to work in all of these planes of movement. At Shine Pilates, you may have noticed we change our orientations often. By doing this we are working balance in all the planes!

Balance comes from three areas. We use our vision to steady ourselves and find a horizon line. We use proprioception - knowing where we are in space. We also use our vestibular system or inner ear to help find balance. Most of us are heavily reliant on our vision. The bad news is our vision changes as we age and can do a number on our balance. The good news is by working on a moving carriage, we are working on our vestibular system. We are also improving our proprioception when we do exercises like thread the needle. Pilates helps to improve the other contributors to balance! For fun sometime try standing on two feet hip distance apart. Next close your eyes. You may feel as if you are swaying and this is because you don’t have your sight finding a horizon to steady you! If you want to really challenge yourself do this standing on one leg! (Make sure you are in a safe space - possibly next to a counter you can hold on to as needed).

I have some students who like to close their eyes doing legwork or other work laying on their back. This is a safe way to focus on balance without using vision. There are many ways in Pilates to improve balance!

If you only take one thing away from this article- I hope you have learned that you, too, can have good balance with a little work in the Pilates studio!