Great balance

[Sinar89]

hey, i was wondering any exersizes people do to get great balance. like if you just walk along a pipe or something. i would really like to increase my balance cause its not so great. more of just a "i want to thing" then a necesisity but i always thought i would be kinda funny to be able to walk and talk with someone and then just be able to jump up on a fence and keep walking.......just to see their faces : ) but, i'm also planning on doing martial arts and i figured that would help alot

[MenteReligieuse]

Hmm..I'm not fitness instructor or body builder..but I would say that strong stabilizing muscles would help balance (after good mind/body coordination).

 

Some bodyweight exercises will help that, like chin ups. Also free weights (I think they are called dumbells) will work these muscles. Like stand and work your biceps with a benching bar, while contracting ur abdominal muscles and pecs. If your body is shaking while doing the curls, it's your stabilizing muscles that needs work.

[Beiner]

Work out your core

[WhiteBelt]

How about you practice walking on a fence. The only reason you'd need to work your core for better balance is if it's holding you back.

 

One thing, curls don't work your core. Curls are useless to me, and quite a few other people, and are an isolation exercise for your biceps. You might as well do push-ups and call that major core work, and it would be more true than for curls.

[AngelaG]

Try purchasing a wobble board, or something similar.

[MenteReligieuse]

How about you practice walking on a fence. The only reason you'd need to work your core for better balance is if it's holding you back.

 

One thing, curls don't work your core. Curls are useless to me, and quite a few other people, and are an isolation exercise for your biceps. You might as well do push-ups and call that major core work, and it would be more true than for curls.

 

With a bench bar, you can make your whole upper body work with curls, not just your biceps.

[WhiteBelt]

Explain how a standing curl works your whole body? Most people turn them into cheat curls, which do not work your abs, obliques, or back that well, which was one of the main concerns of the thread. Your time would be better spent doing a more effective exercise than trying to find more uses for curls.

 

IMO, one curl exercise in a day is fine but you must have a good excuse to be doing it and never do more than that. And it's the same way I feel about all isolation work (shrugs, crunches, etc.).

[kbgirl]

I like to practice yoga for balance. Try a 90-minute Bikram class... whew!

[Vito]

hop around on one foot for a day blind folded. you can switch feet if you get tired.

[Jinxx0r]

Get an 8 ft' 2x4... put it on the floor and walk it like a balance beam (on the 4 inch side), one foot in front of the other. Do it forward and backward. After this do it using the chamber for a front snap kick (knee up high towards the chest), then bring it down, one foot in front of the other, like a highstep motion. Foward and backward. Last set do this forward and backward using a roundhouse kick motion. Do 3 total sets of these. When you're done try doing this with your eyes closed (good luck, heheh... part of your balance is tied to your ability to focus on one location). I've been doing this for awhile and it's still very hard to do it with my eyes closed.

 

make sure the board you buy is not perfectly straight (slight wobble) as this will help with your balance.

 

After these excercises you can do the gymnast balance excercise:

 

1) standing erect, lift your right leg up and to the side.

 

2) with your leg out to the side, move it to the front position (like a 90 degree arc). Your leg should remain parallel to the ground. When you're done, the position of you leg is like a front snap kick.

 

3) Bring your leg down into a starting position.

 

4) Repeat with your other leg.

 

you can also do this in the reverse.

 

You probably won't be able to do this one without good flexiblity and some balance, so you can modify it by keeping your leg bent at the knee for this motion until your improve your strength, balance and flexibility. It's a good hip flexor drill too if you do it slow enough.

 

The last one is a yoga pose called "The Tree Pose" or "Vriksha Asana". Here is a link that shows how to do it. It's simple and effective (well, not as simple as it looks, hehe):

 

http://yoga.org.nz/postures/tree_instruction.htm

 

good luck and enjoy. I do these at the end of my MA workouts (well, the yoga I do as an entire workout different from my MA workout).