When, How, and Why to Do Balance Exercises?

What Goals to Achieve by Doing Balance Exercises Regularly?

Based on my experience, I believe people are often inclined to do balance exercises in three different contexts:

1. After an accident or injury that affected our balance, such as a sprain;
2. As we age and feel our balance declining, or have already fallen due to loss of balance;
3. Simply for overall physical maintenance, to “have good balance” as a personal goal.

Let’s now examine these three situations in more detail.

Balance Exercises After an Injury

When we get injured or undergo surgery, several structures involved in balance can be damaged:

• Ligaments and other structures responsible for joint stability;
• Sensorial receptors involved in proprioception: our ability to perceive our body in space.

Also, injury often forces us to be less active than usual, which can further decrease our overall physical condition and thus our balance.

That’s why we may want to incorporate balance exercises after an injury. These exercises will vary greatly depending on the injury and its impact, as well as the stage of recovery.

I won’t delve into this topic in this article, but you can find many other articles on Fonto Media about it. For example, on ankle sprain rehabilitation.

Balance Exercises for Seniors

I’ve already dedicated a full article to the benefits of exercise for people over 65.

Here are the three main takeaways:

1. People who regularly engage in physical exercise have a lower risk of falling over the course of a year than others.
2. Whether these exercises are specifically for balance or for general physical fitness doesn’t matter.
3. Ideally, exercises should be performed for at least 20 minutes, three times a week. Simple walking is not sufficient.

Later in the article, I’ll provide a balance exercise routine that I find most effective for a wide range of people.

Balance Exercises for General Physical Maintenance

You may also want to work on your balance simply to maintain or improve it because you find it to be an important sense.

With an active lifestyle and activities such as mountain hiking, running, or leisure sports like slacklining, our balance is generally already well challenged.

Nevertheless, you will also find in this article my maintenance exercise routine on this point.

3 Balance Exercises: Easy Level

Here are the three exercises I most often prescribe during my home physiotherapy sessions for individuals with mild to significant balance issues. I provide variations to simplify or alternatively make them more challenging.

🚨 Precaution: Ensure you are always near a support to catch yourself. I recommend a heavy dresser, a sturdy table, a wall… Essentially, something that won’t move.

➡️ Exercise 1: Standing on tiptoes

Without holding onto anything, balance on one foot, then rise onto your tiptoes, still without using your hands or placing the other foot on the ground. Do at least 10 repetitions on each side.

Finding it too difficult? Are you consistently losing your balance?

Here are two easier variations, still without holding onto anything:

Still without holding onto anything, do the same thing (rise onto tiptoes) but with both feet on the ground, feet together. Rise onto tiptoes with both feet simultaneously.

Still too difficult?

Here’s an even easier variation:

It’s the same exercise, still without holding onto anything, but with feet apart.

Having your feet apart improves your balance and makes the exercise easier. In more technical terms, it “widens the base of support”: your contact with the ground is broader, hence more stable.

➡️ Exercise 2: Pointing Forward and Backward

Still without holding onto anything, balance on one foot. Then, bring the opposite leg forward, aiming to touch the tip of your foot far ahead in line with the foot on the ground, and then far behind.

The goal is to achieve this without ever needing to hold onto something or touch the foot to the ground for support. If it’s too difficult, occasionally touch your foot or hand down until you can ideally do it without support!

You can do 10 repetitions on each side.

🚨 If you experience knee pain during or after the exercise, refrain from doing it for at least a few weeks, then try again with fewer repetitions.

➡️ Exercise 3: Alternating Leg Raises

Without holding onto anything, lift one knee and touch it with the opposite hand (right hand to left knee), then switch (lift the other knee and touch it with the other hand).

Do 20 repetitions.

If it’s too difficult:

• Touch your knee instead of your foot.
• Use your fingertips to lightly support yourself during imbalances, but for the shortest time possible.

If it’s too easy:

• Close your eyes while performing the exercise.
• Perform it on an unstable surface, like foam (available on Amazon).

You can do this type of exercise as often as you like, even daily. Establishing a habit of at least once a week seems to be the minimum for progress or maintenance, provided you also engage in other types of physical exercise.

Physiotherapists are among the professionals who can help you find and implement a personalized balance exercise routine tailored to your level.

My favorite difficult balance exercise (no equipment)

I feel I already challenge my balance sufficiently in daily life, regularly running or hiking on the trails of our beautiful Savoie several times a week.

Nevertheless, I have incorporated an exercise aimed at partly challenging my balance into my weekly exercise routine.

Here it is:

🚨 This exercise requires no balance issues or knee pain or weakness to be safely performed.

Starting position: Balance on one leg, lift the other leg as high as possible, keeping it straight, without holding onto anything.

Ending position: Lower the leg down beside the other leg without touching the ground, then bend your knee of the leg on the ground, reaching as far back and to the side as possible with the lifted leg, without touching the ground.

Always without placing the foot on the ground, return to the starting position and repeat as many times as possible (up to 10 or 20 repetitions) without touching the ground.

How to adjust the difficulty level: Initially, you may find it challenging to complete the exercise without placing the foot on the ground. With regular training over days, you will gradually improve your ability to perform the exercise without touching the ground.

Do whatever you want with your arms. If it becomes too easy, you can do it with your arms crossed and/or eyes closed.

How often to do it: I do this exercise 1 to 2 times per week, 3 sets of 20 repetitions each.