Balance training

Host: All right, time now for our Workout Wednesday. Our 9NEWS fitness expert, Jamie Atlas with Bonza Bodies, is joining us. We're talking about balance training today.

Jamie: Balance training. It's an essential part, whether you want to be doing something between your sets so you're not just standing around watching the clock, or alternatively, if you say to yourself, okay, I'm playing a sport where I need to be able to control where I'm going, and maybe I sometimes get off balance and need to be able to recover. Or if you're just someone who's maybe getting to an age where you're starting to get worried about falls. Because let's face it, I can't count the number of clients I've had who have come in and said, man, I had a close shave on a step on the stairwell, or I stood on a patch of ice, and I was able to save myself, and I was really grateful for that. Because a fall at a certain age can mean you go into hospital, and sometimes you don't make it back out.

Host: I love that it covers everyone from that end all the way to the other. This is great for athletes as well.

Jamie: Very much so. So let's start. We have three pieces of equipment right here. These two are very common. This one I have in my studio, and there's a few other places in Denver that have one. It's wild. You'll get to see it. So let's just stand on this, basically a balance board, right now. If you guys can see this, you'll notice that Cory is going side to side. As she goes side to side, I want you to think: if you're playing a sport and you're worried about lateral agility, then I need my ankles to be able to react and not roll over if something goes wrong. So Cory's doing that right now. Cory, give me a couple of squats right there. We'll basically train those ankles to be smart. Good. Nice. Now, the deeper she goes, the more athletic she goes, the harder that's going to be. Right there. Good. Nice.

Jamie: Now let's switch it up. Hop off for me. What I want you to do now is face me. You went side to side before; now you're going to go front to back. There's no wrong way to do it.

Cory: Help me, help me. Oh, okay. Yeah, this is very different.

Jamie: Very different. Now, if you are someone who's worried about falling, or slipping, or missing a step on stairs or on ice, here's what I'll say. If you practice this kind of balancing on a balance board, then you're going to be great at being able to control that if you do get a foot suddenly slip away from you. Does that make sense?

Cory: It does. Fantastic. I feel that all over.

Jamie: It's great. Even when we're standing still, there are all these stability muscles that kick in to help us stand in that position. Now, real quick before you get on: the BOSU ball is a really common piece of equipment you find at the gym. What I'll say is that some are more inflated than others, so what you're about to do will work for most, but it might not work for all. Just a point for those at home. I'm going to have you put one foot on there, find an edge, and then find the other edge, and then stand on there. Now all of a sudden we've got a game changer, because this BOSU ball can go anywhere. It can go forward, back, side to side, at any time.

Jamie: Now, what I love about this, personal trainers watching: if you want to do a squat assessment, put your client on a BOSU ball. It's a great way to find out where their body wants to go. Sometimes they'll lean to one side; sometimes their toes will roll forward. On the side shot right here, I see Cory's toes rolling forward a little bit. If I want to teach good squat mechanics, I want to teach her to put her weight a little bit more on the heels. Try that for me. Good. So off there.

Jamie: All right, so this one we have to check out. This is a Core-Tex. Now, as with any of these tools, they can be used in multiple ways. Today we're going to talk about the balance aspect of it. Now, in Colorado, snowboarders and skiers, it's coming up soon. And if you're lucky enough to be traveling to my country, you might be going surfing. That's what it feels like, surfing, to me. This guy can go anywhere. The difference is that one was teeter-tottering; this is translating. The ground's going to move from under you, so it's the closest thing to the real world I can get. So I'm going to have you grab both handles and just hop on.

Cory: Okay. All right. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Jamie: Just got real, right? Okay. So what I want you to do, real easy, is just give me a nice easy squat. Keep your hands just above the bar so you have it if you need it.

Cory: I don't trust myself. I trust you, though.

Jamie: Stand up. Good. If you fall, it'll make great TV.

Cory: Yeah, great, thanks.

Jamie: Don't worry about my face. Nice. So now let's make this a little bit more like snowboarding or skiing. Just take one hand off for me, so that way we've got less support. Give me a squat with a twist, and back up. Nice. And the other way. And all of a sudden, yeah, all of a sudden we've got balance. You're doing great.

Cory: For the first time!

Jamie: Fantastic. So right now we've got something where we can do this exercise and it's going to look and feel like the sport I want to perform in. And here's the question: when you do your balance work, are you training to perform or training to protect? Because sometimes we're training to protect, to make sure we don't have an accident.

Jamie: So the last thing I'm going to show doesn't require any equipment at all. We're just going to stand on one foot. Standing on one leg is a common thing that we all think is our balance work. So we're going to stand on one leg and look straight ahead. Oftentimes when we say, hey, check out my balance, I can stand on one leg, we lock on a point in the background somewhere. Here's what I'll say: that's about as far from the real world as we can get. Oftentimes when we need that balance is when I'm walking and talking to someone, and all of a sudden I miss a step and my head does this snap thing, where I'm going from looking at whatever I was looking at to: holy cow, where's my foot going? So what we're going to do, it's kind of going to feel like a sobriety test. We're going to go one foot, and I'm going to have you look at one thumb. When I say snap, I want you to snap that head to the other side. So look at this thumb. Good. Check out that beautiful manicure right there. And then we're going to go snap, boom, hold it. And snap, boom, hold it. Good. Now we're going to double snap. Ready, go. Boom, boom. Freeze.

Cory: This is harder than you think it is.

Host: I love all of these tips. This was so great, for people just in daily life or athletes. Jamie Atlas from Bonza Bodies, thank you so much. We're going to put all the information on our website at 9news.com.