Fitness for Fall Prevention Workshops

Balancing on one foot

​Later today, I’ll be delivering the first of three workshops on fall prevention. Each one takes place in a different branch of our local library, and cover the east, west, and central parts of Ottawa. 

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I’ve designed an interactive session, where I’ll teach participants the various balance exercises that are featured in my second book, Balance and Your Body: How Exercise Can Help You Avoid a Fall. It seems only fitting that I’m delivering workshops based on my book, since it was a workshop request that precipitated the creation of Balance and Your Body.
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Here’s another excerpt from my book that addresses static balance.*

Is It a Photo or a Video?

Balance is a “sweet spot” between our base of support — typically our feet — and our centre of gravity — our weight distribution — while we’re moving or standing still in an upright position. As we move through life, the dynamic aspect is key. We are creatures of movement, and most people want to continue to move. But our aging bodies sometimes have difficulty balancing the key balance components (pun intended). Our balance can suffer as we become less mobile.
Imagine a dog walking on a slippery surface. They appear more sure-footed than their human counterparts, who are often slip-sliding along the ice. That's because the dogs have a lower centre of gravity and a wider base of support.

Static balance involves maintaining your centre of gravity over your base of support. I like to compare the practice of standing upright to a still photograph. Dynamic balance is when your centre of gravity moves away from your base of support, but you are still in control. That is, your muscles are firing to keep you from falling to the ground. That’s when your balance is more like a video.
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The exercises in this book target both static and dynamic balance because they’re both important and need to be maintained. ​

​Static Balance

Static balance exercises work on your postural stability by decreasing your base of support and incorporating different head positions that change the orientation of your head in space. 

As you reduce your base of support, you want to be able to remain standing. There are five foot positions that have you moving from a wide, stable base of support to a narrower, less stable one. They are:

• Feet wide
• Feet close together
• Feet staggered forward and back at hip’s width
• Feet staggered closer together with the big toe of the back foot touching the heel of the front foot
• Standing on one leg with the other foot lifted off the ground.

*copyright 2019 Amanda Sterczyk, all rights reserved.