Balance Proprioception Training

Many people don’t even realize their balance is impaired. Some athletes and weekend warriors have repetitive strain or overuse injuries, some elderly adults have repetitive falling in fact balance is a complex skill that involves the brain, muscles, and parts of the inner ear, balance training can benefit people of any age, including older adults and athletes. For Athletes, balance training helps to improve your sport performance, also reduce the injury risk on the actual game. For older adults; as we age, our ability to know where we are in space, called proprioception, gets worse, which contributes to a decline in balance; so in order to improve your balance, it’s important to understand the types of balance and incorporate balance exercises into your workouts, also there are many medical conditions that we have listed that can affect your balance:

• Neurological conditions. Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and strokes are among those that can affect balance.
• Nerve damage in the feet makes it difficult to walk.
• This sensation of dizziness may come from ear disorders or simply from the aging of the inner ear’s balance system.
• Postural hypotension. A drop in blood pressure when you sit up or stand up can cause lightheadedness and even fainting.
• Foot problems. Leg length discrepancy, ankle sprain/strain, arthritis and deformities result of uneven balance.
• Eye diseases. Cataracts and glaucoma are stealthy thieves of sight and balance. Balance nearly always improves after successful cataract surgery.
• Sedatives, blood pressure medicines, antidepressants, and antihistamines are among those that may cause dizziness.

Our balance training strategy starts with complete assessment of your past medical history, muscle strength, level of activity and functional balance. If it is determined that your balance is impaired, a treatment strategy may be developed that includes exercises utilize many tools to help improve your balance to maximize your safe functional mobility. The ideal balance program is one that challenges both static and dynamic balance with a focus on coordination. Static balance training is stationary training with a solid, predictable surface underfoot. Dynamic balance training is facilitated by adding stimulus underfoot that is unstable.