Get a Bosu Balance Trainer and
join in on the fun as you learn basic standing balance exercises! No matter what your age, you can improve your body balance and improve your life.
Always remember that it's the right brain that perceives the body's sensations and "feels" its messages of balance and spatial relationships. So leave your left 'thinking' brain behind for these exercises!
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. ~ Albert Einstein
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You may wish to first read my introductory articles on balance at Bosu Balance Trainer and Body Balance to understand in more detail how the body, mind and soul are all connected when you begin to improve your physical balance in your body. Improving this physical balance can impact the balance of all things in your life!
To begin your balance exercises, I would like you to just get comfortable standing on your Balance Trainer. Don’t get too upset to discover your balance isn't perfect! The more you strive to achieve balance, the sooner it will gradually come. This is a perfect metaphor for achieving balance in all things of your body, your mind and your soul!
The first very simple, yet quite difficult balance exercise is simply standing still on the Bosu Balance Trainer. Here I am, below, doing basic standing. Notice that I keep my feet a distance apart to keep my balance. You may have to bend your knees a little or hold your arms up or out. The goal is to stand upright with your head up and spine neutral, just like doing the Mountain Pose (Tadasana) in yoga.
Here is my stepson, Alex trying out the basic standing balance exercise, below. At first he had his feet far apart. Then he quickly learned to balance on the Bosu balance trainer with his feet together when he bent his knees slightly! He did this naturally and intuitively, from body awareness memory. He did not use his left brain to 'think about it!'
This is a great lesson to learn, as your knees, if locked out, will always prevent you from having good balance. The knees are shock absorbers and the focal point where your body balances through the spine. Look again at the photo of Alex on the right, above, and how much more natural he looks with his knees bent. See how much more neutral and balanced his spine looks?
The body window metaphor for balance is about staying flexible at the knees, and in all things in your life. It is about not locking out your knees, nor new ways of doing things and new ideas! Balance and flexibility is about seeing all approaches to life.
The body performs best, and has less knee pain and back pain, when your muscles are uniformly fit and balanced. Even our minds perform best when they are open, flexible and balanced.
If you are flexible and balanced, then all things in your body-mind-soul will be flexible and balanced! Your soul will sing! So work on your body-mind balance while you do these exercises.
Once you master the basic standing pose balance exercise, try turning your head first one way, then the other. Turning your head makes the pose more difficult.
You will be amazed at how much harder it is to do this! Just this little difference makes the balance exercise a bigger challenge.
Then stand in your pose on the Bosu Balance Trainer and close your eyes! This makes the balance exercise surprisingly much more difficult again!
These simple standing balance training exercises really help you learn your position in space and adjust accordingly. Just like in the Yoga poses, everything you do on the Bosu Balance Trainer is more difficult with your eyes closed, or when changing your head position.
Now try the basic standing pose with your arms out to sides.
Woa, Brett, focus! Not as easy as it looks. Even for the young buck! I guess Alex' Yoga training paid off! But Brett got it before too long. He just needed to re-focus. When he did, it was because he bent his knees slightly to be more flexible and balanced. Remember not to lock your knees out.
I call these next balance exercises Standing Twist Poses, with a leg out.
Now go deeper and bend your standing knee farther to dip deeper.
Is this deeper knee bend pose a harder balance training pose or is it easier for you? Why?
Now try it with your leg out farther, but don't dip so deep. Or dip deep if you feel you can balance. With each new balance training exercise it may or may not get harder for you.
There is no limit to the variations you can try. Have fun and use your imagination as you develop your unique body-mind balance.
Now that you have tried some basic standing poses on the Balance Trainer, I hope you are feeling an improved sense of body-mind balance. Is your body balance helping you improve your overall body-mind-soul?
Are you affirming to yourself as you go deeper, "I am balanced, open and flexible in all things of my body-mind-soul?" Is your body window speaking to you and revealing to you new truths about yourself?? If so, GREAT! If not, congratulations that you are close to total body-mind-soul healing.
Isn't the Bosu Ball a wonderful tool for learning body mind balance and body-mind-soul healing?
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