Remembering balance as a goal.
I’ve been rolling out the single leg deadlifts in my workouts at the gym this week, an exercise I think runners and non-runners alike greatly benefit from. Watching clients and gym members complete them with varying levels of success and form, got me thinking about how important incorporating balance work into coaching is. Similarly why is it often neglected as an element of effective training in building strong bodies and focussed minds?
Balance is control, knowing where your body is in space and how to move (or not) with intent and poise. I’m no gymnast or dancer and I’ve never professed to being graceful, but balance has become integral to my performance as an athlete. Whether it’s attempting to trackstand on a bike at traffic lights, find stillness in a solid tree pose on my yoga mat, or leap along an undulating rocky trail, I believe it’s a highly desirable quality.
From a physiological perspective, the body is striving for balance and maintaining equilibrium with a series of intercommunicating processes. Cells signal to each other through integrated patterns of activity and hormones regulate the ebbs and flows of bodily functions. Ultimately, what goes on inside our physical shell, is a complex desire to keep up the status quo, homeostasis a.k.a balance.
Moving from the physical to the psychological, the concept of ‘life in balance’ has been normalised in its social form and well-documented in the field of well-being. ‘Healthy’ is increasingly diverting away from obsession and regimentation. Healthy is making time to break from routine and check in with the spiritual as well as physical self, having awareness of how to satisfy diverse elements of your personality.
How much time do you kill waiting, or watching (think bus stops, gigs, meetings)? Although hovering on one leg in public admittedly looks slightly strange, I enjoy it greatly and life on one leg (we’re talking discreet, not balletic) is no moment wasted. A gentle core activating, ankle and foot strengthening activity.
Learning to understand the body through balance-focussed exercises, in and out of the gym, is an opportunity to slow down, increase deep core activation and ultimately optimise injury prevention through joint stabilisation during movement. See it as an opportunity to enhance the mind-body connect. A bridge between strenuous activity and mental stillness, ultimately helping us to become stronger, more balanced people and athletes.
