“Balance exercises are easy to do and can be done anytime that you’re standing on your feet.”
When you’re running, both feet are never on the ground at the same time, so it’s very important that you develop and/or maintain the ability to balance yourself on one foot if you expect to have a stable and efficient running posture.
I’m willing to bet that if you stand up right now and attempt to balance yourself on one foot for a 10 count, many of you can’t do it. And if you can’t balance yourself properly on one foot while standing still, you certainly aren’t going to be able to do it while running.
Runners who have difficulty with their balance will either develop some sort of wobble in their running mechanics, or will attempt to counterbalance their instability with a funky arm carriage. Either way, if your running mechanics are unstable, you are an injury waiting to happen!
Balance exercises are easy to do and can be done anytime that you’re standing on your feet (while showering, brushing your teeth, in the kitchen while cooking or doing dishes, etc….just please don’t fall into any open flames on your gas stove). All you have to do is practice standing with one foot flat on the ground while raising the knee on the opposite leg to a 90 degree angle. Doing it with your eyes closed adds an extra wrinkle to the exercise. For those of you looking for a bigger challenge, a wobble board would be a good addition to your home workout gadgets.
George Buckheit is the leader and coach of Capital Area Runners. CAR is a DC metropolitan area club that was founded to provide group training opportunities for highly motivated and competitive minded runners of all ability levels.
