newjerseynewsroom.com

BY PAM LOBLEY

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

NOW THAT’S FUNNY

Can you stand on one foot for more than a few seconds? If you find yourself wobbling, you may need to work on your balance.

Men's Health via Yahoo! Sports reports that balance is at the foundation of doing well in sports and simply staying healthy. The reason, says David Jack, director of Teamworks Fitness in Acton, Massachusetts, is that when you lose your balance, your body will do whatever it takes to prevent falling, and this can cause injury. "Many injuries -- hamstring pulls, Achilles tendonitis, ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears -- can be traced back to a movement pattern that has gone wrong," Jack says.

I am in pretty good shape, but I recently tried working out with a stability ball and wound up rolling all over the place. It is harder than you think. My mother has a personal trainer (Go Mom!) and they do a good portion of balance exercises each session. Falling can be especially dangerous for older people, so increasing balance is an important part of healthy aging.

At my house, I get all kinds of balance workouts without even trying. For instance, I carry a load of laundry downstairs while our newly adopted dog scampers past me on the stairs. I carry laundry through the hallway and avoid shoes, dog toys, backpacks and the occasional guitar. I carry laundry up the stairs again while also delivering juice pouches or pencils to my children while they do homework, and cradling a phone on my neck, on hold with an insurance company.

You heard it here first: laundry is an effective balance training tool!

Seriously, the Yahoo! Sports site above has a short video which gives you an example of a good balance exercise: Single-leg, Straight-life Deadlift Reach. I tried it. You can add a hop to the movement to make it more challenging.

I didn’t add the hop.

The Mayo Clinic has some balance exercises on their website to help get you started. Oddly, none of them feature laundry.

Pam Lobley writes the “Now That’s Funny” column. Check out her blog: Better Living Through Chaos! Follow her on Twitter @plobley.

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