WGTS 91.9 with Jerry and Summer. You've heard about Summer's health journey. You've heard about my ice cream journey, which should probably involve more health. But that's why we do the Health Minute to keep you healthy.
And when you are working to get healthy, you might be thinking of endurance and strength, maybe even flexibility, but probably not balance. And yet it's super important. It's helping us prevent falls as we age. So Jason Herron, exercise physiologist with Adventist HealthCare Sports Performance Institute, is here to help chat about that, how incorporating balance can help our physical performance. So Jason, what role does balance play in our overall health?
Yeah. Good balance is necessary for everyday activities, from sitting and standing to climbing chairs, and really important as you age. Balance exercises engage your core muscles. It supports athletic performance and helps prevent falls, especially as we get older.
Jason, when it comes to health, we already have so much to do. Do we need to spend a lot of extra time working on balance specifically?
Yeah. Even doing balance exercises for a few minutes at a time can make a huge difference. You can do simple balance exercises while you have your morning coffee during TV commercials or at the end of your workout routine. For example, you can do lower body strength training, yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi or walking regularly.
Okay. What are some of the balance exercises that our listeners could try?
Yeah, simple ones are single leg stance where you can lift your knee up as close as you can to your chest, out to the sides and just hold for about thirty seconds. You can do heel raises either at a wall or just in the air. If you feel like your balance is a little better. Just raising those heels up, getting up on the toes. You can do six sit to stand exercises. If you're feeling really good about it, you can do one leg where you sit down with one and then stand back up with two. And if your balance is really good without any support, you can stand on one leg and try to touch your hands to your toe.
Alright. This is all good information. I have to try this out. If you want to hear more of our Health Minutes or more from Jason, check out WGTS919.com. And as always, a big thank you to Adventist HealthCare for sponsoring this Health Minute.
