9.1 Balance
Balance is a foundational component of physical activity and exercise that is often overlooked. In the context of human movement, balance is closely linked to stability; however, they do describe different concepts. Balance refers to the ability to maintain your Center of Mass (COM) over your base of support (BOS), whether you are stationary or moving. Whereas stability is the ability to resist movement and maintain control of a joint or body section.
How is your balance? Has your balance changed over time? Or changed after an injury? Why do you think that is? Well, within the body, our ability to balance is dependent on three systems that work together to help us maintain balance and stability: the visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems. When these systems work together seamlessly, there are no issues. However, if one or more systems are not working adequately or at all, it can impact the entire system, leading to balance deficits and risk of instability. Because these systems like to work together in harmony, when one or more systems are not functioning adequately, or at all, the other systems may work harder to compensate.
- The Visual System consists of our eyes, optic nerves, and the visual cortex in the brain. It provides us with information about our environment, therefore helping us to understand where we are in space, what surrounds us, and whether we are stationary or the environment is moving. Ways in which this system could impair our balance are through blurred vision, poor depth perception, low light conditions or a complete lack of information (e.g., eyes are closed or not fully functional).
- The Vestibular System consists of inner ear structures, specifically our semicircular canals, otolith organs, vestibular nerve, brainstem, and cerebellum. It detects head movement, orientation, and acceleration, which helps us maintain posture and visual stability. If the vestibular system is impaired, you may feel dizzy, disoriented, or off-balance, even if your COM is within the bounds of your BOS.
- The Proprioceptive System consists of muscles, joints, tendons and skin, which include sensory receptors that communicate with the brain and spinal cord via the peripheral nerves. It allows us to sense our body position, movement and pressure when stationary or moving. Without our proprioceptive sense, it is possible that you become clumsy because you aren’t receiving sensory feedback from parts of the body.
Try This – Challenge Your Balance!
Proceed through the following steps to test your balance and find out if your balance systems are working well together, or which systems are impacting your balance most.
- Grab a partner to ensure safety during this exercise.
- Print/use the chart below to record your data.
- Conduct a balance test by recording how long you can balance for each of the stance guidelines below.
After you’ve completed each balance condition, compare your balance time. Notice any trends or changes in your ability to maintain balance as each of our key balance-aiding systems is isolated and challenged.
Hint: Use a mat with a cushion or a rolled-up towel as an “unstable surface.”
Image Description
A table with 5 columns and 3 rows. The title for the columns are Action, Flat surface/eyes open, Flat surface/eyes close, Unstable surface/eyes open and Unstable surface/eyes closed. The rows under Action are “With shoes stand up with two feet together”, “With shoes stand with one foot”, and “Without shoes stand with one foot”.
