CAN YOU STAND on one foot for 10 seconds? It’s more than a party trick—your one-legged stance could play a part in predicting how long you’ll live.
In a 2022 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers found that people who were middle-aged and older (out of 1,702 subjects ranging from 51 to 75) who couldn’t hold their stance for a 10-second count on one foot were twice as likely to die in the subsequent 10 years than those who could. Even if you’re not 50 or older, your ability to balance can impact how you move and whether you get injured, says K. Aleisha Fetters, C.S.C.S., author of My Pocket Guide to Stretching. And it involves much more than just standing on one foot.
“Balance and stability are critical any time your center of gravity isn’t in its normal locale or is moving. Take a step, you need stability. Stand at the top of a ladder, you need balance,” she says.
The same goes for exercises in the gym, moves you might make on a court or field, or activities out in the real world. Stepping forward into a lunge, cutting to the basket, or trying to unlock your door while holding three bags of groceries—these all require balance and stability. Mess one up, and you could drop the bag containing the eggs, stumble before your layup, or worse, fall and injure yourself.
How to Train to Improve Your Balance
But training your balance just by balancing—like on one foot—doesn’t really help, says Mike T. Nelson, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., an associate professor at the Carrick Institute.
“If I think, ‘I’m going to stand one-legged on a BOSU ball, and I’m going to get better balance like that,’—most studies show that doesn’t transfer,” he says. When you’re actually balancing in life, your mind, joints, eyes, and other systems are working together to form a map of your surroundings. “The coordination of all those components can create a better map so you have better movement and better balance, he continues.”
The good news: Strength training itself can improve balance and stability, says Jarrod Nobbe, C.S.C.S., the head weightlifting coach for the Athletic Lab Weightlifting team and Garage Gym Reviews.
“It’s going to make you more stable. You’re going to increase your proprioceptive awareness and your spatial awareness—just how your body’s moving in space,” he says. And it’s a virtuous circle: Improved balance and stability also improve the performance of smaller, stabilizing muscles that you need for bigger lifts—so you’ll be stronger in your bigger strength training movements. You’ll be more balanced and stable because you’re stronger, and become stronger because you’re more balanced and stable, Nobbe says.
Benefits of Balance Improving Exercises
●Decreases likelihood of dangerous falls and accidents
●Could contribute to improved mortality
●Improves equilibrium and spatial awareness
●Develops athleticism
●Corrects muscle imbalances
●Builds overall strength for compound lifts
10 Balance Improving Exercises
Try these 10 moves to improve your mental map—and your strength, and maybe even your longevity.
Box Step-up with Knee Drive
Start this move with a low step or box, Nobbe says, and progress it: As you master the low step, work to a higher one that increases the flexion of your hip. And once you’ve nailed that, add the knee drive—lifting the non-planted leg up so your thigh is parallel to the floor.
●Stand with a low box or bench in front of you. Hold dumbbells at your sides, a barbell over your shoulders, or perform the move with no weight at all.
●Keep your torso upright as you place your right foot on the bench.
●Press through your heel to bring your left foot up so it’s even with your right foot.
●If performing the optional knee drive, keep raising your left foot until your left thigh is parallel to the floor.
●Return to the ground. Do all your reps on one side, then switch legs and repeat. Aim for sets of 6 to 8 reps if using heavier weight, or 12 to 15 with lighter weights or bodyweight.
Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
One-legged strength moves let you incorporate strength training while you become more stable in positions where you’d usually be off-kilter, says Guillermo Escalante, DSc, C.S.C.S., a professor at California State University in Santa Barbara and NASM’s subject matter expert for the Bodybuilding and Physique Coaching certification. If you’re too off-kilter with this move, he says, start with your back leg in a kickstand position—place the toe of your lifted leg on the ground behind you, and keep it there as you do the rest of the move as described.
●Hold dumbbells in front of your thighs, or a single dumbbell by its ends. Stand with a slight bend in your knees. Lift your left foot off the ground.
●Push your hips back so your chest starts to move towards the floor. As it does, your left leg should start to extend behind you. Keep your hips level as it does. Your arms should hang down from your shoulders like ropes.
●Continue pushing your hips back so your torso continues to move towards the floor, back straight. Descend until you feel your hamstring tighten.
●Squeeze your glutes to stand back to the starting position.
Lateral Lunge
You don’t just balance forward and backward, Nobbe says. Adding in lunges to the side can help build coordination, stability, and injury prevention for unexpected movements that don’t happen right in front of us.
●Stand with your feet together, toes pointed forward. If using dumbbells, hold the weights in front of your legs.
●Take a big step to the right, pushing your hips back and descending as you step by bending your right knee, keeping it tracking over your right toes. Keep your torso upright as you descend, the position of your arms not changing in relation to your body.
●Press back to start, and perform the move to the left.
●Aim for sets of 6 to 8 reps if using heavier weight, or 12 to 15 reps with lighter weights or bodyweight.
Around the Clock
You need stability when your center of gravity shifts in any direction, Fetters say, and this move builds that stability while you move around on one foot. To help tie in your visual balance, she says, pick a spot in front of you and focus on it; to make things harder, focus on looking at your foot as it moves around.
●Stand with your left foot planted on the ground. Try to keep this whole foot pressed into the ground throughout the move. Imagine you’re standing on the face of a clock. Your left foot is in the center, and the “12” is out in front of you.
●Bend your left knee slightly and lift your right foot a few inches off the ground. This is the leg that will move.
●Lean forward slightly, balancing on your left foot, and tap your right foot behind you, at 6 o’clock.
●Bring the right foot back to start, then lean forward slightly, balancing on your left foot, and tap your right foot behind you and to your left, at 8 o’clock.
●Bring the right foot back to start, then lean back slightly, balancing on your left foot, and tap your right foot in front of you at 12 o’clock.
●Go around the clock, tapping at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 o’clock.
●Work your way back to the front, from 6 to 1.
●Switch legs, and repeat, tapping with your left foot this time.
Plank with Shoulder Tap
Balance and coordination don’t just happen in the lower body, Nobbe says. This move improves core stability, but also involves stabilizing and balancing your shoulders and wrists, and “sneaks in some anti-rotation stability in the hips.”
●Assume a classic pushup position with your hands directly beneath your shoulders, and your body forming a straight line.
●Widen your feet slightly to increase your base of support, making them wider than your hips.
●Maintaining a straight body line and keeping your hips level, bend your elbow to bring your right hand up to touch the front of your left shoulder. The move from the floor to your shoulder should take a count of two.
●Hold your hand at your shoulder for a count of two, then return it to the floor under control, taking a count of two to do so.
●Repeat, bringing your left hand up to your right shoulder. Start with 5 taps on each side, working towards 10 or 15 per set. Do 2 to 3 sets with your other core work.
Cable Single-Arm Row
When you’re using a cable, Nelson says, the weight is pulling back on your while you’re pulling it—forcing you to practice balance the way you’ll use it in the real world. To enhance this effect, he says, try doing these rows with a little bit of pace: Pull hard and fast while still under control.
●Stand in a quarter-squat with your feet about hip-width apart, holding one handle of the cable stack in front of you with an extended arm. Set your shoulder blades together and down.
●Maintaining a flat back, bend your elbow to row the handle to the side of your body. Your knuckle should be around your nipple line.
●Return the cable to start, and repeat for all reps. Then switch sides and repeat.
Single-Leg Squat to a Chair
If you can’t do a pistol squat unassisted, don’t worry, Escalante says—start with a chair or bench behind you. Slowly descend until you sit, then practice going from the sitting position to the standing position.
●Stand with a proud chest in front of a bench or chair. Bend your right knee slightly and lift your left leg off the floor in front of you at a 30- to 45-degree angle.
●Keeping your back flat and core braced, push your hips back to lower into a single-leg squat, controlling your body and lowering until your right thigh is parallel to the floor—or until you tap or sit in the chair.
●Press through your right heel to stand back up. Do all your reps on this side, then switch sides.
Bodyweight Squat Jump
When you’re going to fall—or even just when you land—you need balance, coordination, and also power, Nelson says. In the gym, power is the ability not just to create force, but to do so quickly. When you’re falling or stumbling, he says, power lets you react quickly so you can catch yourself and regain your balance. Building explosive moves like a squat jump into your warmup routine can help you develop it.
●Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width.
●Push your hips back to squat while swinging your arms back. Now drive up through your heels so forcefully that your feet leave the ground.
●Land softly, rest, reset, and repeat. Try 2 to 3 short sets of 3 to 5 reps.
If you’re a beginner, do a “fake jump.” Drive up as if you’re going to jump out of the squat, but instead, just come up onto the balls of your feet while raising your arms overhead.
Plyometric Pushup
This move builds power and stability in your upper body. But you don’t have to clap, Nelson says—your hands don’t even need to leave the floor. Just press up forcefully enough that your hands could leave the floor. As you progress, get them to pop off the floor just a little.
●Assume a classic pushup position, with hands directly beneath your shoulders, your body forming a straight line from head to heels.
●Maintain this rigid body line as you bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
●Press back to start forcefully so that your hands leave (or almost leave) the floor, maintaining the straight body line.
●Do 2 to 3 sets of 5 to 8 reps.
Suitcase Carry
Walking, Fetters says, is the most common activity we do that requires balance. And when your equilibrium is thrown off by holding a load on one side, it’s even more important. While doing this exercise, she says, “imagine a string is connected to your head, pulling you as tall as possible.” This, along with maintaining constant tension in your core, can keep you from arching your low back.
●Stand tall with a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell in your right hand, with your right arm hanging by your side.
●Keep your chest tall and brace your core as you walk forward while carrying the weight.
●Walk 20 yards or so, then turn around and come back. Repeat on the other side.
Greg Presto is a fitness and sports reporter and videographer in Washington, DC.
