When did you last try balancing on one foot with your eyes closed? It might seem like child’s play, but it’s a powerful exercise that can help prevent falls, especially as you age.
But why is this so important? As we get older, our lower leg muscles lose some of their stiffness and ability to react quickly, making it harder to catch ourselves if we stumble or trip. That’s where eyes-closed balance exercises come in. By challenging our proprioception – our body’s sense of where it is in space –, we can improve our lower leg strength and agility, keeping us from falling in the first place.
So, let’s break down how the eyes-closed balance exercise works. First, stand on one foot with your front knee bent and most of your weight on your front leg. Place a credit card or something similarly thin under your front heel to shift your weight onto the balls of your foot and activate your lower calf. Then, close your eyes and maintain your balance for 30-45 seconds. If you want to make it even harder, add some head turns to challenge your balance.
During the exercise, you might find that certain aspects of your balance vary daily. Sometimes, you might be able to do it quickly; other times, you might struggle. This is natural and expected, so don’t get discouraged if you suddenly seem to lose your balance. Consistency and practice are crucial to getting results, so keep at it!
But let’s get real – balance exercises can be a little boring. Sure, they’re essential for our health, but they aren’t the most exciting way to spend our time. So, to make things a little more fun, let me tell you about a time when my balance (or lack thereof) got the best of me.
A few years ago, I was on vacation in Hawaii and decided to try something new – stand-up paddleboarding. I had seen people do it before, and it looked like a fun, easy activity. Boy, was I wrong?
As soon as I got on the board, my lower legs started trembling with effort. I could hardly stand, let alone paddle. But I was determined to make it work. I pushed off the shore and started wobbling down the coast, trying to find balance.
That’s when a rogue wave hit me from the side. I lurched to the left, my legs flailing wildly as I desperately tried to stay on the board. But it was useless – I fell into the water with a loud splash, and my dignity and balance shattered.
Looking back, I realize my lack of lower leg strength and proprioception significantly affected my paddleboarding failure. If only I had known about the eyes-closed balance exercise, I might have been able to avoid that embarrassing wipeout.
So, let my misfortune be a lesson to you – don’t underestimate the power of lower leg strength and balance. It might not always be the most exciting thing to work on, but it can make a big difference in your overall health and well-being. And who knows, maybe it’ll save you from a paddleboarding mishap of your own.
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Summary of Transcript:
This video highlights the importance of lower leg stiffness for efficient movement and fall prevention as we age. The exercise demonstrated involves standing on one foot with 90% of the weight on the front leg, a credit card under the front heel, and eyes closed to improve proprioception in the lower leg. Turning the head side-to-side adds a cognitive load, making the exercise more challenging. The speaker emphasizes the importance of practicing this exercise regularly to maintain lower leg variability and reactiveness.
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Summary of Description:
In a Peter Attia Drive podcast clip, Peter and Beth Lewis demonstrate the proper way to train eyes closed balance, a technique that can improve strength and balance. The Peter Attia Drive podcast is focused on maximizing longevity and covers topics such as exercise, nutritional biochemistry, and mental health. Peter Attia founded Early Medical, a practice that applies Medicine 3.0 principles to lengthen lifespan and improve healthspan. The podcast is for informational purposes only, and no doctor-patient relationship is formed using the information provided.
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Source Description
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In this clip, Peter and Beth Lewis demonstrate how to properly train eyes closed balance. Additionally, they explain the strength and balance benefits of the exercise.
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About:
The Peter Attia Drive is a deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing longevity and all that goes into that, from physical to cognitive to emotional health. With over 60 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including exercise, nutritional biochemistry, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and more.
Peter Attia is the founder of Early Medical. This medical practice applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients to lengthen their lifespan and simultaneously improve their healthspan.
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