There are plenty of flashy ways of showing off about your health. We’re somewhat expected, in the age of tracking apps and smartwatches, to always be reaching new, impressive heights. Any new personal best quickly becomes the next challenge to beat. If you’re on Strava, you’ll be able to see exactly how much faster and stronger everyone else is. And why even bother with yoga if you can’t effortlessly turn yourself into a pretzel?
But ask an expert about the greatest indicator of healthy ageing, and they’ll probably give you a much more low-key answer: balance.
Often, people think balancing is just about being able to stand on one leg. But we’re actually balancing almost constantly, without noticing. Walking, for example, is just repeatedly balancing on a single leg.
Although despite the fact we might not think about it often, there’s a lot that goes into good balance. One aspect is strong and supportive muscles, leading to stability in your joints.
Here’s a great core and stability workout from Strong Like Mum:
Proprioception, which is essentially the self-awareness the body has of itself within a space, also plays a big role. Proprioception is also responsible for the amount of force you use in movements. If you’ve ever accidentally flung a box up into the air because you were expecting it to be really heavy, or you’ve experienced the full-body jolt of a step being lower than you thought, that was your proprioception working really well (and getting a shock).
What is a ‘balance age’?
Balance age is an estimate of how well your muscular, joint, and sensory systems maintain stability. The ‘age’ is a generalised rule-of-thumb for what people of different age groups should aim to hold balance for.
Balance age is about proprioception and balance, which both decline with age, as well as our lean muscle mass, but our balance age is something we can always keep working on.
How to test your balance age
The first test is probably one you’ve done plenty of times in your life: standing on one leg (with your eyes open – balancing with your eyes closed is considerably more difficult).
Anyone under the age of 40 should be able to hold a one-leg balance for around 45 seconds.
Ages 40 to 50 should be able to hold it for 40 seconds.
For people aged 50 to 60, the time is 37 seconds.
If you’re between 60 and 70, aim for 32 seconds.
Once we are over 70, try to hold for 20 seconds.
The next test is adding momentum.
While standing on one leg, try rocking forward or backwards and falling into a light lunge on the non-balancing leg. Then push back on the lunging leg to return to the one-legged balance. Forward-backwards is called the sagittal plane of movement.
The same thing works by falling sideways onto the non-balancing leg and pushing back up to return to the balance. This exercises the frontal plane of movement.
How to improve your balance age
Improving the strength and stability of our joints is always going to benefit our ability to balance well and move confidently through the world.
Squats, step-ups onto a step or a high platform like a bench, and alternating lunges are great ways to focus on lower body and core strength.
Doing step-ups to the side combines this lower body exercise while challenging our spatial awareness.
Stepping over something repeatedly also works to exercise these muscles and instincts. You can draw a line on the floor or use a small, soft object like a roll of toilet paper. Stepping either forwards and backwards or side-to-side, and holding the balance on one leg either side, works your ankle, knee and hip stability
Head posture is also worth paying attention to. For each inch that your head tips forwards, it increases the relative stress and strain on your neck by about 10 pounds. Strengthening the upper back and neck also contributes to good posture, which will help decrease your balance age.
Why is balance age so important?
Our balance age is a reflection of the whole chain of the body.
Often, people who have “dodgy” knees will start to see issues in their ankles or lower back, too. Because balancing challenges so many aspects of our health – joints, muscles, spatial awareness, strength, and mobility – we can improve a huge amount of health markers by focusing on our balance.
For more evidence-based workouts, routines, and advice for anyone navigating motherhood, subscribe to Strong Like Mum on YouTube.
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