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January 20, 2011

Drawing with the feet! Improve your balance

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Prepared for a requested article for "The Retiree" magazine ("Staying Agile and Pain Free").

This clip is the visual support for Exercise 2 from the article, "Drawing with the feet". This is a simple, do-anywhere, balance developing sequence. Deceptively simple looking, doing the full sequence is moderately difficult and practise will enhance your proprioception and balance.

Most don't know that falls are a major cause of death in the over 45 group. Many of these accidents happen in the shower, too. A few simple exercises can help.

Read transcription

Kit:

My colleague, Dave, is going to demonstrate the 'writing with the feet' exercise, which we have found so fantastic for balance. Now, this is how it's done. He takes his weight on his left leg, like so, but don't shift the body's way too far, just enough to balance. He lifts the other leg off the ground and you'll see it's about 300 mm in front of the foot, and then he draws the circle or the Mobius strip or the figure eight with the heel of his foot. That's an important point we found. Notice, he's trying to keep the rest of the body as still as possible. There's no movement in the hip side to side; his shoulders are still and the head is still. So what he's doing is he's playing with those two or three different shapes in front. That's the first exercise. If you're doing it for the first time, then put your foot back down on the ground and rest. Take a little break. You'll find otherwise the muscles in the hips can cramp up on you but of course in time, you'll want to put all these things together.



Kit:

Now the next sequence, are the same shapes, but made out to the side. So again, you take the leg out to the side a little bit, lift the chest a tiny bit, make sure that your spinal alignment is as perfect as you can make it, and then using the heel once again, and the foot pointing to the front, draw the circle, draw the figure eight, draw the Mobius strips, one or all of those. Don't get too carried away and if you look closely at his ankles, you'll see the ankle stabilization muscles are working like crazy, and that's what we want. And then relax for a second, Dave, and put the foot back down on the ground once more. And then we're going to do what I personally find is the most difficult of the sequence, which is the leg out behind.



Kit:

So you take your weight, once again on the left leg, just for demonstration purposes. Take the other leg behind you a little bit like this. Try to keep the trunk upright and you'll feel a stretch down the front of the thigh as you do that, so you're stretching the hip flexors a little bit. And then again, with the heel, draw the circle as Dave is doing, one direction, then change direction. Now the figure of eight. One, two, three, four, and then the Mobius strip, which is a horizontal figure of eight. And then, foot back on the ground. Excellent. Now we'll do the other side now.



Kit:

T his time he won't rest. We'll do the whole lot together and this is what you'll be working up to in time. So take your weight in your right foot, Dave, when you're ready and draw with the heel remember, not the ball of the foot. Keep the ankle still. A great colleague of ours, Steve Maxwell, gave us that tip. Circle in one direction, then the other. Then, the figure of eight laying on the side like so. Notice how the only part of the body that's moving is that leg. That's what you want. And now out to the side, Dave, when you're ready, slowly. Make the transitions as smooth as possible. This is a balancing exercise, remember. And if you look at the muscles in his ankles and you can't see the ones in hips, but the ankles and feet are working hard. That's what we want.



Kit:

And in the beginning, by all means, just do a circle out to the front in both directions or a figure eight. What he's doing at the moment, by combining all of these different movements, it's quite a difficult exercise. And when you're ready, Dave, out behind you now. Always more difficult. Lift the chest. You'll feel a stretch down the front of the leg that's going out behind you, and then draw those shapes with the heel. Circle in one direction, circle in the other direction, the figure of eight. Beautifully done. And the other direction, and then last of all, the Mobius strip. Now, this one's the hardest for another reason, too. You can't see the foot in your peripheral vision. And then once you finish relax, have a little bit of a wriggle, and that's the sequence over.



Kit:

I'm going to show you the next progression in the sequence, which are the same set of exercises, but done on a bent, supporting leg. I'm going to turn out to the side to show you what this looks like. I'm going to support myself on my right leg. The same postural cues apply though. Lift the chest, bring the chin in a little bit if you have to, bend both legs, and then this time, take the leg out to the front, keep it straight, but the supporting leg you'll see is quite bent. And then watch we do the little circles in both directions, and all the other things that we did before the figure of eight, the Mobius strips, and so on, and out to the side and behind, they're all done the same, except you're on a bent supporting leg.



Kit:

You'll find this significantly more difficult, not to mention these muscles get tired, just holding yourself up. Work with these carefully and look, contact us on the website and let us know how you're going with these exercises. From a development of balance and strength point of view, we found these absolutely sensational and we teach these same exercises in class. Thanks.


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