Balance Pad: Exercises for Your Workout

Just as muscles require training to gain strength, body balance relies on specific exercises to improve. To do this, you need a balance pad, but what is a balance pad? A balance pad lists among the many fitness solutions designed to help in balance training. It’s a square-shaped piece of foam that’s about 3 inches thick. Balance and stability training involve moderate exercises that trigger your body to employ stabilizing muscles, with the main aim of improving balance.

When you step on this fitness tool, your body losses stability and you’re forced to engage various body muscles to balance yourself on the sponge. Balance pad exercises are important, especially as one gets older. They help to gain stability and prevent falling.

Here’s a detailed outline of balance pad benefits plus several example exercises.

Balance Pad: Which Muscles Work and Benefits

A comprehensive body fitness should not just focus on strength but also on balance. This is because balance exercises are essential in everyday life. Stability is needed in all types of sports and all types of workouts.

Great for boosting all your exercises, a balance pad helps to engage small as well as large muscles. For instance, standing on the pad helps to work out small muscles around your ankle. It also helps to work out your core and all muscles of your feet.

Best part, it gives stability to your knee joints, ankles, hips, and shoulders. This stability minimizes the risk of injury such as sprained ankle. For senior citizens, balance helps to prevent falling and injuries that would result from such falls.

Everyone relies on stability, sometimes without even realizing it. By using a balance board, your body awareness, coordination, and response time improve. In case you slip or stumble, you can fittingly regain balance much faster. The earlier you get into balance training; the more stability you’ll have later in life.

A balance pad will prove useful not just for balance exercises, but also for pain therapy and other workouts that involve sitting or lying down.

Balance Pad: The Workouts

Supposing you don’t know how to use balance pad for workouts, the following exercises will help you. They’re divided into two categories depending on your level. That is, balance pad exercises for athletes and seniors.

Balance Pad: Exercises for Seniors

Balance pad exercises for seniors and beginners are quite basic and less intensive. If you’re just starting out, it’s important to have a safety mechanism. Ensure that you have a chair next to you or two walls or anything that can support you and prevent you from falling. Once you do that, try out these balance pad exercises.

• Head-turning. Step on the pad with both feet at shoulder width stance, turn your head to the left then to the right. Repeat this for about 30 seconds. Next, turn your head up, then down, for about 30 seconds. If this seems too easy, try to do it a bit faster and let your body move further.
• Step up and down. Stand next to the pad while facing it. Step on it with one foot followed by the next foot. Reverse this move to step out of the pad. Next, step over to the other side of the pad, then turn back and step over to the first side. Now, do lateral stepping, in and out of the pad, while you’re not facing it directly.
• Toe-standing. Stand on the pad and try to lift yourself by standing on your toes. Hold this position for a few seconds. Then, try to stand with your heels and alternate them with your toes.
• Single-foot standing. Stand on the pad with one foot for about 30 seconds. If it gets hard, you can opt to support yourself with a nearby object. Do the same with the other foot. Next, make some marching movements by lifting your knees slowly in an alternating manner. If it’s too easy, lift your knee even further and do it a bit faster.

Balance Pad: Exercises for Athletes

Let’s say you’re a professional athlete or you’re already familiar with the basic balance pad workout, try challenging yourself with the following balance pad exercises for athletes.

• Jumps. You can jump with both feet or with one foot. Start by jumping with both feet without stepping out of the foam, then, jump in and out of the foam. If you have two balance pads, you can put one on top of the other and jump in and out with both feet.
• Next, start jumping with one foot without getting out of the foam. Then, try to jump in and out of the foam with one foot. Repeat this several times then change to the other foot. Repeat the same moves with your arms folded around your chest. To challenge yourself more, try to do it a bit faster and from all directions.

• Squats. You can do three types of squats on the foam. First, do the normal squats with both feet on the pad. Secondly, step on the pad with your toes and do the squats. Thirdly, do the squats with just one foot.
• To make it more challenging, put your hands behind your head, then make the squat moves with one foot. Repeat the move several times before changing to the other foot. You can also use dumbbells while doing squats on the pad.
• Planks. To do planks, you need to lie down on all four and lift yourself up as if you’re doing push-ups. You can do this with straight arms or with arms bent at the elbow. Keep a straight body and hold yourself in that position for about 30 seconds.

Use the balance pad to support your hands or your toes or both if you have two pads. Next, do the side planks while you support yourself with one arm. You can do this with straight legs, crossed legs, or legs bent at the knees.

No Limits for Balance Pad

You can do many other exercises with a balance pad, such as push-ups, lunges or even trying to stand with your head. You can get creative and come up with your own exercises. What’s important, is to do it safely.

Technogym’s balance pad is non-slippery, so you can do your exercises without having issues of slipping on the floor. Get your balance pad today and enjoy limitless exercises.