Good article on balance

[Tom]

What is perturbation, or reactive balance, training? - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/perturbation-reactive-balance-athletes-stroke-fall/2021/07/05/a907dcb8-d925-11eb-8fb8-aea56b785b00_story.html

[gone_foiling]

Paid article

[Wetstuff]

Ya, it's frustrating, the Post, Times, BBC, etc. seem to want $ for words.  As someone with drop-foot, all these types of subjects interest me greatly.  Here's a quick summary.



As a practical sort, I can tell you 'a walk in the woods' will give you variable terrain and many types of snags to help tune your trypsie system.  Long pants, and/or kneepads, are needed. I can stand 'till I am bored on Robert's, of Blue Planet, balance gizmo but fall (in a good way) all over the place in my woods.  ("PU your feet azz'ole!")

One cool exercise with a pre-COVID personal trainer was a simple rope ladder on the ground where you lifted one knee quite high, like in a marching band, held it for a second or so then, placed the foot skipping an opening.  That was hard ...in a good way.

Luckily, we 'sorta surfer' types are already a lot better at this than the avg. Joe.  Press on.

Jim

[Tom]

For those that can't access the article, I did a copy/paste of some of the verbiage. This will be disjointed, but here are some of the key points in the article.
 
Perturbation-based balance training might be one of the most versatile fitness techniques you’ve never heard of. Touted as a way to prevent falls among older adults and those with neurological conditions, it can also help recreational and elite athletes avoid injury and speed up rehabilitation.

How PBT works
According to Robert Donatelli, a Las Vegas-based physical therapist whose patients include professional athletes, Olympians and older adults with neurological impairments, balance largely depends on three factors: vestibular performance, or the functioning of the structures in the inner ear that give your brain information about your position; vision; and proprioception, a.k.a. kinesthesia, or your body’s ability to sense where your limbs are in space and how much force they’ll need to generate for a given movement. If you challenge any one of these systems — by standing on an unsteady surface, for example, or closing your eyes or moving your limbs — “it will make the others work harder,” Donatelli says.

 PBT, the challenges are made to a person’s reactive balance control (the kind that helps you recover when you start to fall), rather than a person’s anticipatory balance control, which helps you maintain balance.

Challenges differ based on fitness levels. For recreational athletes, PBT could involve standing on one leg for 30 seconds with their eyes closed. Elite athletes, however, might do the same and have no problem maintaining their balance; in this case, they might need to move to an unstable surface, such as a Bosu ball, and stand on one leg and catch or kick a ball to test their reactive balance.
He cites a study that found that college soccer players who included perturbation exercises in their warm-ups reduced their injury rates by nearly half compared with those who did not.

According to Wilk, “the airplane” is a classic move with variations to meet different ability levels. Stand on one leg with a slight bend in your knee. With your arms outstretched, hinge forward from your hips. When your back is almost parallel to the floor, extend your arms out to your sides and twist your trunk in either direction, as if you’re “landing the plane.”

[MLB]

 I just saw today that Costco had a pretty darn nice balance board for 29 or $39.