Today’s post isn’t my usual self-defense lesson. I decided to throw in a few videos about developing balance. To me, it’s all about knowing where I am in a space. It goes without saying that martial artists have great balance (not necessarily the newbies — it takes time and practice), but why would you need better balance? How does it help you in a self-defense situation?
- You become super-aware of your body, including its strengths and weaknesses.
- You can better sense when your attacker is off-balance. (They aren’t paying much attention to their balance.)
Here’s one about the Stork Pose:
This is a one leg squat reach. And, yeah, that’s the P90x guy. I love his workouts.
Why is balance training critical? Well, I did a little reading and came across this from The Active Center for Health and Wellness. (I don’t know much about them, but this list makes a whole lot of sense. And, my other reading supports what they wrote. )
- It benefits your neuromuscular coordination – basically it helps improve the communication between your brain and muscles.
- It helps with muscle isolation – during balance training you have to maintain stabilization and you are forced to engage an individual muscle predominantly so that you are not using other muscles to help you “cheat.”
- During balance training your body has to work that much harder to stabilize – in turn this helps you to burn more calories.
- It helps w hip stabilization – with single leg type balance exercises your glute medius is engaged and worked. Therefore, this helps with hip stabilization.
- It helps with core stabilization – this in turn helps to improve your coordination, athletic skill, and posture.
Go balance!
