As Balance Awareness Week, is about to begin next week, and although we are still dealing with the effects of COVID-19 and its variants, there are ways to work to improve your balance from the safety of your own home if you are unable to schedule an appointment with our expert Therapists at the WWS Physical Therapy and Vestibular Rehabilitation Clinic., Doylestown, PA. We encourage our patients to challenge themselves to help fuel their own recovery.
There are many aspects of balance that we use in our daily life without realizing. For example, when we swing a golf club we shift our weight from our front foot to our back foot, which narrows our base of support and challenges our balance. The same thing occurs when we are playing tennis, we shift our weight from side to side when shuffling across the court and shift from one foot to the other with front or backhand hits.
Additionally, the head movement and eye-tracking that is required to follow the ball can challenge our balance as well. For that reason, when treating patients with balance deficits we like to challenge them with activities to facilitate weight shifting and eye-tracking.
One of the simplest versions of this activity is standing in place and tossing a ball back and forth with a partner. This activity forces the participant to track with their eyes and move their head to follow the ball. We can increase the difficulty by tossing the ball further away from them, overhead, or down low. This forces the participant to weight shift and reaches outside of their base of support, further challenging their balance.
If this activity feels too easy, another progression that we often use in the clinic is walking with a ball bounce. We can have the patient walk while bouncing a ball and catching it themselves or have them walk and receive a pass from a therapist. The addition of walking further challenges the patient to track with their eyes and shift their weight while moving.
These tasks can be easily recreated at home with the help of a spouse or family member. As always, the most important thing to consider is safety, so be sure to choose the task that is an appropriate level of challenge for you. Remember, if you are having any difficulty with these activities, WWSPT Therapists are here to help!
Dr. Cassie Zanolini. PT, DPT,
WWS Physical Therapy and Vestibular Rehabilitation,
Doylestown, PA.
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