Use Charts to Guide Your Exercises

Keep yourself interested and challenged in your balance training routine by trying new exercises. Remind yourself visually, and it will be easier to remember to do exercises and do them right. Refer to charts or pictures as reminders, and put them on your wall if you can.

Yoga Focuses on Flexibility to Improve Balance

Yoga improves your fitness and balance by emphasizing flexibility in addition to building strength. The more yoga you do, the more flexible you become, which allows you to progress to more advanced yoga poses. But yoga also builds strength because you are using your own body weight to hold the poses. By contrast, core conditioning exercises are less concerned with flexibility. Core conditioning principles focus on training the body to respond efficiently to outside resistance while moving (whether that is mowing the lawn or hitting a golf ball).

Don't Forget the Cardio

A core fitness program isn't complete without doing something for that muscle in the center of it all--your heart. If you want to combine your cardio and core workouts, opt for one of these five exercises, which both raise the heart rate and engage the core:
-Rowing machines
-Cross-country skiing (on the snow or a machine)
-Swimming
-Roller or ice skating
-Kayaking

Know the "Core Four" Abdominal Muscles that Keep You Standing Tall

Four distinct muscles make up your abdominal support system. Exercise all four to achieve your best balance, strength, and posture. In order of deepest to most superficial, they are:
-transversus abdominis: this muscle is your key abdominal stabilizer and wraps around the abdomen like a belt
-internal and external obliques: these muscles attach on each side of the abdomen at the lower and upper edges, respectively.
-rectus abdominis: this is the area that gets all the attention (six-pack abs, anyone?) and it is tempting to overtrain this muscle with a lot of sit-ups and neglect the others.

Ball-Wall Squat

The squat is one of the best exercises for your lower body, and you can do it with a fitness ball and a wall. Use a corner if you can, but any solid wall will do. Face away from the wall, and put the ball between your lower back and the wall. Staying firm against the ball, bend your knees and hips. Go down about a quarter of the way, then stand back up. Stay firm against the ball and wall. Your goal is to descend to where your thighs are parallel to the floor, but you may have to practice for a while to get there. Place your feet so your shins stay almost vertical and your knees don't go beyond your toes. Do some ball-wall squats every other day. If they get easy for you, do them one leg at a time.

Make Yourself Heavier with a Weight Vest

If you want to add weight directly to your torso, do it with a weight vest. For instance, if you feel you can't walk fast enough to get a good workout, wear a weight vest to make walking harder (and burn more calories). This is safer than using ankle or wrist weights, which can strain your joints. If you want to add resistance to exercises like pull-ups or body-weight squats, use a weight vest. The same device can be used to add resistance to cardio or strength training, and to upper or lower body exercises. A little resistance goes a long way, so start light and don't overload your body.

Foam Rollers Provide Useful Support in Balance Exercises

If you like to use props in your workouts, foam rollers can encourage tense muscles to release if you roll along the affected area as part of your workout. They also serve as balance builders the way fitness balls and BOSU balls do--by forcing the body to engage core muscles. Many videos and books detailing specific foam roller exercises are available. In addition, some teachers of yoga and Pilates classes incorporate foam rollers into their classes.

Getting Started With an Exercise Ball

When you first get started using an exercise ball, it may seem a bit intimidating. Make sure you are using a ball that is the right size for you. Now sit on it, like a chair. (Many people use an Exercise Ball Chair as their desk chair.) Just make sure you sit right in the middle so the ball doesn't roll away with you on it. Have someone position it for you the first time. When you're settled on the ball, lift one foot, put it down, and lift the other. Hold your foot up longer next time. Now walk sideways and let the ball circle around. Do you feel the muscles of your lower torso contracting? That's developing core stability.

How Yoga Improves Balance

It's obvious that the advanced standing yoga poses improve balance, but perhaps it's not so obvious that even seated poses can help balance development. All yoga emphasizes body control, which requires activation of the core muscles. Make sure you emphasize proper body alignment in even the simple poses. You will gain more in terms of balance throughout your body by doing beginning yoga with strict technique than by rushing to advanced poses before you're ready.

Target the Often Neglected Oblique Muscles

The oblique muscles, which attach on each side of the abdomen at the lower and upper edges, respectively, are often neglected by exercisers in pursuit of six-pack abs. But strong obliques are important in helping you keep your balance and allowing you to transfer energy from your trunk to your arms and legs.
Try this simple sit-up variation:
Lie on your back with the left knee bent and left foot flat on the floor. Place the right ankle on top of the left thigh just below the knee and let your right knee relax outward. Place your hands behind your neck with your elbows on the floor. Lift your head and shoulders off the floor and rotate to the right in a fluid motion until your left shoulder blade is just off the floor, keeping your elbow in line with your shoulder. Hold for five seconds and slowly return to the starting position. Repeat for two sets of 8-10 repetitions.
Similar BOSU ball exercises also work the obliques.

Skate on a Slide Board

Speed skaters used to keep in shape during the summer by waxing an old barn door and sliding back and forth on it. That barn door has been replaced by the slide board, which can be used not only by skaters, but by anybody who wants to develop lateral strength, and get a good cardio workout while they are doing it. The slide board conditions muscles most exercises neglect, and strengthens areas around the joints. Put your board on a hard, flat surface, and clear the area of furniture, as this is a challenge to your balance at first.

Better Golf for Back Pain Sufferers

A wobble board is especially good for balance training with golfers who have had back pain. Back pain can lead to faulty muscle recruitment patterns, which are corrected by the use of the wobble board. Use a wobble board in front of a mirror so you can spot problem areas during your workout.

Effective Cross Training

The basic definition of cross training is doing an exercise that is different from, but complementary to, your main exercise activity. For instance, a runner can do bicycling or strength training for cross training. Bicycling can maintain aerobic fitness without the impact of running, and strength training can help improve muscular endurance and prevent injuries. Cross training can also include activities that maintain general fitness, but allow some seasonal fun. For example, someone who usually works out indoors goes to the beach to play volleyball in the summer. You can use specialized equipment that is devised to maintain and improve sports skills during the off season, and that also constitutes cross training.

History of the BOSU Ball

The BOSU ball was invented in 1999 by David Weck as a safer alternative to the traditional exercise ball. The BOSU works in a similar way to an exercise ball, by engaging the core muscles of the body to improve balance, but it is flat on one side, like a fitness ball cut in half, so it will not roll out from under you.

The BOSU ball helps improve balance because the unstable surface forces you to use your core muscles to keep from falling off the ball. As you keep trying to stand on a BOSU ball, you will be eventually be able to keep your balance for longer periods of time because those core muscles will become stronger. Consequently, strong core muscles help your balance and posture during the activities of daily life.

Pilates Offers Unique Balance and Fitness Challenges

Pilates exercises were invented in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates, an exercise enthusiast and fitness trainer. Pilates incorporates a lot of flexibility and range of motion exercises, but it differs from yoga in its use of equipment, such as Pilates foam rollers, designed specifically for Pilates exercises. Pilates is an appropriate workout for people who want to improve their fitness and balance, but don't who wish to avoid the impact on the joints that comes with activities such as aerobics or running.

BOSU Balls Enhance Cardio Workouts

Want to get your blood flowing while working on your balance? Try quarter-turn squat jumps on a BOSU ball. Stand on the top of the BOSU with feet evenly spaced. Bend your knees and hop up, turning your body 90 degrees to the right. Regain your balance and hop back to the starting position, then hop a quarter turn to the left. Continue to alternate hops to the right, center, left, center, for 20 seconds, then march in place on top of the BOSU for a count of 16. Start slowly and mindfully, and be prepared to slip off a few times until you get used to the unstable surface.

Double Crunches: For Advanced Abs

Standard sit-ups not enough? A "double crunch" engages your entire abdomen and works on your balance and fitness because you are raising your shoulders and hips off the floor at once. Start out lying on your back on a mat or carpet with your arms and legs extended firmly towards the ceiling. Inhale deeply, and while exhaling, raise your shoulders and hips off the floor at the same time, pushing your feet towards the ceiling and reach your hands towards your toes. Only the low and middle back remain on the floor. Slowly unroll and lower to the starting position. Go slowly, and don't try to use momentum, and rest as needed when your arms and legs get tired. Work up to as many as 40 repetitions.

Focus on Alignment During BOSU Ball Workouts

When doing exercises on a BOSU ball, your body will wobble due to the unstable, curved surface, and you will be forced to shift your feet to maintain your balance and keep from falling off the ball. You may be tempted to let your back slump. Instead, concentrate on keeping your back straight, your tailbone tucked, and your abdominals in, and you will get the maximum benefit from your BOSU ball workouts.