The Importance of Practicing Balance Exercises with your Eyes Closed and with Head Movements

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Balance is something many of us take for granted—until it becomes challenging. Practicing balance exercises regularly can help improve stability, reduce the risk of falls, and support overall confidence in daily activities. Two simple ways to challenge your balance are practicing balance exercises with your eyes closed and moving your head while maintaining balance. Why Practice Balance With Your Eyes Closed? When your eyes are open, vision plays a major role in helping you stay upright. Closing your eyes removes that visual input and encourages your body to rely more on other systems, including: Your inner ear (vestibular system), which helps…

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The Importance of Foot Health for your Balance

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Feet play a critical role in balance, mobility, and overall stability, especially as we age. Here’s why they matter so much—and how they can impact balance: 1. Foundation of the Body Feet are literally our foundation. Each foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, and over 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments, all working together to support movement and posture. When something’s off—sensation, pain, other abnormalities—it can affect everything from the knees to the hips and back, throwing off balance. 2. Sensory Feedback and Proprioception Feet have a high concentration of nerve endings that provide sensory feedback to the brain about body position—this…

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Spring Better Your Balance Challenge

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Here is the PDF of the Spring balance challenge. You can print it yourself, I can print it out for you or you can get a copy at the Perinton Rec Center and Pittsford Senior Center. I have also made a video with demonstrations of the exercises and the link for that is here: https://youtu.be/0rr4IophTmk?si=ai3Jeqx9avHjeCQE If you have any questions please let me know! If you would like ways to make it a little less challenging or more challenging please let me know and I'd be happy to accommodate. Have fun with it and get ready for all the nice…

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Is it Time to Change up your Walking Routine?

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Caucasian women walking in park

Walking is one of the best things you can do for your health and there are ways to change it up to make it even better! Change speeds! This challenges your balance and your muscles more than maintaining one speed for the duration of your walk. If you walk the same route everyday try reversing it or walking somewhere new. This also helps keep your brain stimulated. Try to include inclines and declines,( as long as you can do it safely), to work your muscles differently. This can also challenge your balance and posture. Make sure on the inclines you…

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Are You Activating Your Core?

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You have probably heard of your core or activate your core or use your core or strengthen your core. Do you know how or why it is so important?  If you are unsure about what your core is, it is what connects your lower body to your upper body. It involves the muscles in your trunk, abs, hips, pelvis and muscles surrounding your spine. It plays an important role in keeping us stable and balanced. Which means it helps prevent falls and also prevents any other injuries! The stronger our core the better our balance and coordination is. The core…

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Simple and Quick Activities to Try with Grandkids

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Here are some fun energy burners for you to try with your grandkids. I know my kids love doing these activities with their grandparents. They can be played both indoors and outdoors and only with things you can find around your house! Red Light Green Light Green means go, yellow means slow down, and red means stop. Sometimes we add in different colors like purple for backwards walking. This game is also good for grandparents to work on speed changes and reaction time! Simon Says A classic game that can be as active as you want it to be. Some…

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Benefits of Small Group Training

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Meeting with a personal trainer one-on-one may be intimidating to some people. It can also be intimidating to start a group fitness class that has a lot of participants. If either of these sound like you, you might benefit from small group training.  There are many benefits to small group training, such as: Exercise programs are designed by a personal trainer to meet your individual needs and goals The small group allows for camaraderie which can also increase motivation, accountability and make it more fun  The personal trainer is able to build a connection with each individual and give proper…

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Why Posture Matters

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Did your mother ever tell you to stand up tall or sit up straight? Well, she was right if she did nag you about your posture. Posture matters! Poor posture can lead to neck, shoulder, and back pain. Exercising with poor posture can increase risk of injury and cause more harm than good. Poor posture can also decrease your balance and increase risk of falling. Good posture allows you to stay active longer, have a more youthful appearance, increases your energy level and improves balance. It also decreases risk of falling, strengthens core muscles, improves blood flow, increases confidence and…

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Get Balanced, Stay Balanced, Be Balanced

Read more about the article Get Balanced, Stay Balanced, Be Balanced

Most of the time we don’t think about our balance until we feel unsteady or until we have a fall. However our balance starts to decline as early as our 30’s. The good news is that we can improve it with exercise! There are many factors that contribute to decreased balance as we age such as vision loss, medication side effects, decreased muscle strength, other health conditions, fear of falling, not getting enough sleep and the list goes on.  Training static and dynamic balance can increase your coordination, better your reaction time, increase you mobility and agility, reduce fitness related…

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