Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Balance
Yesterday Dr. Romanov wrote an article about balance in running. Today he would like to show you some ways to achieve that balance as well as improve your coordination. If you notice, many of the drills Dr. Romanov shows are advanced drills found in the book. Balance drills should be an important part of your training regimen. Just take five minutes at least once a week to perform some of these exercises to improve your balance and overall coordination.
The first exercise, focuses on balance on a thin piece of wood or something not readily stable. Balance on two feet, then one, then change.
Do this until you have no problem maintaining balance. If you’ve got this under control, try to lightly bounce on each foot as you maintain balance; this strengthens your foot.
Moving along we get to the Medicine Ball. Standing on a rounded object is no easy task. This is a very advanced drill, please do not attempt on hardwood or tile floors (or anything hard for that matter). Please have supervision while attempting this. 
On a serious note, this exercise helps develop body coordination wholistically. You must be entirely focused to be able to do this correctly.
Balance on two feet. Then try one at a time. Move the airborne leg up and down simulating changing position. This unstable surface strengthens your foot laterally and also helps with pronation/supination problems.
As a side note, we recommend Synthetic Leather Medicine Balls because they are more stable on the ground, do not roll as much, and are easier to perform exercises with.
For the next drill we perform simple jumps with a jump rope. This can exercise can be performed without a jump rope. However the addition of the jump rope adds an extra element of coordination to the routine, making this an advanced drill that strengthens your feet.
Hop on two feet, then switch to one at a time. Focus on muscle elasticity to barely jump off of the ground. Do not jump up and down; quickly and lightly hop. Do this for a couple of minutes before and after a training session for warm up and cool down. Doing this drill at the end of a training session also greatly aids in fine tuning your coordination after your run.
Finally, Dr Romanov shows us balance on an Indo Board. This drill is aimed at stabilizing the trunk of the body. Although primarily created for surfers and indoor surf training, Dr. Romanov uses the board for trunk stability exercises and drills. Having something roll laterly beneath you forces your entire body to stay coordinated. This drills should be performed with both feet spread at both ends of the board. Users should try this on a carpet first, as it slows the cylinder rolling beneath. For more advanced application try doing the same thing on a hard surface as well as progressively more your feet closer together. Please be very cautious when performing this drills and make sure you do it with a partners assistance at first.
If you would like to do other more advanced drills on the Indo Board we would recommend you get the Indo Board Package. It includes the Indo Balance Board, IndoFlo Cusion, and Roller. The cusion adds an element of extra instability by forcing you to balance in all directions instead of just laterally. Doing so, the cusion is also a safer alternative due to its lower height off of the ground.
All in all, this week is all about balance. Improved balance adds a number of benefits to your run and training. Not only will your balance be better, you can even begin correcting your pronation/suppination issues without orthotics! Try some of these exercises in your next training, let everyone know how you did!
Download the Clip in mp4 format here. Thanks and have a great week!
POSE vLOG • Pose Running • Balance • Running Drills/ Exercises • (1) Comments • Permalink