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Focus on Fitness: Benefits of balance training

Karen Cuevas/For Steamboat Today

I often have my clients standing and balancing on one leg or toe while using a cable machine or dumbbells in the gym or on balance boards.

Balance training is something I try to incorporate in personal training, group exercise classes and even in the water class that I teach. Not only does balance training remind the brain to execute the proper muscles, but it also helps with core stabilization and hip stabilization.

It is difficult to stand on one leg or on an uneven surface without proper posture, so balance training engages and recruits all the muscles involved, from your head to your feet. If your core musculature is weak, it can throw the entire body off and lead to injury.



Balance training isolates specific muscle groups while simultaneously focusing on core stability.

It is not uncommon for one quadricep to be weaker than the other. Balance training helps isolate the weaker of the two and strengthen it properly.



Balance training is not only beneficial in helping prevent injury, it is also often used to help recover from injury, as well.

In corrective exercise, balance training helps re-educate the brain to execute the proper (prime moving) muscles. When injury occurs, balance is often thrown off, because other muscle groups take over, while the sight of injury loses some if its strength. Once healed, it is important to re-train those weakened muscles to execute properly and help prevent further injuries.

It helps with coordination, athletic skill and posture, and it burns more calories. Balance training is beneficial to people of all ages and all fitness levels.

Karen Cuevas CPT, CES, FNS, is a personal trainer and fitness instructor at Old Town Hot Springs. She is the instructor for CRB (Cardio, Resistance, and Balance), one of Old Town Hot Springs’ newest classes, designed for adults ages 60 and older.


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