What is balance?

Physical therapy

﻿Hi there, my name is Sophie Brazier. I'm a children's physiotherapist, thank you for joining me today for our lesson. So we're in unit five on balance and coordination. And this is lesson one. And what we'll do today, is we'll be looking at what is balance? So we'll have a little introduction into that. And then there'll be an activity getting you to start looking at your balance, so it'll be a one leg stand. And don't worry, there'll be some options of how to perhaps simplify the activity and we'll take a further look at it after the demonstration. So all you need today is yourself and if you need any help from a parent or carer, then you might want to ask them as well now, so if you get yourself ready, and then we can make a start on the lesson today. I just like to give you a little message from our team. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. So we will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. Each lesson will have ideas and activities that can be carried out either at home or in school. And any information I'm giving you is to be used alongside any specific strategies or resources that may have been given to you by your child's school or perhaps a therapist. So if you have got any questions, or you need help tailoring this to their needs, then please contact your local therapy service. So let's have a little think about what is balance? So balance is being able to remain upright and steady. How does this happen and help? So through information that we get from our eyes, joints, muscles and skin, so receptors in those areas as to where our body is, in space and from our inner ear as to how our head is moving. So all these things help and contribute to our balance. And our body uses this information to change the muscle activity and the muscle tone, so readiness for movement. And this these are known as equilibrium reactions. So these things happen automatically, and it just shows you how amazing our body is really. And also it can help change our posture, move body parts to keep us in the middle, which is known as our righting reaction. So if you think about if you're walking down a path or a street, and there's something in the way, where you trip over something, your balance can help because you then, can correct yourself or to prevent yourself from falling over. So these righting reactions are also part of our balance system. And it also helps to focus more with our eyes. And there are different types of balance. So there is sitting balance, standing balance, static balance, so still and dynamic, so moving. So setting balance, this is when you need the balance to keep your body upright and steady and sitting. So all those postures where you might be sitting and they could be unsupported postures or you might have some support in them. But your balance plays an important role in sitting. And standing balance, so this is when you're keeping your body upright and steady and standing. And static balance, so this is when you're still, but what you need to be thinking about here is that you're remaining steady and in a fixed position, but it might be that your body still but a limb might need to move. So maybe your arm for picking something up, but your body needs to stay still so that you're stable to then carry out that activity. And dynamic balance, so this is your moving balance. So these, this is the things when you're walking, when you're jumping, when you're doing lots of gross dynamic movement, and your body is able to remain steady whilst you're carrying out all those movements. So what I'd like you to do now, is have a go at this activity of standing on one leg. So you're going to start with your feet hip width apart. You're going to bend your knee and lift your left foot off the floor and your left knee should be bent up, or right leg is going to be straight and have your foot in contact with the floor and this can help you balance. So it's a little bit like a stork or a flamingo. And you're going to try and hold for between three and five seconds to start with, and repeat on the other side. And if you pause the video, have a go at this after the demonstration and then rejoin me afterwards, and I'll go through some options of how to extend and simplify. So now I'm just going to demonstrate the one leg stand activity. So if you watch now and then you can pause afterwards and have a go yourself. So your starting position, you want to be about hip width apart, then you want to lift, so that's like this, and then you're going to lift one leg up. So you're going to keep your right leg on the floor, and you're going to bend up and I'll show you from the side so you can hold on as well, so your right leg bends up like this, and you can either put your hands to stand by your side or put your hands up besides your balance, and you're going to hold for between three and five seconds, and then bring your leg down, and then you're going to swap to the other leg. So you're going to lift that leg up and try not to touch it into your body, try and keep it away, so that you're keeping nice and supportive, and I'll show you from the side. So you're going to do like that. Some people like to hold on to their leg, but I would prefer you just to do it like this today, and if you need to hold on to something you can. So there are a couple of options and see how you get on and then you can rejoin us afterwards, and I'll go through some other ways to think about the activity. So let's think about that activity a little bit more. Did your body feel wobbly? That is completely normal because you're on one leg, so your balance system was working and that is quite a challenging activity. Or could you keep it very still and is your balance quite good? So you can make the activity easier for counting, for less time, or support yourself, so put your hand on a wall, or on some furniture to begin with, to just get your sort of bearings and steadiness on one leg, but with a bit of support, and did one side feel easier. So, sometimes you can have the same amount of balance on each side of your body, or you might have a better leg to stand on. So sometimes people have a preferred side for their balance, and it's just interesting to see which yours is, and what was happening in other areas. Did you move either your head, trunk or arm, so your trunk is the middle part of your body? Did you have to step forward? So did you lose your balance a little bit of wobble and have to step forward onto the leg? If you did, that doesn't matter, that's normal. And the more you practise these things, and the more you try it and do it in small bursts, then the easier it gets, and the information that's being fed back from all those receptors is improving your balance and the more you try things and practise them, the easier it can become. So to make it easier in the other areas, you can also count for less time, so supporting yourself on furniture or a wall. And what are your eyes doing? My tip here, is pick a point ahead of you when you're trying to balance that's not moving, so don't pick something that's moving around or a person because they usually do move. But pick a spot if you're doing it inside on a wall or if you're doing outside something that's quite stable, and just having that focus can actually really help your balance. So if you pause the video now, you can have a little think about those options. And if you wanted to try it again, then you're more than welcome. And then if you restart the video after to rejoin me. So now that brings us to the end of our lesson. So I'd like to thank you for joining me. I hope you found it useful and you test it out your balance a little bit with that activity. You might see over the unit how you can develop your balance and try some other activities, which are a bit more interesting than just a one leg stand. So see how you get on. And I hope you can find some other options as well. So please join me next time for lesson two of unit five and we will look again at balance, but we will be looking at why balance is important. So all that leaves me to say now, is take care, have a great rest of your day and I will see you soon. Goodbye.

What is balance?

What is balance?

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