This week is balance awareness week! Balance is a skill and a complex one that involves the brain, muscles, and parts of the inner ear. And as with any other skill, if you stop practicing, it’s likely you’ll lose this skill over time, making it harder for you to stay upright and maintain proper posture. As children, we play with balance and develop it quite naturally but as we get older, and often with that comes being less mobile (sitting down at a desk, in cars, or on public transport for hours each day), we don’t often think about our balance. Injury and medical conditions can also lead to our balance deteriorating, which knocks our confidence and leaves us more afraid of slipping, tripping and falling, and hurting ourselves.

However, through Pilates, there is a range of exercises that can improve balance and strengthen the major muscle groups in the body and around your core.

Maintaining good balance is so important as we get older as we’re less likely to fall if we have good balance, and the act of standing on one leg strengthens our leg and hip bones, reducing the likelihood of breaking a bone if we do fall. This is essential if you have a bone condition such as Osteopenia or Osteoporosis.

Here are some exercises that you can perform at home in a matter of minutes and begin improving your balance and enjoying the benefits that bring to your day-to-day life.

If you suffer from a condition that can impact balance, such as osteoporosis, vertigo, dizziness, stroke, or Parkinson’s Disease, you can still practice these exercises, in fact, it’s essential to help prevent deterioration of balance, coordination, and strength. Just use items to support you, such as a wall or chair to hold to support you.

Here are 7 exercises you can try at home with minimal equipment, and with consistency and practice, you’ll start to see improvements in your confidence and your day-to-day life.

1. A very simple yet effective movement to improve balance is to stand and slowly lift your heels from the floor, coming into standing on your tiptoes, then lower your heels back down and repeat at least 10 times. A great way to build up the effectiveness and boost the benefits is to slow down the movement as much as possible – slowly ‘peel’ your heels off the floor and control how long you stay lifted and then slowly press your heels back down. You’ll quickly feel how much you’re getting better at balancing on your toes and how it’s strengthening your calf muscles (back of lower legs), ankles, and gluteal (buttock) muscles.

2. Your next step is to try standing one leg Lift one leg off the floor and raise your knee to be in line with your hips and try to hold this position for a few seconds. Keep practicing and, over time, start to hold your balance for longer; perhaps you can get to 10 seconds or more! If this is not achievable for you, there are many ways to break down this challenge and give yourself more support. After all, you’re training your body to improve gradually from what it’s capable of now to become capable of more with practice and perseverance. Perfection shouldn’t be expected immediately. Start by shifting your weight onto one foot and begin to lift the other off the floor, slowly. You can support yourself by gently resting your fingertips on the backrest of a chair or kitchen bench placed in front of you.

It’s important that the chair or bench is about waist height, as you shouldn’t be bending over during this exercise. If this is difficult, you can keep your toes lightly on the floor, as even this will begin to challenge your leg, gluteal (buttock) muscles, and core, which in turn strengthens and stabilises your hips, improving your balance over time, as the exercise is repeated.

Once you can hold this position with confidence, you can begin to repeat the motion of lifting your knee to hip height. This will help to strengthen your hip-flexor muscles too, giving more support to your hips.