Balance - is your body balanced?

If you are those who have been reading my work for a while, hopefully you exercise, at least some of the time.

Have you wondered, though, if your body is balanced? Left versus right, and front versus back?

I found to my dismay that each time I stood, without realising it, I would lean to my right foot, taking the pressure off my left. It was inadvertent.

I would not even have noticed if I had not had the good fortune to meet James, who runs Hawkings Dynamics.

Hawkings makes plates that measure the force and pressure of your body. I tried mine.

It showed that my left leg is significantly weaker than my right. It showed that my balance was surprisingly better on my left.

To find out, I had to stand on one leg and then close my eyes. Quickly, I realised how much we depend on sight for our sense of balance.

I was swaying as though I were on strong drugs within seconds.

I also jumped and managed to do 21 cm. A good athlete can do about 32 cm, so I have my work cut out for me.

None of these were things I had thought about before. I am consistent with my exercise. Of course, I sleep well, eat well and do everything else I can think of.

Balance was not one of those things I had thought about.

So once I realized that my balance was not so great, I asked James what I should do. Consult a physiotherapist, was his sanguine advice.

A Physio would give me exercises to strengthen my left leg. He or she would also give me advice on how to improve my balance.

Doing so was vital to good health. It could, for example, determine whether I would fall and break my hip later in life.

An imbalanced body is one of the reasons the risk for a fall increases.

So it is in your interest to find out how balanced or imbalanced your body is. Hawkins is one way to do it.

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