No Equipment Balance Workout from Home | Weekly Balance
Hey, everybody, I hope you guys are all having an amazing day!
Today, we're going to be doing a quick 15 minute beginner-friendly, no equipment balance workout. Check out the live walkthrough below!
Coach Lindsay: Welcome, everybody, I'm super excited to have you back here for the second week of Weekly Balance! And so it's going to be a little bit similar to last week. So while I kind of explain the process here, if you could grab a chair — if you plan to participate — that's all you'll need for this one. And then if you could be barefoot, barefoot is best when doing some balance exercises. If you can't, that's perfectly okay. But as you get kind of set up here with your chair and taking your shoes off, make sure you have a nice open space around you. I'm going to be walking you through about seven balance exercises here — all really designed to challenge your balance and kind of work those muscles in your core, your legs and your feet.
Coach Lindsay: If everybody's ready here to get started, we'll go ahead and just bring ourselves to a march here. So same thing that we usually do before every event is making sure we're getting in this good march, you're getting our heart rate and our body moving. Couple deep breaths here and through the nose, and out through the mouth. One more. Awesome. Couple more seconds here. And stop.
Coach Lindsay: Go ahead and bring yourself to just normal stance here as we get started. So the first exercise is actually one of the more challenging ones, but I think it's a good one to wake our lower body up a little bit here.
So what I'm going to have you do, it's called the Superman.
Coach Lindsay: So as I demonstrate here, you can kind of watch at first and then you can follow along. But we're going to start on our left side. So standing on your left leg, bringing your right leg behind your arms out to the side. Ok, so this is called the Superman, kind of pretending like you're flying, right? So here's where you can pick your intensity and your challenge. So the lower you bring your chest to the ground, the higher you bring that back leg up more challenging. The lower you go with that leg, and the higher the chest, the less challenging. So kind of play around with what's most comfortable, but also what's a challenge.
Coach Lindsay: I start kind of feel like I'm kind of an airplane here, rocking back and forth. But we want to make sure we're able to hold that left leg very stable. And we're just gonna hold this here for a good 10 to 15 seconds.
Coach Lindsay: Great job, hold for another 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1.
Coach Lindsay: Come back to center just like with anything else, shake out the legs, if you need too. Take a little bit of a break here, we're going to be adding in 10 to 15 second rest periods, which will be nice. I know the previous ones, we've ran through them pretty quickly. As you kind of get your bearings, we're gonna do the same thing on the other side. So plant that right leg down, left leg goes up, arms go out here. Okay, so again, Superman kind of style position. The lower you bring your chest, the harder it gets. And of course, the higher you bring your chest the easier.
Coach Lindsay: So make sure here with these balance exercises that you're challenging yourself. So if you find this really easy, and you're not wobbly, bring it up a little bit. I don't want you to fall over. That's what the chairs here for support. But you only grow if you if you challenge yourself, right? So making sure that you're going a little bit past what's comfortable, but also making sure you're being safe. So we'll hold this for about another eight seconds here. 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. Awesome, that's probably one of my favorite balance exercises.
Coach Lindsay: Now that we got that one out of the way, we're gonna focus on a little bit of coordination, bringing our upper body in for momentum.
So what we're going to be doing is single leg arm rotation.
Coach Lindsay: So as you kind of take a little bit of a rest and catch your breath here, I'll just demonstrate the first one. So we're planting our left leg first, we're going to be bringing our right leg up, have your chair there for for stability if you need it, but have your right leg up to whatever is comfortable. The higher you go, the harder it gets. If you need to just hover over the floor, that's fine too. Then we're going to come and cross our arms in front of us and we're going to rotate side to side. So very, very slow. Obviously, the faster you go, the harder it gets as well. But initially I just want you to go really slow making sure that you're not losing your balance or you know having to touch down on that for very often.
Coach Lindsay: Gonna do a few more here. Again, having that chair close by if you need it, but I would rather you touch your leg down first to catch your balance, then have to use your chair in this exercise. We'll do about three more seconds here. 3, 2 and 1. Awesome job, shake those legs out, we're doing a lot of isolated intricate movement. So you might start to feel your glutes fired up, your hamstrings, your quads kind of get a little warm. But that's normal. So we're working those muscles.
Coach Lindsay: So same thing on the other side. Ok, so we're planting the right leg, hovering that left leg. The higher you go, the harder it gets, crossing your arms in front, and we're rotating. So we already know that — you guys keep going — but we already know that this is hard enough, right? So when we move that upper body momentum in, it's just even more of a challenge. And that's why I think this is a good one to do. Because you're adding in that more natural movement of what's going to happen if you were to lose your balance rather than standing still. Awesome job. If you can raise your leg up a little higher, has an extra challenge for these last 10 seconds. 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. Awesome job. Plant your feet down again, shake your legs out. Those are kind of tough on the muscles, like I said before, so make sure you're drinking water and taking deep breaths throughout this process.
But the next thing we're going to do as you kind of start to take your rest here is the rocking heel to toe.
Coach Lindsay: So in previous balance exercise classes we've done like calf raises. These are going to be similar, but what we're going to be doing is coming up on our calves, rocking back on our heels. It can feel a little uncomfortable and unstable at first, so you have your chair there if you need it. But we're coming up on our toes, rocking back on our heels, and making sure you're catching yourself if you do start to lose your balance. But this is just really waking up those shins, those calves, those muscles that we need to help with our balance.
Coach Lindsay: Feel free to play around with your hands too. Like I said, I always gravitate to having them close to me because that's what kind of keeps you grounded and centered. But if you would rather have them out to your side, you can do that too — whatever is most comfortable. We'll do a couple, about 10 more seconds here. I really start to feel my calves burning with these. I'm sure you do. Hopefully no cramps are happening right now. Do 3, 2 and 1.
Coach Lindsay: Awesome job. Those ones really, really wake up those leg muscles. So it's a good one to do. And that's a really good one to do if you find yourself like standing at the kitchen, you know cooking, or you have a standing job where you stand a lot. Just standing there and doing those back and forth for you know, a minute or so is going to be beneficial for you.
Now, onto the One Leg Hip Abduction!
Coach Lindsay: For the next thing we're gonna do, you want to have your chair close by for this one. We did something similar last week with hip abductions. So we're gonna be doing something a little bit different this time. It’s still the same movement, but we're going to be holding it rather than coming in and out. So have your chair close by. We're going to start with standing on our left leg, abducting our right leg, ok, and all we're going to do is bring it out just about a couple of inches off of the floor. So your your right toe should be a couple inches off the floor. And we're going to hold it here. So you're gonna start to feel that burn here in your hip. It’s normal. If you need to touch down to catch your balance or to rest, that's fine, but we're not here very long. So hold this here with me for about 10 more seconds.
Coach Lindsay: 4, 3, 2 and 1. If you need to drop for a second, go ahead. But we're actually going to bring it up a little higher. So this is where the challenge comes in, ok? So you're gonna feel your glutes firing up, you're going to feel that tension in your hips. Try to hold it here if you can. If you need to lower back to that original position, that's fine. But try to increase that challenge a little bit for yourself and bring your leg up about as far as you can. And in 10 seconds, we're going to meet right back down where we originally started. 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. Bring your leg down but do not touch the ground unless you need to. We're still here. We're still holding for 10 seconds.
Coach Lindsay: Awesome job. Keep holding it. 3, 2 and 1. Drop that foot down. Shake out that left leg. We're doing a lot of tiny muscle legs movements here. So do what you need to do to kind of rest those legs here for a second.
Coach Lindsay: Same thing on the other side, ok? If you need to kind of transfer your chair over here to this other side, go for it. But in about five seconds, we're going to begin. So join me here when you're ready, standing on your right leg, elevating that left leg just slightly out to the side, ok? So we should be very straight, we don't want that leg in front of us or behind us — we're right out to the side. We're holding about two inches above the ground there. I find the putting hands on the hips kind of help stabilize. You can do that, you can have them out to the side — whatever is best for you. We'll hold here for 10 more seconds. 4, 3, 2 and 1. Bring it up.
Coach Lindsay: This is where it starts to get challenging. So point your toes. It helps really focus on that stabilizing leg, you'll start to feel your foot wobble — those little muscles working. That's good, that's normal. Try to hold here for about five more seconds. 3, 2, and 1. Drop it down to where we were. So not quite on the floor yet. Hold it, you can do it. This is tough, I feel it too. But we're doing everything we can for our balance here. We're challenging those muscles, okay, so it's going to be uncomfortable, but it's going to work. So hold this again for about eight seconds here.
Coach Lindsay: 4, 3, 2 and 1. Shake that out. Oh my goodness, if you are sore tomorrow, I'm sorry, because you probably will be.
Moving on to the Heel to Toe (Neck Variation) exercise!
Coach Lindsay: Go ahead and move that chair out of the way, you probably won't need it. Well, you may need it for this, this last exercise actually. So this last one we're going to do kind of challenges your coordination, it's going to shift your eye movement in different directions. This one's a little bit challenging. So make sure you have your chair next to you and make sure you have space around you just in case.
Coach Lindsay: But what we're going to be doing for this last exercise is similar to when we were rocking back and forth on our heels. So we're going to do the same thing. But we're now bringing our heads into this movement, ok? So when you go up on your toes, you're also looking up, when you go down or back on your heels, you're looking down. So we're bringing that neck movement in simultaneously. You guys — this is challenging, so go slow if you need to. It does not have to be one fluid movement here, ok? But we're on the heels looking down, on toes looking up. And this one's really challenging. So this one is good to do frequently until you get good at it. Play with your arms to find whatever it is that stabilizes you.
Coach Lindsay: If you find this challenging, rocking back and forth, you can just stand there and look up and down. That is going to challenge your balance as well because again, you're taking your focus off of everything. So if you want to stand there and just look up and down, go ahead. But we're only here for a few more seconds here. So we're back on the heels. Looking down, toes looking up. We've got five more seconds here. 3, 2 and 1. Awesome job. Shake those legs out you guys.
Coach Lindsay: We're gonna finish here with my favorite yoga exercise pose. It's not really a pose, but we're going to do some sun salutations. Okay, so we're going to bring it down, big, deep breath up. And then back down. 2 more. In. Last one, in and out. Let's do one more because they're just so nice. Deep breath in. And Deep breath out.
Coach Lindsay: Awesome job you guys. You guys are awesome. This was a difficult balance workout using a lot of those little tiny muscles in your legs. So hydrate, take some time to stretch a little bit of you need to and we'll see you guys back here next week.
Coach Lindsay: So that's going to be the outside portion of your hips. Basically, just bring your left leg up on top of your right leg, ankle sitting on your right knee. And then you want to push down on your knee — on your left knee to whatever's comfortable. So this one can be a little tight, especially if you have hip mobility issues. But do what's comfortable here, even just sitting like this is a deep enough stretch. But if you want to take it a little bit further, hold on to that ankle for stability, press down on your knee, get that good deep stretch right here on the outside of your hip.