Now it's balance. Yet the average person's sense of balance begins to decline at around age 25, says Steven L. Wolf, M.D., a rehabilitation medicine specialist at Emory University in Atlanta. Balance exercises can stem this decline, proponents say, helping to improve sports performance as well as mundane moves. People who've had balance training also feel more graceful and have better posture. By rapidly relaying information to the conscious and subconscious nervous system, proprioceptors give us a sense of where our bodies are in space.
Balance exercises primarily challenge the proprioceptor system.
For instance, during one of the exercises developed by Elizabeth Larkam, students lie on top of long, narrow foam cylinders, then roll an inch or two to each side several times, sometimes with their eyes closed. By practicing this way, she says, you learn to react more quickly and efficiently when you get thrown off balance. It takes about three to four weeks to see improvements in equilibrium, Huff says, provided that you practice a few times a week for 10 to 20 minutes per session. The equipment is available at stores and web sites selling fitness gear. Yet Huff and other fitness experts say you don't really need any newfangled gizmos.