Month: October 2021

A healthy life requires balance — and not just in a metaphorical sense. Being able to maintain physical balance is crucial to performing everyday activities from going up and down the stairs to reaching for an item on a shelf at the supermarket. But while many people squeeze in a daily walk and may even do some strength training exercises a few times a week, exercises to build balance don’t always make the workout list. They should, according to experts.

As you get older, the physical systems inside your body that help you maintain your balance aren’t as responsive as they were when you were younger. Maintaining balance is actually a complex task for your body, requiring coordinated action from not only your muscles, but also your eyes, ears, tendons, bones, and brain.

In addition, health problems that become more common with age, such as inner ear disorders, decreased sensation in feet, or postural hypotension (low blood pressure with standing) may leave you feeling unsteady.

Practicing exercises designed to improve your balance can help keep you upright and prevent a fall that causes injuries.

Building balance three ways

You may wonder, what exactly is a balance exercise?

Standing on one foot? Yes, that qualifies. It falls into a category called static balance exercises. These improve your balance when you’re standing still. But a good balance workout should also include dynamic exercises, which are aimed at building balance when you are moving. Ideally, you should try to incorporate a few of these exercises two or three times a week.

Below are three simple exercises that you can get use to get started. The first is a static balance exercise and the other two are dynamic balance exercises. For additional ideas, read this blog post on the BEEP program.

Tandem standing

Reps: 1
Sets: 1 to 3
Intensity: Light to moderate
Hold: 5 to 30 seconds

Starting position: Stand up straight, feet hip-width apart and weight distributed evenly on both feet. Put your arms at your sides and brace your abdominal muscles.

Movement: Place your left foot directly in front of your right foot, heel to toe, and squeeze your inner thighs together. Lift your arms out to your sides at shoulder level to help you balance. Hold. Return to the starting position, then repeat with your right foot in front. This completes one rep.

Tips and techniques:

• Pick a spot straight ahead of you to focus on.
• Tighten your abdominal muscles, buttocks, and inner thighs to assist with balance.
• Keep your shoulders down and back.

Make it easier: Hold on to the back of a chair or counter with one hand.

Make it harder: Hold the position for 60 seconds; close your eyes.

Braiding

Reps: 10 to each side
Sets: 1 to 3
Intensity: Light to moderate
Tempo: Slow and controlled

Starting position: Stand up straight, feet together and weight evenly distributed on both feet. Put your arms at your sides.

Movement: Step toward the right with your right foot. Cross in front with your left foot, step out again with the right foot, and cross behind with your left foot. Continue this braiding for 10 steps to the right, then bring your feet together. Hold until steady. Now do 10 steps of braiding to the left side of the room. This completes one set.

Tips and techniques:

• Maintain neutral posture throughout.
• Look ahead of you instead of down at your feet.
• Don’t turn your feet out.

Make it easier: Take smaller steps.

Make it harder: Pick up your pace while staying in control of the movement.

Rock step

Reps: 10 on each side
Sets: 1 to 3
Intensity: Moderate to high
Tempo: 2–2–2–2

Starting position: Stand up straight, feet together and weight evenly distributed on both feet. Lift your arms out to each side.

Movement: Step forward with your left foot and lift up your right knee. Hold. Step back with your right foot and lift up your left knee. This completes one rep. Finish all reps with the left foot leading, then repeat by leading with the right foot. This completes one set.

Tips and techniques:

• Tighten the buttock of the standing leg for stability.
• Maintain good posture throughout.
• Breathe comfortably.

Make it easier: Hold on to the back of a chair with one hand for support; lift your knee less.

Make it harder: Hold each knee up for a count of four.

Exercise photos by Michael Carroll

Editor's note: In this blog post, Dr. Sharon Levy interviews her son Isaiah Levy, a college student. We appreciate Isaiah’s insights and comments on social media's impact on teens and young adults.

It is hard to remember (or for younger people, hard to imagine) a world without social media, but indeed such a world once existed — and in fact, it is the world humans evolved in.

Humans are social animals. Friendly interactions release dopamine in our brains’ reward centers to get us to repeat the behavior. Until recently, that feedback loop suited us very well, with little opportunity to get off track. Social media changed things by providing the opportunity for nearly infinite interactions. This excess exploits our natural inclination for social contact in the same way that sweets exploit our natural drive to eat ripe fruit. Too much refined sugar can cause a cascade of medical problems; too much social media can also affect health — especially mental health.

Beyond sheer volume, social media interactions are qualitatively different from in-person meetings. For one thing, social media platforms have developed easy opportunities for viewers to react to content, resulting in objective feedback metrics for the content creator. Because the denominator is essentially infinite, no matter how many likes a post gets, the numerator may not feel like enough. Feeling insufficient, not liked enough, judged by others, or excluded from an "in group" takes a heavy toll on mental health.

For perspective from a digital native, I posed questions about social media to my son Isaiah Levy, a computer science major at New York University.

What do you see as the benefits of social media?

Theoretically, social media can connect people across the globe at scale, presenting an opportunity for users to form relationships beyond their geographic boundaries. Popular social media platforms can also provide a stage with a potential audience of one billion eyes. Social media offers tremendous potential for people who want to be noticed. However, most connections are extensions of our real-life relationships, and many users say that social media enriches friendships. For example, a Pew survey found that a majority of teenage respondents said that Instagram enhanced their connections with people they already knew (many of whom are classmates).

Why is Instagram so popular with young people?

Web developers and graphic designers created Instagram using sophisticated algorithms and attractive visual presentation, to keep users engaged and interacting with its nearly limitless content for as long as possible. According to surveys done by Facebook (owner of Instagram), youth describe Instagram as current, friendly, trendy, and creative. Many teens say that Instagram helps define who they are and makes them feel more connected to the people they know. Another significant source of Instagram's allure, particularly for younger users, are the objective feedback measures that can make users feel important or of high social status.

The flip side is that the drive for attention creates its own problems. The Pew survey linked to above found that more than one-third of teen Instagram users said they feel pressure to post content that will get a lot of likes and comments, and more than 40% feel pressure to only post content that makes them look good. According to Facebook’s own internal surveys, more than 13% of teen girls said that Instagram worsens suicidal thoughts, and 17% said their eating disorders got worse with Instagram use.

As the government considers regulating social media, what suggestions do you have in regard to protecting mental health?

Government regulations should protect our freedom of expression while mediating risks, especially to children. The government could consider regulating some of the advanced algorithms that social media corporations use to increase user time expenditure (and thus profits). For example, "infinite swiping" is a design feature that continuously pushes forward new content after a user has exhausted content from the people they follow. These tactics pose serious threats. Just like use of alcohol, nicotine, or drugs, the act of swiping triggers neurological reward. Over time, the brain learns to seek social media instead of more natural rewards, putting users at risk of dissociation with meaningful priorities. As with drug addiction, younger users are at greatest risk. Government regulation of the most sticky algorithms would help promote a healthier balance for users. Deciding which algorithms to ban and how to implement such a ban is certainly a difficult task, and the solution will not be perfect; however, given what we know of the impact of social media on children’s mental health, it should be a federal priority.

While the government grapples with regulation, parents can step in. First, set a good example by putting your own screens down when interacting with your children. Talk to your teen about the pros and cons of social media: while it can be fun, it can also become a distraction. Set limits on your child’s social media use. Most importantly, talk to your children about their experiences, including who they are interacting with and what they are talking about. We know social media can harm mental health, so be on the lookout and intervene if you have concerns.