Working on balance

littlebear0121

Hi! I would like to improve my balance so I can improve my V2 skiing (a type of Nordic skate skiing.) I wouldn't call myself clumsy, but my husband and kids have much better balance than I do for some reason. I'm looking for suggestions, and also for what might be causing an imbalance in my muscles based on my current exercise routine.

Here's what I do:
MWF Row on erg for 30-45 minutes, one day is intervals
T Stretching and either Nordic walking or pilates legs/abs workout
Th Strength workout
Sat coach soccer (lots of running for me)
On weekends we do some sort of long fitness activity as a family (meaning a slow pace)--road biking, mountain biking, XC skiing, hiking.

springlering62

I’ve had terrible problems with balance during yoga. As I’ve lost weight, my balance has improved noticeably.

I do yoga, walking, power walking, weights and mat Pilates. The yoga has been, of course, the most helpful with balance, but building core strength with the others has complemented the yoga.

Because I was so embarrassed by toppling over all the time in classes, I added a simple one legged balance to my morning stretch. I’d just bend one knee and lift the leg and try to stand for at least a count of 15. Later I’d hold it for as long as I could. As that got better, I would stick it straight out in front, and then worked my way up to grabbing my toe with my “peace fingers”, and sticking my foot straight out in front and standing up straight.

Every little bit of practice seemed to help.

The other thing I practiced was simple standing heel lifts. I would do 50-100.

One I’ve been doing lately is rocking back and forth from heels to toes and trying to hold on each, ie breath-in stand on tip toes, breath-out and rock back to and stand on heels only, doing this back and forth in sync with breath to slow it down. It’s harder than it sounds.

I’ve taken two hard falls running this year, and fully credit the balance (sounds wrong, doesn’t it?!) practice to making the injuries far less than they could have been. I’ll take skint knees and bruised jammed wrists over a broken hip any day.

NorthCascades

Nothing has helped my Nordic skiing as much as single leg deadlifts, even without weight. Also known as warrior 3 in yoga.

You know how it feels to be coming down a hill in the tracks, and to go through a turn at the bottom? That's almost exactly what SLDLs are like and it's dramatically easier and more comfortable thanks to them. Also helps V2 and kick-double-pole.

Think snow. ❄️ ☃️ 🌨️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️ 😁

MikePfirrman

Honestly, I had to look up V2 to even know what you're talking about. But as an Erger myself, I know that rowing doesn't work side to side at all. Seems like your lateral strength has to be strong to do V2 skiing. I bought a LateralX when the pandemic hit and the gyms closed. It's a nice complement to all the front only movement.

You might consider a Slide Board. Cheap and great for lateral strength. So is the soccer. Obviously, so is the X country skiing. But it seems that V2, from what I saw on the internet, is really pushing off from one leg to the other and all the weight on one leg at a time, over the skis. Seems like a Slide Board might really help with that.