Why You Need Balance Training for Fat Loss

This post, along with others following throughout the week, is intended for you to incorporate several key strategies and techniques to your fitness routines and overall lifestyle to improve your fitness levels, increase your metabolism, prevent plateau and help you lose extra pounds of fat. Leave a comment or question below for me to address.

Balance is the most fundamental but important component in our lives. No matter what you do on a day-to-day basis, your performance is determined by the connection between your Nervous System and Muscular System, or neuromuscular efficiency.

Although we have over 600 muscles in the human body that deliver strength when needed as well as sexy looks on the beach or in the skinny jeans and tight shirt, they cannot function or operate without an efficient nervous system. In fact, your fat loss goals may be severely compromised without training your balance capacity and overall nervous system. This is why…

In Lamen’s terms, imagine your brain as a switch board operator at a large company – your nerves are the wires that connect between the operator and many offices and directory, or the muscles. The nerves help communication occur between these two systems.

Lets go further and imagine there is a spill on the fourth floor, an arrived appointment on the fifth floor and uhh, an unexpected child delivery on the sixth floor. All of these require immediate attention that can best be handled simutaneously with the help of our operator and nifty telephone service. (Are you following me so far?)

Tending to one thing at a time will leave something neglected and the whole building in a mess. How our body is designed to work is by calling the doctor to deliver the baby, call the janitor to clean the spill and call the coordinatot to facilitate the appointment - AT THE SAME TIME TO ASSURE YOUR BUILDING DOES NOT FALL.

If you’re trying to perform a specific task such as pick up a box, your brain needs to talk to every single muscle necessary for you to pick up the box, stabilize yourself and maintain balance. If you begin to fall, your brain must quickly communicate with your muscular system, letting them know which muscles to activate in order for you to “catch your balance” or “break the fall.”

How Does This Relate to Fat Loss and Fitness?

When you are standing on one leg or losing your balance you are actually burning more calories than if you were standing on two feet. The brain is recognizing that you are falling and sends hundreds of messages to hundreds of small muscles, such as your core, legs and glutes telling them to activate in order to prevent you from falling and injuring yourself. You’re even hitting the muscles in your stomach! If you were perfectly balanced these muscles would have minimum need to activate. Therefore, the more activated muscles lead to more muscle used which leads to more calories burned, leading to you getting toned and leaner in a shorter amount of time. You can even stand in the checkout line at the store on one leg and burn calories. Or hold yourself in a pushup without performing the exercise or sit on a stability ball at work to get the off-balance feeling in order for you to burn calories.

Turn this into a fitness routine and you’re one lean fat burning machine! Pick 5 of these leg exercises below to improve your balance and get a great burn. Tell me what you think below in the “comment” box.

Also, balance is important for our everyday function so use it all the time. As we get older, our neuromuscular efficiency decreases. You should practice balancing and picking items up with one leg in order to maintain your balance and be able to function properly.

Ways to test your balance:

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine you can test your neuromuscular efficiency with these two easy steps:

Step 1: Stand on one leg for 30 seconds without touching the floor with the other foot. If you’re able to successfully do this, move to step two.

Step 2: For 30 seconds, now stand on one leg with your eyes closed. Your brain no longer has the visual cues to assist you in balance and is now totally isolated. If you pass this test, great job, move to step three.

Step 3: Now stand on one leg, eyes closed and slowly turn your head from left to right, repeating this motion.

If you’re only able to pass step one, you still need to improve your balance. Passing all three steps is “excellent” neuromuscular efficiency.

P.S. Make sure to RSVP for the “Resolution Anti-Scale Bootcamp” on New Year’s Day at 2pm at North Shore Park (1120 NShore Dr. NE). This boot camp is free to the public and is centered around focusing on your fitness levels versus your “weight” as a New Year’s Resolution. Bring a scale and get a free workout plan. Free food, fitness evaluations, Yoga, Pilates, Zumba and Bootcamp workouts and a DJ will be there for you, your family and friends. Bring your scale and New Year’s Resolution and toss it for good!

Tags: balance, north shore, st. petersburg fl. st. petrsburg boot camp, training, workout