Balance - A Four-Part Series

Parkinson's Podcast - Matt Zepelin

These recordings are from a four-part series on balance I taught in Boulder, Colorado in March 2016. It is four lessons that were taught over four weeks.

In the first lesson, we explore one of the fundamentals of human movement: crawling. After building awareness of the main factors in balance - contact with support surfaces, body position, and gravity - we slowly build up the movements that compose crawling. Crawling is a wonderful activity for activating the full range of the shoulders and hips, and it can help to ease fear of falling if one is already familiar with how to move comfortably on the ground. If you'd like to explore crawling in more depth, start with my earlier podcast, "Crawling #1", available below.

The second lesson address an issue common amongst people with movement disorders, as well as in the general elderly population - getting safely to the floor and back to standing. The loss of this ability has been correlated with lots of negative health outcomes, so it's a great thing to practice and retain!

The third lesson looks at the crucial element of side-to-side weight transfer as an element of balance in walking. Part of the lesson is done in walking and standing, while other parts are done lying down and sitting in a chair.

The last lesson focuses on the roles of the ankles in balance. Having a sense of range of motion in the ankle joints - up and down, and though to a lesser degree, side to side - can help us negotiate ground forces and the transfer of our body weight to the ground in ways that make balance much more approachable.