Balance training is a complex process that involves multiple feedback systems in the body. In order to stay balanced, our bodies use sensory input from our vision, touch, and vestibular systems, as well as motor feedback and output from the muscles of our bodies and eyes, and feedback from sensors in our joints. Balance training requires way more than just “finding your center”! So what does this mean for real-world dance training, and how can you use your various feedback systems for gravity-defying balance?
Strength
Strength in our muscles is what holds us upright, all the time. We all require a base level of muscle activation to balance throughout our day-to-day activities. However, in dance we don’t tend to balance in normal (aka stable) positions. In other words, we are asking are bodies to balance in unusual and unstable positions. Your muscles need plenty of strength and power to support challenging positions and support your body weight against gravity at the same time. If you’ve read any of my other posts, you will know how important adding some strength training into your training schedule is. You can’t go wrong with getting strong!
Vision System
Your body uses your vision to orientate itself to the surroundings. This is why it’s easier to balance staring straight ahead at a fixed spot than if you start looking around. Every time you change your focus, your visual feedback system has to try to re-orientate. This is why learning to spot properly in turns and pirouettes is so important!
Vestibular system
This complex sensory system is part of your inner ear. The vestibular system orientates our bodies relative to gravity. It also provides feedback around motion and equilibrium. (This is the part of your balance system responsible for motion sickness.) It’s also very important for maintaining balance during turns and pirouettes, but this is a whole other blog post! Turning and pirouette practice is one of the best ways to improve your vestibular system.
Proprioception
Proprioception can be defined as your body’s awareness of itself in space. This consists of the feedback systems from the muscles, joints and skin to inform the brain what’s going throughout your joints, muscles, limbs and trunk. The proprioception system is so important that clinicians sometimes call it our sixth sense!
Our propriception system consists on sensors in our joints, muscles, skin and tendons that constantly send signals to our brain about position, movement and balance. The brain then sends signals back to your muscles and joints to control your movements, correct imbalances and keep you upright. While all of the above discussed balance systems are important for balance training, strong proprioception is the absolute key to achieving great balance! You need your proprioception system to be able to correct your balance constantly and instantly if you want to achieve the ‘unnatural’ positions we hope to achieve when dancing.
How to train your Proprioception system
Just like our balance systems involves multiple systems, training balance needs to include a variety of elements. In terms of training, you can think of balance like a muscle – If you want to strengthen a muscle, you need to challenge it! Balance is the same. When you practice balancing, if you only aim to be as steady as you can be, you won’t make any significant improvements. If you just practice the same balance poses repeatedly, or simply try to balance on a rise, you won’t provide your balance systems with enough challenging feedback to trigger improvements in the balance systems.
Now, improving your balance will take time, just like all dance elements. However, specifically training your proprioception system is an extremely effective ‘hack’ to improve your balance more quickly. In the below video, I demonstrate a quick exercise that helps to isolate the propriception system and strengthen the proprioception sensors to be able to quickly and effectively identify where your body is in space and how to readjust your joints and muscles to realign your balance and keep you upright. The key is to practice balancing with your eyes close. Although, I take this one step further to really maximize your training time.
Isolating your proprioception system is really under-used in dance training. Even just 2-3 minutes a day practicing the below exercise can give you serious balance improvements! Teachers, I love this tip because you can easily improve your student’s balance simply by slipping this in to your cool down.
Have you tried practicing eyes-closed balance? I would love to know your thoughts.
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