A Walking Balance Challenge
Details on the workshop mentioned in the video can be found here:
https://thebalanceworkshop02072020.eventbrite.com
0:01
Hello again, it's Shane from MATRIX. I recently shot a video that offered a quick 30-second balance screening. Just to check where your baseline is. In today's video, we're going to go a little step above and beyond that, to see how your balance is doing.
0:16
So, if you haven't seen the first video, click on the link above, and be sure to check it out [https://youtu.be/ngo1xc6fH0w]. Make sure that you're good with that one before trying today's.
0:26
If you're willing to try today's test, you're going to need just one thing: a straight line along the floor that you can follow. As you can see behind me, I laid out a rope that I'm going to be walking along. At home, you can lay out a piece of string, or if you have straight hardwood flooring, you could just use the lines in the floor.
0:45
This is how it's going to work. First thing is I'm going to ask you to pause this video and gather your straight line so that you're all ready to go. You'll then press play again, I'll direct you in exactly what you're going to try. After you've seen me do it, press pause again and try it yourself. And then we'll finish up together going over what exactly the test means. So, go ahead and pause the video now.
1:08
All right, if you made it to this part of the video, it means you're ready to try the test. You've identified a straight line in the floor or laid something along the floor to create that straight line. The longer the line is, the better it is, because you'll have more opportunity to do what I'm going to ask you to do. Now, the challenge is to walk along the line with one foot staying on either side of the line. While you're walking, I'm going to ask you to turn your head. It'll look like this. Walk. Turn. Turn. The more steps you can get in, the more times you can turn your head, the more accurate the test is going to be. Once you've tried it in one direction, you'll turn around and go back the other way. Now, the head turn is in the opposite direction. Turn. Turn. So what I'm going to ask you to do now is pause the video and give it a shot. Once you finish the test, we'll come back to the video again together, and we'll talk about the results.
2:09
Welcome back! Thanks for taking the time to do the test. Now, let's talk about what you found out. Hopefully, you can see that this is something that happens in your everyday life. If you're out walking around in the world, you might hear a sound or be talking to a friend and have to turn your head back and forth. What you're not always aware of is if you actually continue on the same path when you're moving your head. And that's what the line allows us to do. So, if you were crossing over the line when you were turning your head, your balance systems might be a little bit off. If you were able to keep your feet on either side of the line, then you're probably doing really well when it comes to balance.
2:46
Now, the question is, why is this? Your balance is a multifaceted system. One of the parts of that system is the inner ear. And there are little organs in there that act as sensors to tell you when you're turning your head. If you have good information coming from those sensors, your brain is able to make the adjustments and keep you on the straight line. But if they're a little bit off, then you might start to wobble or deviate from the path that you're on. That's something you want to avoid because as that gets worse with time, you stop being able to do all the things that you want to do.
3:22
So if you nailed this, keep going, you're doing everything great. But check back in every now and again and make sure that you're still functioning properly. If you had some issues doing this, I have solutions. You might want to check out the balance workshop that's coming up again soon. It'll be a great way to dive deeper into all these different facets of balance and learn different things that you can do to help them out. So check out the link below if you want to come to the workshop.
https://thebalanceworkshop02072020.eventbrite.com