What is it?
Balance is the ability to remain upright and steady. Most of us have developed sufficient balance during childhood to go through daily life. Still others struggle with it. And the problem is that balance degrades as we age. While we originally thought this happened fairly late in life (50s and 60s), it is now becoming clearer and clearer that small degradations start much earlier.
But there is another meaning of balance, which is just as important, namely mental balance. People who exercise more and have a self identity of health tend to have better mood, self esteem and mental balance. There is also plenty of research now pointing to the idea that regular exercise can help with anxiety and depression. While exercise may not be a replacement for the tools of modern medicine or even psychological therapy, it is a powerful adjunct to those treatment modalities.
Although many people have sufficient physical and mental balance to start working on the Adaptation Layer, it belongs in the Foundational Layer, because it is something we should continue to work on day in and day out for our entire lives.
Why do I want it?
Physical balance is foundational, but most of us have sufficient quantities of it after childhood. As it begins to decline though, it begins to affect us in subtle ways. A few uncharacteristic stumbles, some of which could result in a fall, may not be a life threatening problem in our 30s and 40s (although breaking your wrist or ankle is no fun), because we are well muscled and healthily boned, but more and more stumbles as we age present clear and present dangers to our health and even longevity.
And mental balance is just as foundational. You have to suffer from paralyzing anxiety or the deep well of depression to really understand how devastating it can be to even the activities of daily survival, much less a lofty fitness and health goal. Mental breakdown can be just as devastating as physical disease. To the extent exercise can foster a resilience in our mental balance and/or restore that balance when it gets disturbed, then it plays a powerful role in our continuing to be fully functioning human beings.
How do I train it?
Like anything else we can train physical balance. And the more we train it, the more resilient it becomes. While this is more a strategy of delay rather than elimination, it’s a sound strategy nonetheless. Physical balance training can be in separate workouts or before or after a principal workout or even incorporated into our workouts to add a challenge and train two facets at once.
Mental balance is a little bit different. In some ways it’s easier, because exercise sets off a cascade of bio-chemical processes that lead to a healthier mind. So to some extent it’s just about doing it consistently to get your dose of natural mind boosting drugs. In other ways it is very specific. For instance, doing something you love to do every day can make the trials and tribulations of that day infinitely easier to manage. So do what you love is a fairly good exercise prescription for mental health. As another example, many people feel depression or anxiety due to social isolation. Some forms of exercise provide a community that can alleviate that isolation. Think group fitness classes, exercise clubs, CrossFit, etc. And on a more holistic level, to the extent we can create a health identity of someone who is healthy and successful and who does hard things, well that is an incredibly resilient identity to carry you through the trials and tribulations of life.