Improve Your Balance With a Balance Trainer
Regaining your balance after an injury or major surgery is difficult. You have to retrain your brain and your body to shift your center of gravity in ways that you didn't have to think about before. Thankfully, there are a number of balance trainers that are easy-to-use products you can buy and use at home. Many of these same products are also used by your physical therapist.
Balance boardsBalance boards are exactly as they sound. They appear as spherical "boards" or elongated boards resembling boogie boards. They are made of plastic, but you can find wooden ones too. The neat part about these unique balancing tools is that they are not perfectly flat. They have a sort of bowing or rise on one side and are flat on the other. You have to place the slightly bowed side on the floor and then either stand on them to retrain your sense of balance or go into a plank form on the floor to train your balance using your arms in a push-up form.
A wobble board is very similar to a balance board, except that it has a more pronounced bowing on one side. Once you have mastered a balance board, you graduate to a wobble board to get even stronger and better balance. Once you can stand on a wobble board without wobbling, you can move on to something even more challenging.
The fit boardA fit board is a balancing board, except that you use it to strengthen your core. Strengthening your core also increases your balance by making your back and abdominal muscles work harder when you are standing and moving. You have to maintain your balance while lying on the board and performing ab crunches and back stretches.
The standing desk balance boardWhen your doctor and your physical therapist give you the green light to return to work, he or she might suggest that you get a standing desk and a standing desk balance board. This type of balancing equipment makes you work to stand upright at a standing desk. It also continues to help you increase and/or maintain your balance over time. If you do not have a standing desk at work, you can still use the board while standing at your usual desk without using your desk chair. If you get a break at work, you can use the board during your breaks as well.