The Surprising Muscle that Helps Your Balance
Do you like the idea of a muscle that you can work on in any situation, without anyone even noticing? Something that in just a few minutes a day can help you balance better? You can do it in line at the grocery store, while watching TV, while doing other exercises too. And once you know it, the trick of activating it will help you keep your balance even in tricky situations.
We’re about to pass on a secret known by yogis and gymnasts alike, and yet doing this movement doesn’t require special abilities or years of training.
Balance is all about resisting the forces of gravity. Gravity is always trying to pull us down (or pull us over). Any muscle that pulls us up away from the forces of gravity helps us balance. These muscles are your anti-gravity extensors.
Your legs contain many antigravity extensors – think about the muscles you use when you stand up out of a chair for example. But we’re not going to talk about leg muscles today.
We’re talking about your Latissimus Dorsi muscles (Lats). This is a group of muscles in your back that essentially coordinate movements between the shoulders and the pelvis. They play a key part in keeping your whole body stable.
The Lats connect along your lower spine, up to the bottom edge of your shoulder blade and around the side of the body to the upper arm. Any time you lift your arms, whether pushing or pulling, your Lats are involved in the work.
Yoga
People who practice yoga use their Lats a lot in inverted positions like Downward Facing Dog or when raising the hands above the head in poses like Tree or Warrior. When the instructor reminds you to push down your shoulders, and put distance between your shoulders and your ears, you are engaging your Lats.
Gymnastics
It’s easy to see why strong Lats are helpful if you’re upside down, but they are also really important while upright also. Gymnasts use their Lats to stabilize their whole body, especially during challenging routines on the balance beam. You can see for yourself in this video where gymnast Laurie Hernandez pushes her Lats down hard after each acrobatic move. This skill won her a silver medal at the Olympic Games that year. When she has a wobble, you can see how she forcefully pushes down with her Lats to maintain her balance.
The Rest of Us
So how can we practice engaging our Lats to help our balance? The exercise is easy.
How To Do It
Stand tall with feet hip-width apart and your back against a wall
While pulling your elbows back and down, squeeze your shoulder blades together.
Imagine you’re squeezing a lemon between your shoulder blades.
Feel the difference if your shoulders start lifting, vs pushing your elbows down as you squeeze. Create space between your shoulders and your ears.
As you push your elbows down and back, your sternum/chest will naturally lift ever so slightly.
That is the antigravity effect of your lats – and the stabilizing part.
Pause, then release. That’s one rep.
Complete a total of three sets of 10 to 15 reps, resting for 30 to 60 seconds between sets.
Once you get comfortable doing this exercise against a wall, you can do it anywhere, whether standing or seated.
Want to test out how it makes you more stable while standing? If you can do so safely, stand on one leg normally, then engage your Lats by pushing your shoulders and elbows back and down. Can you feel the difference?
Better Posture
The added benefit of this exercise is that it can also help improve your posture. Modern life requires us to spend time hunched over, tightening chest muscles and straining our back muscles, making them weaker. Engaging your Latissimus Dorsi will help combat the rounded shoulder posture that is so common, so you’ll stand taller, straighter and be better balanced.