I am really interested in improving and maintaining balance. I love to dance but I am naturally kind of accident prone. For self preservation I need to make my balance as good as possible. Yoga is pretty good for it, I think it seems to really strengthen the stabilizing muscles. But other than yoga, here are some that I found help me with balance...
*V-Core is great for this but it is a little dry
*the Fitness Fix workouts with Denise Beatty
*Some dance workouts especially ballet
*I find doing barre workouts without touching the "barre" helps a lot (an idea inspired by an adult beginner ballet class I took where we would sometimes take our hands off the barre and see if we can hold the position). X-tend barre is one of my favorites to use this way.
*Strength training programs that involve one-sided exercises like split squats, single legged dead lifts, alternating chest press, etc. Some examples I can think of is my balance improved a lot when I worked thought the paper program "Venus Index" which has a lot of these types of moves. Val Waters programs often have some of these as well. Also if I recall the dvd "Perfect Legs, Glutes and Abs" by Michele Olson has some of this as well.
*Standing Core work like in Ballet Body Core (the starting section)
*I think kickboxing would help too as would most dance workouts if you are looking for cardio options that also help with balance.
ETA: I recently discovered another workout that I think is great for balance but it does involves some yoga. It is called "Temple Goddess Workout" by Revital Carrol. It is a fusion of a style of Indian classical dance and yoga. It moves a bit slow, but it does really work on balance. I have a pretty high woo-whoo tolerance though. I don't recall any spiritual talk but I might have tuned it out.
Last edited by slysam; 04-14-13 at 12:05 PM.
Reason: To add one other idea
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