In many olympic competitions, the technical difficulty of gymnastics is self-evident. When competing on balance beams, athletes need to make various flips and jumps on a horizontal log that is 1.2 meters high, 5 meters long and 10 centimeters wide.
At the Tokyo Olympic Games, China's Guan Chenchen entered the gymnastics women's balance beam final as the first qualifier, and the Chinese team will attack the gold medal at 16:50 on August 3.
On July 25, China's Guan Chenchen competed in a balance beam competition
In addition to the need for strength and flexibility, balance beam competitions test athletes' balance skills. For ordinary people, balance is also an important indicator of health, as important as blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar.
Life Times interviewed experts to analyze the impact of balance on health, and invited Olympic champions to recommend 4 movements to help you practice balance.
Experts interviewed
Zhang Yimin, Professor of the Key Laboratory of Sports and Physical Health of the Ministry of Education, Beijing Sport University
Ma Lina, deputy chief physician of the Department of Geriatrics, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University
Why is balance important for all ages?
Standing, walking, squatting, sitting... The completion of these daily actions is inseparable from the normal ability to balance.
In terms of medical senses, balance ability refers to the body's ability to coordinate the ability of the body to coordinate various stimuli from the vestibular organs (receptors in the state of movement of the body and the spatial position of the head), muscles, tendons, receptors within the joints, and vision.
According to a study published in the Swiss journal Foreword to Neurology, about 57,000 people die each year in the United States alone due to a decline in balance. Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital in the United States conducted a balance test on people aged 18 to 80 years old and found that after the age of 40, people's vestibular function will decline rapidly. Since the vestibular is a balance receptor, a decrease in its function can directly lead to a decrease in equipotency.
People with good balance have stronger physical coordination and reflexes, and they will be more comfortable in dealing with various chores of life. Since the realization of balance needs to rely on multiple mechanisms such as vision, muscle strength, and nervous system to coordinate with each other, once the balance declines, it will have many unexpected effects, and even fatal when severe.
Deng Linlin, team champion at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and individual balance beam champion at the London 2012 Olympics, said balance is important for people of all ages. It can increase the athletic ability of young people, reduce sports injuries, and reduce the risk of falls in the elderly.
Poor balance, the body bears 3 major risks
The balance of a person's life is changing, and it is mainly divided into 3 periods according to the fluctuation trend:
Period of rapid growth: mostly occurs at the age of 5 to 14;
Fluctuating period: Affected by the intensity of exercise, between the ages of 18 and 25 and 46 to 50, different people will show different changes in balance;
Decline period: More will be obvious after the age of 50.
Once the body's balance is weak, it exposes the body to the following health risks:
1 Poor sensory ability of the vestibular organs
The vestibular organs of the inner ear not only help the body maintain balance, but are also associated with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.
For example, when a person is sitting in a car, the vestibular organ is stimulated by excessive movement, which will affect the nerve center and cause motion sickness.
Studies have shown that people with poor vestibular function not only have poor balance, but are also more likely to experience symptoms such as episodic dizziness, tinnitus, deafness and headache.
2 The probability of joint injury is higher
Lack of balance can lead to limited mobility and reduced exercise. When you exercise again after a long period of inactivity, or when the amount of exercise increases slightly, it is very easy to have symptoms of osteoarthropathy such as ligaments, meniscal injuries, cartilage wear, and joint pain.
In China, death from falls is the number one cause of death due to injury in the elderly over the age of 65. The World Health Organization also reported that more than 300,000 people die from falls each year worldwide.
3 The brain's ability to respond is reduced
Studies have found that there is a correlation between reflexes and equipoise, and a decrease in equipoise slows down the brain's response rate, thereby increasing the risk of accidents.
The above adverse effects will further lead to a decline in balance ability, if not controlled in time, it will form a vicious circle, resulting in premature physical aging, seriously affecting the quality of life.
Insufficient balance can also increase the risk of sarcopenia, weakness, disability and other diseases in the elderly, and in severe cases, it can lead to fractures, brain injuries and even death.
Both methods measure self-balancing force
There are two ways to judge whether the body's balance ability is good. Once it is found that the balance is not very good, first find the possible cause, and ask the doctor to judge whether medication or rehabilitation treatment is needed. Older adults also need to ask a doctor to help predict the risk of frequent falls.
Balance test
The test can be maintained for the duration of the following 3 postures, the maintenance time is normal for 10 seconds, less than 10 seconds or can not be completed indicates a difference in balance. The 3 postures are:
Stand with your feet together (Figure 1);
Stand at half-foot distance, with the inside of the heel of the forefoot standing close to the rear thumb (Figure 2);
Stand at full foot distance, with your feet lined up in a straight line one in front of the other, with the front heel and the back toe touching each other (Figure 3).
The tester can maintain balance with his arms or other means, but cannot move the sole of his foot.
Closed-eye stand-up test
Raise your arms flat on the sides, your legs together and upright, tiptoeing forward. Stand with your habitual support foot when your eyes closed, bend your knees with your other leg bent, and lift your foot off the ground without contact with the other foot.
Record the standing time from the start of the ground to the time of the foot drop or the movement of the support foot. Test 3 times, each time at intervals of more than 5 minutes, the best score.
Women maintain > for 12 seconds, men maintain > 13 seconds to be normal, and the longer the time, the better the balance.
The Olympic champion teaches you 4 moves to practice balance
Deng Linlin said that compared with running, swimming and other exercises that require a relatively large amount of time, as long as there is enough heart, the following balance exercises can be completely integrated into life and carried out in stitches.
Stand on one leg
This is the best way to exercise balance and helps to stretch the muscles behind the legs. Watching TV, waiting for the bus, working between jobs, and even brushing your teeth, stir-frying, etc., you can practice.
When you first practice, you can stick to it for 15 to 20 seconds, and then extend it to 30 to 60 seconds, and the closed eye practice can increase the difficulty.
Generally speaking, 50 to 60-year-old people, closed eyes and single leg standing time can be maintained for 30 seconds, 20 to 35 years old young people can be 1 minute, it means that the balance ability is normal, otherwise it is necessary to strengthen exercise.
Squats
Squats help strengthen your legs and can be done while watching TV. The main point is to separate your feet and shoulder width, pay attention to the knees do not exceed the tiptoes, and stick to it as long as you can under the premise of ensuring safety.
Movements such as squating against the wall, half squat, squatting, lunge squat and other movements can also make the leg muscles stronger, thereby improving balance.
sit-up
The waist and abdomen are equivalent to the "central axis" of people, many movements need to be controlled through it, and improving the strength of the waist and abdomen is one of the key points of exercising balance, such as sit-ups.
Action points: waist and abdomen force, hands lightly on the side of the ear, do not hold the head hard.
In addition, the "mutated movement" of sit-ups also has a good exercise effect, that is, the preparation posture is the same as that of sit-ups, and then the same knee is touched with the left and right hands one after the other. The action of riding a bike while lying in bed also helps.
Lie on your side and raise your legs
Lie on your side, the body is in a straight line, one arm is elbowed to support the ground, the other is placed on the waist and abdomen, the legs are straightened, and then one leg is lifted to the highest point, repeated 10 to 15 times, and the other side repeats the action. ▲
Editor of this issue: Zhang Yu
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