Balancing

During the drama of my knee injury a couple of years ago I learned a valuable lesson about human anatomy. When an injury occurs, muscles that are not performing as normal are oftentimes overcompensated by uninjured muscles. If you are walking with a limp, the strong leg gets stronger due to an increased workload, while the weak leg gets weaker because less is required of it. While this is perfectly fine in the short-term, if the injury is prolonged it can screw you up in the long run because your body is out of balance.

A lot of my physical therapy was focused on strengthening the weak leg in an attempt to get both legs "equal" in strength, thereby bringing balance back.

Recently I have been using one of these balance pads while working out. They are totally great because they slightly destabilize your body. In destabilizing your body your muscles are forced to compensate thereby strengthening those muscles that are taxed.

While building muscle strength is great, for me the greater benefit is simply feeling more stabile in my lower body...especially helpful in dodging taxi cabs and slow-assed pedestrians.