Exercises for balance training

Exercises for balance training for people with Parkinson's disease

In their everyday life, people with Parkinson’s disease sometimes have problems in maintaining their balance. Due to delayed or impaired reflexes, even basic movements can become challenging which leads to insecurity when walking and might even result in falling. In this video, we show some exercises that may help to improve the balance and sense of equilibrium. This can help people with Parkinson’s disease to walk and stand in a more confident and safe manner.

The exercises shown in the video are demonstrated by Sarina Stross, physiotherapist and member of ParkinsonNet Luxembourg. “I love the simplicity of these exercises and always try to focus on the essentials,” she comments. “Training a good, reactive sense of balance is the basis of an ideal balance training.”

The shift of balance is a constant part of our everyday life: Whenever we walk, change our position or even move only parts of our body to e.g. pick something up, we need to balance ourselves. The rotation of the head also initiates important balance reactions in order to stabilise the movement. Thus, it is important to work on movements involving the entire torso as well as the arms and hands as they play an important part in keeping the balance. A regular training can affect the overall quality of life in a positive manner and thus become a very important aspect in the patient’s therapy.

“I would like to share some of my favourite exercises for balance training that you can easily try by yourself at home,” Sarina concludes.

As pointed out in the video, please make sure to perform these exercises in front of your bed or sofa for security reasons, in case you lose the balance and fall backwards.