Sharpen Your Coordination With This Unconventional Balance Exercise

As you age, maintaining coordination and balance becomes essential, not just for mobility, but for longevity. A 2022 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that adults aged 51 to 75 who couldn’t balance on one foot for 10 seconds had nearly double the risk of death from Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, poor cholesterol, and obesity. So, as you age, it's essential to find ways to stay strong and better your balance. The takeaway? Strength and balance aren’t just for athletes—they’re key to aging well.

That's where dual-purpose moves like single-leg front raises come in. By combining two exercises that work two different parts of the body, "you're making your brain and nervous system work extra hard to know where everything is in space and how to control it," says Lance Johnson, personal training leader and ARORA certified coach at Life Time Coon Rapids. "This is called proprioception."

Proprioception refers to one's awareness of the position and movement of their body. As you age, your awareness of your body declines due to a combination of factors, like changes in nerve pathways, muscle spindle fibers, and more. Research shows proprioceptive training can sharpen coordination and ease age-related physical decline.

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How Combination Exercises Help With Proprioception

Most traditional stability movements focus on one part of the body—your core. While this can undoubtedly help with stabilization, it doesn't force your body to control multiple areas or muscle groups. An exercise such as a single-leg front raise works a little bit of everything.

"By adding balance and motion together, your body is stabilizing in multiple planes of motion," Johnson says. "You also must focus on the coordination of controlling your balance while moving your arms, which can be difficult for many to do. As you advance in this exercise over time, you will find that your balance and coordination will get better together."

How to Do Single-Leg Front Raises

1. Stand on left leg with a soft bend in the knee, dumbbells in hands, as you lift right knee to hip height. 
2. Exhale as you raise arms in front of you to shoulder height; don’t lock out elbows. 
3. Inhale as you lower your arms, but keep your leg raised. 
4. Complete all reps on one side, then switch working leg. 
5. Stare at a fixed point to help stay balanced.

Programming Single-Leg Front Raises

While single-leg front raises are often used to improve balance and stability in older adults, they’re beneficial at any age. According to Johnson, there are several ways to incorporate them into your routine.

"This can be a very good part of a warmup to help get the full body proprioception fired up and prepare the body for what is coming in the workout," he says. "It can also be a nice accessory exercise in a program to complement some other movements, or to add a balance aspect to an existing exercise. Maybe the goal of the whole workout had been balance and coordination; this is a great finisher to really put the body and mind in overdrive to end the workout."