THE SENSE OF TOUCH IMPROVES BALANCE:
Dramatically reduce your fall risk with this one "trick".
For dancers, those older and especially those with neuropathy.
I have 2 passions in life: dance and helping others prevent falls. They sometimes travel the same path. Using touch to stabilize ourselves is a great tip whether we are dancing on a large stage or walking down the hallway of a senior living residence.
The information I am sharing in this article is in some ways novel. The techniques I describe have great potential for not only increasing your stability substantially but also for maintaining balance in challenging moments. The biggest beneficiaries for this approach are those who suffer from peripheral neuropathy. But all can get great results as well as real pleasure from adopting some of these ideas. You see, improving our sense of touch ultimately results in a more graceful approach to life and that is incredibly satisfying as well as much less risky in regard to falls.
The information I am sharing in this article is in some ways novel. The techniques I describe have great potential for not only increasing your stability substantially but also for maintaining balance in challenging moments. The biggest beneficiaries for this approach are those who suffer from peripheral neuropathy. But all can get great results as well as real pleasure from adopting some of these ideas. You see, improving our sense of touch ultimately results in a more graceful approach to life and that is incredibly satisfying as well as much less risky in regard to falls.
It all involves the sense of touch:
Foot to the floor.
Fingertip to the wall.
Toe to the opposite knee.
Walking stick to the ground.
Balance is a complex sense with 3 elements:
- Eye focus: The eyes give the brain a real world image to adjust to. When the eyes have problems, we loose stability.
- Inner Ear: The inner ear delivers messages to the brain about where the head is. If debris develops in the inner ear canal (BPPV) warped messages can be delivered to the brain which in turn result in dizziness when moving your head.
- Proprioception: The feet inform the brain about where their location is. If the nerves in the feet are damaged, balance is significantly affected.
Improving the sense of touch addresses the third balance sense: This article describes techniques for increasing your proprioceptive abilities. In turn stability and balance are significantly improved with a notable reduction in fall risk as a result. Heightened awareness of our periphery only benefits dancers. Anyone whose balance is not as good as we would wish for is particularly rewarded.
Proprioception
Proprioception is an essential element of balance. It is defined as the perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body. Basically the feet (and hands) inform the brain where the body is as it is moving. Unfortunately those with peripheral neuropathy of the feet suffer from a deficit of proprioception because of damage to the nerve endings in their feet. This makes them particularly vulnerable to falls. Actually, in general we all tend to lose the sense of proprioception as we age. Fall associated risk is increased substantially because of it. However, we also have great capacity to instead improve our proprioception sense and the satisfaction from doing so should not be underestimated.
If you suffer from neuropathy of the feet (or not): Exercise to improve foot sensation is essential. Even if you cannot feel your feet, exercising them or massaging them is so important to stimulate improved circulation. It can help to reduce symptoms of neuropathy as well. But improving foot sensation helps balance dramatically whether you have neuropathy or not. The following exercises help everyone. They should be practiced daily. They are simple to learn and provide real benefit to anyone who cares about the health of their feet including dancers.
If you suffer from neuropathy of the feet (or not): Exercise to improve foot sensation is essential. Even if you cannot feel your feet, exercising them or massaging them is so important to stimulate improved circulation. It can help to reduce symptoms of neuropathy as well. But improving foot sensation helps balance dramatically whether you have neuropathy or not. The following exercises help everyone. They should be practiced daily. They are simple to learn and provide real benefit to anyone who cares about the health of their feet including dancers.
Types of Touch
The human body is awkward at best. Balancing on 2 points of contact with the ground is fraught with risk for any object. Just think of a table that stays upright with only 2 legs. No wonder we stagger and wobble sometimes. It is amazing balance can be accomplished at all when you think of how difficult it is to hold the body upright with literally hundreds of pounds placed on 2 rather small feet. Just think how much easier it would be if we had 3 feet instead. Or watch a cat, dog, deer or horse as it moves gracefully across the landscape. We are not as lucky.
We humans can get some of the same balance benefits
by increasing our points of touch.
by increasing our points of touch.
With foot neuropathy, those 2 points of contact operate at a deficit or perhaps not at all. This is why falls are so much more likely and therefore an extremely good reason for developing alternative points of touch to reduce fall risk.
What kind of touch? Face an unadorned wall and stand about a foot away from it. Place your palm on the wall in front of you. Slide up the wall slowly and carefully. If you encounter pain, stop. Then come down the wall slowly with your palm touching till the hand peels away from the wall and just the tips of your fingers are touching. Let your fingertips linger. This is the light touch referred to throughout this article. Do not place your weight on this point of contact. Keep it light. Proprioception with the hands is actually improved the lighter the touch, not the reverse.
Touching objects with your hands to improve stability:
Keeping this lightness in mind, walk down a hallway and gently touch the wall from time to time. Or gently touch the sofa as you walk behind it or a table top. This gives the balance senses an additional point of contact and instead of 2 connections, the body makes 3. This is enough to significantly improve your walking stability.
Your additional contact doesn't have to be with the hands. You could gently touch the shoulder or arm or elbow to an object while passing. I use this all the time when I take a hot tub at night and am walking around the tub. I will allow my arm to graze its side as I walk. The result is excellent stability in a risky situation.
You could even use your knee or the back of your leg. This is particularly handy when sitting down. Face away from the chair but close to the edge of the seat. Feel for it with your hands to make sure the chair is there. But even better is to feel for the chair with the back of your calf before sitting down.
You could even use your knee or the back of your leg. This is particularly handy when sitting down. Face away from the chair but close to the edge of the seat. Feel for it with your hands to make sure the chair is there. But even better is to feel for the chair with the back of your calf before sitting down.
The cardinal rule:
Do not place your weight wherever you are touching.
Do not place your weight wherever you are touching.
Using external objects to improve stability:
We can gain that extra contact through an object too. Walking sticks are an excellent example. The sticks give us 2 other points of contact. What is really interesting about this is that we are getting a sense of proprioception through an object touching the floor instead of touching the floor ourselves. Our hand "feels" the stick's contact with the floor even though it is several feet away. That is stunning.
You will notice that you loose this sense of contact if you are leaning on the object instead of touching it. This is how many use a cane. Generally speaking we want the assistance objects we use whether walker or cane or walking sticks to be a guide instead of a reliance. A light touch on the handles of a walker is far better than leaning heavily upon it.
Touching the body to improve stability: Especially for dancers.
So far our sense of touch has been between ourselves and the real world. Feet touching the ground. Hand touching the wall. Stick touching the ground. We can also use this technique when we touch ourselves.
Here is a useful tip which I discovered recently: I had a high kick I was performing in a dance combination with the opposite arm extended backwards. I noticed that if I let the other arm barely touch my waist that the entire movement was far more stable. Proprioception was increased and therefore balance improved by that slight touch. Some other examples:
Each of these examples gives you proprioception system increased knowledge. This is a novel way to think of this sense. We tend to think of grounding our body to reality when feeling unstable. Touching your body instead of the ground gives the body a sense of central stability which results in the body being more grounded in its entirety.
Here is a useful tip which I discovered recently: I had a high kick I was performing in a dance combination with the opposite arm extended backwards. I noticed that if I let the other arm barely touch my waist that the entire movement was far more stable. Proprioception was increased and therefore balance improved by that slight touch. Some other examples:
- If you stand on one foot, your ability to balance for any period of time is increased if you place your hands in a prayer position in front of your chest.
- The same thing is true if instead you place your thumb and third fingers together. Or if you place all the fingers of one hand touching all the fingers of the other.
- And the same is true if you place the raised foot so that it is touching the other leg instead of being aloft in space.
Each of these examples gives you proprioception system increased knowledge. This is a novel way to think of this sense. We tend to think of grounding our body to reality when feeling unstable. Touching your body instead of the ground gives the body a sense of central stability which results in the body being more grounded in its entirety.
A footnote for belly dance: It is not considered appropriate in Middle Eastern inspired dance to touch the body while dancing. There is one exception: Frequently we touch the hand to the back of the head to frame the face. It gives one renewed understanding when we realize that the framing adds stability to what we are doing. But hand to the hip or waist or leg is frowned upon. Time to change that and use touch discretely to enhance our dance abilities.
Touching the body to improve stability: For those older as well.
While these are examples dancers might run into, touching the hands to the body is a great idea for those older as well. Here are some suggestions:
- Try keeping the thumb and 3rd finger of each hand touching while walking.
- Let your hands touch your legs from time to time whether walking or standing.
- While standing still, gently hold your hands together.
- When sitting, place your hands on your knees.
I bet you can come up with even better ideas. Write to me and let me know. At the bottom of this web site you will find a link to sending me e-mail. I love receiving them so don't be shy.
Keeping your body enlivened when inactive is a related concept: When sitting, try not to collapse in your chair. Keep the body active by sitting forward with your spine straight. When balancing on one foot, keep the other leg energized even though it is not being used. Balance is negatively affected when parts of our body are held limp.
In 1968 Carlos Castaneda described an enlightened way of walking that gives you energy: As you walk make a fist with one hand and then the other. Contract and release continuously. A more dynamic use of proprioception.
Published January 1, 2022.