Does Walking Improve Balance, or Do You Need Balance Exercises Too?

Walking is one of the best things we can do for our health as we get older. It keeps us moving, gives the cardiovascular system something useful to do, asks the hips and legs to repeatedly support our body weight, and gets us out into the world. Walking also requires balance every single time we take a step.

So it seems reasonable to ask: If I walk regularly, am I already training my balance?

The answer is yes, but with an important qualification. Walking gives your balance system valuable practice, particularly when you walk in varied environments and at different speeds. But ordinary walking does not challenge every component of balance equally. If improving or maintaining balance is an important goal, walking and specific balance training generally work better together than either one alone.

And the reason becomes much clearer when we look at what your body actually has to do when you walk.

Does walking improve balance?

Yes. Regular walking can help maintain and improve aspects of balance because every step requires weight transfer, coordination, sensory information and brief periods of single-leg support. Walking also helps maintain the strength and mobility that contribute to stable movement.

Walking is actually a remarkable balance activity. As one foot leaves the ground, your body has to organize itself over the other leg while continuing to move forward. Then the opposite foot lands, weight transfers again, and the entire process repeats.

We perform this sequence thousands of times without consciously thinking about it.

Walking also gives the nervous system a continuous stream of information. Your eyes tell you where you are going and what is coming. Your vestibular system helps organize your head and body as you move. Your feet provide information about the surface underneath you. Muscles and joints communicate position and movement back to the brain.

So yes, walking absolutely involves balance.

The limitation is that if you always take the same walk, on the same predictable surface, at approximately the same speed, your nervous system becomes very good at solving that particular balance problem.

Life tends to offer a larger syllabus.

Is walking enough exercise to improve balance?

Walking alone may not be enough to improve all aspects of balance because ordinary walking does not consistently challenge lateral movement, rapid balance reactions, changes in direction, different sensory conditions or larger disturbances to stability. Specific balance exercises can train abilities that routine walking may not challenge sufficiently.

This is where the distinction between using balance and training balance becomes useful.

You use balance when you walk. But training something usually means changing the challenge enough that the nervous system has to adapt.

Imagine someone who walks for 30 minutes every day on a flat treadmill. That is excellent physical activity, and I would never dismiss its value. But the surface never changes. There are no curbs, unexpected turns, patches of grass, people to navigate around or changes in direction. The visual environment is relatively predictable.

Compare that with walking through a park, stepping around a puddle, turning to speak to someone beside you, crossing from pavement onto grass and looking over your shoulder before changing direction.

Both are walking.

They are not the same balance task.

What is the difference between walking and balance training?

Walking repeatedly practices forward movement, weight transfer and dynamic stability, while balance training deliberately changes the demands placed on your sensory and movement systems. Balance exercises may include different foot positions, directions, surfaces, head movements, speeds and recovery strategies.

A useful balance program shouldn't simply ask, "Can you remain upright?"

It should occasionally ask the nervous system a question it hasn't already answered a thousand times.

What happens if your feet are closer together? What happens if you need to move sideways? Can you turn and continue walking without losing your rhythm? Can you step backward? Can you reach while standing? Can you move your head while your body continues in another direction?

These are not exotic athletic skills. They are ordinary pieces of everyday movement.

Think about navigating a busy kitchen. You step sideways to open a drawer, turn to reach into a cupboard, move backward to let someone pass, bend down and stand again, carry something while walking and change direction repeatedly.

A 30-minute walk may be wonderful exercise, but it doesn't necessarily rehearse all of those movement problems.

Is walking good for balance in older adults?

Yes. Walking is valuable for balance and mobility in older adults because it helps maintain leg strength, coordination, endurance and confidence with movement. However, combining walking with exercises that specifically challenge balance, strength and mobility provides a more complete approach to maintaining physical function.

One thing I would never want an article about balance to do is make walking sound insufficient or somehow "not good enough."

If you walk regularly, keep walking.

The ability to move confidently through your environment is one of the most useful physical capacities you can maintain.

What I would encourage is variety.

Your nervous system learns from the problems you give it. A walk through a neighborhood with gentle slopes, turns and different surfaces provides different information from a treadmill. A trail provides another kind of challenge. Walking while occasionally changing pace creates another.

This doesn't mean deliberately choosing unsafe terrain. Challenge and danger are not synonyms. We want enough variation to ask the body to adapt while still allowing you to move confidently and safely.

Is walking on uneven ground good for balance?

Walking on uneven ground can challenge balance more than walking on a flat surface because your feet and ankles must continually adapt to changes in the ground while your nervous system adjusts posture, weight distribution and step placement.

Grass, packed earth, gravel and gently irregular paths all provide more variable sensory information than a perfectly flat floor.

Your foot may land at a slightly different angle. One step may be a little higher than the next. Your ankle has to adapt, and the rest of the body has to respond to what happens below it.

This connects directly with what we discussed in the previous article about the feet and ankles. They aren't simply supporting you. They are continually gathering information about your relationship with the ground.

Walking on varied surfaces can give that system useful practice.

But again, more difficult isn't automatically more beneficial. If someone is already struggling significantly with balance, sending them onto an unpredictable trail isn't balance training. It is unnecessary risk.

The challenge has to match the person.

Does walking strengthen the muscles needed for balance?

Walking uses many of the muscles involved in balance, particularly in the feet, ankles, legs, hips and trunk. However, walking may not provide enough resistance or movement variety to maintain all the strength needed for balance, so additional strength training can still be valuable.

Every step requires muscles to control your body weight and move you forward. The calf helps propel you. The muscles around the hip help stabilize the pelvis. The foot and ankle adapt to loading. The trunk organizes itself over a moving base of support.

But walking is also a very familiar activity, and the body becomes efficient at familiar tasks.

If we want to preserve the ability to get up from the floor, climb stairs, recover from an unexpected loss of balance or control the body through larger ranges of movement, walking may not provide enough stimulus by itself.

Strength and balance are closely related, but they are not interchangeable.

You need enough strength to make a correction when balance is disturbed. You also need a nervous system capable of recognizing which correction is needed and when to make it.

How often should you do balance exercises?

Balance exercises can be practiced several times a week, and short, regular sessions can be useful when they are appropriately challenging and safe. The exact frequency depends on your current abilities, health, goals and the type of exercises being performed.

Balance training doesn't necessarily require a separate hour-long workout.

In fact, I often prefer small amounts of thoughtful practice incorporated into ordinary movement. Five or ten focused minutes can give the nervous system a very different challenge from another hour of familiar activity.

The quality of the problem matters more than turning balance into an endurance contest.

A few minutes practicing controlled weight shifts, direction changes or different foot positions can complement walking beautifully because they ask the body to organize itself in ways that straightforward walking may not.

What are the best exercises to improve balance?

Effective balance exercises challenge several components of stability, including weight shifting, foot placement, strength, coordination, sensory processing and the ability to respond to changes in position. The best exercise depends on the person's current ability and should be challenging without becoming unsafe.

This is why I hesitate whenever I see "the best balance exercise" presented as though everyone has the same balance system and the same problem.

Standing on one leg can be useful. It is not the definition of balance training.

For one person, practicing a controlled sideways step may be much more relevant. Another person may need ankle mobility and strength. Someone else may need practice turning while walking. Another may rely heavily on vision and benefit from carefully designed sensory challenges.

And perhaps most importantly, we need to practice recovering.

Real life doesn't reward us for never wobbling. It asks us to know what to do when we do.

Is standing on one leg enough to improve balance?

Standing on one leg can improve a specific aspect of balance, but it is not enough to train the full balance system. Everyday balance also requires stepping, turning, reaching, changing direction, responding to disturbances and maintaining stability while moving.

I like single-leg balance exercises when they serve a purpose. During walking, after all, we repeatedly spend time supported primarily by one leg.

But if your entire balance program consists of standing beside the kitchen counter on one foot, you are practicing a very narrow skill.

Life doesn't usually announce, "Your balance test begins now. Please stand perfectly still."

It happens when the dog suddenly crosses in front of you. When someone stops unexpectedly on the sidewalk. When you turn because somebody called your name. When you misjudge a curb or have to step sideways around a chair.

Balance is wonderfully inconvenient that way.

It keeps moving.

Should I walk and do balance exercises?

Yes. Walking and balance exercises complement each other well. Walking provides repeated practice with dynamic movement and weight transfer, while specific balance exercises can challenge directions, sensory conditions and recovery skills that ordinary walking may not train sufficiently.

I think this is the simplest answer to the entire article.

You don't need to choose.

Keep the walk.

Then give your nervous system a few additional problems to solve.

We can even bring those problems into the walk itself.

Elena's Homework: The Five-Minute Balance Walk

For this week's homework, I don't want you to stop walking and start doing a completely separate "balance workout."

Instead, we're going to change five minutes of a walk you already take.

Choose a familiar, safe walking route with a level surface and plenty of space. This isn't something to practice on a busy sidewalk, near traffic, on stairs or anywhere you need your full attention for safety. If you already have significant balance difficulties, dizziness or a history of falls, practice with appropriate professional guidance instead.

Walk normally for the first minute. Don't try to correct anything. Simply notice your natural pace, the length of your steps and how your arms move.

During the second minute, gently vary your speed. Walk slightly faster for several steps, return to your usual pace, then slow down for several steps. Keep alternating without making any abrupt changes. Notice what happens when your body has to reorganize around a different speed.

During the third minute, introduce several gentle changes of direction. Rather than walking in one perfectly straight line, make a wide curve to the right, return to your path, then make one to the left. Think smooth arcs rather than sharp turns.

During the fourth minute, stop occasionally and start again. Come to a comfortable controlled stop, remain there for a moment, then begin walking. Try leading with the opposite foot on different repetitions. Starting and stopping changes the balance problem because your body has to move between stability and motion.

For the fifth minute, return to your normal walk, but pay attention to your surroundings rather than staring at the ground immediately in front of your feet. Let your eyes scan naturally ahead and notice how your body continues to organize the walk underneath you.

Then simply continue with the rest of your usual walk.

That is all.

Five minutes.

No wobble competition. No standing on one leg in the middle of the park. No complicated choreography that makes the neighbors wonder whether you've joined an experimental dance company.

Practice it a few times during the week. As the sequence becomes familiar, notice whether changing speed, stopping, starting and changing direction begin to feel smoother.

The purpose isn't to make walking harder.

It is to remind your balance system that walking can contain more than one answer.

Because walking is excellent practice for balance. But sometimes, to keep the nervous system adaptable, we need to give the walk a few new questions.

With mindfulness,
Elena

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Sources

• World Health Organization. WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour.

• Sherrington C et al. Research and systematic reviews on exercise interventions for preventing falls in community-dwelling older adults.

• Cochrane reviews examining exercise, balance training and fall prevention in older adults.

• Horak FB. Postural Orientation and Equilibrium: What Do We Need to Know About Neural Control of Balance to Prevent Falls? Age and Ageing.