Starting Sunday, December 14 @ 11:59 PM, until Sunday, December 21 11:59 PM  your challenge is to ...

Do A Set of Balance Exercises Everyday

This week we challenge you to do one balance exercise each day. Balance exercises are very important to wellness and this week we want to introduce you to a few simple ways to get started.

Why are balance exercises so important?
Balance exercises help strengthen the core muscles. This inevitably also helps with coordination and posture. With balance exercises, you decrease your risk of injury and have greater stability over time.

Be very careful when doing these exercises and please don’t over exert yourself. The point is to do these simple exercises daily.

Balance Exercise # 1: Alternating Legs: Put one arm over a chair and the second arm next to your waist. Alternately move your legs backwards like below. 10 seconds with one leg up and 10 seconds with another.




Balance Exercise # 2: Toe Raisers: Stand barefoot, lightly holding on to the back of a chair. With your shoulders back and down and your abs pulled in, slowly lift your heels so that your body weight is on the balls of your feet, pause at the top, then slowly lower your foot. Repeat 8 to 15 times as one exercise.




Balance Exercise # 3: Ballet Balance: Stand next to a chair with your left hand on it, right hand on hip, and toes of your right foot pointing straight ahead. Raise your right leg so that the knee is bent at almost 90 degrees. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Slowly bring your knee back down to standing position. Alternate with your right hand on chair and repeat. Repeat this five times to count as one exercise.



Suggested Reading:
4 Balncing Exercises for a More Muscular Middle - Read more here.
How to Improve Balance Through Exercise - Learn more here.
4 Awesome Exercises for Balance and Leg Strength - Watch Video.

This challenge was closed on 12/21/2014

The Weekly Health Challenge is a self-audited program designed to motivate the JCSC Wellness participants in reducing BMI on a weekly basis.

How it works:

1. Each week there will be a new health challenge. You can accept the challenge by accepting the pledge for each challenge. You can only accept a challenge from midnight on Sunday to midnight on Tuesday.

2. At the end of the week, you can declare if you have completed the challenge. You can only mark a challenge as completed from midnight on Sunday to midnight on Tuesday.

3. Every week, the participants that complete the challenge will be recognized on this page.