Balance work

No, this isn't a post about balancing hip recovery, whooping cough, fitness, and a busy work schedule. Honestly, that balance is going great, since my rib cage pain and my bad cough mean that I can't really work out or do physical therapy at all. So basically that means that I have a whole lot of extra free time for myself. Or Walgreens. Whoever claims it first. 

Instead, I remembered that I wanted to share some of the at-home moves I've been doing to improve the small muscles used to help you balance.

1. Towel slides. These are so fun. I just put each foot on a soft cloth or towel and basically skate across my wooden floors. I would never have done anything this dangerous early on in hip recovery, but right now it's a good way to work out all those little muscles that your body uses to stop forward and side motion.

2. Bed planks. Want to make your planks harder? In case you're wondering, no, I do not. I am actually pretty bad at planks. But if you are superhuman, and planks are too easy for you, try doing planks on your bed. It's a lot harder when you don't have a soft surface to brace against.you end up recruiting auxiliary muscles.

3. Cushion squats. I stand on large throw pillows to do squats. This is especially effective for one-legged squats.

4.  Cushion deadlifts. Same idea, except I do one-legged deadlifts with a light weight dumbbell while standing on a cushion.

Hope you find some of these helpful, whether or not you're recovering from surgery, because I do think that working on balance is important for runners. I'm trying to remember all these little things I'm doing during recovery, so I will do them once I'm back to running, too.