Balance pad workouts can offer you impressive benefits but what are some balance pad exercises you can do at home or in the gym?
A balance pad is a piece of balance exercise equipment you can describe as a thick piece of foam. You can use balance pads for a variety of exercises to train both balance and muscle strength.
Keep in mind that the goal of some of the exercises in this article is challenging your balance. This can also be a potential downside. Be careful when using a balance pad, especially when doing some of the more advanced exercises.
If needed you can start with the support of a chair, wall, person, any other stable object, and build up from there. Also make sure you do the balance pad exercises on a non-slippery surface.
That being said here are balance pad exercises for everyone from beginners to runners and other athletes to people more experienced with balance training. You can start with these examples and think of new ones yourself.
1. Heel raises
The first balance pad exercise is a relatively beginner-friendly option.
For heel raises you simply stand on the balance pad with both of your feet. After that, you raise your heels up and down. You can also describe this as standing on your toes on the balance pad.
This first exercise is mainly for people who want to train their balance when standing up. On top of that, you will also engage ankle and calf muscles.
If you are more experienced with balance training you can try doing this exercise with only one leg.
2. Lunges
To do a balance pad lunge with your front foot on the balance pad take the following steps:
- Put the balance pad on the ground on a steady surface and stand in front of it.
- Put one foot on the middle of the balance pad. Put your other foot at a distance where you can achieve the desired angles in the next step. Horizontally speaking you want your feet to be about shoulder width apart or slightly wider for balance.
- Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want both your front knee and your front thigh to your body at about 90-degree angles. You can use your arms for balance if needed.
- Push yourself up again into starting position by stretching your legs. Your front leg will likely carry most of the weight.
Make sure you do the same number of repetitions with each leg on the balance pad to avoid any muscle imbalances.
Compared to regular lunges, the balance pad version of the exercise will focus more on improving your balance and ankle strength. Even so, lunges will still engage your leg muscles a nice amount.
3. Pushups
Balance pad pushups will engage a variety of balancing muscles more compared to the regular pushup. Even so, the first muscles to fatigue will likely still be your chest, tricep, and shoulder muscles. To do a balance pad pushup take the following steps:
- Put the balance pad on the ground, sit on your knees in front of the balance pad, and put your hands at about shoulder with apart on the balance pad.
- Move your feet back until your body is in a straight line from your heels to the top of your head. Keep your shoulders above your hands.
- Slowly fold your arms at your elbows until your face is close to the balance pad. Your upper arms should be at an angle of about 45 degrees or less to your sides.
- Stretch your arms again until you are back in the position of step 3.
A potential downside of this exercise is that the balancing you will train with balance pad pushups does not resemble the most common daily activities as much as some of the other options on this list.
So if you want to prevent falling down while walking or running balance pad pushups are likely not the optimal exercise choice for you.
4. Bridge exercise
For the balance pad bridge variation you preferably want a yoga mat or other soft surface to lie on. To do a bridge with a balance pad take the following steps:
- Lie on your back on the floor or other soft surface. Place your feet on the balance pad at a distance where your lower legs are more or less vertical in the next step. If you want to, hold any weights on your body at the hip level. If not put your arms at your sides for balance.
- Move up your hips in a controlled motion until your body is in a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Make sure your arms are only used for balance, not for pushing yourself up.
- Slowly lower your body again.
Make sure you don’t raise your hips higher than a straight line to avoid any injuries, especially if you have a weak back.
You can do both a hold at the top of the bridge or do up-and-down repetitions. In most situations doing more dynamic repetitions will offer the most muscle gain results for the least amount of time.
By using a balance pad you engage core muscles like your obliques more compared to a regular floor glute bridge. Besides that muscles like glutes, hamstrings, and erector spinae will have to work more or less to the same extent.
5. Standing on one leg
This next balance pad exercise is just what it sounds like. You start standing on the balance pad with your two feet. And after that take one foot off the ground.
At some point, standing on one leg alone may become too easy. When that happens you can move around with your arms and legs, possibly even try a pistol squat or skater squat depending on your fitness level.
Standing on one leg on a balance pad will mostly help you train your balance. If you implement the squat variations you can also get in a leg strengthening workout.
6. Planks
To do a balance pad plank take the following steps:
- Put the balance pad on the ground, sit on your knees in front of the balance pad, and put your hands at about shoulder with apart on the balance pad.
- Move your feet back until your body is in a straight line from your heels to the top of your head. Keep your shoulders above your hands.
- Hold this position or move certain body parts to do plank variations.
There are a wide variety of plank variations that can make the exercise more challenging for your balance. You can start with raising one leg or arm and build up to raising one arm and the leg on the opposite side at the same time.
Most of these plank variations will still mostly focus on strengthening your core muscles like abs and obliques. The more advanced options will definitely help you improve your balance.
7. Leg touch downs
Leg touch downs are a balance pad exercise that starts in the standing on one leg position. After that, you tap the foot that is in the air on the ground in front, to the side, and in the back of the balance pad.
To keep challenging yourself for more improvement you can speed up the pace at which you do this balance pad exercise.
Leg touch downs will mostly help you train your balance. Make sure you are able to do the basic version of standing one leg before doing this more advanced variation.
8. Squats
Leg strength training beginners may be able to build some muscle with balance pad squats but the main focus of this exercise is improving your balance fitness component. Besides that, you will strengthen your ankles more with balance pad squats compared to the floor version.
To do a balance pad squat take the following steps:
- Put the balance pad on the ground on a steady surface. Stand in front of it.
- Put one foot on the balance pad.
- Put your second foot on the balance pad and move your feet to about shoulder width apart.
- Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance.
- Push yourself up again into starting position by stretching your legs.
Bodyweight squats alone are often not enough to build a lot of leg muscle. Doing squats with weights is great for this but doing weighted squats on a balance pad is generally not recommended.
