Brush & Balance – Easy Hack for Core and Focus

Easy Hack to Improve Your Posture!

Standing on one foot while brushing your teeth may seem a bit weird, but it’s an easy way to incorporate balance awareness into your daily routine.

Focusing attention and effort to stand on one foot challenges stability, and so strengthens postural balance. In fact, a 2022 study found that kids who practiced 1 leg balance^⁠1 over an 8-week program showed significantly “enhanced static and dynamic balance performance.”

For older adults who want to age successfully, CDC and wellness specialists strongly recommend balance exercises to prevent falls and reduce the risk of injury.^⁠2 Plus, studies show weak balance contributes to low back pain^⁠3 as proprioception weakens with age and neglecting our balance.

Multi Task Your Way to Good Posture & Balance

One of the biggest challenges to any exercise is actually doing it!  Since you’re already brushing your teeth everyday, take the opportunity to also start strengthening your balance while you do it!

It’s so easy:

• While brushing, use your other hand to gently touch the edge of the sink or counter to help you stabilize.
• Then, lift one leg off the ground.
• Keep standing tall for 30 seconds with the leg raised.
• Then switch legs and repeat.

Once you get the hang of it, work up to 60 seconds on each side.

Additional benefits of Brush & Balance include:

Stronger Attentional Focus 

You must be present to balance on one foot because your focus is on weak subtleties of your body. In addition to improving coordination as you brush and balance, awareness of where your body is in space strengthens interoceptive awareness.

Stronger Somatic Interoception

Interoception is your nervous system’s interior awareness. While usually below conscious radar, improving interoceptive awareness is strongly associated with stress reduction and chronic pain management.

Stronger Inner Core Muscle Engagement 

In addition to strengthening the subtle muscles in your feet, ankles, and legs, you’re training a reflexive engagement patterns of deep core muscles.

“Your body moves in patterns of Motion”^⁠4.

Find and engage inner core muscle fibers you’ve been skipping over to strengthen these missing links in your kinetic chain for sports performance and living well.

Better Time Management for Healthy LifeHabits

Instead of just standing there while brushing your teeth, the Brush & Balance exercise lets you build mental focus and physical stability. It’s a simple way to stay healthy in more ways than one.

Improved mood and energy

Starting your day balancing on one foot increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain. It’s also a fun and playful way to improve your mood and energy levels to start your day on a positive note.

Bottom line: While standing on one foot while brushing your teeth may seem like a small thing… the little things add up! Accumulating small shifts in everything you do is the essence of StrongPosture®.

For more on Brush & Balance, see: PostureMonth.org Tip #25: Create a StrongPosture® Morning Routine