Podiatrist · Specialist in Biomechanics · Founder of VOLKAN
"Stability is not born from immobility. It is born from the ability to continuously adapt."
"What great balance he has"
When we see a gymnast on a bar or a runner descending a technical trail, we often think the same.
He has an extraordinary balance.
And our imagination makes us believe that person remains completely stable.
The reality is quite the opposite.
If we could observe their body with high-precision instruments, we would discover something surprising.
They never stop moving.
Their ankle makes small corrections.
The toes constantly change pressure on the ground.
The knees adjust their position.
The pelvis slightly oscillates.
The eyes look for references.
Breathing modifies muscle tone.
The whole organism is working.
Balance is not the absence of movement.
It is perfectly organized movement.
Falling a little to avoid falling.
It may seem like a contradiction.
But to stay upright we need to lose our balance continuously.
Each small oscillation forces the brain to calculate.
Compare.
Correct.
Recalculate.
And repeat that process over and over.
Thousands of times every minute.
We do not fight against gravity.
We converse with it.
Each sway is a conversation between the body and the environment.
The director of a great orchestra
Imagine a symphonic orchestra.
Each musician plays a different instrument.
However, everyone follows the same conductor.
In our body, something similar happens.
The feet inform about the ground.
The eyes indicate where we are.
The vestibular system detects head movements.
The muscles and joints communicate how our posture changes.
Breathing modifies the tone of the trunk.
Even the emotional state influences the strategy that the nervous system uses.
The brain receives all that information.
It compares.
It integrates.
And decides what small adjustments need to be made.
There is no single responsible for balance.
There is an extraordinary coordination among multiple systems.
That’s why, when one of those "musicians" is out of tune, the rest try to maintain harmony.
Stiffness does not mean stability
Many people react to fear by doing exactly the opposite of what the body needs.
They become stiff.
They lock their knees.
They clench their fingers.
They hold their breath.
They tense their shoulders.
From the outside, it looks like a firm posture.
But biomechanically, something else happens.
An excessively rigid body loses the ability to adapt.
And when the terrain changes, it responds worse.
True stability needs movement.
Because only those who can move have the ability to correct themselves.
What does this have to do with barefoot?
A lot.
Every irregularity in the terrain poses a question for the nervous system.
Should I shift my weight a little?
Do I need to activate my big toe more?
Do I have to stabilize my ankle?
When the foot can better perceive those small variations, the brain has more information to make fine adjustments.
That does not mean that everyone should walk barefoot or always use minimalist footwear.
It means that sensory information is an important part of balance.
And a foot that can actively participate usually offers more resources to the nervous system to organize movement.
What I see every day in consultation
There are patients who come in convinced that they only need to strengthen the muscles.
However, when we start working on balance, they discover something unexpected.
There is no lack of strength.
There is a lack of confidence.
There is a lack of precision.
There is a lack of communication between the different systems that organize posture.
Many times we do not train for the body to move less.
We train so that it can make better corrections.
And that completely changes the way we understand rehabilitation.
What you can do starting today
The next time you stand, don’t try to stay completely still.
Observe.
Feel how the body makes small adjustments.
How the fingers change pressure.
How the ankle wobbles a few millimeters.
How your breathing slightly modifies your posture.
You will discover something fascinating.
Standing is already a form of movement.
🔬 In a sentence
Balance does not consist of eliminating oscillations. It consists of correcting them before they become a fall.
The most important idea
The body does not seek to remain still.
It seeks to maintain the ability to adapt to any change in the environment.
That’s why people with better balance are not the most rigid.
They are the ones who make thousands of small corrections so efficiently that we barely perceive them.
Moving well does not mean moving less.
It means responding better.
A question to reflect on
When you think about balance...
Do you try to stay completely still... or do you allow your body to make the small adjustments it needs to stay stable?
In the next article…
So far we have talked about movement as a tool for adaptation.
But there is a structure that we have barely talked about and that participates in absolutely every step we take.
The fascia.
For years it was said to be simply a tissue that wrapped around the muscles.
Today we know that it also participates in the transmission of forces, in the perception of movement and, probably, in the way the body distributes tensions.
We will discover why fascia is not a "wrapper", but a authentic network of mechanical communication between all parts of the organism.