Welcome to the Get Fit Guys quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield and I'm the Get Fit guy.

Now, I want you to imagine a runner that you might see jogging through the park or on a treadmill at a gym.

You might notice that their hips collapsed each side each time their foot strikes the ground,

or that perhaps their foot flips awkwardly out each time their leg goes out behind them,

or perhaps they land with a forceful, seemingly painful oomph.

Or think about playing your favorite sport, like golf, tennis, basketball, soccer,

gymnastics, or whatever else it is that you love to do. Do you find yourself occasionally

wobbly, feeling less than stellar balance, or not being able to aim, hit, catch, or

throw as accurately as you'd like? Well, each of these episodes that I just described are problems

with balance, which is a notoriously neglected aspect of fitness. So today, you're going to learn

three key ways to get better balance so that you look better, perform better, and move more

gracefully. So what exactly is balance? Well, you can think of balance as your

ability to maintain a base of support with minimum posture sway or collapse. In physics,

this is called a line of gravity that is used to define balance. Specifically, better balance

would involve an increased ability to maintain that

line of gravity over a base of support. But in more basic, less physics-y, get-fit-guy terms,

balance is just the ability to move your body and limbs around without falling down on your butt.

Technically, maintaining balance requires coordination of three different sensory systems

in your body.

Number one is your vestibular system, which consists of the sense organs in your head,

primarily your ears, which regulate your equilibrium and give your brain directional

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