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, you've probably realized by this time that there's something epic happening in Sochi, Russia, the 2014 Winter Olympics. Back in 2012, during the Summer

Olympics in Beijing, I published the episodes How to Train Like an Olympian, Part 1 and Part 2,

in which you learn about tactics like how to jump like an Olympic beach volleyball player,

or how to build shoulders like an Olympic swimmer.

But now it's time to turn to the amazing bodies and athletic prowess of the Winter Olympians

and learn how to get the balance of an ice dancer, the speed of a slalom skier, the butt of a bobsledder,

the legs of a ski jumper, the core of a snowboarder, and the fitness of a hockey player.

Today, in this episode, you'll discover balance, speed, and of course that part about the butt,

and in part two, next week, we'll cover the rest.

And now, let's jump into the first way that you can get as fit as a winter Olympian.

There's nothing quite like the enchantment and enthrallment of seeing the ice dancers skip

about on that slippery surface as if it were no big deal, especially when I make my own

Bambi on ice attempts on the local ice rink here in my hometown of Spokane, Washington.

But even if we never quite have the moves of an ice dancer,

we can all certainly benefit from the grace, injury prevention,

and increased coordination bestowed by better balance.

In the episode, Three Ways to Get Better Balance,

which I'll link to in the show notes for this episode over at quick and dirty tips.com, you learn that you can simply think of balance as your ability to maintain your base of support with minimal postural sway or collapse. Now, in physics, something called a line of gravity is used to define balance.

Specifically, better balance involves an increased ability to maintain your line of gravity over your base of support.

But in more basic get-fit guy terms, balance is just the ability to move your body and limbs around efficiently, precisely, and quickly, while also being able to change

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