Balance board
Some of them can be attempted successfully by three-year-olds and elderly people, and some, because of their steepness and speed, are difficult and dangerous for professional athletes.
[2] These boards quickly become popular for skiers and surfers to practice their balancing skills in the off season or when natural conditions were poor.
The balance board is a device that has come to be used for training in sports and martial arts, for physical fitness and for non-athletic purposes that are listed here.
Uses of a balance board beyond its athletic origin have become more common: to expand neural networks that enable the left and right hemispheres of the brain[9] to communicate with each other, thereby increasing its efficiency; to develop sensory integration and cognitive skills in children with developmental disorders; to make dancers lighter on their feet; to teach singers optimal posture for the control of air-flow;[10][11] to teach musicians how to hold their instrument;[12] to shake off writer's block and other inhibitors of creativity; as an accessory to yoga and as a form of yoga, cultivating holistic health, self-awareness and calm.
Some people use a balance board for recreational purposes, enjoying the challenge that this equipment presents.
The user stands on a board or other platform which is on top of an unstable ground-contacting member, the fulcrum.
Due to the fulcrum's instability, the user must remain balanced and coordinated in order to prevent the board from touching the ground.
With an increase of speed and with each additional degree of movement through which one model or another can move, the need to avoid losing control of the board forces the rider to exercise considerably more skill in order to avoid falling.
A smooth surface under the feet or shoes can cause a user to slip off a balance board and fall.
[citation needed] There are more than a hundred models of balance boards on the market in the United States.
Rocker boards offer only one degree of movement: part rotation about the longitudinal axis, i.e., banking (left-right tilting).
Any exercise is much more work when a person's weight is on a wobble board than when supported by a stable and level base such as a floor.
The ends of the band fit through two opposed holes near the rim of the board, for quick attachment and detachment.
Additional movement, translation (i.e., sliding or skidding, usually unintended and unwanted), across the supporting surface is possible, except for the few wobble boards that have a stationary base.
Wobble boards are made by manufacturers of gym, sports and physical therapy equipment.
Sphere-and-ring boards provide the greatest freedom of movement of any type of balance board, allowing rotation about all axes (yawing, pitching and banking) and translation (i.e., sliding) in both transverse (i.e., lateral) and longitudinal directions.
Besides the general advantages of aquatic therapy over non-aquatic therapy (the use of the smooth resistance of water instead of the jerky resistance of weights and the avoidance of burdening an injured joint with excessive weight– in this case, the weight of the patient's own body), aquatic balance boards have the specific advantage over non-aquatic balance boards of saving a patient who slips off of a board from the impact of falling and crashing into a floor.
Slipping off of an aquatic balance board is safe as long as the user knows to avoid inhaling while underwater and knows how to tread water.
Falls from balance boards can break bones, sprain joints, and tear tendons, ligaments and cartilage.
These risks can be diminished by preparing the space, wearing protective gear and following manufacturers' other safety recommendations.
Some of the best surfaces for balance boarding include a soft yoga mat, a patch of grass, or the sand.
